Chapter 18: Meeting My Wife: Day 18

Because it was just a short quiz, the teacher graded the papers quickly.

By the next day, the scores were already out.

And it happened right before the National Day holiday, so no one could truly relax.

Students with good scores had nothing to worry about—they could go home and bask in the praise. Those with poor ones faced a scolding.

During the afternoon break, the Physics Class Representative arrived with a thick stack of test papers, intending to hand them out one by one.

But some students couldn’t sit still. The moment they spotted the papers, they rushed forward, each snatching their own before retreating.

There were always a couple of obnoxious troublemakers, though.

Even after finding their own paper, they lingered, flipping through everyone else’s.

“Damn, who the hell is this? They got the first question wrong—only 55 points, not even passing. Oh, Mi Shuyun, huh? Figures. How does a total failure like her even get into Class 6? If it were me, I’d have switched classes ages ago out of sheer embarrassment.”

The boy’s voice wasn’t too loud or too soft—just right for everyone nearby to hear crystal clear.

Most people frowned at the blatant rudeness, inwardly scorning him.

A few instinctively glanced toward the girl he’d named.

Mi Shuyun didn’t stand out much in Class 6, but her physics grades were notoriously abysmal. The teacher called her out every class.

When the Class Representative arrived with the papers, she’d rushed up too, anxious that someone might glimpse her score while rummaging.

But the crowd was too thick; she couldn’t squeeze through or bring herself to shove past anyone. She could only hover on the outskirts, waiting in tense agony.

Then, out of nowhere, her name was called—and her humiliating score broadcast to all.

In that moment, Mi Shuyun didn’t dare lift her head to meet anyone’s gaze. Mortified, she wished she could burrow into a hole in the ground and never emerge.

The attention she’d always craved had become her deepest curse.

She stood frozen, head bowed, fingers clenched white-knuckled on the hem of her clothes, her face as pale as a sheet.

She figured no one else would think twice about it—just a fleeting blip, unworthy of mention.

Of course. A bitter smile tugged at her lips.

Someone as insignificant as her was lucky if anyone spared her a second glance.

No one cared whether her heart was breaking.

Absolutely no one…

“Hasn’t anyone taught you that touching other people’s things without permission is incredibly rude?”

A girl’s clear, crisp voice drifted closer, right to her ear.

Mi Shuyun’s pupils contracted. She looked up to see her deskmate standing there—somehow, she’d pushed through.

“Excuse me, everyone. Make way.”

Jiang Wan’s voice wasn’t raised, but it carried an undeniable authority. The students clustered around the podium parted without protest.

“What’s it got to do with you? Who are you trying to impress?” The boy scowled, his eyes flashing with impatience as he glared at her.

By some twist of fate, this was the same guy who’d clashed with Jiang Wan before—after trash-talking Bei Huai behind her back and getting publicly called out.

He’d liked her at first, but after one too many public humiliations, resentment festered inside him.

Jiang Wan’s left arm was still in a cast, yet she faced the boy—who towered half a head taller—without flinching. Her presence wasn’t just equal; it dominated.

She curved her lips in a smile, but her eyes held no warmth. “If it’s none of my business, then what do other people’s scores have to do with you? Is Class 6 your personal kingdom? What gives you the right to decide who belongs here?”

“You think publicly mocking someone’s weaknesses makes you cool? In everyone else’s eyes, you’re just a pathetic joke.”

“You—!”

Ignoring his impotent fury, Jiang Wan turned icy and snatched the paper from his hand.

“Here.” She walked over to Mi Shuyun and held it out.

“Th-thank you…” Mi Shuyun took her paper, meeting the girl’s gentle gaze. Her nose stung, tears threatening to spill.

This was the first time she’d felt such genuine kindness.

“Speaking up bravely and saying no isn’t as hard as it seems. Give it a try next time.” Jiang Wan said softly.

From her first days in Class 6, she’d seen it: Mi Shuyun carried a deep-seated inferiority complex. Even now, she hadn’t dared speak against this.

No one could change a personality like that overnight. Mi Shuyun had to do it herself, step by step.

Until she learned to stand tall, no one could help her.

“Whoa, I thought you were hot stuff—turns out it’s just sixties. What are you so smug about? Losers like you don’t belong in Class 6!”

The grating voice piped up from behind again.

Jiang Wan suppressed her irritation and turned around. There stood the boy on the podium, waving her test paper triumphantly, his face twisted in malicious glee.

It turned out that while she had been talking with Mi Shuyun, he had rifled through and found her paper.

“Give me my paper,” Jiang Wan said flatly, stepping forward with the barest furrow of her brow.

“Beg me! No wonder you two sit together—you’re both total losers, hahaha.”

Jiang Wan didn’t respond. She simply watched him in silence, her gaze cool and detached, without a hint of anger. It was as if she were watching a monkey put on a show.

That utterly dismissive look only stoked the boy’s fury.

“Alright, that’s enough. Haven’t you made enough of a scene?” someone called out from nearby.

“Yeah, give it a rest. Lu Bo, you’re a guy—why stoop to bullying girls?”

“Just give the paper back before you drag the teacher in here and we all get reamed.”

“…”

The classmates piped up one after another, some defending Jiang Wan, others just trying to defuse the situation.

They had been in class with Lu Bo for a year now and knew his type all too well: always poking through other people’s stuff, itching for a fight, sharp-tongued, and obsessed with saving face.

Unless it touched their own interests, no one cared to tangle with him.

It was just too beneath them.

With everyone siding against him, Lu Bo’s face contorted in rage.

“Who the hell are you to tell me what to do?”

That thoughtless remark soured the mood in the room instantly.

Before anyone could snap back, a dull thud echoed through the air.

Everyone turned toward the sound.

In the back row, the girl who had been slumped over her desk asleep had woken up at some point. She sat bolt upright and kicked her own desk, her expression blank.

“What’s with all the noise?”

Her words, pitched just right—not too loud, not too soft—silenced the entire room.

The classroom fell deathly quiet.

Bei Huai crossed her arms, rose to her feet, and strolled forward with lazy indifference.

She stopped right in front of Lu Bo, eyed him coldly, and issued her command in a voice that allowed no dissent: “Dig out my paper.”

The towering boy, a full 1.8 meters tall, turned meek as a kitten before her. Without so much as a peep of protest, he ducked his head and started rummaging.

“F-found… found it.”

“How many points?”

“Uh…” Lu Bo stared at the paper, hesitating.

Bei Huai’s tone hardened. “Read it out.”

He gritted his teeth, the words dragging from him: “T-twelve… points.”

Four points per multiple-choice question, and she had only nailed three.

The others exchanged baffled looks, clueless about what Bei Huai was playing at.

The girl let out an inscrutable chuckle, then drawled leisurely: “Go on, say it to my face. ‘Trash like me doesn’t belong in Class 6.'”

“Say it.”

Cold sweat prickled Lu Bo’s forehead. Even under her near-imperious demand, he didn’t dare open his mouth.

As if—he’d be dead meat if he actually said it. Bei Huai and her crowd would bury him.

By now, he regretted the whole mess deeply.

Had he known she was this protective of Jiang Wan, he never would have gone after her.

Of course, he felt hard done by too—after all, Jiang Wan had started it.

“Heh, so much for being hot shit. Just a spineless wimp after all,” Bei Huai sneered, not even wasting a sidelong glance on him.

“Now apologize,” she commanded, every inch the queen.

Lu Bo bolted to Jiang Wan’s side, his demeanor flipped like night and day.

“Jiang Wan, I’m sorry! It was all me—my big stupid mouth. Please don’t hold it against a nobody like me. Forgive me just this once. Here, your paper—my bad entirely. You’re new to No. 13 Middle School, still getting the hang of how we do things here. Sixty-plus points? That’s killer already. You’ll crush it next time!”

He offered the test paper with both hands like a sacred relic. The total one-eighty had the onlookers snickering despite themselves.

Jiang Wan’s face had remained impassive from start to finish. She took the paper with calm composure and offered a gentle reminder: “I’m not the only one you owe an apology to.”

Lu Bo froze, his face going rigid. He glanced back on instinct—and locked eyes with Bei Huai’s deep, icy stare. A shiver shot through him. He whipped his head forward again, not daring another peek.

After several seconds of furious internal debate, he clenched his jaw, screwed up his courage, and turned to the fidgety, uneasy Mi Shuyun nearby.

“I’m sorry, Mi Shuyun! My fault completely—I had no business mocking your score. Please forgive me!”

Mi Shuyun twisted her fingers, flustered and unsure what to do, but a quiet thrill of vindication bloomed deep inside her.

She bit her lip. Under Jiang Wan’s encouraging gaze, she mustered her courage and said softly, “Please don’t go through my things without permission anymore.”

“Okay, okay, I absolutely won’t,” Lu Bo promised repeatedly.

With that, no one else could say anything more. Just then, the class bell rang.

Everyone hurried back to their seats.

“Jiang Wan, thank you,” Mi Shuyun whispered gratefully. Her cheeks were flushed, but the lifeless look in her eyes had finally lifted, replaced by a spark of light.

Jiang Wan was delighted to see the change in her desk mate.

“Little Bei, thanks,” she added with a smile, turning around.

“You two woke me from my nap, that’s all,” Bei Huai huffed stubbornly.

The girls were clearly used to her tough talk and giggled quietly before turning back to the lesson.

Bei Huai, however, kept her eyes fixed on the girl ahead of her, lost in thought.

So physics was her weak spot?

She lowered her dark lashes and twirled her pen absently.

Jiang Wan had seemed like the perfect student without a single flaw. But everyone had their weaknesses, it seemed.

In that moment, Bei Huai felt the distance between them shrink.

Her tongue pressed against a sharp tooth, the faint sting sharpening her mind.

She couldn’t ignore the secret thrill stirring deep in her heart.