Shen Yi took first place.

By the end of the race, it was down to just Chen Feng and Shen Yi. No one thought much of it, since first and second place were both going to students from Class 10 anyway. But who would have thought that during the final sprint, the person in second would suddenly overtake the one in first?

People back then didn’t have a word for the kind of intense, internal competition that would later be called a "rat race," but up in the stands, Qin Jiao was quite happy to see Shen Yi beat Chen Feng.

Seeing the sullen look on Lin Nian’s face made Qin Jiao even happier.

She was starting to understand. Lin Nian no longer saw her as a concern and was instead focused on latching onto Chen Feng to help him seize the Shen Family’s fortune.

Shen Yi’s poor health and volatile temper were their main points of attack against him, so it would have been odd for Lin Nian to be happy now that Shen Yi had beaten Chen Feng in the race.

Qin Jiao now truly understood the sentiment: as long as you’re unhappy, I’m happy.

Shen Yi wiped the sweat from his face and glanced back toward the stands, searching the seats. When he saw Qin Jiao’s radiant smile, the corners of his own mouth lifted in a slight smile.

**

After the sports meet ended, the monthly exams began. The seating was arranged like a mock college entrance exam, based on the school-wide ranking list.

Because she had a severe imbalance in her subjects, Qin Jiao’s previous grades had placed her in the middle of the school-wide rankings.

In their senior year class, there were a total of 504 students, and Qin Jiao was ranked 298th.

Shen Yi’s subjects were even more unbalanced than hers. Among all subjects, only his math was good, which was why they had gone to that competition together.

As for the other subjects... the young master couldn’t be bothered to study them. His final rank was 458th.

Chen Feng and Lin Nian’s grades were both better; they were always in the top fifty of the school-wide rankings.

As they picked up their pens to start the first test, both Qin Jiao and Shen Yi were fired up with a silent determination to surpass the other two.

Qin Jiao had been catching up on her studies in her space. She wasn’t sure if she could surpass Lin Nian on this month’s exam, but she was confident she’d improve significantly. Shen Yi, however, didn’t have a magical space like hers.

During the two days of exams, Qin Jiao watched Shen Yi as he studied in silence, and a thought stirred in her mind.

She sensed that Shen Yi was putting in a lot of effort. ’Is he competing with someone?’

However, Qin Jiao made a point of maintaining a simple deskmate relationship with him and wouldn’t pry. But after the monthly exams ended, as the two were heading home together that evening as usual, Shen Yi was the one who broke the silence.

"I want to beat Chen Feng on the exams, but unfortunately, it’s a bit difficult."

Qin Jiao was focused on riding her bike, and her hands trembled on the handlebars when she heard him. Feeling she couldn’t just pretend she hadn’t heard, she asked, "Why do you want to compete with Chen Feng?"

He fell silent. Just when Qin Jiao thought he wasn’t going to answer, he spoke.

"I had a dream that Chen Feng stole everything from me. It got me thinking... if I were better than him, maybe what happened in the dream wouldn’t come true."

Shen Yi’s tone was placid, but Qin Jiao’s heart hammered in her chest.

’Could it be? Was Shen Yi reborn, just like me?’

’But that doesn’t seem right.’

’Based on his personality from my past life, there’s no way we’d be calmly heading home together after school like this. He would have been stone-faced, not saying a single word to me.’

After a moment of thought, Qin Jiao decided to share her own plans. "I want to compete with Lin Nian, too. I plan to beat her on the college entrance exams. I haven’t had any dreams like you, but she sabotaged me at that competition, and I’m furious about it. On top of that, she went to my village and spread rumors to slander me. The thing she cares about most is her grades, so that’s where I’m going to beat her!"

Shen Yi turned his head to look at her, his expression serious. "Then let’s work hard together."

"Alright."