The Heartthrob Halo Doesn't Work on the Villain - Chapter 7

Not only was she someone who responded to kindness but not force, but she also had such a stubborn personality.

Since this was something only the System could detect, Lin Yan wouldn’t bring up the data directly. But in her mind, she had already labeled Lou Yubing as a tsundere ice queen. Though she verbally agreed with her, all pretense of politeness vanished from her expression.

“Alright, alright, you were just too engrossed in your work earlier. Next time, I’ll definitely let you know beforehand.”

At first glance, this sounded reasonable, but upon closer examination, it was clear she hadn’t taken Lou Yubing’s words to heart at all.

Next time? As if there’ll be a next time!

Lou Yubing instinctively wanted to retort, but the childish gesture before her caught in her throat. She could only stare at the slightly curved pinky finger extended in front of her, listening to the childish words.

“Pinky promise, for a hundred years, no take-backs—”

For a while, the two coexisted in an odd, quiet harmony. Initially, Lou Yubing had expected Lin Yan to make a scene, peppering her with questions. But instead, Lin Yan grabbed a practice worksheet, borrowed a pen from the doctor, and began working on it herself, just like Lou Yubing.

Perhaps because Lin Yan’s usual demeanor felt so out of place, Lou Yubing couldn’t help but steal glances at her while working on his own problems. He noticed her furrowed brows and the way she chewed on her pen, assuming she was struggling with a particularly difficult question. He kindly offered to take a look, only to discover that she hadn’t even answered the first multiple-choice question. The entire paper remained blank, save for two newly drawn turtles in the lower right corner.

She was wrong, Lou Yubing thought. How could she have imagined someone whose grades were so abysmal would suddenly become studious?

Meanwhile, Lin Yan was still arguing with 555, debating which turtle was drawn better.

Caught up in her enthusiasm, she glanced up and met Lou Yubing’s gaze, which seemed to say, “I knew it.” Sheepishly, she lowered the paper and hugged the blank side to her chest.

This was the first time Lin Yan had felt self-conscious under someone’s scrutiny. 555, realizing he’d caused trouble, retreated into silence. An awkward silence hung in the air until Lin Yan cleared her throat and broke the silence.

“Um… I just don’t know how to answer them.”

Upon hearing this, Lou Yubing’s nearly emotionless gaze lingered on Zhu Zailinyan for only a few seconds before returning to his usual quiet, well-behaved student demeanor.

Lin Yan secretly breathed a sigh of relief, noting that her favorability rating hadn’t decreased. She inadvertently met his deep, dark eyes framed by long, slightly curled lashes, and her heart suddenly began to beat a little too fast.

No wonder he becomes such a formidable villain later on, capable of such intense conflict with the Female Lead. Even his appearance stats are remarkably high.

Suddenly remembering the Female Lead, Lin Yan realized she had been neglecting her. She frowned slightly, recalling how she had disrupted the “helpful” plotline that should have belonged to her.

“Xiao Wu, I remember you mentioned earlier that the other Female Lead only noticed Xia Qiyu because of that bullying incident. Now that she hasn’t intervened, what will happen?”

Host, you don’t need to worry about that. As long as the main plotline remains intact, the world’s order will strive to compensate for minor deviations. In simpler terms, even if she doesn’t meet Xia Qiyu through this incident, a new event will arise to bring them together.

So there’s another version of the story…

The repeated mentions of this other female lead had piqued Lin Yan’s curiosity.

After all, she loved indulging in sweet romance stories in her spare time. This world was brimming with beautiful women, and in the future, she was bound to become close to the female lead. Securing a front-row seat to witness their blossoming romance firsthand? What could be better?

“The plot I received doesn’t mention anything about this person. Xiao Wu, can you find out who she is?”

Following standard protocol, 555 searched for a while but found no useful information.

Though somewhat illogical, this could be explained by the Small World’s extremely low stability, which necessitated a fragmented information retrieval method to complete the mission.

Unable to find any information. It’s likely because the world’s main plotline revolves almost entirely around Xia Qiyu. The story focuses heavily on her rags-to-riches journey, with romance serving only as a secondary element. The early plotline contains no events related to the other female lead, only a brief mention.

555 stared at the locked, grayed-out plot section, then glanced repeatedly at Miss Qin, who had appeared in the mid-to-late stages of the provided plotline summary. After some hesitation, he added,

It seems… her surname is Qin.

Were there any girls in the class with the surname Qin?

The plot synopsis had stated that Xia Qiyu and the other female lead were classmates for all three years of high school. Even with just a surname, it should have been easy to narrow down the possibilities. But—

“I only remember one boy in our class with the surname Qin. How do we explain this?”

Logically, the information provided by the Bureau should be accurate. 555 could only try to interpret it by scrutinizing the wording.

Perhaps it refers to classmates studying at the same school…

This explanation was plausible, but Hai City First High School’s senior division alone had thousands of students. The surname Qin, by itself, wasn’t distinctive enough to be a useful clue.

Well, the plot will eventually reach that point anyway. Besides, given Xia Qiyu’s current student persona, her romantic subplot showed no progress whatsoever. Even if 555 wanted to indulge in some sweet moments, there was no opportunity for it. This matter couldn’t be rushed; he would have to wait patiently for the right moment.

To ensure smooth progress in her future work, Lin Yan decided it was time to get closer to the Female Lead.

As she pondered this, Lin Yan suddenly remembered the upcoming “Differentiation” she would soon experience. She had only heard about it from 555’s descriptions, but realizing the doctor’s concern, she knew it was a significant event. Now that she had some downtime, she asked 555 to find her some educational materials on the subject.

After a moment’s thought, 555 retrieved some simple and easy-to-understand resources from this world’s s3x education database and presented them to Lin Yan.

Regardless of the Temporal Authority’s hidden motives, the System was undeniably well-designed. Previously, Lin Yan had assumed 555 could only provide text-based information. However, after witnessing the bracelet’s 2D audiovisual capabilities and holographic projection technology, things became far more complex.

To prevent Lou Yubing from sneaking glances again, Lin Yan deliberately retreated to a corner, curled up her knees, and used her exam paper to shield her face. Only then did she instruct 555 to project the video materials onto the blank space of the exam paper’s essay section. After watching these educational videos, Lin Yan realized her understanding of this world’s setting had been completely wrong.

Perhaps because everyone around her was an undifferentiated teenager, the boundaries of secondary sexual characteristics weren’t very distinct. The information stated that in this world, many people would develop secondary sexual characteristics at some point after adulthood. Some would develop them earlier, due to congenital factors, while others would develop them later, usually due to nutritional deficiencies. In some cases, differentiation might not occur even by age twenty-five, requiring hormone injections to maintain normal physiological functions.

But it was what happened after differentiation that left Lin Yan completely at a loss. Alphas had rut periods, Omegas had heat cycles, different pheromones emitted different signals, and pheromones could even interact with each other, marking each other, and… it was all so overwhelming!

She certainly didn’t want to end up in a situation where simply releasing her pheromones in public would attract unwanted attention.

Lin Yan calculated her body’s actual age in this world: less than seventeen! And she was already about to differentiate? At least let me have two more years!

Sensing its host’s frustration, 555 conducted a systematic analysis and finally offered words of comfort.

Don’t worry. While the System can’t provide major assistance, it can still conjure up a suppressor or two from the void—a little cheat, if you will.

“……”

Lin Yan: I thank you, System, for your… concern.

More than anything, Lin Yan was curious about what she would differentiate into: an Alpha, an Omega, or the most common type, a Beta.

In the original plotline, she was merely a cannon fodder character destined to be eliminated within six months, so such details were naturally omitted. However, after comparing her body data against its extensive database and conducting multiple computational analyses, 555 provided a relatively accurate prediction.

Based on all data cases in the analysis database, Host will not differentiate into a Beta. The probability of differentiating into an S+ Class Omega is as high as 99.8%, while the probability of differentiating into a similar type of Alpha is virtually zero.

Lin Yan read 555’s words twice before finally noticing the overlooked 0.2% probability.

At this point, Lin Yan glanced resentfully at Lou Yubing, who was sitting on the edge of the bed. Her usual competitive spirit with her girlfriends flared up again, and she demanded that 555 recalculate her own chances.

This proved to be a self-inflicted humiliation. When the results came back, Lin Yan deflated like a punctured balloon.

Your data is almost the exact opposite. There’s a 99.8% probability of differentiating into an S+ Class Alpha.

555 naturally ignored the Omega differentiation rate mixed within the remaining 0.2%, as such a rare occurrence was practically negligible.

Lin Yan cast a resentful glance at the person by the bed. As if sensing her gaze, Lou Yubing frowned and looked up, meeting her eyes with a puzzled expression.

“Stuck again?”

Lou Yubing’s eyes fell on the blank answer area for the essay question. She naturally assumed Lin Yan was struggling with the problem again.

If Lin Yan would just stop acting like she used to, Lou Yubing thought privately, I’d be willing to spend my weekends tutoring her. With her attitude changed, no one else would dare make a move.

But she had no idea what Lin Yan was thinking, nor did she realize Lin Yan was sulking over her nonexistent Omega differentiation.

Just an Alpha? Who cares about being a Big Fierce Alpha? I want to be a Big Fierce Omega—a fragrant, soft, and fierce Omega!

Lost in these thoughts, Lin Yan snapped back at Lou Yubing without thinking.

“It’s not that I can’t do it! Hmph, this young lady just doesn’t feel like doing it!”