Ch 53: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

When Ren Qingqing entered the classroom, the first thing she saw was a large group of classmates gathered around Ruan Cha, chatting warmly and laughing. Ruan Cha sat in the center of the attention, like a little princess.

In contrast, when Ren Qingqing entered, only a few unfamiliar classmates even noticed her. Their greetings were polite but far less enthusiastic than what Ruan Cha received.

Ren Qingqing quickly lowered her gaze, afraid her expression might reveal her emotions. Under the guidance of another student, she hurried to her new seat and took out her books, trying to focus on studying to avoid embarrassing herself further in Class 1.

However, her thoughts were too chaotic to concentrate. Memories of recent events flashed before her eyes, leaving her restless. Moving up to Class 1 had placed her in an awkward position.

With the shutdown of the arts-related tasks, she had lost her greatest advantage. The thought of Xu Shen’s disgusted look that morning made her shoulders tremble, her eyes reddening. How did things end up this way?

She had been meant to become beautiful and brilliant with the system’s help, turning into the admired school belle and top student of Second High.

And the one who ruined everything—

Ren Qingqing’s gaze darkened with hatred as she stared at Ruan Cha. All of it, every misfortune, was Ruan Cha’s fault!

Their eyes met. Ruan Cha tilted her head slightly, entirely unbothered by the malice in Ren Qingqing’s glare, and even smiled faintly, her mood evidently good.

Her dad had always said that some people, no matter how wrong they were, loved to blame others for their mistakes. Ren Qingqing’s current state was the perfect embodiment of that.

Watching the bright smile on Ruan Cha’s face, Ren Qingqing gripped her pen tightly. The thought of being “backlashed” and possibly losing her beauty in the future made her want to scratch that smug face with her pen.

But before Ren Qingqing could act on her malicious impulse, the math teacher, Ye Qingfeng, brought a surprise to the class.

Standing sternly at the front of the room, Ye Qingfeng surveyed the students before nodding. “I’ve been informed by your homeroom teacher that we have three new classmates joining us: Ruan Cha, Ren Qingqing, please stand so the teacher can get to know you.”

At the sound of his voice, both Ruan Cha and Ren Qingqing rose, one in front of the other, meeting Ye Qingfeng’s deliberate gaze. Ruan Cha sighed inwardly.

She felt certain Ye Qingfeng already remembered both of them from the last monthly exams, where they’d handed in their papers early in the same testing room. His gaze when calling their names made it obvious he could distinguish them perfectly.

As these thoughts flitted through her mind, Ruan Cha’s eyes shifted toward the only empty seat in the classroom, her expression briefly darkening.

Earlier, after the flag-raising ceremony, the homeroom teacher had explained that Yu Zhiyan was absent for the week due to illness. Remembering Yu Zhiyan’s odd behavior during the last parent-teacher conference, Ruan Cha couldn’t help but suspect that this so-called illness might have something to do with Yu Zheng.

Just then, a system notification flashed before Ruan Cha’s eyes:

[Attention, Task Devourer:]
In 10 minutes, the following task will be assigned:
The host, Ren Qingqing, must answer the second and third questions posed by the math teacher within 5 minutes of being asked. Both answers must be at least 70% correct. Task completion will result in the extraction of 1 intelligence point and 1 beauty point from the associated target, Xu Nan. Task failure will result in a deduction of 1 point from the host’s current score.

[Note: This will be the third task since the target change. Failure will trigger a negative backlash x1.]

The moment she saw the task, Ruan Cha immediately recognized the source of the questions—it was a practice problem from the math textbook, perfectly aligned with today’s lesson.

It had to be said, with the arts-related tasks disabled, the system had become even more shameless in helping Ren Qingqing cheat. Now, it had not only pointed out the exact textbook question that would be asked but also lowered the requirement to a 70% accuracy rate.

If Ren Qingqing had done any preparation, five minutes would be more than enough for her to write a complete answer and pass the task.

Ruan Cha didn’t waste any time. She tore a sheet of scratch paper, wrote down the textbook location of the question, and crumpled it into a ball. With precision, she tossed it to Ji Feiyang, signaling for him to pass it to Xu Nan, two desks away.

If it’s about cheating, let’s see who can cheat better!

Watching Ji Feiyang deliver the paper ball to Xu Nan, Ruan Cha felt a little more at ease. She turned her gaze to the math problem displayed on the system’s white virtual panel, her lips curving in amusement. Taking out another blank piece of scratch paper, she prepared to add her own twist.

Ten minutes later, Ren Qingqing heard the familiar cold, emotionless electronic voice.

[Ding! Please answer the second and third questions that the math teacher will ask in five minutes (specific questions as follows—), with an accuracy rate of 70%.]

After reading the prompt, Ren Qingqing’s eyes lit up. She had reviewed last night and had seen this exact problem in the textbook. Most importantly, the answers were in the book!

Just as she was feeling hopeful, however, the system’s voice returned, accompanied by a faint electric static. The cold electronic tone delivered another message, freezing her from head to toe as though doused with a bucket of ice water.

[Ding! Task error detected and corrected. Please answer the second and third questions posed by the math teacher in five minutes using three different methods, with a 100% accuracy rate.]

Ren Qingqing’s eyes widened in shock. She clamped a hand over her mouth, terrified she might scream in frustration. Her thoughts spun as she furiously questioned the system in her mind.

“System! Who are you helping? Even when you first bound to me, I wouldn’t have been able to complete this task, let alone now! We’re in this together—if I fail, it’s no good for you either!”

[…Task error has been verified and corrected. The task comes from a fully completed program, with no issues detected.]

Hearing the system’s ever-robotic tone, Ren Qingqing almost lost her mind.

“But I’ve already lost 3.5 intelligence points! Three. Point. Five!”

[Verification confirms this task is designed based on the host’s current condition, including the deduction of 3.5 intelligence points.]

Ren Qingqing: ???

So in the future, people with low intelligence aren’t considered fools but geniuses?

While Ren Qingqing wasted precious time arguing with the system, she completely ignored the textbook answers. Before she could react, Ye Qingfeng called her name and asked her to solve the problem.

From Ye Qingfeng’s perspective, both Ruan Cha and Ren Qingqing had been at Second High for half a semester. The distinction between new and old students no longer applied. Moreover, both had performed well in two major math exams. A simple question like this should be no challenge for them.

The first part of the lesson progressed much as Ye Qingfeng had anticipated. The first three questions (1), (2), and (3) were smoothly answered by Ruan Cha, who even pointed out a minor inconsistency in one of them, demonstrating how thoroughly she had prepared at home.

Ye Qingfeng, who had a soft spot for intelligent, diligent, and meticulous students, was impressed by her precise and comprehensive responses. His favorable impression of her shot from 80 to 100.

Ruan Cha: …

Practice from explaining problems in Class Ten, that’s all.

Otherwise, as a proud slacker, she would have preferred to skip the steps and go straight to the answers.

But Ye Qingfeng’s enthusiasm turned to disappointment when it was Ren Qingqing’s turn. She couldn’t solve the relatively straightforward second question, and worse—

She couldn’t even speak properly.

“From this, we can ded-deduce that—”

Ren Qingqing, drenched in sweat and pale as a sheet, gripped the edge of her desk tightly, trying to ignore the stares of her classmates. Yet to her, the numbers on the blackboard looked like fragments of an alien script—utterly incomprehensible.

She couldn’t even answer with one method, and the system had demanded three!

Ye Qingfeng furrowed his long brows, his expression darkening. He didn’t explode but instead waved her off. “Alright, you sit down for now. I’ll ask someone else to answer.”

After speaking, seeing Ren Qingqing still frozen in place, he sighed with some exasperation. “Ren Qingqing, go ahead and—”

The words froze in his throat as if caught by an invisible hand. Ye Qingfeng even rubbed his eyes incredulously, then looked again at Ren Qingqing, starting to doubt his own perception.

What he saw was Ren Qingqing looking visibly darker, as though a filter had been removed from her image.

Ye Qingfeng didn’t consider himself superficial, the type to favor good-looking students. To him, all students were equal; the ones who were earnest and hardworking were the most admirable.

But…

Even for someone who wasn’t image-conscious, the drastic difference between the person he had seen before and now was unsettling. Ye Qingfeng was beginning to think there might be something wrong with his vision.

Ren Qingqing didn’t have the luxury of worrying about Ye Qingfeng’s stunned expression. She stood trembling like she had been struck by lightning, still haunted by the system’s cold and damning voice.

[…Task failed. Deducting 1 point from the host’s score, leaving 1 point remaining. Additionally, as this is the host’s third consecutive failure, the negative rebound effect x1 is activated, resulting in the deduction of 1 beauty point, effective immediately!]

Not only Ye Qingfeng but several classmates who had already been observing Ren Qingqing were equally shocked. They couldn’t help but whisper among themselves.

“Did you see that? Ren Qingqing suddenly got darker.”

“Huh? Are you sure? I think she’s always been that dark… and her eyes aren’t that big either.”

“Yeah, I remember too. When Ren Qingqing enrolled, it seemed like she was already a bit…” The classmate hesitated, realizing the words might be unfriendly to say about a girl, and awkwardly trailed off.

Almost at the same time, Ye Qingfeng stopped rubbing his eyes, suddenly feeling his earlier astonishment was entirely unnecessary. Ren Qingqing had always looked like this; why was he so surprised before?

It was completely unwarranted.

Ren Qingqing clutched her ears in panic, torn between tears and fury. She didn’t want to hear the murmurs around her, but the voices seemed to echo inside her head, refusing to go away. “Ahhh—!”

Before anyone could react, Ren Qingqing broke into a hysterical scream, muttering curses that no one could understand. In a frenzy, she flipped her desk over and bolted out of the classroom.

Ruan Cha, who had been watching the scene unfold, didn’t feel even a hint of satisfaction from Ren Qingqing’s backlash. Instead, her heart grew cold.

Was the “Ruan Cha” in the book, in the eyes of everyone, always thought of as somewhat ugly and somewhat stupid, just like this? Could the system actually manipulate people’s inherent impressions of its host and associated individuals?

Ruan Cha pursed her lips, renewing her determination to delve deeper into Artificial Intelligence. She needed to dismantle the system from the inside as soon as possible. A high-tech artifact from an unknown dimension was far too dangerous.

The rest of the morning passed, and Ren Qingqing, who had stormed out of the classroom, did not return. The homeroom teacher, left with no other choice, contacted her parents.

Meanwhile, Ruan Cha, focused intently on her studies thanks to the system’s provocations, had no time to concern herself with Ren Qingqing until the lunch bell rang. Only then did a knock on her desk from Fu Chen pull her back to reality.

Fu Chen glanced at the physics textbook on Ruan Cha’s desk, looking slightly surprised. “You’re already studying next semester’s material?”

Hearing this, Ruan Cha nodded. “Yes, almost done.”

She wanted to finish her high school coursework as soon as possible. Only then could she consistently elevate the difficulty of the system’s tasks.

For instance, during math class, when the system required three solutions for a problem, Ruan Cha had used concepts from next semester’s material to come up with the second and third solutions. If she hadn’t pre-studied, she might have let Ren Qingqing complete the task.

Fu Chen, after hearing her response, found it unexpected. Ruan Cha didn’t seem like the type who would actively study ahead.

Thinking this, he nonetheless offered sincerely, “If there’s anything you don’t understand about next semester’s material, or if you’re unsure, you can ask me.”

Ruan Cha froze for a moment before meeting Fu Chen’s eyes. She asked seriously, “Fu Chen, don’t tell me you’ve already studied senior year material?”

Before Fu Chen could respond, Ji Feiyang, who had come to fetch him for lunch, jumped in. “Not just studied! He’s planning to skip senior year entirely. To be exact, after we return from winter break and start the second semester of sophomore year, Fu Chen will be in senior year. He’ll finish high school a whole year earlier than us. So lucky!”

Ruan Cha glanced at Fu Chen, who didn’t deny it, and then at Ji Feiyang, who looked thoroughly envious. Suddenly, she realized there was a shining path in front of her—a shortcut for a slacker to save time.

Skipping a year of high school meant skipping a year of university too. That would give her an extra year to embrace her lazy life! It turned out that all her diligent studying was paving the way for her to return to a slacker’s paradise sooner!

After a moment, Ruan Cha nodded in agreement, her eyes sparkling as if they were glowing. “You’re right. That’s absolutely amazing!”