Chapter 031: Campus Mary Sue 29

Time passed quickly. As always, Le Yixian went on dates and strolled through the city with her adorable sweetheart. Occasionally, they were spotted together at school, yet rumors that she had a boyfriend shorter than herself persisted—so outlandish that few could believe them.

A month slipped by.

Le Yixian received a message from Guo Yiyi. The gist of it was that she and An Xiansi had finally made their relationship official, and An's father had given his blessing. With An's father's help, her brother had been put in touch with a renowned neurosurgeon—she was confident he would recover soon.

Reading the message, Le Yixian smiled. At last, her foolish son and daughter had found their happiness without further complications.

That day, she returned to school as usual.

She noticed an unusually heavy mood among her classmates. It wasn't until the bespectacled homeroom teacher arrived to hold a meeting and reminded them of the upcoming final exams that she understood.

Le Yixian: "..."

Who was she again?

Where was she?

Caught up in romance and sweet little treats every day, she had completely forgotten she was still a high school student facing exams.

"...This exam will last three days. I hope you all take it seriously..."

That's right—she had to sit for exams, as did An Xiansi and Guo Yiyi.

She remembered, too, how in the original story, An Xiansi spent all his time entangled in romance with Guo Yiyi, never once appearing to study, yet still managed to top the entire grade at the end of term. Guo Yiyi's grades, originally poor, had also improved dramatically after she fell in love with An Xiansi.

Why was that?

When writing that part of the story, the author herself saw nothing amiss. But now, living through it, she could only curse herself.

After the school anniversary came the kidnapping, then a stay in the hospital. Even after being discharged, neither she nor the others returned to school, instead spending their days loitering outside Guo Yiyi's house.

Without studying every day, could anyone score full marks? Could anyone really take first place in the entire grade?

As the author of "The Overbearing Young Master Fell in Love with Me"—Le Yixian could now testify to her readers: That was simply impossible.

After three days of exams, she could only say she scraped by in English, French, and Chinese. As for mathematics, physics, chemistry, and the like, she recognized their names, but they no longer recognized her.

The results were published soon after.

Le Yixian’s grades were nothing short of disastrous.

Onlookers who saw the goddess’s report card were silent for a moment, then quickly found excuses for her.

“It must be because An Xiansi, that heartless jerk, let her down—how else could she have done so poorly?”

With an excuse in hand, everyone nodded in agreement.

Finals were over, and winter break began.

On the very first day of vacation, Mother Li burst into Le Yixian’s room with a crowd of attendants.

Though the room’s vast bed made the crowd seem less conspicuous, after they arrived, they quickly set about measuring Le Yixian’s arms and legs with tape measures.

“Mom, what’s going on?” Le Yixian asked.

“We’re taking your measurements to see if your gown needs further alterations,” Mother Li replied with a smile, hand covering her mouth.

“Gown?” Le Yixian echoed.

Mother Li tapped her on the head. “Have you forgotten? The coming-of-age gown we specially ordered for you last year. The measurements are from then. The designers have made some guesses about your current size, but a gown must fit perfectly.”

Coming-of-age ceremony?

At last, Le Yixian recalled a plot point from the original novel.

The original protagonist had indeed had a grand coming-of-age ceremony. But after she orchestrated the kidnapping of Guo Yiyi and was discovered by An Xiansi, he not only called the police but also exposed evidence of tax evasion and fraud by the Li family’s companies. On the day of the lavish party, the guests were joined by a large contingent of police officers.

“Mom, isn’t our family business pretty big?” Le Yixian asked.

Mother Li nodded. “Of course. We’re one of the four great families in China. We have many enterprises.”

“We’re not evading taxes, are we?”

Mother Li laughed. “What are you thinking, silly child? Our family runs legitimate businesses and follows the law.”

Despite her mother’s reassurance, Le Yixian still felt uneasy. After all, she hadn’t followed the original plot and ordered Guo Yiyi’s kidnapping, yet a gang of fugitives had appeared anyway.

What if the police made an unexpected appearance at her coming-of-age ceremony this time?

“Brother, are you sure our family hasn’t been involved in tax evasion?” Le Yixian asked, hugging a stuffed animal as she sat on the sofa.

Because of her coming-of-age ceremony, her brothers were returning from all over the world, the first being the eldest Li brother, currently expanding the family business in China.

“What nonsense are you worrying about?” her eldest brother said, ruffling her hair. “We’re all law-abiding citizens. Taxes are paid on time.”

“Really?”

“Really—truer than pearls,” he replied, mouth twitching. “Why are you suddenly so concerned about such trivial matters?”

Le Yixian thought for a moment. “I just saw a news story today. The owner of a certain company was arrested for tax evasion. He kept insisting he was innocent. I got a bit worried. Even if our family doesn’t do anything wrong, someone else in the company might.”

“That’s impossible,” he said, shaking his head.

“Big brother, why don’t you look into it? My birthday’s coming up, and I really don’t want a bunch of police showing up to take you all away.” As a twenty-seven-year-old soul pretending to be a seventeen- or eighteen-year-old girl, even she found her own act unsettling.

“Pfft, what are you talking about?” He glared at her, but faced with her wide, pleading eyes, could only sigh in resignation. “Fine, I’ll have someone check.”

Upon investigation, they found several branch managers had indeed falsified figures and evaded taxes.

The revelation alarmed the Li family. Father Li and all four brothers were soon kept busy straightening out the mess.

Once everything was finally resolved, the original protagonist’s eighteenth birthday arrived.

The gown Mother Li had commissioned was breathtaking: a white dress studded with 1,888 diamonds, a crown set with stones the size of river pebbles, and exquisitely adorned shoes. Le Yixian’s eyes widened at the sight.

Beautiful as these things were, their weight was far from ordinary.

Seeing her mother’s eager gaze, Le Yixian couldn’t bear to let her painstaking efforts go to waste. Gritting her teeth, she donned the heavy crown, necklace, and other accessories.

The moment she appeared, the entire banquet fell silent.

Father Li, moved to tears at the sight of his grown daughter, addressed the guests with emotion: “Thank you all for attending my daughter’s coming-of-age ceremony. I remember when she was born, she was so tiny, and in the blink of an eye, she’s grown into an adult...”

After a long, heartfelt speech, he paused, then added, somewhat reluctantly, “Today, in addition to celebrating my daughter’s coming of age, we are also here for her engagement.”

The guests: ????? Engagement? Didn’t she just break off an engagement not long ago?