“No… I can’t anymore… I’m about to explode…”
Su Wanli let out a heavy wail, flinging the pencil in her hand weakly onto the desk before collapsing bonelessly on top of it like her body had fallen apart.
And yet, Meng Wange’s voice still circled above her head like a haunting echo, clinging to her ears like a nightmare—
“Miss Su, just hang in there a little longer. We’re so close. I know you can do it.”
‘Please stop, Meng Wange! Don’t say things like that in your cool, elegant voice—it sounds like something a hot-blooded sports coach would yell! You’re ruining your image!’
Su Wanli lay facedown on the desk, covering her ears with both hands as she shook her head and snapped sharply—
“I already said I’m done! My brain’s turning weird! If I keep going like this…”
“Then how about just one last one?”
Looking at Su Wanli, whose face was buried in her arms, Meng Wange gave her a gentle smile and slid the notebook closer to her.
“Miss Su, we only need to remember this one last question and its answer, and briefly understand the solution process. Then we’ll be done for the morning. How does that sound?”
“…It sounds terrible.”
Su Wanli really wanted to just play dead on the desk, but she couldn’t escape the nagging—not only from Meng Wange’s gentle persuasion, but also from the system in her head.
[Host, your current posture is rapidly draining your villainess dignity. The villainess points you just regained are now slowly decreasing. The recently cleared ‘distorted taste’ debuff may come back…]
‘Ugh, enough already! I don’t want to do anything anymore! Getting thrown into a strange world and having to act in front of people I don’t even know is already exhausting enough! Now you’re making me relearn high school questions one word at a time?! You might as well kill me!’
[However, your current villainess score has dropped to 81. If it falls below 80, another random debuff will be triggered. And next time, it might not be something as harmless as taste distortion…]
‘Shut up! Didn’t I draw a Villainess Potion that can restore my points? If it gets that bad, I’ll just chug that thing!’
‘If I study even one more question, my wrist and brain are going to explode together…’
Su Wanli snarled at the system in her head, then rubbed the pressure point between her thumb and index finger with her left hand, trying to ease the ache in her wrist.
‘Dammit, how did this happen? When Meng Wange smiled and said she’d teach me her secret memory technique, I actually felt a bit lucky. I thought I’d get to see how a genius studies.’
‘But I never imagined that her so-called secret technique was literally just… silently repeating what you want to remember while copying it down over and over until your hand can write it without your brain thinking. That’s it.’
‘It’s not useless, sure—but where’s the magic in that?!’
[“A good memory is no match for a worn-out pen.” For humans, this method is broadly applicable. If you keep learning like this, Host, you’ll surely be able to pass the entrance exam on your own.]
‘Who said I wanted to pass it on my own?! At this point, forget betting that hairclip—I should just go straight to Meng Wange and say, “Help me cheat on the exam and I’ll give it back to you.”’
‘But… if I end things like that, it’ll make all the effort I put in this morning feel pointless. And if I back out now, Meng Wange will probably look down on me… I’d hate that.’
“Miss Su, are you rested now? Shall we continue?”
Hearing Meng Wange’s soft voice inviting her to study again, Su Wanli gritted her teeth and forced herself up from the desk.
“Fine. This is the last one. But not just for the morning—after this, I’m not looking at your notebook again for the rest of the day.”
Meng Wange paused to consider that, then said thoughtfully—
“But, at this rate, perhaps—”
“One more word, and I’m skipping this question too.”
Staring at Su Wanli, whose eyes had all but lost their sparkle, Meng Wange gave a helpless shrug and looked toward the elegant flip clock on the desk.
With a soft click, the clock flipped to the next page—11:30 AM.
***
“Alright then, Miss Su, it looks like it’s just about lunchtime. Once we finish this problem, we’ll wrap things up for today…”
The moment Su Wanli heard the words “lunchtime,” the dull light in her eyes instantly reignited with a spark of life.
‘Oh right—lunch!’
Speaking of lunch, it was finally time for something she’d been secretly looking forward to: Zhang Ma’s cooking class!
‘Wait… had she really been looking forward to it?’
Honestly, she didn’t care the slightest bit about cooking.
It was nothing more than slicing ingredients and throwing them all into a pot—boring, repetitive work.
But anything was better than sitting at a desk and memorizing endless questions like this.
It was time to escape from this meaningless study session and move on to the next objective.
After all, she still had three glorious victories to claim today!
Just as Su Wanli was about to demand that Meng Wange let her go downstairs immediately, the system’s voice suddenly chimed in—
[Host, while it’s great to see you this motivated, you only have two more victories left to complete.]
‘…Huh? Two more?’
‘Wait—did the system see how sick and miserable I was today and feel bad for me? Did it lower the target on purpose?’
[As much as I would like to do that for you, I don’t have permission to alter mission objectives. You simply completed one of the victories just now while you were asleep.]
‘…Um, are you saying that I somehow won a “convincing victory” over Meng Wange in my sleep?’
Su Wanli’s pupils dilated slightly as she looked at Meng Wange’s face, then glanced back at her mission panel.
Sure enough, right in front of her eyes, the numbers glared back: “Completed: 1 | Remaining: 2”
[That’s right. When you fell asleep and collapsed into the heroine Meng Wange’s arms, the system automatically detected a victory and logged it accordingly.]
…“Collapsed into her arms while asleep”? What does that even mean? Did I win some kind of “who falls asleep first” contest with a 0.5-second lead and that somehow impressed her?
[It may sound absurd, but from the system’s perspective, that’s essentially what happened.]
“…”
For a moment, Su Wanli didn’t know whether she should be happy or depressed.
‘Sure, completing a victory was a good thing… but could that really be counted as a convincing victory?’
Suddenly, all her earlier thoughts about the cooking class seemed irrelevant.
‘But maybe this wasn’t so bad.’
If victories only needed to be this easy, then couldn’t she rack them up effortlessly?
Her eyes gleamed with a spark of cunning as she came up with a new plan to win quickly.
She casually tossed her notebook onto the desk, looked Meng Wange straight in the eyes, and smiled slightly.
“Meng Wange, how about a bet? Let’s wager on how long it’ll take me to memorize this question.”
Meng Wange smiled and nodded gently.
“Trying to make studying a little more interesting before lunch? A valid pedagogical approach.”
She tapped her chin thoughtfully as she glanced over at the notebook Su Wanli had thrown aside.
“If I remember correctly, your average time per question has been about ten minutes. You’ve already looked at this one for a minute or two, so I’d say you’ll need at least five more minutes to memorize it.”
“Heh, how precise of you. You even tracked my average time. Classic Meng Wange.”
Su Wanli scoffed playfully, then stood up and walked behind her.
She gently placed her hands on Meng Wange’s shoulders.
“But just making a bet isn’t fun without stakes, right? So why don’t we raise them a little?”
“Stakes?” Meng Wange tilted her head back and blinked up at Su Wanli.
“That’s right. If I lose, I’ll let you take anything you want from this room.”
Su Wanli spread her arms generously and made a slow circle around the bedroom.
She even paused deliberately at her luxurious vanity, making sure Meng Wange noticed the array of fancy items on display.
“But if I win… I want you to agree to one thing for me.”
“One thing…” Meng Wange repeated, tasting the words.
She frowned slightly.
“What kind of thing?”
‘Still figuring that out,’ Su Wanli thought.
Of course, she couldn’t say that out loud, so instead, she curled her lips into a mysterious smile, raised a single finger to her lips, and said—
“Something you’ll definitely be able to do.”