After Becoming the Abused Heroine in a Campus Story - Chapter 1: A Shitty Situation

Chapter 1: A Shitty Situation

It was June, and the weather in Nanchuan City was sweltering. When Zhou Yining regained consciousness, she only felt dizzy in her head.

She took a good while to recover before she realized she was in a classroom. An electric fan hung on the classroom wall, blowing air with a whooshing sound, yet the air in the room remained stifling. The smell of sweat from the students mixed with the scent of some unknown spicy strips, making Zhou Yining feel a bit nauseous.

On the podium, the math teacher was explaining a formula theorem. The sound of chalk scraping against the blackboard sent a layer of goosebumps rippling up Zhou Yining’s forearms.

She propped her forehead with one hand and eased herself for a good while before her vision came into focus.

Xu Yueming, sitting next to Zhou Yining, shot her a glare and muttered under his breath, “What are you up to this time? So speechless.”

Xu Yueming’s tone carried undisguised disgust, as if Zhou Yining had dug up his family’s ancestral grave.

Zhou Yining merely glanced at him faintly before quickly looking away.

Her thoughts gradually gathered as she recalled fainting suddenly after working continuously for more than ten hours. When she woke up, she was sitting in this classroom.

Had she been reborn? Or transmigrated?

In her previous life, Zhou Yining had been a bestselling author and screenwriter, so she accepted such matters quite readily. As she pondered these things, a sheet of paper filled with writing appeared in her mind.

Zhou Yining scanned it a few times and understood it right away. This was an outline for a book, vaguely outlining some of the main plot points.

The female protagonist in this book was also named Zhou Yining. Due to her family of origin, she had been insecure and sensitive from a young age. After getting into Nanchuan No. 1 High School, she fell for the male lead, but his fangirls discovered it and subjected her to school bullying. Her grades plummeted.

The male lead, Zhang Ye, never gave her a proper look. After enduring a series of torments from her family, bullying from classmates, and abuse both physical and emotional from the male lead, the female protagonist Zhou Yining finally achieved a happy ending with him.

The outline ended there, but Zhou Yining frowned as she read it. Who on earth read this kind of trashy story where a woman humbled herself for a man?

In her previous life as a writer, Zhou Yining had penned strong female lead refreshers. Humble herself? She would tear this book apart with her own hands.

Things depended on human effort. Now that she had become Zhou Yining, she wanted to see how this book could follow the outline anymore.

While she was lost in thought, a sharp gaze swept toward Zhou Yining. “Zhou Yining, come up and write the steps for this problem on the blackboard.”

Zhou Yining’s vision refocused, meeting the math teacher’s eyes.

She rose calmly, glanced at the problem on the blackboard—it was a function question—and her thoughts raced as she pulled out long-sealed high school memories.

She had possessed an astonishing memory since childhood. In her previous life, she had been the top scorer in liberal arts for the provincial college entrance exam, deducting only two points each from comprehensive liberal arts and Chinese, with full marks in everything else.

As Zhou Yining walked toward the blackboard, bursts of laughter erupted in the class. The students looked at her with some unknown malice, as if waiting for her to make a fool of herself.

But Zhou Yining ignored the mocking voices. She held her head high as she walked to the podium, already thinking of three ways to solve the problem in her mind.

Zhou Yining reached the podium, picked up the chalk, and began writing. Her handwriting was neat and bold, and the formulas and theorems looked elegant. Gradually, the laughter below the podium stopped.

Zhou Yining did not stop there. After finishing the first method, she briefly outlined the other two solutions behind it.

At that point, whispers started up in the classroom again.

“Damn, she actually knows it?”

“I bet she only knows this one problem. Blind cat bumping into a dead mouse.”

“Exactly, look at her—does she seem like someone good at math?”

“She’s just a brainless lovesick fool. If she scores over 120 in math on the final, I’ll twist my head off and let you kick it like a ball.”

Teacher Zhang, who taught math, cleared her throat lightly. “Everyone, quiet down.”

After she spoke, the students in the class dared not say another word.

Teacher Zhang’s gaze turned to Zhou Yining on the podium. She said, “Just knowing how to write it isn’t enough. Zhou Yining, explain the problem-solving approaches for these three methods to everyone.”

Zhou Yining met Teacher Zhang’s eyes and replied with poise, “Sure, Teacher. For the first method of this problem, I first used substitution into the formula…”

By the time Zhou Yining finished explaining the three approaches, the classroom was silent. Her last method clearly went beyond the syllabus, employing principles from advanced calculus. Even Teacher Zhang listened in a daze.

After a moment, Teacher Zhang cleared her throat lightly and instructed Zhou Yining in a gentler tone, “Knowing it doesn’t mean you can zone out. Not bad, you’ve improved. Go back and sit properly to listen.”

Zhou Yining smiled at Teacher Zhang. “Thank you, Teacher.”

The girl’s voice was crisp, her smile bold and unrestrained. Teacher Zhang felt a bit dazed that morning; she kept thinking Zhou Yining seemed different.

Her impression of Zhou Yining was not deep; she vaguely remembered Zhou Yining ranking in the forties in the class, in the middle to lower range. Moreover, Zhou Yining was usually silent, an unremarkable student in the class. She generally did not think of marginal students like Zhou Yining.

But Teacher Zhang soon withdrew her thoughts, assuming Zhou Yining had taken tutoring outside. She returned to the podium and continued with the lesson.

When Zhou Yining got back to her seat, her deskmate Xu Yueming glanced at her and said in a阴阳怪气 tone, “Did you get tutoring outside?”

Zhou Yining cast a sidelong glance at Xu Yueming but did not bother with him.

Soon, the first math class ended. The classroom immediately turned rowdy, and students who had brought phones to school started playing with them.

Laughter soon echoed in the classroom, with some gazes drifting vaguely toward Zhou Yining.

Zhou Yining did not pay them any mind. What she needed to do now was adapt to her identity, so staying put was the best choice.

She sat in her seat as if nothing had happened, but her deskmate Xu Yueming sidled over sleazily. “Zhou Yining, who would have thought? A toad dreaming of swan meat—you dare to like Zhang Ye?”

Zhou Yining looked at Xu Yueming with an expression like she was staring at a fool. “If you’re sick, go get treated. What crazy nonsense are you spouting out of nowhere?”

Xu Yueming had not expected Zhou Yining to feel no embarrassment and even dare to retort. He paused for a moment before continuing maliciously, “Look at the school’s anonymous wall. It’s full of the love letters you wrote to Zhang Ye. Have you no shame? As a girl, writing such explicit love letters—if I were Zhang Ye, you’d have scared me to death long ago.”

Zhou Yining glanced at him and reached out. “Hand over your phone. Let me take a look.”

Xu Yueming curled his lip and deliberately leaned back. “Can’t you look at your own? I’m not lending you my phone—it’s disgustingly dirty.”

Zhou Yining shot up from her seat in a flash. She stared Xu Yueming down hard. “Your mouth is so filthy; maybe you should gargle with some big sh1t to clean it. It’s almost senior year, and you still have time to gossip every day? Your grades must be really dragging, huh?”

Xu Yueming was startled by Zhou Yining’s movement. He shrank back unconsciously, feeling that his deskmate’s aura today was extremely powerful—not like the easy-to-bully little white rabbit from before.

But Xu Yueming, a big boy, refused to back down after being scolded like that by Zhou Yining. “You have the nerve to talk about me? Wasn’t it you who wrote love letters to Zhang Ye? Besides, your grades are worse than mine. I at least rank in the thirties in the class, while you’re almost at the bottom. And you have the face to mock me?”

“Writing love letters to whoever is my own freedom. The love letters on that anonymous confession wall weren’t posted by me myself. The person who stole my love letters violated my right to privacy and my right to reputation. I can call the police to protect my rights, and if necessary, I can even sue.”

Zhou Yining spoke loudly. As she said these words, the class fell quiet. Everyone seemed surprised that the usually silent Zhou Yining had suddenly changed her temperament today.

Zhou Yining took a breath and looked at Xu Yueming, continuing, “As for grades, dare to bet with me? At the end of this semester, if my year-level ranking is ahead of yours, you owe me five hundred bucks. Otherwise, if you’re ahead of me, I owe you five hundred. How about it? Do you dare?”

Xu Yueming glanced around the class and saw everyone’s eyes on him. He stuck out his neck and met Zhou Yining’s gaze. “What’s there to fear? If a bottom-feeder like you dares, I sure as hell won’t be scared of you.”

A curve hooked at the corner of Zhou Yining’s lips. She said loudly, “Everyone heard that, right? I hope you all can bear witness for us when the time comes.”

Quite a few people in the class who loved watching a spectacle without minding the trouble started hooting.

“No problem, I’ve got it noted.”

“Me too, me too. You two better not welch.”

“Exactly, the whole class is watching. Don’t be stingy with the cash when it happens.”

As these people spoke, their gazes mostly fell on Zhou Yining, because her grades had always been in the forties in the class. They still wanted to see her make a fool of herself.

Zhou Yining was not afraid of that. She raised a brow at Xu Yueming. “Then get your money ready soon. Finals are next month.”

“No, where do you get the confidence? You’re the one more likely to lose, right?” Xu Yueming retorted, but after being shot down twice by Zhou Yining that morning, he did not dare speak to her like before anymore.

Zhou Yining ignored him and sat straight down. She felt in her pocket and finally pulled out a phone from inside.

But this phone looked shabby and battered. Zhou Yining turned it on and first went through all the apps on it, treating it as familiarizing herself with the original body’s initial setup.

While she fiddled with the phone, a slim girl wearing glasses sidled up to Zhou Yining’s side.

“What bet did you make with him? Your grades were already worse than his to begin with. What if you really lose the money—what then?”

Zhou Yining did not recognize who this was, but she still said, “Since I dared to bet, I must be prepared. No ‘what ifs.’”

The girl clearly had not expected Zhou Yining to say that. She looked at Zhou Yining in surprise. After a long moment, she still handed her own phone to Zhou Yining. “Take a look. In the school’s anonymous confession board section, it’s all about the love letters you wrote to Zhang Ye right now.”