Strategy to Conquer the Vicious Female Supporting Character [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 31

At least I managed to find her.

Qi Lin slowly chewed on her dessert.

As for Teacher Lin… she had probably jumped to conclusions too quickly and ended up magnifying the similarities between Teacher Lin and Ji Huaixu, leading to a misunderstanding.

Qi Lin wasn’t sure whether to feel embarrassed or helpless… even the dessert in her mouth suddenly seemed to taste a little bitter.

Her face went through a whole range of subtle expressions in just a few seconds, leaving Situ Lan completely dumbfounded.

…Was the dessert she made really that hard to describe in taste?

Qi Lin immediately noticed her wife’s slightly conflicted expression and gave a shy little smile. “I originally thought the young lady’s cooking would be good, but I didn’t expect it to be this good…”

Situ Lan: “…”

Situ Lan picked up another piece of dessert, lowered her head slightly, and said softly, “Thank you for the compliment.”

Qi Lin blinked.

The young lady is… shy?

How adorable!

Taking advantage of her wife’s slightly proud yet bashful reaction, Qi Lin popped the remaining half of her dessert into her mouth in one bite.

Mm, so sweet.

After learning of Situ Lan’s true identity, Qi Lin no longer felt any urgency about dealing with the male lead.

After all, once she captured her wife’s heart, that paper tiger of a male lead hiding in the shadows wouldn’t be worth worrying about.

Ever since arriving in this world, Qi Lin rarely felt so relaxed and cheerful. Humming a tune, she returned to the classroom.

There were still about ten minutes left of the afternoon break. Zhao Ting was probably still out getting lunch and hadn’t come back yet, but Qi Lin noticed that someone was now sitting beside her seat.

It was a thin, small girl with a ponytail; her hair looked a bit dry and sparse, and her freckles were quite noticeable.

Oh, Qi Lin recognized her. This girl was in the same class as the heroine, her friend in the original story, in fact. She was also the one the heroine first turned to for help after suffering school bullying, only for her to do nothing in the end. Her name was Chen Chunhong.

Chen Chunhong and the heroine had been childhood friends; their families lived close to each other, and their parents often interacted. Chen Chunhong’s family was even poorer than the heroine’s, both of her parents were farmers. The two girls had struggled their way from a remote little mountain town all the way to No.1 High School. In that small town, most of the good students went to the same elementary and middle schools, and Chen Chunhong and the heroine were no exception. They’d always been in the same class and played together growing up.

The heroine had always been a shy and introverted type, not good at making friends. Her beauty unintentionally created distance between her and others, so she didn’t have many friends to begin with. Chen Chunhong could be said to be her only true friend.

Compared to the heroine, Chen Chunhong was much more lively and outgoing. She knew how to talk to people, had a sweet tongue, and generally got along well with others, making her and the heroine quite complementary as friends.

But when trouble truly came, this girl was the first to run. She gave the heroine all sorts of emotional comfort on the surface, but in reality, she did nothing, and slowly drifted away from her, afraid of being dragged into it.

If Qi Lin had to judge, she’d say Chen Chunhong was a petty, selfish, and opportunistic person, but not someone who had committed any great evil.

In the original timeline, by this point, Chen Chunhong had already achieved her goal of distancing herself from the heroine. Later, when the heroine could no longer bear it and desperately sought her out again, Chen Chunhong’s only response was,

“But what’s the point of telling me? What can I even do? You know my family’s situation, it’s not even as good as yours.”

And after that, she completely disappeared from the story.

But right now, Chen Chunhong was clearly waiting for her. Qi Lin understood, probably because the group that had been causing her trouble lately had finally learned their lesson. Even the teacher who used to bully her had been dismissed and replaced. So Chen Chunhong was likely here to “make up” and try to “be friends again”.

After all, as the school belle’s only best friend, Chen Chunhong also received plenty of attention. It satisfied her vanity, and there were also those boys chasing after Hua Xiyu who would try to please Chen Chunhong by asking her to pass along love letters or small gifts.

But as for those love letters, the heroine would always blush and ask Chen Chunhong to help her reject them, because she was too shy and embarrassed to say no herself. As for the small gifts, most of them ended up in Chen Chunhong’s pockets.

Sure enough, the moment Chen Chunhong saw Qi Lin coming, her eyes lit up instantly.

“Huahua!” Chen Chunhong called out the heroine’s nickname in a sugary, sickly-sweet tone that made Qi Lin’s skin crawl. She immediately ran over, grabbed Qi Lin’s arm, and frowned at the mask covering her face as if she could pinch a fly between her brows.

“Huahua, you finally came back to school! You have no idea how worried I was while you were in the hospital! If it hadn’t been so busy at the start of the semester, I would’ve gone to visit you long ago! So, how are you feeling now? Is it still hurting?”

Qi Lin: “…”

This girl’s mouth was really sweet, and her skin was really thick.

It was as if none of the things she’d done before had ever happened.

Qi Lin pulled her arm back, forced a faint smile, and said, “I’m fine… it’s nothing.”

Then she brushed past Chen Chunhong, returned to her seat, and took out her books to read.

Hua Xiyu had a fairly strong sense of pride. After being deliberately cold-shouldered by Chen Chunhong before, she’d gotten a little upset, if you ignore me, I won’t talk to you either.

Exactly what Qi Lin wanted.

Dealing with a fair-weather, opportunistic person like that, Qi Lin didn’t exactly hate it, but in this world, it was unnecessary. Just a waste of time and energy.

When Chen Chunhong saw Qi Lin’s reaction, her eyes instantly reddened.
“Huahua… are you still mad about what happened before?”

Qi Lin was momentarily stunned. Girl, with acting skills like that, have you ever thought about joining the entertainment industry?

“But I really didn’t mean to…” Chen Chunhong looked as though she was about to cry. “After that happened, I felt even worse than you did. You’re my best friend! But what could I do? I couldn’t fight them, I’d lose, and it would only make them angrier. All I could do was comfort you as much as I could… Later, when I saw they were trying to isolate you, I stayed away from you on purpose so they’d think it worked. Since even your best friend wasn’t talking to you anymore, I thought they’d stop once they believed that. And see? They really did stop bullying you! That means my idea worked!”

Chen Chunhong leaned closer again and shook Qi Lin’s arm.
“Huahua, I was only pretending to stay away from you! I never really wanted to distance myself! Now that they’ve stopped, of course I wanted to explain it to you right away! Huahua, please believe me, okay?”

Qi Lin: “…”

What kind of twisted logic is this?

Girl, your face doesn’t even look that big, so how come your skin is this thick?

“Chunhong.” Qi Lin’s face was expressionless. “I may not be that smart, but I’m not as stupid as you think I am.”

Chen Chunhong froze on the spot.

Something about this Hua Xiyu… felt different from before.

“You know,” Qi Lin said, looking straight into her eyes, her calm voice trembling just slightly, “they pushed me so far that I almost killed myself. But in the end, I didn’t. Everything that’s happened made me think a lot. I’ve decided… I want to change.”

“I never once doubted before that the two of us would surely be best friends for life… But now I think that someone who only thinks about protecting herself when I’m at my most helpless probably doesn’t deserve to be my lifelong friend anymore.”

“No matter how my future turns out, good or bad, I don’t need you to be a part of it anymore.”

“Chunhong, let’s just look out for ourselves from now on.”

Chen Chunhong’s tear-filled eyes widened.

Wasn’t her childhood friend always the easiest to coax? Ever since they were little, no matter if she ate the other’s snacks or took her toys, as long as she lowered her head first, admitted she was wrong, and said a few nice words, she’d always be forgiven…

After all, besides her, Hua Xiyu didn’t have any other friends.

The feeling of things slipping out of her control made Chen Chunhong suddenly afraid, as if… as if she were about to lose something very important.

“Huahua, don’t be like this!” Chen Chunhong cried out anxiously, trying to explain further, but at that moment, Zhao Ting, who had just entered the classroom, patted her on the shoulder.

Zhao Ting said, “Chen Chunhong, this is my seat. Class is about to start.”

The bell rang right on time.

Chen Chunhong looked blankly at Zhao Ting, then glanced hopefully at Qi Lin, only to see her staring straight ahead, clearly not wanting to even look at her. Then, noticing the teacher approaching from outside the window, she quickly wiped her eyes and hurried back to her seat.

Zhao Ting sat down, stuffed a large bag of snacks she’d bought into her desk, and said, “I heard you had a concussion. Didn’t expect it’d actually knock some sense into you.”

It took Qi Lin a moment to realize Zhao Ting was talking to her.

…Oh. So she’d heard what she said to Chen Chunhong?

“Chen Chunhong’s the kind of person who won’t stop until she gets what she wants. She’s definitely going to bother you again later,” Zhao Ting said as she pulled out her textbook. “You’d better make up your mind and stick to it, don’t let her talk you around.”

She’d noticed all of Qi Lin’s changes these days; the girl looked a lot more pleasing to the eye now. Before, Zhao Ting couldn’t even be bothered with this fool, but now she didn’t mind giving a few words of advice.

Qi Lin: “…”

This girl’s words weren’t the nicest, but her heart was in the right place.

“She won’t,” Qi Lin said softly. “Thank you.”

The next day, during the afternoon break, as soon as the bell rang, Qi Lin rushed out of the classroom, straight toward Class 1 of the second-year science building.

Just as she’d expected, Miss Situ rarely ate in the school cafeteria, she always brought her own lunchbox.

After all, Ji Huaixu had that same habit.

When Situ Lan saw Qi Lin, she was a little surprised.

Hadn’t the misunderstanding between them already been cleared up yesterday?

Situ Lan frowned slightly.

She’d actually thought pretty well of this girl yesterday… Could Hua Xiyu really be that clueless, still trying to cling on?

Then she saw Qi Lin, wearing a mask, smiling with her eyes curved, carefully holding out a small lunchbox with both hands.

“Yesterday, I got to eat the dessert you made yourself, Miss Situ, and it was so delicious,” Qi Lin said between breaths, she’d clearly run all the way there. “I didn’t know how else to thank you, so I… I made some cookies myself. I’d like you to try them too…”

Situ Lan: “…”

This girl really never follows the usual script, does she?