Zhu Lexing burst out laughing without thinking.
The coach’s voice cut through: “Third row, seventh column—step forward.”
Zhu Lexing was still puzzling over who that might be when the system chimed in helplessly: 【Host, that’s you.】
A hand gave her back a gentle nudge from behind.
Zhu Lexing: “…………”
Her smile froze on her lips. She stepped out slowly.
The coach eyed her up and down. “Zhu Lexing? What’s so funny? You think PE class is a joke for everyone else?”
Zhu Lexing: “…No!”
The coach nodded. “Doesn’t matter. Twenty extra sit-ups for you. Get to it.”
“You—”
Zhu Lexing lay down on the mat in silence, fumbling through a half-hearted sit-up.
The coach’s voice grew distant. She’d apparently tapped someone to assist Zhu Lexing.
Zhu Lexing figured that was for the best.
Better than the coach hovering over her, at least.
She lay there a few seconds. Footsteps drew near, and she sat up.
Lifting her head, she found Yan Mian half-crouched before her in the dappled shade of the trees, watching.
Zhu Lexing: “………………”
Yan Mian settled by the mat’s edge, paused, then pinned Zhu Lexing’s calves with both hands.
“Go on,” Yan Mian said.
Even through the fabric, the girl’s palms felt like they burned right through it. Zhu Lexing squirmed uncomfortably.
But the coach was closing in, so she held her tongue. Lying back, her mind drifted to recent days.
Her midterm scores had stunned everyone. That very night, when she brought home the papers, Liu Su had crushed her in an excited hug for ages—yet hadn’t forgotten to gush over Yan Mian’s perfect marks.
Yan Mian had gotten a hug, too.
Zhu Lexing had watched from nearby, noting Yan Mian’s expression.
After a split-second daze, she hadn’t hugged Liu Su back.
Even so, in the wake of that embrace, Zhu Lexing had sensed the distance between her and Yan Mian shrinking, bit by bit, without her realizing.
Today proved it.
If they weren’t close, Yan Mian wouldn’t be here beside her now.
Nearing thirty reps, scorched by the brutal sun, Zhu Lexing felt drowsiness creep in.
Sit-ups were child’s play for an Alpha physique. Repetition turned them into pure muscle memory. She powered through on autopilot while Yan Mian eased up, leaning in.
Eyes half-lidded, Zhu Lexing crunched up once more on core strength alone—when Yan Mian suddenly turned to glance at her.
The motion caught her off guard. Their cheeks nearly brushed. Zhu Lexing hissed in pain on reflex, and a sleepy tear welled up, spilling over.
Right then.
Right in Yan Mian’s line of sight.
Yan Mian blurted, stunned, “Zhu Lexing, you—”
“Ten to go—”
The coach’s interruption barely registered. Four words summed up Zhu Lexing’s horror: She was mortified.
No one had ever died of embarrassment harder.
Still, she dodged Yan Mian’s eyes. Lying back down, she stubbornly muttered, “Don’t get the wrong idea.”
Yan Mian nodded like she understood. “I won’t tell a soul.”
Zhu Lexing: “…………”
Don’t say anything at all! She was just tired, that was all.
No one would cry over a bumped forehead—not even in a vacuum!
The real killer came near the end of class. Zhu Lexing had finally gutted out all fifty sit-ups and just wanted to catch her breath when Song Yingying, worried about her stamina, offered a hand.
Zhu Lexing clasped it and took two steps before her foot buckled. Her knee slammed into the ground.
The sports field fell silent.
Zhu Lexing’s gaze snapped to Yan Mian. She blinked. Wet lashes confirmed it.
She was done for.
Even after emerging from the school infirmary, her phone wouldn’t stop buzzing.
Messages poured in from every corner—
-Heard you bawled your eyes out over a scraped knee? LMAO…
-Alphas crying ain’t a crime! Even the toughest ones wear down!
-Sharing post 《My Limp and Boneless Alpha Goddess》—No. 1 High School Forum
Zhu Lexing felt like she’d gone blind.
Staring at Qiao Qiao’s share, she hammered out: What the hell is this?
Qiao Qiao fired back instantly: 【Fanfic. You never read self-insert lit?】
Zhu Lexing: “…”
Of course she had. In her last life, fans had showered her with “Xingxing-wife,” “goddess,” endless love letters and confessions.
But receiving messages from fans didn’t mean she had actually read them. As an artist, Zhu Lexing knew she needed to keep a professional distance, so even though she was aware of all the fanfiction about her circulating online, she had never clicked on any herself.
She was just about to open one and take a peek when a wave of commotion erupted from the distance.
“Lin Yang’s here—”
“What’s she thinking? She says she’s going to publicly apologize to Zhu Lexing—”
Zhu Lexing: ???
Zhu Lexing blinked in bewilderment for a moment.
Lin Yang was going to issue a public apology? Had she heard that right?
The System chimed in right away: 【From the day they left the Police Station, Liu Su has been pressuring the Lin Family through the Liu Family. As of an hour ago, nine partner companies have terminated their contracts with the Lin Family cumulatively. Their stock price has plummeted below the floor, with losses mounting by tens of thousands per minute.】
Zhu Lexing: “…”
She had expected Liu Su to be efficient and ruthless, but not to this degree. Tens of thousands lost per minute added up to millions in a single day.
No matter how wealthy the Lin Family was, they couldn’t sustain this kind of onslaught. And with the stock price tanking, shareholders would jump ship, likely doubling the asset losses.
Zhu Lexing knew nothing about corporate warfare, but she still asked blankly: 【They didn’t even consider fighting back?】
Even in a novel, side characters facing the protagonist’s relentless push would spit out a few defiant words as their parting shot before the end. The Lin Family going down so quietly didn’t fit Lin Song and Lin Yang’s flashy personalities at all.
【In fact,】 the System continued, 【prior to this, the Lin Family tried every trick they could think of to turn things around, but nothing worked. Their most trusted partners and shareholders all abandoned Lin Corporation the moment they heard the Lin Family had crossed the Liu Family.】
Zhu Lexing had imagined the Original Host came from a privileged background, but she hadn’t pictured one powerful enough to flatten vicious side characters this thoroughly.
The realization left her deeply shocked.
As expected of a wealthy Mary Sue! Impressive!
Zhu Lexing had zero interest in Lin Yang’s apology. After all, she wasn’t even the one Lin Yang truly owed amends to.
Her gaze shifted toward the Teaching Building, and she quickened her steps.
Yan Mian had only made a quick trip to the Office, but by the time she returned, the path to Class 7 was completely blocked.
She approached with a puzzled frown, and someone immediately asked her excitedly, “Is it true Lin Yang’s apologizing to Zhu Lexing? Why though?”
“She says she’ll only explain once Zhu Lexing gets here… Where even is Zhu Lexing?”
“She took a nasty fall during PE and is still in the School Infirmary, I think.”
That single remark gave Yan Mian all the key details she needed.
…Lin Yang was here to apologize.
Even without knowing the specifics of Liu Su’s tactics, Yan Mian could guess she’d pulled some strings behind the scenes.
Lin Yang had come this time to sue for peace—to beg Zhu Lexing to go easy on the Lin Family.
What kind of logic was that? If Lin Yang hadn’t stirred up trouble in the first place, none of this would have happened.
Yan Mian found the whole thing bitterly ironic, but it had nothing to do with her. Since this was the direct route upstairs, she started to turn around and take the long way instead—only for Lin Yang to spot her in the crowd. “Yan Mian!”
Lin Yang had never dreamed that life could plunge from paradise to purgatory in a matter of days.
She didn’t understand stock prices, but the parade of lawyers showing up daily to sever contracts was impossible to ignore. At first, she dismissed it as a minor hiccup. Then her close friends stopped responding to her messages. When she poured out her woes, they hit her with a lazy emoji at best—or straight-up blocked her.
No sooner had she turned away than bystanders forwarded chat logs mocking her mercilessly, courtesy of one of those “friends” who’d just ghosted her.
They ranted without a care: The Lin Family had this coming. They’d always hated Lin Yang’s phony, spiteful act. Zhu Lexing had made it clear she wanted nothing to do with her, yet Lin Yang kept throwing herself at the celebrity.
Lin Yang snapped and lashed out from a burner account, only to get flamed even harder in return.
【At least I can kick back and live off the fat for life. You, Miss Lin? With your brother’s mess alone, you think he’ll really skate free?】
【Be smart about it—go grovel to Yan Mian now, kowtow a few times, and maybe the Liu Family will cut you some slack. Keep stonewalling, and your dad might join him behind bars for a stint.】
With that, they blocked her too.
Lin Yang couldn’t wrap her head around how one little incident had snowballed into this nightmare. Not until she saw her father and brother both fraying at the edges, irritable and on edge.
In the early days, they’d spot her and force calm smiles, assuring her it was no big deal.
But as the crisis deepened, tempers finally frayed into outright arguments.
She hadn’t wanted to come apologize today, but Lin Song had strong-armed her into it with backup.
The brother who was usually such a pushover turned ice-cold: “No forgiveness from Zhu Lexing? Then don’t bother coming home to the Lin Family.”
Lin Yang tried reaching out to Zhu Lexing directly, but her account had been blocked ages ago. At school, even the teachers acted like she’d gone invisible—clearly tipped off ahead of time. Her old friends parroted the same script: total radio silence.
The crowd buzzing around her now? The very losers she’d always sneered at. Humiliation burned through her, but she still had to broadcast her purpose to them.
A public apology needed witnesses, after all.
Lin Yang got that, and that’s precisely what made it sting worse.
She caught sight of Yan Mian amid the throng and nearly ignored her at first. But when Yan Mian turned to leave with utter indifference, the shame boiled over, and Lin Yang called out.
“Where’s Zhu Lexing?” Lin Yang strode forward without a second thought. Yan Mian instinctively backed up several steps.
Lin Yang clocked the retreat and felt a sliver of her pride return.
So what if the Lin Family was reeling for the moment? She was still leagues above Yan Mian.
“Cat got your tongue?” Lin Yang shot out a hand and shoved Yan Mian’s shoulder without hesitation.
Someone piped up immediately: “Hey, ease up when you’re just asking a question.”
“Yes, you should be a little nicer… Yan Mian doesn’t owe you anything.”
Lin Yang turned to those people and sneered. “Do I need you to tell me how to treat her?”
Yan Mian listened to Lin Yang’s aggressive tone and suddenly found it all rather amusing.
Even now, did Lin Yang still not grasp the situation? Did she still not realize who should be the one stepping back?
“I don’t know where Zhu Lexing is,” Yan Mian said without hesitation. “But if you keep up this attitude, she won’t forgive you—and neither will Auntie Liu.”
Lin Yang’s sore spot was struck instantly. She cursed, “Whether Zhu Lexing forgives me is her business. Do you think your status makes you any better? The homewrecker’s daughter has the nerve to point fingers now—what gives you the right?”
The word “homewrecker” hung in the air, subtly shifting the atmosphere.
Everyone in elite circles knew that Zhu Lin had been divorced for years before getting together with Jiang Yue—she wasn’t a homewrecker. But when people were hurling insults, facts rarely mattered.
The onlookers, however, weren’t privy to those details. They jumped to the obvious conclusion: Yan Mian’s mother must have come between Lin Yang’s parents, explaining this sudden burst of hostility.
Yan Mian felt her body trembling involuntarily. She steadied her voice and said coldly, “Spreading rumors comes with responsibility.”
“Responsibility?” Lin Yang eyed her, savoring how her recent frustrations seemed to melt away. She sneered. “Who’s going to hold me accountable? You? If it weren’t for Zhu Lexing, you wouldn’t even—”
“Won’t even what?”
A sharp female voice cut through the air. Lin Yang whipped her head around to see Zhu Lexing standing not far away. She was unwrapping the bandage on her hand as she strode forward. Without thinking, she positioned herself in front of Yan Mian, shielding her from Lin Yang’s line of sight.
Yan Mian’s churning emotions suddenly steadied, hovering in limbo—neither rising nor falling.
The moment Lin Yang laid eyes on Zhu Lexing, all her earlier bravado evaporated. She bit her lip. “Lexing, I—”
“I’m Zhu Lexing,” Zhu Lexing said flatly. “Didn’t you want to apologize to me? Go ahead.”
Lin Yang hadn’t expected her to deny her even the time for a single sentence, but this had been her goal all along. She drew a deep breath and said without further delay, “I’m sorry, Lexing.”
She even bowed, figuring that showed enough sincerity.
Zhu Lexing simply stared at her. As the sun dipped toward the horizon, her profile took on an even more striking beauty in the twilight, her lips curving in what might have been a smile. “When you apologize, shouldn’t you explain what you’re apologizing for? After all, this is a public apology.”
