Luckily, there weren"t many people going in and out of the dorms. Despite that, Sheng Jiaoyang still had to sign a few autographs.

Liu Lu, who was shorter than Sheng Jiaoyang by a head, walked beside her protectively, her face filled with pride.

“Sis Jiao, there were only a few people who recognised you at the start of school last time. Now, there are actually so many people.”

Almost everybody turned their heads to catch a second glance at them, but despite being on the receiving end of their stares, Sheng Jiaoyang was still very calm. After all, she"d received plenty of attention since small and was already used to everybody"s gazes on her. However, after having to sign autographs and take pictures with people, she realised that she was now slightly famous.

“Sis Jiao, in the future, it"s better for you to arm yourself like other stars. In any case, these days are nice and cool. Wearing a mask can even help protect against pollution,” Liu Lu chattered beside her.

“Yeah, that"s true.” Sheng Jiaoyang smiled.

After eating dinner, they went out to buy things. By the time the two returned to the dormitory, the other three girls were already there.

Pan Mingyue curled her lips in disdain as she watched Liu Lu busily arranging the household goods they"d bought. She deliberately said, “Being a star is really good as people actually want to be your nanny.”

“If you"re jealous, you can help too!” Liu Lu retorted.

“You!” Pan Mingyue became angry. “You dare say that? Your parents paid for you to go to school, yet you"re running around being free labour. Aren"t you ashamed of yourself?”

Liu Lu glanced at her. “You"re saying it like your money isn"t what your parents gave you. If you don"t understand what being a nanny is, then don"t talk nonsense! You think nannies work for free?”

“That"s exactly what you are! So what if you insist!” Pan Mingyue raised her head.

“Whatever you say.” Liu Lu turned away to continue helping Sis Jiao tidy up her things.

“…” Done quarrelling now?

Pan Mingyue was still frustrated. She saw Sheng Jiaoyang staring at her with something like a smile yet not a smile and felt like Lina must"ve been tricked. Otherwise, how could she have become friends with somebody that used their friends like this?

The other two girls in the dorm just sat in their seats, not daring to get involved.

“Sis Jiao, I put your toothbrush and toothpaste here, and your hair ties here…” The new nanny, Liu Lu, diligently explained.

Liu Lu glanced at her watch and suddenly let out a cry of surprise. “Ah, it"s almost time for the freshman evening cla.s.s. Sis Jiao, are you going to your evening cla.s.s?”

“Of course, I"m a good student.”

Sheng Jiaoyang had just spoken when a snort sounded from behind her from a certain girl.

“School"s already been in session for a month, yet you didn"t partic.i.p.ate in military training or attend the opening ceremony. However, you still call yourself a good student. I"ve never seen anyone so shameless before.”

“You…” Liu Lu was just about to retort back when Sheng Jiaoyang pulled her arm.

Sheng Jiaoyang c.o.c.ked her head and glanced at Pan Mingyue, saying indifferently, “That"s because you"ve seen too little.”

Pan Mingyue wanted to explode right then and there. She couldn"t find anything to retort back with and could only glare at them as they left the dorm room.

The other two girls saw Miss High and Mighty Pan KO"ed with a single sentence and glanced at each other as they chatted in a private chat.

Party A: Xu Jiaojiao is the same as when she was on National Supermodel. One sentence is enough to choke others.

Party B: The rich missy vs the star, instant KO.

Party A: Looks like we won"t be bored later.

Party B: I even want to open a live broadcast and let everyone watch.

“You two aren"t going to evening cla.s.s?” Pan Mingyue saw the two engrossed with their phones.

“Ah, t-there"s a club event tonight, so I requested leave,” Roommate A said somewhat panickedly.

“Ah, me too,” Roommate B said.

“What are you "ah"-ing for, are you guys sick today?!” Pan Mingyue grumbled to herself before grabbing her textbook and leaving the room.

Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t know where the self study rooms were, yet luckily, she had a good fan that couldn"t be any more prepared. Not only had she prepared a timetable for her, but she even knew which rooms were which and directly brought her to their cla.s.s"s self study room.

“Sis Jiao, I"m leaving first. I"ll find you after cla.s.s.”

“It"s fine, go back and rest. You worked hard today.” Many of the things they"d bought today were carried by Liu Lu, and Sheng Jiaoyang didn"t want Liu Lu to exhaust herself.

“It"s fine, I"m not tired.” Liu Lu exposed two rows of bright, s.h.i.+ny teeth as she smiled happily.

The bell rang. Sheng Jiaoyang smiled at Liu Lu before turning to enter the self study room.

A lot of people were chatting inside the self study room. With a glance, the one man amongst the twenty or so women sitting in the room was especially eye catching as he chatted with some of the girls.

When Sheng Jiaoyang entered, a few people thought that it was the teacher. When they saw that it wasn"t, they went back to playing on their phones. But, two seconds later, one of the girls raised her head again.

“Xu Jiaojiao!!!”

The self study room instantly went quiet.

Everybody already knew from their teacher that the supermodel Xu Jiaojiao was their cla.s.smate and had requested a leave of absence. They were all very curious about her and had been paying attention to the news lately, eager to see her in real life. However, they also knew that she was currently acting and that her return date was unknown.

“Wow, so tall!”

“Is she barefaced? She"s really pretty.”

“How sudden! I didn"t bring any paper or a pen tonight.”

…

The students seemed excited. Although a lot of them weren"t her fans, it was impossible not to be excited at the prospect of seeing a celebrity they"d seen on the screen in real life.

Sheng Jiaoyang saw their reactions and thought for a bit before deciding to stand on the podium. Then, very naturally, she used English to introduce herself.

“Good evening everybody! I"m Xu Jiaojiao, and I"m very excited to become your cla.s.smate. I"m excited and honoured to have the opportunity to meet you all. I hope we can all get along and finish our studies together.”

“Yes!” Enthusiastic applause sounded. The teacher, who"d just entered and was preparing to scold them, jumped in surprise before realising who was standing on the podium.

After thinking for a moment, a smile appeared on the teacher"s face. “Welcome, student Xu Jiaojiao! Are you ready to start studying?”

“h.e.l.lo, sir! I am!” Sheng Jiaoyang nodded and greeted him.

“You probably haven"t seen me yet. I"m your teacher, and calling me Mr Zhang is fine. Go take a seat!”

The teacher watched as Sheng Jiaoyang chose a vacant seat in the front row before clapping his hands to get everyone"s attention. “I know that student Jiaojiao returning is very exciting, but please control yourselves and don"t scare her. The cla.s.s monitor and study monitor will be in charge of discipline. Everybody must be quiet during self study hours.”

After saying some important stuff, the teacher went to the next cla.s.s.

Once the teacher had left, the cla.s.s seemed to explode as conversations burst out everywhere.

The cla.s.smate sitting next to Sheng Jiaoyang was especially excited. It seemed like she wanted to speak to her, but that she was slightly scared to.

“Beautiful girls, please don"t talk or somebody will come to check on us!” yelled Li Da, the only man in the cla.s.s. He was also the one the teacher had appointed to be cla.s.s monitor.

However! No! One! Listened!

Sheng Jiaoyang frowned. She didn"t want to study in such a loud environment. She stood up and turned to face everyone with a slight smile. “Cla.s.smates, if you want to talk, do it after cla.s.s!”

“Then, can we chat with you after cla.s.s?” Some of the girls stared at her with s.h.i.+ning eyes.

“Of course, but during cla.s.s hours, please talk as little as possible so you don"t disturb others. If you guys really want to talk, use notes!”

“Alright, alright.” Under Sheng Jiaoyang"s stare, they nodded their heads in agreement.

The self study cla.s.s finally became quiet. Although there were still a few disturbances, it was still bearable compared to how it was at the beginning.

Midway through the self study cla.s.s, there was a ten minute break. As soon as the bell rang, Sheng Jiaoyang"s desk was surrounded. Everybody was talking as they asked all sorts of questions. They were even harder to deal with than gossip journalists. Sheng Jiaoyang calmly answered the ones she could answer, and emphasized that they could only gossip today. Starting tomorrow, they"d only talk about study related things. Afterwards, they took pictures together. It was lucky that there weren"t too many people in their cla.s.s.

The ten minute break pa.s.sed by very quickly. As the girls returned to their seats, they thought that Xu Jiaojiao"s temperament was really good.

When the self study cla.s.s was over, Sheng Jiaoyang was once again surrounded by her cla.s.smates as they returned to the dorms. On the way back, Sheng Jiaoyang b.u.mped into Pan Mingyue, who immediately rolled her eyes.

Sheng Jiaoyang ignored her and went to wash up after returning to the dorms.

“Jiaojiao, your phone"s been ringing for a while,” said the person sitting next to Sheng Jiaoyang.

“Oh yeah, thanks.” She took her phone out of the drawer and saw Lina"s number, so she walked to the balcony and answered it.

“Hey Mei Niu, are you done shooting the movie?” she asked.

“Almost, but I didn"t call you to talk about that. Little Sun, it"s almost your birthday.”

Sheng Jiaoyang was startled. If Mei Niu hadn"t mentioned it, she wouldn"t have remembered. Today was the 29th of October, and her birthday was on the 30th. Tomorrow would be her birthday.

“I"ll ask for leave later to come celebrate your birthday with you-”

“Mei Niu, you don"t have to ask for leave. I don"t want to celebrate this year,” Sheng Jiaoyang interrupted Lina.

“Why?”

Sheng Jiaoyang slowly sighed. “I want to visit my mother"s grave.”

Lina fell silent for a while. “Alright, make sure you"re safe.”

“Mm, don"t worry about me. I"m not a child anymore, I can take care of myself.”

“Then, I won"t accompany you for your birthday this year. Wait for me to finish and we"ll go out and celebrate.”

Sheng Jiaoyang and Lina chatted a bit more before hanging up, the smile on Sheng Jiaoyang"s face immediately vanished. On her previous 18th birthday, her mum had died right after her birthday. Since then, her birthday had become the day she hated the most. After she"d met Mei Niu, Mei Niu had tried all sorts of ways to make her happy on that day. To not ruin the celebration and prevent her grandfather and Mei Niu from getting worried, she"d always acted happy. However, this year, she didn"t want to pretend anymore.

The next day…

She entered the dorm and glanced at her timetable. She had two cla.s.ses tomorrow morning and none in the afternoon.Previous ChapterNext Chapter