Qin Jiao chuckled. "Mom, I never realized you were so fierce."

"What’s there to be fierce about?" Su Yun said. "I only held back because I didn’t want to make things difficult for your dad. I can let things go with the elders; they’re our seniors, after all. But that Feng Lan? What is she, anyway!"

Qin Jiao nodded emphatically. "You’re right, Mom. She’s nothing!"

"Sigh, you silly girl. Don’t let me be a bad influence. You’re too young to be saying things like that."

The family of four finished packing. Early the next morning, Qin Zhonghui and Su Yun went to the county town to look at houses, while Qin Jiao and her younger sister, Qin Shi, went up the mountain to gather wild vegetables as usual.

When they returned, they were once again empty-handed.

Feng Lan started running her mouth again. "You two sisters, up there fooling around all day, and you didn’t pick anything?"

"Yeah, we were just playing. So what?"

"Hmph!" Feng Lan tossed the sunflower seed shells from her hand and sauntered off to a neighbor she was friendly with.

She was going to ask around about that incident with Qin Jiao.

Qin Jiao, however, narrowed her eyes. She looked in the direction of Lin Nianjia’s, then headed for the small store.

The small store had two rooms. Many people were playing cards in the back room, leaving only a distracted-looking woman tending the shop out front.

When Qin Jiao walked over, she handed the woman one yuan and said, "Auntie, I’d like two pieces of bubble gum. With the rest of the money, I need to make a phone call."

The woman said, "Well, you can’t be on the phone for too long."

"Okay."

Qin Jiao picked up the receiver, dialed the number, and waited for the call to connect. In a calm voice, she said, "Hello, I’m looking for Lin Nian from your village. Yes, I’m a teacher at her school. She’s gotten into some trouble, and I need to speak with her parents. Oh, what kind of trouble? Sigh... the girl has no sense of shame. Instead of focusing on her studies, she’s involved with a male classmate. They were even seen doing something indecent at school."

The person on the other end said they would go find her.

Then Qin Jiao hung up.

She looked up. The shopkeeper had been too busy craning her neck to watch the card game inside. She hadn’t clearly heard what Qin Jiao said, but she had been keeping an eye on whether Qin Jiao had hung up the phone.

She was worried about her running up the bill.

Sure enough, once she saw Qin Jiao hang up, her attention returned completely to the card game.

Qin Jiao handed one of the pieces of bubble gum to her sister, and the two of them left, blowing bubbles as they went.

POP! The large bubble she had blown suddenly burst, sounding just like a slap in the face.

Lin Nian had just returned from the small store. She hadn’t received the phone call, but she heard a few people nearby pointing and whispering about her. Her face burned with humiliation. Yet when she went to ask them about it, they just gave her gossipy smiles and said nothing.

Lin Nian clenched her fists.

’Her original plan was to have the teachers punish Qin Jiao for the incident with Shen Yi. Who would have thought that absolutely nothing would happen to Qin Jiao!’

’But Qin Jiao is the female lead of this book! If I don’t snatch away her luck, then I, Lin Nian, will forever be an unremarkable member of the control group, inferior to Qin Jiao in every way!’

’Ever since she transmigrated into this book, she knew she had to work hard to change her status as a member of the control group.’

’And the most effective way to do that is to steal the female lead Qin Jiao’s luck!’

’Everything had been going so smoothly at first. She’d even succeeded in getting Qin Jiao and that Shen Yi into bed together. But everything that happened afterward spun completely out of her control.’

’Qin Jiao wasn’t punished by the school—her parents weren’t even called in. And Shen Yi didn’t seem to hate her, either.’

’After all, Shen Yi is the major villain of this book. If he hated Qin Jiao, he would definitely get his revenge on her in all sorts of ways. If that happened, Qin Jiao would have been finished.’

’But that didn’t happen.’

’Not only that, but Qin Jiao had dragged her into the mess, even causing her to lose her summer job. And when they got off the bus, she’d even threatened her!’