Running Over The Head Of My Ex [Rebirth]

Chapter 3

After the performance, the girls in various colored outfits returned to their classroom, chattering and waiting for the instructor to announce the results.

He Qingqi sat alone in the corner, her long legs stretched out carelessly on the floor, her eyes empty.

Unlike the other girls, who couldn’t hide their excitement and nerves no matter how hard they tried, they gathered noisily with their roommates to chat and laugh.

It wasn’t clear if it was because of a failed assessment or because she still couldn’t accept her rebirth, but He Qingqi seemed dull and slow.

He Qingqi raised her hand in a daze, her gaze falling on the base of her right ring finger, where there used to be a string of numbers, her wedding date, which was now gone, just like the harm that person had inflicted on her, disappearing completely and returning to its original state.

Had she come back? Or was it all just a dream?

He Qingqi felt lost, as if a pie had fallen from the sky and hit her on the head, making her feel dizzy, inexplicably sad, and aggrieved.

She wanted to go home, to have her grandparents comfort her, and also her father and brother.

“Qingqi, are you okay?” The girl who had called He Qingqi to breakfast sat down beside her worriedly, gently patting her shoulder.

He Qingqi already knew the girl’s name. She was Wang Qiyu, and if He Qingqi remembered correctly, she was a second-generation star with strong creative abilities and was one of the final debut members, ranking sixth. Later, after the team disbanded, she relied on her father’s connections to make a decent living in the industry.

She looked up at Wang Qiyu, her eyes still a bit red.

Wang Qiyu couldn’t help but ask worriedly, “Qingqi, are you feeling unwell?”

“Huh?” He Qingqi snapped out of it and shook her head. She didn’t like exposing her vulnerabilities in front of others. She covered her face and wiped it casually. “It’s nothing serious, just a bit embarrassing.”

This was true.

He Qingqi had always been strong, flamboyant, and proud since she was a child. What she was most proud of was her appearance and her memory. But she had just forgotten the lyrics on stage.

She could already imagine how Chai Xu and the others would mock her and accuse her of boasting!

Suddenly annoyed, He Qingqi wondered why she had to cross over to this period.

In her past life, she had been directly rated as an A in this assessment, which made her extremely proud. She had even gone out of her way to show off to Chai Xu.

Moreover, He Qingqi’s eyes darkened. There was an even more important issue here. It seemed that she had already married Fang Xuanyao.

She had liked Fang Xuanyao since she was a child and confessed at 16. During university, she would visit Fang Xuanyao, who was studying in the US, every month. Fang Xuanyao had always been lukewarm towards her, neither accepting nor rejecting her.

Then, on March 2, 2049, she heard about Fang Corporation’s bankruptcy and flew to the US impulsively.

That day, Fang Xuanyao got drunk and asked, “Do you want to marry me?”

Her 19-year-old self was overjoyed but worried that Fang Xuanyao would regret it when she sobered up. She stayed with her for another day, and when she confirmed her original intention, they immediately got married.

If she had returned a month earlier, none of this disgusting stuff would have happened, and she might not even have participated in this show!

But now, He Qingqi was still thrilled. After all, she had gained a new lease on life and didn’t have to face the overwhelming scolding from before her rebirth. She could still change everything from the beginning.

Now, she had just married Fang Xuanyao. As long as she withdrew in time, everything was still possible.

In this new life, He Qingqi didn’t have any big ambitions. She just wanted to stay away from Fang Xuanyao and live well. Like in her past life, she wanted to act in films occasionally, travel, and visit her family at the old house, and without Fang Xuanyao, she might have lived even better.

He Qingqi’s emotions gradually stabilized.

Her other roommate, Zhang Xiaoyu, saw the two of them lying there and was initially stunned, then walked over and pointed at them, mocking mercilessly:

“Hahaha, Qiyu, look at your legs.”

Wang Qiyu followed her gaze down and saw her legs and her face turning black. She jumped up, her face red, and chased after Zhang Xiaoyu. “You stinky Xiaoyu, stop right there!”

She was almost five centimeters shorter than He Qingqi, but He Qingqi’s proportions were so perfect, with straight and long legs. The angle made it look like there was a significant height difference between them.

He Qingqi broke free from her thoughts and couldn’t help but laugh, joining in the righteous teasing:

“Xiaoyu, stop picking on Qiyu. What’s wrong with short legs? Short legs are cute!”

“!!!” Wang Qiyu stomped her foot and turned away from them.

Wang Qiyu wasn’t short, standing at 1.6 meters tall, which was not short anywhere. But somehow, in their dorm, she was the shortest!

Humph! Feeling dejected!

“Ah!!!!” The girls suddenly screamed excitedly, startling He Qingqi. She looked over and saw that Instructor Chen Xiangyun had entered.

“It seems everyone is confident, being so excited.”

Chen Xiangyun said something very familiar.

He Qingqi glanced at her indifferently. She remembered that this time there was a big change, with 10 out of 13 people leaving. But the specifics were unclear, as it had been ten years and it wasn’t particularly important, so she had forgotten most of it.

She vaguely remembered that she, Wang Qiyu, and Zhang Xiaoyu were all rated A, but with the audience votes, Zhang Xiaoyu narrowly lost to a B-rated contestant and had to stay in the B class.

“Since everyone is so eager, I won’t keep you in suspense. The contestants who are downgraded are Su Chengcheng, Lin Zhao, and Qin Tong.”

After listening for a while, He Qingqi didn’t hear her name and looked at Chen Xiangyun in confusion.

“Those downgraded by two levels are…” He Qingqi thought that this time I should be included, right?

But still, no.

“Those downgraded by three levels are…” Chen Xiangyun paused for effect. “None.”

The girls breathed a sigh of relief, but their looks at He Qingqi turned puzzled and uncertain.

He Qingqi pressed her lips together, understanding what was happening.

The He family was one of the investors in the “Idol Era.” Others might not know her background, but these instructors did. They were probably giving the He family face.

As for the idea of promoting her to A to use her as a target to boost the show’s popularity, He Qingqi hadn’t considered it. She felt the show wouldn’t dare, given her well-known “favoritism.”

So He Qingqi was sure she was still rated B.

Sure enough, Chen Xiangyun announced the A-rated members, four in total, including He Qingqi’s two roommates.

But, as expected, He Qingqi wasn’t one of them. Although she had anticipated this result and didn’t have the same obsession with getting an A as she did in her past life when she was beaten by Zhuo Zhiwei, seeing this completely different result still made her feel a moment of loss.

“Now, please return to your dorms and change your clothes. We will meet at the first stage of the first episode.”

Following the show’s requirements, the girls sat in the transparent chairs arranged on both sides of the steps, waiting for the results.

Wang Qiyu poked He Qingqi and asked softly, “Qingqi, are you nervous?”

“Nervous about what?” He Qingqi said indifferently, “No one is being eliminated this time, didn’t you know?”

Wang Qiyu muttered quietly, “I know, but I’m still nervous… This is the first time I’ll see my audience vote in five days, and we’ll also change dorms.”

He Qingqi nodded. “True.”

After a long wait, the five instructors appeared on the central stage and took their seats.

Instructor Yan Huan stood in the middle, holding a card, and said, “As you all know, no one will be eliminated in this assessment.”

“But based on your popularity and strength, you will be ranked and reassigned to classes. The top 14 will go to Class A, 15 to 28 to Class B, 29 to 42 to Class C, 43 to 70 to Class D, and the rest to Class F.”

“In the previous theme song performance, you received ratings from the instructors. Those rated A will have their votes multiplied by 2, B by 1.8, and so on, with C, D, and F being multiplied by 1.6, 1.4, and 1.2, respectively.”

As soon as Yan Huan announced the rules, the girls were shocked and began discussing them loudly.

“How is this different from the boy group rules?”

“Didn’t they say the boy group was ranked by ABCDE with additional votes? Why are we being multiplied by multiples?”

“Yeah, it changes from a fixed number to a variable one. The difference can be big or small.”

The quicker thinkers were already calculating.

“In this way, if you’re in F class, you need almost 1.6 times the votes to surpass someone in A class!”

“Oh my gosh, the show is making it hard for us!”

One thing they didn’t mention was that with the new rules, the “Idol Era” still valued both popularity and strength but leaned more towards popularity. If you lacked strength, you could make up for it with popularity. But if you lacked popularity, no matter how strong you were, the multiplier was fixed and wouldn’t be high.

This also reflected the show’s attitude towards forming girl groups. They were going for a traffic-driven route, but with decent strength. However, if your popularity was strong enough, everything would make way for you.

“Now, let’s announce the final rankings. Those whose names are called, please take your seats… Look at the big screen.”

Then the screen lit up with the contestants’ vote counts.

98th place, Cai Ning, with 284,361 votes, a strength rating of E, and a final vote count of 341,233.2.

97th place, Xu Zizhen, with 289,063 votes, a strength rating of E, and a final vote count of 346,875.6.

……

As the names were read one by one, the number of people gradually decreased. After ten names were announced, the first D-class contestant appeared. Although their base vote count was only 297,618, with the multiplier from their rating, their final vote count approached 420,000.

Exclamations of surprise spread among the contestants.

“No way, even the last place has almost 300,000 votes.”

“Oh my god, that’s almost 50% more than last year’s boy group!”

The announcement quickly reached fifteenth place. He Qingqi perked up and looked at the screen intently. If she remembered correctly, this spot belonged to Zhang Xiaoyu in her previous life, so…

The screen stopped updating for a while. The girls, who had already had their rankings announced, whispered to each other, thinking there might be a recording issue.

Yan Huan picked up the microphone and lightly cleared his throat.

“Now, let’s announce the thirteenth contestant’s name.”

He Qingqi: “…” So they’re skipping it.

Other contestants: “…”

“Teacher Yan, you know you’ll get beaten up for this, right?” someone shouted.

The difference between the fourteenth and fifteenth places was like heaven and earth.

He Qingqi took a deep breath, her eyes shining as she stared at the screen. She knew it was almost her turn.

Thirteenth place is Chen Jingyi, with 6,303,138 votes, a strength rating of B, and a and a final vote count of 11,345,648.

Twelfth place, Ning Meng, with 5,678,060 votes, a strength rating of A, and a and a final vote count of 11,356,120.

…

Seventh place goes to Wang Qiyu, with 32,713,555 votes, a strength rating of A, and a and a final vote count of 65,427,110.

He Qingqi saw Wang Qiyu visibly relax. Now there were only eight spots left to announce, all of which were relatively high. Except for the unfortunate fifteenth place, Wang Qiyu was no longer worried about affecting her two friends. She pointed upward and said more lightly, “Qingqi, Xiaoyu, I’ll wait for you up there.”

He Qingqi smiled and nodded.

Slowly, the names of Li Xuanzi, Fang Caiying, Jin Zhiyang, and Cheng Yi appeared on the screen.

Then, third place was He Qingqi, with 53,120,354 votes, a strength rating of B, and a and a final vote count of 95,616,637.2.

He Qingqi had expected this. The production team knew her background and naturally gave her a lot of screen time.

At this point, the incident from the theme song performance hadn’t aired yet. Viewers had only seen her excellent performance in the first episode. Her good looks, combined with her competitive spirit against Zhuo Zhiwei during the A-class battle, appealed to many viewers. Her slightly rebellious yet endearing personality helped attract and retain fans, making her high ranking unsurprising.

She stood up, holding her coat. With her long legs and confident demeanor, she exuded a rebellious charm. Her white shirt tucked into her pants added to her allure, likely captivating many young, impressionable viewers.

Taking a deep breath, He Qingqi felt unexpectedly nervous. Her heart pounded as she walked step by step toward the high platform.

“Qingqi, great job!”

“Qingqi, keep it up!”

“Qingqi!”

He Qingqi had a good rapport with others. In B-class, she was among the quick learners and had helped many people. Although her current rating involves some favoritism, the contestants weren’t oblivious. Despite any resentment, they didn’t show it.

She shook hands with several people, finally standing in the second-highest position on the right side. Her nose tingled with emotion. She looked up at the highest throne, took a deep breath, and bowed sincerely to the camera.

Thank you.

And I’m sorry.

In the past, she came here out of spite, acting recklessly and nonchalantly. She easily secured a debut position but didn’t cherish it.

Knowing she would eventually announce her marriage and its impact on her career, she had secretly negotiated with the production team to place her in eighth place to protect Fang Xuanyao.

She enjoyed the fans’ love but ultimately let them down. That was her fault.

She vividly remembered that when her reputation was ruined, the overwhelming criticism crushed her. Yet, her fans still believed in her.

Their weak defenses were drowned out by the criticism, but she always remembered that they asked:

“Is there some kind of misunderstanding?”

They never wanted to believe that the pure, slightly mischievous, domineering, yet kind girl they first loved had turned into what she had become.

He Qingqi felt immense guilt.

After experiencing such ups and downs, she finally understood who truly cared for her.

This time, He Qingqi pressed her lips together. She wanted to take this competition seriously, at least, to be worthy of her fans.