Is there anyone in this world more miserable than her?

At seven-thirty in the evening, Yan Luqing sat in the study, staring at the numbers and physics symbols before her, pondering life.

Just as she had barely accepted everything since crossing over, she was treated by those around her with trepidation as if she were insane, forced to “follow the plot,” and soon faced with an almost impossible task—having a liberal arts student take the midterm exam of a university computer science major.

It wasn’t that there was no happiness at all. Thinking carefully, most of her joy seemed to come from Princess Ci, and the rest was divided among her high school classmates and the others in the villa.

But at this very moment, studying made her forget all those joys.

Yan Luqing worked on problems while, from time to time, lifting her eyes to glance at the person opposite her.

This went on for half an hour before she finally couldn’t hold back. She slammed her pen down with a “pa,” and snapped, “Can you not sit right in front of me playing with your phone! I’m studying!”

Gu Ci cast her a languid glance.

Those eyes first swept over the top of her head—that is, the flower crown—and only after that did they fall upon her eyes. The two locked gazes for a moment; he said not a word, but slowly turned his chair to the side—

And continued playing with his phone.

If he wasn’t facing her directly while playing, he would just play sideways.

Good heavens.

Yan Luqing was on the verge of exploding with rage, but she couldn’t say anything, only grinding her teeth and forcing herself back to the problems.

It was she who had wanted Gu Ci to be her teacher. If this performance tonight were placed upon him, he could even earn the title of being “overly responsible.” What else could she say?

Gu Ci also had professional books, but all his were in his room. Yan Luqing went to check today and found they were in exactly the same state as on the first day, practically untouched—at the level where he could teach her, he naturally had no need to worry about failing exams halfway.

Yan Luqing stifled her grievances and kept studying. After all, she had recently shown some signs of enlightenment, and had at least managed to solve two problems.

When she got stuck on the third, she silently pushed the book over to Gu Ci.

That certain someone slowly lifted his eyes, knowingly asking: “Don’t know how?”

“Obviously!” Yan Luqing bristled.

Her reaction, however, only seemed to amuse Gu Ci. Even as he explained, the corners of his lips held a faint curve, and his pleasant voice was especially gentle.

Yan Luqing understood this psychology well.

“You are upset so I am delighted”—this played out countless times between them that night. Wasn’t it exactly what she had been thinking earlier when she showed off her screensaver? So now, seeing her flare up, who knew how pleased Gu Ci must be.

Everything was cause and effect in cycle.

Listening to him lecture, Yan Luqing hated and resented, while at the same time thinking about the flower crown perched on her head, so out of place indoors.

She raised her hand and began plucking at the little white flowers on the crown.

Gu Ci, mid-explanation, slightly paused—one small flower drifted down beside his hand.

He chuckled: “What is it?”

Without lifting her head, Yan Luqing replied: “Bored.”

She lowered her head and looked at the formulas Gu Ci had written, pen in her right hand, tugging the flowers with her left.

He said a sentence, she plucked a flower—there was actually a kind of rhythm to it.

One problem finished, and a third of the flowers had been plucked off.

“Yan Luqing,” Gu Ci called her name, leisurely twirling a pen in his hand, “even if you pluck it bald you still have to wear it the whole day.”

“……” Yan Luqing glared at him again. “I never said I wouldn’t wear it.”

Because she had found Gu Ci’s teaching painful before, Yan Luqing had never been so disrespectful to a teacher, nor had her tone ever been this hard.

Tonight she had done all the things she shouldn’t have.

After saying that she buried her head in the problems again. When she’d finished the next problem following Gu Ci’s method and was about to move on, unexpectedly Gu Ci suddenly spoke and stopped her.

“Stop here,” he said.

Yan Luqing looked up blankly. “Huh?”

They’d come in at seven; it was only a bit past eight now—was Gu Ci really being this kind?

Gu Ci explained, “Mainly because of your expression…” He paused very slightly, and with a suggestive tone said, “I’m also afraid of receiving too many curses and being rebounded upon.”

“……” Yan Luqing hadn’t cursed him, but she still forced a cold face and nodded. “As long as you understand.”

Then she put the book away and reached for her phone; the screen lit up from lift-to-wake. That screensaver once again, unexpectedly, flashed into Gu Ci’s view.

“……” Yan Luqing stood from her chair and turned to walk to the door, but Gu Ci’s indifferent voice came from behind, “Remember to change your screensaver.”

…?

He actually brought that up?!

Yan Luqing immediately fumed and spun back. “I’m not changing it! It’s my phone’s photos—I’ll use whichever one I want as my screensaver.”

“And besides, we studied all the exercises tonight; why should I change it!” Yan Luqing put on a vicious expression and spat out, “If you’ve got the guts, hack my phone—otherwise not in a million years will I change it!”

Having said that, afraid Gu Ci would launch another bamboo-shoot attack at her, Yan Luqing bolted from the scene as if a rocket were attached to her rear.

But Gu Ci’s voice still came from behind—

“By the way,” he said with a smile in his voice, as if kindly reminding her, “that thing on your head, you can take it off when you sleep.”

Yan Luqing: “…………”

You—say that??!!!

Back in her room, after showering, Yan Luqing still could not calm down for a long time.

She looked at the removed wreath and thought: if I destroy it, I won’t have to wear it tomorrow.

But that thought was quickly suppressed.

It won’t be that simple—Gu Ci would surely find something else to make up for it.

The unknown is more terrifying; better to just wear this stupid ring.

After drying her hair, Yan Luqing lay on the bed and opened a short-video app.

Do one good deed a day—she began leaving comments on trending videos.

Runaway Saintess: 【Looks pretty good, giving you a chance to take the initiative to chase me】

Runaway Saintess: 【You even dare to post this kind of video? Aren’t you afraid I’ll propose to you on the spot?】

Runaway Saintess: 【? Wife, why are you wearing my short-sleeved shirt?】

……

——Still like some straight man’s Dou-something, once opened it was a string of various beauty videos in the recommendations.

Yan Luqing commented on beauties and felt much happier. After leaving enough comments and closing the app, she opened WeChat again, thought for a moment, and sent Gu Ci the photo she had taken that evening.

【Runaway Saintess】: [image]

【Runaway Saintess】: Almost forgot, after showing it to so many people, I should at least give the original to the person himself.

Before long, she saw two little bubbles pop up on Gu Ci’s avatar.

……

She didn’t know why, originally she had been quite annoyed that she could only see Gu Ci’s punctuation marks, but now, seeing these two groups of punctuation clearly expressing speechlessness, she inexplicably lay on her bed laughing out loud.

Laughing while facing that avatar, she said: “Serves you right for meddling with me!”

After laughing for a while, her phone buzzed.

It was Gu Ci’s reply.

【Runaway Princess】: [image]

Yan Luqing froze for a moment, then opened the picture—

It was a photo of her bent over studying, taken from directly opposite her. At that time her right hand was pressing a pen against her face, poking out a little dent; her left hand was holding the flower crown in her hair; her eyes were cast downward, but her whole face was fully in the frame.

A little silly—obviously looked like she couldn’t solve the problem at all, but… from this angle, her face actually looked pretty good.

Wait—not right.

Why was she analyzing the photo now! Wasn’t the focus supposed to be on when Gu Ci had taken it???

Yan Luqing immediately typed.

【Runaway Saintess】: ??? You took a photo of me???

【Runaway Princess】: Mm.

【Runaway Saintess】: No, are you imitating me?

【Runaway Princess】: Nothing more than courtesy repaid in kind.

“……” A fine courtesy repaid in kind indeed.

Although her posture was very silly, her face looked quite good in that photo… Yan Luqing hesitated for a while, then secretly saved it.

She originally wanted to send Gu Ci something more, but the upper left corner of the chat box displayed a number “2”—two new messages.

This late, who would be looking for her?

Puzzled, Yan Luqing switched over, and upon seeing the remark of the sender, realized it was the very source that had caused her recent sleeplessness—the Yan family’s old master.

Because she was very afraid of the old master’s way of doing things, she had changed his remark name to 【Yan Family Boss】.

She had been insisting on sending this Boss her study progress, but the Boss had only ever replied once, with a very dry words: “Keep working hard.”

With trembling heart, Yan Luqing tapped into the chat.

【Yan Family Boss】: Your specialized subject teacher’s lecture will be held tomorrow. I’ve already spoken with the teacher. You will go to school tomorrow and listen.

【Yan Family Boss】: [link]

Yan Luqing: “?” Can’t I just study diligently at home?

Immediately after, she saw a bubble above the old master’s avatar and tapped it open—

She keeps sending me WeChat messages every day. This time I’ll see if she’s only putting on a show, or if she truly wants to learn well.

“…………”

All right, now—who would dare refuse? This had cut off all her retreat paths.

Yan Luqing listlessly replied, then opened the link to check the lecture start time, looked up how long it would take to get to school from her place, lifted the quilt, and turned off the light to close her eyes in sorrow.

She suddenly missed that period with Gu Ci in the tree hole.

No matter what the other person was doing, she could see it directly with her own eyes.

At her request, he had told her a bedtime ghost story. They had rescued a purebred Border Collie together, which, after she once posted a video online, had gained a lot of popularity… They had even slept in the same sleeping bag.

Although Gu Ci’s body was cold and she couldn’t feel his warmth, she could feel his presence. That presence made the desolate mountains feel safe.

After coming out, had their relationship been improving all along?

It seemed so.

Then what exactly was she missing?