The bell chimed six times.

Within a very short span of time, she had suffered a second nightmare.

The protagonist of the dream was still Jiang Yue.

Time rewound to today’s banquet.

In Shen Yi’s dream, she once again saw Jiang Yue dressed as a maid. But this time, she did not choose to help her. Instead, under the other girl’s pleading gaze, she smiled and sneered, “Isn’t this the top student from our class? Why are you standing here alone? Go on, go and greet everyone.”

Jiang Yue was unwilling in every possible way, but as a servant she had no way to resist Shen Yi, and so she was forcibly dragged to the center of the main hall.

All eyes gathered on them, and whispers rippled all around.

Jiang Yue clutched Shen Yi’s arm, her hair disheveled and tears glittering at the corners of her eyes, and begged pitifully, “Please, Shen Yi, don’t do this.”

The Jiang Yue in the dream looked unbearably miserable.

So much so that Shen Yi, as a bystander, was almost furious.

She wanted to step in and stop it, yet she could clearly see the smile on “her own” face growing more and more detestable, as more words of humiliation were thrown at Jiang Yue.

Until a sharp rebuke rang out.

“That’s enough. Who gave you the right to bully a classmate like this?”

The hero had arrived.

Her brother, Shen Yu, walked into the center of the crowd, helped up Jiang Yue, who was nearly kneeling on the floor and stifling quiet sobs, and slapped Shen Yi hard across the face.

In the dream.

Shen Yi saw “herself” clutching her cheek, staring at Shen Yu in shock and disappointment.

And then.

Wen Que appeared as well.

He was wearing the same pale green suit he had on today, his brows and eyes seeming to be covered in an unmelting frost as he looked at Shen Yi. “I never expected you to be this kind of person. I’m very disappointed in you.”

Shen Yi: “???”

She had never expected herself to be that kind of person either!

Then all at once.

She was no longer the “bystander.”

She reclaimed her own body.

Faced with countless accusations, Shen Yi wanted to explain herself.

This wasn’t it! That person just now wasn’t her!

But she could say nothing at all, and could only stand there helplessly, enduring everyone’s contempt.

The next second.

The scene shifted.

Another banquet.

In the middle of the dance floor.

Wen Que, still wearing that pale green suit, approached her with a gentleness that felt strange and unfamiliar.

“I like you. I am willing to protect you for the rest of my life. My fiancée, will you marry me?”

Shen Yi no longer cared what had happened just moments ago; all she felt was that happiness had come far too suddenly.

Under everyone’s gaze, she nodded and said shyly, “I’m will—”

Before she could finish, Wen Que walked past her.

Shen Yi: “?”

She turned around.

Behind her, not far away, stood Jiang Yue in the same pale green suit-dress, her makeup exquisite and beautiful. Under the crowd’s cheering and teasing, she seemed a little unwilling as she answered, “I... I will.”

Shen Yi: “???”

What was going on?

That was what Shen Yi thought, and it was also what she asked.

Wen Que turned back, his gaze toward her filled with disgust. “The Wen family and the Shen family arranged a marriage contract. Jiang Yue is the Shen family’s true daughter, so of course she is my fiancée.

As for you, you’re nothing but a cheap substitute.”

...

She woke from the dream once again.

Just like last time, she was drenched in cold sweat, but unlike before, after seeing the familiar room, Shen Yi calmed down much faster.

What the hell was that.

That was all Shen Yi could think.

She needed to sort things out from the beginning.

First.

She had never looked down on Jiang Yue’s family, and in fact admired her self-reliance and strength, so she would never do anything like humiliating her.

Then why would she have that kind of dream? And why did the version of herself in it look so vile?

Unconsciously, Shen Yi opened Baidu and typed in a search.

“Why does the self in my dream feel unfamiliar and do things I would never do in real life?”

Soon Shen Yi found an answer that looked quite reasonable.

“Suppressed emotions, a projection of inner desires, another true self.”

Shen Yi: “...!?”

Seriously?

Actually, that did make some sense.

Recently she had indeed been paying too much attention to Jiang Yue, so had some dark emotion inside her been stirred up, only to be released in dreams?

But...

Thinking of Jiang Yue’s pitiful expression, Shen Yi did not feel the slightest bit of relief.

Very quickly, Shen Yi figured it out.

Maybe there really had been a sliver of darkness in her heart, something even she herself had not noticed, but so what?

As Wen Que said, judge by deeds, not by thoughts; if you judge by thoughts, no one is without flaw!

Wait.

Wen Que.

Only then did Shen Yi remember the latter half of the dream.

It was absurd, abrupt.

And it had even connected to the earlier dream?

What true daughter, what false daughter, it was even more outrageous than her bullying Jiang Yue.

She and Shen Yu had the kind of faces that clearly came from the same parents, okay?

Lying on the bed, Shen Yi stared at the ceiling and let her thoughts wander, doing her best to ignore the faint unease in her chest.

She was not a child anymore.

She would never believe that some ridiculous thing like dreams turning into reality could happen.

Song Yang would laugh himself to death.

Enough.

Sleep!

The next night, it was still strange.

Seeing Jiang Yue sitting beside her, Shen Yi’s lips twitched violently as she repeated, “I really, really do not need you to return my clothes to me.”

She truly did not understand. Jiang Yue clearly had such good grades, so how could she be so stupid as to bring this up to her directly in class?

Shen Yi did not lack this one piece of clothing.

But if she kept refusing, she was genuinely afraid that Song Yang, sleeping beside her, might be woken up by the noise. Then if he asked what was going on, yesterday’s events would be exposed.

Shen Yi was utterly speechless.

She had never expected that one day she would have to clean up after Jiang Yue’s feelings; did she owe her something?

But perhaps because of that dream from yesterday, where the other version of herself had bullied Jiang Yue so recklessly, thinking of the pitiful way Jiang Yue had cried in her dream made Shen Yi feel faintly guilty when facing her in reality.

There was no helping it.

When a classmate cast them a curious glance, Shen Yi could only say they would talk after school.

And that was how it ended.

Her driver took them to the dry cleaner to pick up the clothes, and told Shen Yu to get lost and go home on his own.

On the way there, Shen Yi also figured it out.

From her point of view, it was just a small favor done casually for Jiang Yue, but the clothes hanging in her wardrobe would never be cheap. For Jiang Yue, accepting such a garment would feel like she had gotten something for nothing.

Shen Yi herself had a strong sense of pride, so she could understand.

Thus she no longer insisted, only thinking that the dry-cleaning fee probably was not cheap for Jiang Yue either. Should she find some excuse to make it up to her a little?

Maybe she could treat Jiang Yue to dinner...

But thinking about eating dinner with Jiang Yue, Shen Yi lost her appetite again.

It was maddening.

She had clearly only wanted to help out of kindness and had done nothing wrong, so why did she have to think about all this messy nonsense? Was this even her problem to worry about?

Shen Yi rubbed her head and only felt more irritated.

Of course.

All such thoughts came to a halt the moment Shen Yi saw the staff bring out two cleaned garments and hand them to Jiang Yue.

A string in her mind was stretched to the point of breaking.

The pale green dress was obviously worth a fortune. The exquisitely tailored dark green waist-cinching design was very familiar to her from what she had seen on Wen Que, as though the finishing touch had been drawn from the same mold. Everything pointed to one answer.

This was the dress that was supposed to belong to her, the designer-made, one-of-a-kind matching suit-dress to the suit Wen Que was wearing.

Just like in the dream.

The final owner of this suit-dress was actually Jiang Yue.

Shen Yi heard herself ask, her voice shaking, “This dress is beautiful. Is it yours?”

“Not exactly.” Jiang Yue signed her name as she answered without looking up. “Someone else kindly lent me this dress a few days ago.”

“Hah.”

Shen Yi laughed outright. “What a coincidence.”

“...Yes, what a coincidence.”

Jiang Yue’s voice also turned softer, sounding somewhat unnatural.

“Jiang Yue, do you take me for an idiot?” Shen Yi’s voice grew colder. “Don’t tell me that yesterday, because you were too frightened to lift your head once from beginning to end, you didn’t know that the person hosting the birthday banquet, my brother, happened to be the one who lent you the dress.”

The silence that followed was answer enough.

After a brief moment of fury, Shen Yi regained her reason.

If Jiang Yue had wanted to hide this from her, there was no need to bring her to this dry cleaner at all. She could have simply handed over the washed clothes, and Shen Yi would never have discovered the truth.

This, instead, suggested another possibility.

Jiang Yue wanted her to know.

Even if Shen Yu himself did not know.

As expected, Jiang Yue’s expression was helpless as she said, “It was just that coincidental. The two people who helped me on consecutive days and lent me their clothes were you and your brother. I just didn’t know how to explain it to you, so I could only bring you here and let you see for yourself.

I asked Song Yang, and he said the thing you hate most is being lied to. As long as people take the initiative to tell you anything, you won’t be too angry.

Shen Yi, I really like you. I want to be friends with you, so I don’t want to lie to you.”

Shen Yi was silent for a while before saying, “I understand. I... I believe you.”

But friends and all that...

Better not.

Her and Jiang Yue?

Was that appropriate?

Shen Yi believed Jiang Yue had not lied to her, but with Song Yang caught in the middle, she had no idea how much of that so-called desire for friendship was sincere and how much was not.

Not to mention...

Who could remain composed while being friends with a girl one was a little jealous of? If there was no way to be honest with her, then there was no point in deceiving her feelings.

But when it came to rejecting her, facing Jiang Yue’s gentle face, Shen Yi could not bring herself to say the words.

So she could only choose to ignore it, while thinking through the entire matter in her head.

Coincidence.

She had already developed PTSD from that word and did not want to hear it again for the time being.

Everything was a coincidence.

Could the overlap between dream and reality also be a coincidence?

In the end, before they parted, Shen Yi still took both garments back, unwilling to add any burden to Jiang Yue.

But the fate of those clothes would only be the deepest corner of her wardrobe.

If something was hers, she would protect it with everything she had.

If someone else could take it away, she would rather not have it at all.

And if it was never hers in the first place, then... she would give it back to its rightful owner.

As she wrote those three lines in her diary, Shen Yi could not help biting the end of her pen.

So complicated.

Right.

Actually, she herself did not understand what she was thinking.

But let it be.

Shen Yi was daydreaming when the door was pushed open from outside.

Shen Yu walked in carrying a plate of fruit and said, “Here, Mom asked me to bring this to you. You—”

He stopped mid-sentence, leaning forward slightly with a puzzled look, and asked, “What’s with that expression? Did you catch Wen Que confessing to another girl?”

He had originally been all smiles, but after making such a joke and not getting slapped by Shen Yi, he no longer dared to grin.

Shen Yu promptly set down the fruit and gave an awkward laugh. “I’ll head out first then, haha!”

It must be that brat Song Yang who had upset her again.

If she was going to take it out on someone, don’t take it out on him!

“Wait.”

Shen Yi stopped him, her gaze falling on Shen Yu’s face as she once again desperately tried to recall Jiang Yue’s features.

Shen Yu had peach-blossom eyes, and so did she; both of them had very obvious, almost exaggerated double eyelids, but Jiang Yue’s eyes were gentle, with a soft, flat lid, sometimes even looking slightly like an inner double.

Shen Yu had a broad, round face, in her opinion, while she herself had a small round face with a bit of troublesome baby fat, whereas Jiang Yue had a beautiful oval face. In all her life, Shen Yi had never seen such a small face, so perfect it looked as though there were no bones at all beneath the cheeks.

Her parents’ faces were not that small either.

Exactly.

Their family simply did not have oval-faced genes.

And then there was height.

Her mother was one meter seventy, and her father was a great towering one meter eighty-five. Shen Yu inherited that perfectly and looked even a little taller than their father, while Shen Yi was also one meter sixty-eight, a bit shorter in the family but, in her opinion, a perfectly ideal height.

But Jiang Yue was petite, and by eye she was probably only around one meter sixty, maybe not even that tall.

After comparing them in several ways, Shen Yi felt much more at ease.

Clearly.

Compared with Jiang Yue, she looked far more like the Shen family’s daughter.

Being stared at so intently by Shen Yi gave Shen Yu goose bumps, and he asked, “What on earth is wrong with you?”

Maybe she should just slap him twice after all; she was really scared.

Thinking this, Shen Yi finally cheered up. “Nothing, I just wanted to say you’re so ugly!”

Shen Yu: “?”

He was the most popular boy in the senior year, and the number of love letters he received every month could not even be counted on two hands, okay?

And so Shen Yu exploded with anger. “You’re the ugly one! You’re ugly and blind!”

Shen Yi: “...You’re ugly!”

“You’re ugly!”

“You’re uglier!”

“You’re the ugliest!”

“I’ve never seen anyone uglier than you!”

...

“Waaah—! Mom! Shen Yu called me ugly!”

“Damn it! You’re slandering me first? Mom! Mom, listen to my explanation!”

The sports meet arrived before long.

At Imperial City High School, the sports meet was always led by the senior class, and almost everyone had to take part so that they could shed a final sweat before the college entrance examination.

Shen Yi already disliked sports, so she naturally did not sign up. With some snacks in hand, she slipped into Class A’s team during the tedious opening ceremonies.

Those with events went to fill out forms and confirm competition times; those without events sat listening to the principal drone on.

Meng Zihan asked her, “How have things been these past few days?”

Shen Yi frowned. “How what?”

Meng Zihan lowered her voice. “I mean that Jiang Yue girl in your class.”

“We haven’t really spoken much.”

Shen Yi told the truth. Since the dry-cleaning incident, she had not spoken to Jiang Yue.

First, she would not take the initiative to look for Jiang Yue.

Second, Jiang Yue had been busy rehearsing for cheerleading lately, and during self-study periods she was not even in the classroom, so she had no time to come find Shen Yi and chat about meaningless things.

As for whether Jiang Yue had gone to talk and confide in Song Yang, she did not know.

“Good.”

Meng Zihan took a biscuit and fed it to Shen Yi, then satisfiedly reached out to pat her head, smiling as she said, “Who cares what she’s thinking? If you don’t like her, just stay away. If you can’t afford to offend her, surely you can avoid her.”

“...Okay.”

Shen Yi chewed the biscuit and answered indistinctly.

Of course, in her heart she silently objected: how exactly was she unable to afford offending Jiang Yue?

The cheerleading performance was not especially dazzling, but for high school students it was still rather eye-catching.

Before long, a thread appeared on the forum asking who the girl at the center position in the cheerleading squad was.

A lot of people replied below.

“I don’t know her, so that’s normal. She’s a sophomore who was temporarily brought in to replace someone; she’s not from our grade.”

“She’s gorgeous! I’ve talked to her before, and she’s incredibly gentle! She’s basically an angel come down to earth!”

“The girl’s name is Jiang Yue. Not only is she beautiful, her grades are great too. She came fourth in the last sophomore midterm! Pretty amazing, right?”

“Only fourth? Then who are the top three besides Wen Que?”

“The second-place one is that academic demon, the girl who studies from morning till night. She said her goal is to surpass Wen Shen, so surely no one doesn’t know her...”

“And third is Meng Zihan. That girl is the textbook definition of a rich young lady, not something ordinary people can compare to.”

“If there are gods in this world, then they’re Wen Que and Meng Zihan. The two of them are like God’s perfect top-scoring thesis, flawless in every respect.”

“But if we’re talking looks, there’s another girl in sophomore year who’s so pretty she looks like a doll, the kind you can never forget after one glance.”

“Oh, that’s Shen Yu’s younger sister, Shen Yi.”

“Shen Yi’s grades are pretty good too, right? It’s just that her temper is said to be average.”

“That can’t be called average. I heard once Shen Yu was so mad at his little sister that he hid in the classroom by himself and cried, hahaha!”

“What? Are they talking about that Shen Yu who’s always so sharp-tongued and sarcastic? I don’t believe it!”

...

Seeing the praise for Jiang Yue on the forum somehow veer toward Meng Zihan and Wen Que, Shen Yi’s original little grievance over having her spotlight stolen vanished without a trace, and she instantly became smug.

Of course.

The most perfect man in the world was Wen Que, and the most perfect woman was Meng Meng! At least these people had some taste!

As for their evaluation of her?

Shen Yi did not take it to heart.

In her view, if these people had “misunderstood” her, it was only because Shen Yu was too unlikeable, and as his sister she was dragged down by association, nothing more.

To make her admit that her temper was awful?

Maybe in her next life!

Soon after, Shen Yi stopped looking at her phone, because there was something even more important to do.

It was almost time for Shen Yu’s men’s three-thousand-meter race! She had been waiting for this day for so long!

Shen Yi stood up and shouted toward her class, “Class president——!!!”

The world’s most honest laborer had taken up position.

Shen Yu staggered over the starting line again and again, exhausted beyond measure. Each time he looked up, he saw his little sister beneath the podium, sprawled smugly on some beach chair from who-knows-where with her legs crossed, wearing a look of triumphant gloating. His teeth were practically grinding to dust.

If he had known earlier, he would have stolen or snatched a registration form just to sign Shen Yi up for a long-distance race as well, and he would never have let her have such an easy, carefree time.

Shen Yi was still there in a shrill little voice, shouting, “Go, big brother! Big brother is the best!”

This scene was also photographed by a classmate and posted on the forum.

“One Hundred Ways to Drive Someone Mad Without Paying for the Funeral”

“Shen Yu and His Demon Little Sister”

“Using the Most Beautiful Face to Commit the Most Heartless Acts”

“The Nth Round of the Shen Siblings’ Love-and-Hate Battle, Victory to Shen Yi!”