Transmigrating into the Genius Cannon Fodder’s Aunt

Chapter 78.2 – A Noble Hero Who Loves to Fight Injustice (II)

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“From now on, we should walk to and from school with Zhao Cheng.” Then, Sun Yuexin’s expression softened into a dreamy smile. “I wonder if that guy has befriended Han Haoyan yet.”

Xia Mian could only shake her head helplessly. Han Haoyan was a recent transfer—tall, handsome, with a bad boy air that was exactly Sun Yuexin’s type. He was rumored to be excellent at basketball, with decent grades to boot. In short, ever since he arrived, Gu Zhou’s reign as the school heartthrob had been in jeopardy.

Sun Yuexin never missed a chance to catch a glimpse of her new crush. Just one look was like breathing in celestial air for her—energizing her the whole day.

Of course, she wasn’t the only girl who had fallen for him.

As soon as the bell rang for the end of the first period, students began flooding toward Class 2-6’s corridor. Li Lizhen was already at her classroom door, waving to them. “Hey, hurry up!”

In the second year, students had to choose between the arts and sciences. The girls had all chosen science, but unfortunately, they hadn’t ended up in the same class—Xia Mian and Sun Yuexin were in Class 2-3, while Li Lizhen and Zhao Cheng were in Class 2-4.

Sun Yuexin immediately rushed out with excitement to join Li Lizhen, but Xia Mian really wasn’t in the mood today. She just laid her head down on the desk to rest.

The boy sitting in front of her, Li Ming, sighed. “These girls are crazy—what’s so good-looking about that guy?”

His deskmate replied, “When Xia Mian first transferred here, it was the same scene—just with more boys than girls.”

Li Ming nodded, “Our class was blessed back then.”

“And now it’s those guys in class six’s turn.”

“But I heard that transfer student seems to have a thing for Tian Xueya…”

Li Ming was shocked. “What?! Seriously?”

With the air of a world-weary sage, he sighed regretfully. “Ah, yet another poor soul deceived by Tian Xueya.”

Once the bell rang again, Sun Yuexin returned to the class, looking utterly crushed. “Oh my god, Han Haoyan actually got together with Tian Xueya…”

“That was fast! He’s only been here for, what, less than two weeks?” a girl exclaimed.

Xia Mian was about to comfort Sun Yuexin when she heard her say in disgust, “You really can’t judge a person by their looks. Good thing Zhao Cheng didn’t have time to try to befriend him! This kind of IQ…”

Another girl came back and shared her intel, “I heard that during lunch today, Tian Xueya was extorted by some thugs at the school gate, and Han Haoyan played the hero, beating the thugs and chasing them away.”

“Who knew he was such a good fighter?” The girl said regretfully. “Too bad his taste is terrible—how could he like Tian Xueya?”

Over the past year, everyone close to Xia Mian knew that Tian Xueya had never stopped making trouble for her. Tian Xueya seemed to have mastered the art of the white lotus perfectly—always starting with a half-truth, then letting others interpret the rest however they liked. Everything she said was technically true; how others chose to understand it was their own business.

But she had never succeeded—every one of her schemes only gave Xia Mian’s classmates more reason to appreciate Xia Mian: her openness, her generosity, her wit, and her humor. In short, Xia Mian was simply better than Tian Xueya.

And Xia Mian’s revenge on Tian Xueya was refreshingly straightforward: she beat her in every possible way, not just in grades. In any academic competition Tian Xueya entered, Xia Mian entered as well. Even in the New Year’s Eve gala two years running, when Tian Xueya wanted to perform a piano duet with Gu Zhou, Xia Mian’s solo performance outshone hers, costing her the chance to even go on stage.

In short, it was all: You want to stir up trouble? I can’t confront you directly—but you can’t blame me for being better than you!

Thanks to Tian Xueya’s efforts, more and more people got to know Xia Mian, and in her own class, at least, there were very few who didn’t like her.

As Xia Mian put it: that’s the charm of a little angel.

Conversely, more and more people were beginning to see through Tian Xueya’s façade of innocence—especially the girls, with their sharp, instinctive perception.

“When they were talking about the extortion at lunch, they didn’t mention me?” Xia Mian asked one of the girls.

“Why would they mention you?” they asked back.

Xia Mian sighed. “She’s getting good at holding back. Is she trying to level up her game?”

Sun Yuexin was confused. “What do you mean?”

Before Xia Mian could explain the situation, the English teacher came in, and later no one gave the matter another thought.

There was no evening self-study on Saturday. Everyone was looking forward to the weekend and had no time for gossip. The last self-study period was relaxed, with no teacher around, so most students were cramming in as much homework as they could, hoping to rest more over the Sunday.

“Xia Mian!” Li Lizhen came running in, looking amused.

Seeing her expression, Sun Yuexin laughed. “You’re basically a courier now, aren’t you? How many love letters this time?”

“Not many today—just two,” Li Lizhen said, handing over a pink envelope and one folded into a heart.

The class began to cheer and tease. Xia Mian accepted the letters helplessly, stuffed them into her pocket, and said with a smile, “Same as always—thanks for the thought, but I’m not dating in high school. Please pass that along.”

“Don’t you want to see who they’re from?” Li Lizhen asked.

“Nope,” Xia Mian replied with a grin. “I’m afraid if I look, I’ll be drawn in by their excellence and won’t be able to focus on studying.”

Over the past year, she had received love letters almost daily, and everyone knew this was her way of turning people down without embarrassing them. The class laughed warmly—until a cold sneer broke the mood.

“Not rejecting them outright but still giving them hope? You’re just stringing people along. You really know how to play the game.”

Class 2-3’s students froze for a moment, then looked toward the boy standing at the door. He was half a head taller than average boys, with a lean build, wearing a fitted tracksuit that made his good looks hard to miss. His roguish, slightly bad-boy charm, combined with his skills in both academics and sports, gave him an appeal few high school girls could resist.

It was Han Haoyan, the transfer student from Class 2-6.

Sun Yuexin frowned, “And who exactly are you? Just barging into our class looking for trouble?”

Han Haoyan stood with his arms crossed, lazily leaning against the doorframe, the corners of his lips curling in a smile. “Nothing much—just curious about the strange taste in guys at our school, to actually like a girl this vicious.”

This was a clear insult. Some girls still swoon for his looks, but he had all the boys fuming.

“Are you nuts? Who says Xia Mian is vicious?”

“What’s Xia Mian got to do with you anyway? Did she offend you?”

Xia Mian had a pretty good guess what this was about. She crossed her arms and smiled pleasantly. “Just to confirm—you’re here to stick up for your sweetheart, aren’t you?”

Han Haoyan gave a roguish grin. “Simply standing up for what’s right. I think you owe Tian Xueya an apology.”

Apparently hearing the commotion, Tian Xueya came running over, face flushed and tugging nervously at his sleeve. “Han Haoyan, don’t do this.”

He looked at her tenderly. “It’s fine. Leave this to me—she has to apologize to you.”

Sun Yuexin rolled her eyes. “You’re crazy. Why should she?”

Han Haoyan narrowed his eyes. “I saw it with my own eyes at lunch—Xia Mian framing Tian Xueya, saying she had money so those thugs would surround her and extort her.”

“Xia Mian, do you admit it?”

“What’s there not to admit?” Xia Mian’s voice was soft, her admission crisp and straightforward. “I did it, and did it on purpose.”

Han Haoyan looked dumbfounded, clearly not expecting her to admit it so readily.

“Since you heard me frame her,” Xia Mian asked, “did you also hear her call out to me?”

“I did,” Han Haoyan replied. “She was just concerned about you.”

The moment he said that, the whole class burst into laughter, as though they’d just heard the biggest joke of the year.

“Oh my god—he said Tian Xueya was concerned for Xia Mian?!”

“Hahahaha…”

“Hilarious! This must be the biggest joke of the year…”

Han Haoyan froze—this was clearly not the reaction he’d anticipated.

Knowing what was coming, Tian Xueya quickly pulled at him, pleading, “Han Haoyan, please, stop. Come back with me…”

“Oh, don’t!” Sun Yuexin said, barely suppressing her laughter. “Tian Xueya, before you send someone to do your dirty work, maybe learn a bit about his personality first?”

“This guy’s brain isn’t the brightest, but he’s got the right energy for a face-to-face confrontation. Let’s just clear it up right here.”

Looking at the now-stony-faced Han Haoyan, Li Lizhen began, “All of us second years know poor little Tian Xueya got bullied by our Xia Mian so badly she didn’t even dare choose science—had to join the liberal arts track instead.”

“Yeah,” a girl from the next class added mockingly, “we all know Xia Mian used her power to force Tian Xueya to switch classes, made her faint at competitions, and kept her off the New Year’s Eve program…”

“Tell us, Mr. Han,” Sun Yuexin said with mock politeness, “would you show concern for someone who bullied you like that?”

“Other than when cursing her, when would Tian Xueya ever call Xia Mian’s name, much less with concern? Hahaha…”

“Do you know why Tian Xueya suddenly showed me concern?” Xia Mian asked.

Meeting her frank gaze, Han Haoyan seemed to realize something, and his face darkened.

But Xia Mian didn’t let him off. “Because I took the fat sheep those thugs were after. They wanted to settle the score with me, but didn’t know my name.”

The crowd suddenly understood and turned to look at Tian Xueya with disgust. Then they all turned back to Xia Mian, worried.

“Xia Mian, those thugs won’t wait for you at the gate, will they?”

“Are they from No. 14 High? What should we do? You’d better be careful—let’s walk together.”

“Yeah, you shouldn’t walk alone.”

Han Haoyan was still surprised at how popular Xia Mian was when she called out to him. “No need. We have Han Haoyan here, don’t we?”

“Seeing like standing up for what’s right, you can’t just do it for Tian Xueya, right?”

Xia Mian stood and said to Tian Xueya, “Tian Xueya, I’m truly sorry for using your method on you. I should’ve just endured it, let those thugs corner me, rob me, and give you the satisfaction you wanted.”

Her expression was utterly sincere, but Tian Xueya and Han Haoyan’s faces were ugly to look at. The rest of the class wore smirks of pure mockery.

Xia Mian turned to Han Haoyan. “I’ve apologized, so now please, oh noble hero who loves to fight injustice, help me take care of the thugs at the gate. Do show us your ability to save the world.”

Sun Yuexin added, “Amen.”

The whole class burst into laughter.

Han Haoyan narrowed his eyes. “I misunderstood you today. I apologize, and I’ll definitely take care of the thug problem.”

Ignoring the first part, Xia Mian smiled at the latter. “Then I’ll thank you in advance!”

Author’s Note:

Ning Shaobai: “I heard Xia Mian’s been getting lots of love letters?”

Author: “Yep—next chapter, you’ll see.”