The Supporting Female Character Wakes Up and Gets a Happy Ending with the Female Lead (GL) - Chapter 7

Li Yu’s disciplinary action came down quickly.

 

He was due for punishment anyway, but it had been delayed only because of Lin Ji.

 

With Li Yu gone from Linjiang No. 1 High School, even the air felt much better.

 

Lin Ji sat on the stone bench by the lotus pond behind the school, leisurely eating a post-meal snack, thinking comfortably.

 

[Shouldn’t a good supporting female character constantly hover around the male and female leads, creating all possible opportunities to maximize her role in their path to love?]

 

[What’s wrong with this student, Lin Ji? It’s been a whole week! No progress at all!]

 

“…”

 

Of course, it would be even better without these annoying bullet comments.

 

Lin Ji took a sip of clear tea and was about to eat the last bite of her cream cake when a call suddenly came from behind her.

 

“Lin Ji? What are you doing here?”

 

Ji Baixing walked up behind Lin Ji, holding a few test papers, apparently coming here to escape the noise as well.

 

[You don’t actively look for the female lead, but the female lead will still come to you. Didn’t see that coming, did you?]

 

[Come on, let’s get some movement in our week-long stalled progress!]

 

“…” Lin Ji was speechless, indicating a headache.

 

Ji Baixing sat down on the stone bench next to Lin Ji, spreading the test papers flat on the stone table.

 

“The classroom AC is broken. I came here to cool off during lunch and work on some papers,” Ji Baixing’s voice was soft but carried the vitality of summer. It felt like merely listening to her speak could unconsciously lift one’s mood.

 

Lin Ji nodded. She scooped up a small piece of cream cake with a metal spoon and was about to bring it to her mouth…

 

[Since the supporting female character has ‘woken up,’ why doesn’t she offer the female lead some cake?]

 

[Yes, yes. Shouldn’t the next development be that the supporting female character feels guilty for what she did, apologizes to the female lead, and does something to compensate her?]

 

[She can’t even spare a piece of cake. Tsk tsk tsk. There must be another plot twist coming!]

 

?

 

Lin Ji’s hand holding the spoon trembled slightly, almost dropping it.

 

What was the connection between the two? Were these viewers not right in the head?

 

Lin Ji stared at the cake in her hand, unable to decide whether to eat it or not.

 

“…” After struggling with her internal thoughts for several dozen seconds, Lin Ji pursed her lips, tilted the spoon slightly towards Ji Baixing’s direction, making it easier for her to take.

 

Her voice was stiff and dry as she asked, “Do you… want some cake?”

 

[Why is her tone so rigid! If she can’t talk to the beautiful older sister, let me do it! I can handle it!]

 

Ji Baixing had been holding her pen, pretending to write problems for a long time. She had been watching Lin Ji frown, shake her head, and sigh at the cake.

 

So…

 

“Is the cake… poisoned?” Ji Baixing blurted out the thought that just crossed her mind.

 

“Ah, no, no! I got confused while doing problems!” A suspicious blush appeared on the tips of Ji Baixing’s ears. She quickly waved her hands, explaining in a fluster, “I was just doing this reading comprehension problem here, and I just read ‘Is the mobile phone a poison to teenagers?’ I didn’t react quickly enough!”

 

Ji Baixing’s flustered gesturing made Lin Ji, who wasn’t flustered before, nervous. She offered stiff reassurance: “It’s fine, it’s fine. I know, I know.”

 

Ji Baixing was so embarrassed that a faint blush seemed visible on her cheeks. She held her pen and pursed her lips. Just when she was wondering what to do next, her eyes landed on the cake in Lin Ji’s hand. She immediately brushed the stray hair behind her ear, leaned forward slightly toward Lin Ji.

 

Lin Ji froze for a second or two, her hand clutching the spoon, about to instinctively pull back. But Ji Baixing gently held her hand with her thumb and forefinger, and using Lin Ji’s hand, took the cake into her mouth.

 

As she straightened up, she carefully licked the cream from the corner of her lips.

 

“Thank you. The cake is delicious,” Ji Baixing’s lips curved slightly, and her eyes crinkled as she smiled at Lin Ji.

 

“…M-hm.” Lin Ji responded instinctively.

 

[Actually, that’s not bad.]

 

[Yes, I can do that too! If the supporting female character can’t, please let me!]

 

Ji Baixing lowered her head to continue writing problems. Lin Ji stared at the spoon in her hand for a while, then quickly packed up the remaining cake and put it into the container.

 

“I’m taking the container to my aunt,” Lin Ji told Ji Baixing, then hurried away from the pavilion by the lotus pond.

 

—

 

The recent quietness, besides Li Yu’s absence, was also due to one other reason: exams.

 

Originally, the homeroom teachers planned to stop formal testing after the third mock exam and only have spontaneous, in-class quizzes. However, several classes, through their class presidents, petitioned the Grade Dean for one last major exam.

 

The last month before the college entrance exam had now turned into half a month.

 

To maximize time efficiency, the original three-day exam period was condensed into one day. The exam started during the morning reading period at 7:30 AM and didn’t finish until the evening self-study session.

 

Even though Lin Ji had adjusted her body clock two days prior and stopped staying up late to study, spending an entire day writing exams with such high intensity was still taxing.

 

As soon as she handed in the last comprehensive humanities test paper, Lin Ji’s hand went slack, and she wanted nothing more than to put her head down on the desk for a nap.

 

But then she saw Ji Baixing collecting the papers for the teacher, grabbing a water cup, and walking toward her.

 

Lin Ji picked up her pen again, propped her chin on her left hand, and slightly lowered her head, pretending to look at an unsolved math problem on her scratch paper.

 

Ji Baixing walked past her side, bringing a cool breeze, and didn’t say anything.

 

Lin Ji maintained that posture for a while, almost staring a hole through the calculations on her scratch paper, before Ji Baixing seemed to re-enter through the back door.

 

Lin Ji noticed out of the corner of her eye that Ji Baixing still seemed to be heading in her direction.

 

“Class President! You’re back from getting water!” History class representative Zhang Yu had been looking toward the back door ever since they finished comparing answers. The moment he saw Ji Baixing return, he hastily called out, “Quick, quick, Class President! Two questions! I firmly disagree with their answers. We need the Class President to mediate!”

 

Ji Baixing’s voice carried a clear, relaxed smile: “Which two questions? I’m not sure I’ll get them right either.”

 

Zhang Yu waved the test paper in his hand and rushed over: “These two, these two! I circled the answers based on the original text. Shouldn’t these be the answers? Sheng Sheng insists it’s not this sentence but the one below, but not a single word in that sentence matches!”

 

“English? Shouldn’t you just trust Sheng Sheng without question?” Ji Baixing took the paper, looked at it, and then regretfully told Zhang Yu, “Too bad. Sheng Sheng seems to be correct. Although the previous sentence matches the keyword in the question, it’s irrelevant to what the question is asking.”

 

“Ah—” Zhang Yu sighed dramatically, looking up at the sky, and returned to his seat to be teased by Sheng Sheng.

 

Lin Ji was no longer looking in that direction. She put down her pen, tidied her desk slightly, and then put her head down, intending to close her eyes for a while.

 

The moment she put her head down, she heard light footsteps near her ear, very similar to the stealthy footsteps she heard in the infirmary that day—cautious, as if not wanting her to notice.

 

Lin Ji closed her eyes. She didn’t need to guess to know that Ji Baixing was about to walk by her.

 

Although she had changed significantly compared to the Lin Ji everyone remembered, very few people still dared to walk through the aisle next to her. Only Ji Baixing dared to walk past with composure.

 

Just as she was thinking this, a soft thud sound signaled something being placed on her desk.

 

“How did your shoelace come undone?”

 

Ji Baixing’s soft voice reached her ear. A gust of wind rose beside her. Lin Ji guessed that Ji Baixing had squatted down to tie her shoelace, and the object placed on the desk must be her water cup.

 

Lin Ji kept her eyes closed. In her mind, she alternated between thinking about her likely score from today’s exams and then thinking about how delicious the clear tea and cake were at noon. She considered asking Aunt Wang for green tea next time she went home. After a moment, she wondered why Ji Baixing would place the water cup on her desk. Didn’t she worry that Lin Ji might, out of malice, spill the water on her?

 

“Ah.”

 

A startled cry sounded in her ear, followed by the sound of shattering glass.

 

Lin Ji looked up in surprise and glanced sideways—

 

Ji Baixing’s water cup, which had been placed on her desk, had fallen to the floor. Ji Baixing, who had just tied her shoelace and was about to stand up, covered both ears and remained in a slightly half-crouched position, looking startled.

 

The left shoulder and the area down her back on Ji Baixing’s blue and white school uniform were soaked with warm water.

 

Lin Ji reacted for a second or two, then quickly grabbed her school uniform jacket, which she had been using as a cushion, and draped it over Ji Baixing.

 

The entire classroom was startled by the sudden noise and fell completely silent. Everyone leaned out of their desks, trying to see what had happened.

 

“What happened? Did you see?”

 

“No, I was arguing about a problem with my deskmate. I just heard the sound and turned around, and it was like this.”

 

“Could it be that the Class President walked by there, and Lin Ji was unhappy and threw the cup at her?”

 

“I think that cup looks like the Class President’s.”

 

“…”

 

The sound of whispering gradually resumed. Lin Ji helped Ji Baixing stand up and used the tissue to wipe the water beads from behind her ear and neck, but her eyebrows furrowed involuntarily.

 

She certainly hadn’t touched Ji Baixing’s water cup, and she had no reason to do that to Ji Baixing.

 

Most importantly, they had been getting along peacefully for so long.

 

“I’m sorry. I put my water cup on your desk after taking a drink and then squatted down to tie my shoelace. I must have forgotten it was there when I got up and accidentally knocked it over,” Ji Baixing apologized to Lin Ji awkwardly, wiping her damp hair with her hand.

 

She snatched the tissue from Lin Ji’s hand, walked to the back, threw it in the trash can, and then grabbed a broom to sweep up the broken glass.

 

“You weren’t scared, were you? I thought you were sleeping just now,” Ji Baixing walked over with the broom, bending down and tilting her head, trying to see Lin Ji, who was staring down, lost in thought.

 

Lin Ji looked up and met Ji Baixing’s eyes. The look was unreadable, but the more inscrutable it was, the more inexplicably uneasy it made others feel.

 

“I’m fine. I wasn’t asleep,” Lin Ji took the broom from Ji Baixing’s hand and said without raising her head, “I’ll do it. Do you have another school uniform? Do you need to go change?”

 

Ji Baixing shook her head and tried to reach for the broom in Lin Ji’s hand to clean up herself, but Lin Ji always dodged her. Helplessly, she could only listen to Lin Ji and return to her seat.

 

Lin Ji finished cleaning the glass shards and dumped them into the trash can. Just as she was about to take it out, two boys rushed over from the front, each grabbing a side of the trash can and running out of the classroom.

 

“I’ll do it, I’ll do it!”

 

“I’ll go, I’ll go!”

 

Lin Ji was happy to be free. She clapped her hands and returned to her seat, looking forward from the back row.

 

The bell for the last evening self-study session had already rung, but the teacher still hadn’t arrived.

 

Ji Baixing sat in her seat for a while, wearing Lin Ji’s school uniform jacket, then stood up and walked toward the podium. She took a set of problems, sat at the podium, and worked on the problems while keeping discipline.

 

The evening self-study session, which usually flew by while doing problems, felt particularly long today.

 

Lin Ji kept subconsciously glancing at the podium.

 

The school uniform jacket, which was ordinarily familiar, felt exceptionally noteworthy to her now that Ji Baixing was wearing it.