The piercing ringtone suddenly rang out, almost tearing the delicate membrane inside her ears. Shi Lan endured the ear-piercing sound and reluctantly opened her eyes. Through the light from the curtains, she looked at the alarm clock on the desk, which was trembling and had slid to the edge of the desk. The hour and minute hands were at the bottom.
It was already 6:30. Shi Lan was startled. According to the original owner's habits, it was already a bit late to get up at this time. Shi Lan ignored the throbbing headache that still lingered after accepting the memories, jumped out of bed with a somersault, and quickly turned off the alarm clock. The room returned to silence. Shi Lan breathed a sigh of relief, went back to the bedside, slipped on her slippers, and shuffled out of the bedroom.
After quickly washing up, Shi Lan went into the hall. On the dining table were simple fried dough sticks, white porridge, and a small dish of dark pickled vegetables. Shi Hongmei had already gone out.
Shi Lan ate a few bites and found it bland and tasteless, so she put down her spoon, picked up her schoolbag, and went out.
Shi Lan's home is not far from the school, about a ten-minute walk.
Shi Lan walked with her head down on the bustling street, lost in thought.
"Shi Lan," a familiar and cheerful voice sounded from behind, followed by a delicate white hand affectionately placed on her shoulder.
Shi Lan paused, turned around, and saw a youthful and energetic face beaming at her with a bright smile. "What are you thinking about? I've been calling you for ages."
"Oh, I was thinking about the test questions I looked at last night, I didn't pay attention," Shi Lan said with a slight smile, looking at the girl, Lin Qing, who was supposedly the original owner's friend.
"How can you walk like that without watching where you're going? It's so unsafe," Lin Qing said, giving Shi Lan a reproachful look.
Shi Lan flashed the original owner's signature shy smile, then lowered her head and continued walking forward, secretly thinking to herself, "How unsafe can a pedestrian crossing be?"
The two walked side by side for a while. Lin Qing glanced at Shi Lan a few times and saw that Shi Lan was looking down and walking, which made her look a little dull. After thinking for a moment, she took out a gold-painted tube and handed it to Shi Lan with a smug look on her face.
"Look what this is!"
Shi Lan glanced at it and honestly replied, "It's lipstick."
Lin Qing frowned, dissatisfied with her answer. She took two quick steps, turned past Shi Lan, pinched the end of the lipstick with her fingertips, and twirled the brand logo in front of Shi Lan's eyes. "This is what I showed you. It's an international brand. I saved up my allowance for several weeks to buy it."
Shi Lan glanced at it blankly, nodded to indicate that she understood, and continued walking forward.
Lin Qing's face darkened. She had originally wanted to show off, but ended up being snubbed, which made her very dissatisfied. She wanted to leave her behind and go first, but she didn't want to be alone. However, she was also reluctant to go with her.
As she pondered and her thoughts wandered, a car horn sounded from the road not far away. Lin Qing looked up and a bright and gentle smile immediately appeared on her face, "Han Guangye."
A black Mercedes slowly pulled up to the side of the road. The rear window rolled down, revealing Han Guangye's fair and handsome face. "It's so late. Why are you still here? Get in the car, I'll take you there."
Lin Qing blushed, thanked him sweetly, opened the car door and sat down next to Han Guangye. The driver started the car, merged into the traffic, and disappeared in an instant.
Shi Lan stared at Lin Qing, who sat inside obediently and hadn't glanced at her once from beginning to end. She sneered. Lin Qing could have taken her along, but she abandoned her in an instant. The original owner actually thought the two of them had a good relationship. How lonely must she be to have such a misconception!
Shi Lan walked into the classroom just as the bell rang for morning self-study. Her deskmate, Lin Qing, pulled her to her seat as if she were anxious. "Why are you so late? Yu Xiaohang just said there will be a quiz during morning self-study. I was worried you wouldn't make it."
Shi Lan hung her schoolbag on the back of the chair, turned her head and smiled, "Thank you for worrying about me."
The original owner had a pretty face, with her almond-shaped eyes being the most striking feature. However, she was shy and always kept her eyelids half-closed, which inadvertently closed the window to her soul when interacting with others.
But now that the soul has been replaced by the independent and calm Shi Lan, looking at her clear and bright eyes, Lin Qing felt a little guilty for some reason. What she thought was a matter of course now seemed a bit superfluous. Lin Qing reflected on herself for a second and realized that she was overthinking things. She chuckled twice and withdrew her leaning body, opened the book and dared not say anything more.
Shi Lan flipped through the pages of her book, pretending not to notice Lin Qing's embarrassment. A few minutes later, class monitor Yu Xiaohang came in from outside with a stack of test papers. As per the old rule, the test papers were passed from front to back. Shi Lan's grades weren't very good, and her seat was second to last. After handing the last test paper to the back, she turned to look at the person next to her. Lin Qing was frowning, looking at the test papers on the table with a troubled expression.
Shi Lan turned around without making a sound, took out a ballpoint pen, and began to study the exam paper with great concentration. She was a top student who had been admitted to a prestigious university, and high school math was a piece of cake for her. However, the original owner's grades were in the middle to lower range, and getting a high score suddenly might be suspected of cheating. Fortunately, this exam paper was not difficult, and as long as she was careful, she was confident that she could control the score.
Fifteen minutes later, Yu Xiaohang stood up first and began collecting the exam papers from table to table. Shi Lan calmly handed her the exam paper as she walked over.
Lin Qing followed closely behind with a bitter face and handed in her paper. After Yu Xiaohang walked out of the classroom through the back door, she turned her head and whispered to Shi Lan, "Did you do all the questions today? I feel like there were a few questions that the teacher didn't cover."
Shi Lan brushed a stray hair behind her ear and curled her lips into a delicate smile: "I did tell you, maybe you didn't pay attention at the time."
Lin Qing's face flushed, feeling a little embarrassed. She hadn't expected that Shi Lan could actually do the questions she didn't know. In her opinion, this was impossible, after all, Shi Lan was so stupid.
Looking at Shi Lan's calm demeanor as she read with her head down, she felt a sense of resentment. In the past, only she knew things that Shi Lan didn't, but now their situations had been reversed.
Lin Qing's thoughts became uncertain. After pondering for a while, she thought of Han Guangye, clenched her fists tightly, and silently encouraged herself.
Women are inherently weaker than men. No matter how hard she tries, she can only get into a second-rate university and marry a man who also graduated from a second-rate university. She'll deal with mundane chores every day. Although this kind of life is much better than her previous life, she still doesn't want to live like that. Since God has given her a second chance at life, she can't waste it.
Han Guangye comes from a good family, is handsome, and has a good personality. Now that she has made progress with him, she doesn't want to drift apart from him over formulas and terms that she will never use again. After all, if she marries him, money will just be numbers to her in the future, right?
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