In the international class, apart from Liam and Drake, there are a few other people ranking high in the list, including Niel, whose parents are high-ranking officials and their return rate is as high as 0.3%.
Maureen casts a wide net in order to capture the important "fish."
Although she is focused on Liam, she takes advantage of the chance to interact with these other classmates.
Over the past couple of days, she has taken the opportunity to pass out some homemade biscuits from Josephine's family shop while distributing homework.
This has allowed her to subtly interact with these classmates, slowly building up goodwill.
Counting the thirteen sprouts of kindness she has gathered, Maureen quietly sneaks into a corner of the corridor during break time to remove her face mask and take a look in the mirror.
As she had expected, the traces of her injuries had almost faded.
Moreover, she is unsure if it is just her illusion, but she can't help but feel that since she started exploiting the good luck of others, her hair has become shinier, and her skin has improved, becoming fairer and smoother.
"The system proudly remarked,
"It's natural.
Have you noticed that in most novels, the appearance of the protagonists is described in detail, while the side characters are just labeled as 'beautiful' and nothing more?
Basically, your luck is improving, and with it, you will only become prettier."
The system couldn't resist complimenting her further,
"You are the best-looking side character I've dealt with so far.
Once your wound heals, people would probably believe you're an actress in a photo."
"Really?" Maureen asked happily.
However, Maureen had pretty low expectations.
She is not so concerned about becoming more beautiful.
As long as the scars on her face can recover quickly and she can live a smooth life, she will already be over the moon.
Given the present pace of recovery, she estimated that when she accumulated twenty sprouts of goodwill, she could confidently remove her mask and never worry about wearing it again.
Niel walked over after replacing the water in the dispenser, noticing that Liam was languidly propping up his head, his gaze out the window.
He followed Liam's line of sight and then murmured,
"The transfer student really has it tough.
I heard she was not that attractive to begin with, and she even had a facial injury before transferring last year.
Recently in the school's beauty contest, her younger sister Bianca received the highest votes.
She must feel somewhat inferior I guess—" In the midst of the conversation, Niel glanced at the cold stern face of Liam and hastened to make amends,
"But the transfer student has a great personality! Just look at her – she's been with us for just two days, and she's already brought us desserts and cookies.
Everyone likes her a lot."
"Everyone?" Liam quickly picked up on the keyword.
This morning, Maureen brought some chocolate cookies and placed them on the table.
She quietly asked him if he wanted some.
He scoffed at the messy cookies, planning to take some when she asked him a second time.
But she promptly took the cookies back when he didn't respond.
He almost blew a gasket in irritation.
But he thought those were Maureen's breakfast.
He didn't touch any as there might not be enough for her.
Who knew she turned around and shared with the other classmates?
Liam looked at Niel coldly, visibly displeased,
"Who?" Niel really wished he could smack himself.
Thanks to his big mouth, he might not get to eat Maureen's treats anymore,
"No one in particular.
Just, just a few group leaders at assignment time.
The transfer student just came.
It could aid her in acclimating more quickly." Liam contemplated,
"True."
The little pastry chef is quite adept at socializing, perfectly complementing him.
That sure relieves his future social concerns.
Unexpectedly, Liam didn't continue his interrogation.
Instead, he happily rested his chin on his hand, continuing to stare out of the window. Niel finally breathed a sigh of relief.
=========
The school beauty competition and the inter-school league are the hottest topics at the moment.
When Maureen put away her small mirror and walked in, she could hear a few girls discussing it.
"Have you all voted yet?
Why is Bianca getting the highest number of votes again this year?
Isn't Melissa from the gold-medal class appealing?
I kind of like the cool, mature-girl type!"
"That's normal. Males make up 70% of School
And most of them indeed prefer Bianca's 'girl-next-door,' cute and innocent look."
"But Melissa trumps intellect!"
"Well, maybe not."
An unconvinced boy voiced,
"Bianca's class, Evergreen, is among the top performing classes.
Last year, she even participated in the All-Schools competition and got shortlisted.
As for the Gold Medal Class, it just excels in competitions.
If we're talking about overall performance, it remains to be seen who is better." Some agreed,
"In addition, Bianca indeed has a better temperament, and comes from a wealthier background.
Remember the young man who came to pick her up last time?
He has a really good air about him. I think he's her older brother."
Maureen heard such discussions frequently, as the aura of being the female lead was omnipresent.
Fortunately, whenever Oliver visited before, he only picked up his little princess.
Maureen had never been in his car so not many at school knew about her relationship with Bianca.
However, probably because she had just changed classes and made an approach to Liam, some people began to pay attention, and found out her connection.
Upon seeing Maureen filling out the All-Schools Competition application form, a boy across the room gave a surprise glance,
"You are participating too?"
Maureen looked back at him,
"Yes."
In her case, being ranked consistently in the lower middle range and only once breaking into the top five in the local classes, might make her participation in the provincial level competition seem somewhat ironic to others.
However, there was still some time before the All-Schools Competition.
Maureen felt as long as she worked hard to improve her luck beforehand, she might be able to break the chain of being the villain and truly achieve her potential in the exam.
There might even be a chance to get shortlisted for the finals.
The boy thought she was being overly ambitious but out of respect for the sleeping Liam nearby, he held back his ridicule and instead teased,
"By the way, what happened to your face?
Can you take off your mask and let us see?
Your sister is not only attractive but also performs well academically.
You should not be far behind, right?"
These words were obviously tinged with sarcasm.
They all knew that before Maureen transferred in, she was from a general class that lagged far behind these three classes in terms of academic performance.
As for looks, it was also well-known that Maureen's appearance was nothing spectacular.
Another girl chimed in:
"Exactly, we don't even know what you look like." In the girl's eyes, there was more pity than curiosity.
Detecting the ill-intent in the boy's words, Maureen didn't want to respond.
Shrugging off, she replied,
"What else can I look like? It's just two eyes and a mouth."
The two were taken aback.
Maureen didn't care too much about their reactions.
Anyway, the scars on her face had almost completely disappeared.
Without taking a magnifying glass to look closely, nobody would be able to see them.
Should she just remove her mask now?
But before she had time to act, a pencil case suddenly flew across her field of vision.
With a crash, it landed on the boy's desk, startling him and making him dodge hastily. Liam gave him a cold glare as if asking,
"Are you trying to annoy me to death?"
He grumbled,
"So noisy, jabbering all day long. I can't stand it."
The boy turned pale in the face of Liam's aura, immediately stopped talking, picked up the pencil case, placed it back on Niel's desk, then quickly retreated to the back of the classroom.
The girl, too, was startled and quickly dipped her head back into her book.
Maureen, who was about to take off her mask, halted in surprise and glanced at her desk mate.
"What are you looking at?"
Liam snorted coldly, his red hair flamboyantly splayed out, his eyebrows arched highly as he glared at her, a scowl on his face.
Seeing that Maureen was still staring at him without speaking, Liam became uneasy.
He put his noise-canceling headphones on and muttered, "Don't feel smug, it wasn't for your sake.
Their noise was annoying me." Maureen couldn't help but laugh,
"Thank you." Her impression of Liam had finally improved slightly from the negative 1000.
She found that although he was rude, he wasn't as difficult to deal with as she thought.
Liam retorted,
"I didn't do it for you." Maureen shrugged, didn't say anything, and bent down to continue filling in the application form.
Liam glanced at her from the corner of his eye.
Seeing her quietly concentrating with a clear complexion, he wondered what she was thinking.
The fact that she had checked her face in the mirror in the corridor proved that she did care about her appearance.
Hearing what was said earlier, she must have been struggling to hold back tears- Of course, there were no tears in the transfer student's eyes, but Liam somehow felt that beneath her mask, her lips were surely pursed in determined silence.
Liam ruffled his hair, feeling inexplicably irritable.
After a while, just as Maureen was about to complete her application form, she was suddenly asked by Liam,
"Do you think I'm handsome?"
Maureen: Was his narcissistic disorder acting up again?
To be honest, this so-called Liam was undeniably attractive, with his handsome features, tall measure, and an aura of a top student that seemed to come with his own background music.
He was the kind of good-looking that made one couldn't help but take an extra glance.
Of course, no one dared to stare at him in School A, because he would freak out at one extra glance. "Handsome."
Maureen lifted her head to see the petite teardrop mole at the corner of his eye, and replied sincerely.
Liam gave a humph, continuing to glance at her,
"Well, that's enough."
Maureen: ? Liam explained, "Because I'm handsome, I don't care about the appearance of my girlfriends— or my friends, or younger brothers.
Anyway, no one can outshine me in looks." Liam gloated,
"So you can rest assured, I do not care about your aesthetics."
Maureen: Thanks a lot.
She was indeed comforted at that moment. ...
Because of the school beauty contest, the class was buzzing all day, so Maureen just casually clicked on the forum before she prepared to sleep.
The very surprising thing was, she found herself nominated.
Of course, she's currently last.
But the shocking thing was that she actually received forty-five votes.
Maureen: ??? Could a photo of her wearing a mask participate?
Did the person who posted this go blind or are they playing her?
As expected, many students from other schools in the forum were shocked and asked who this was, whether a photo wearing a mask could participate in the selection.
Maureen guessed this might be a prank by someone who disliked her, like Ann, and she didn't have the energy to care about this, so she chose to ignore it.
Meanwhile, on the other hand, Niel and a group of henchmen were reluctantly staying up late, urged by the impatient Liam to pick up their pace and cast their votes using multiple accounts..
Everyone was grumbling and cursing Liam.
They originally thought acquiring a 'sister-in-law' would be a delightful event, but who knew it would be so agonizing.
Maureen wasn't bothered with this in the slightest.
She was very busy, preparing for the Association of Hundred Schools competition on one hand and persisting in making desserts after school to bring to Liam the next day on the other, all while looking for opportunities to get closer to Liam.
And so, she was oblivious to the fact that by Friday, her votes had actually surpassed three hundred and fifty, earning a spot within the top twenty on the homepage.
=========
On Friday, after Richard finished playing basketball and returned to the classroom, he overheard some people discussing this.
He frowned, pulled out his mobile phone and took a glance; indeed, Maureen had surprisingly soared to the twentieth rank. Richard was well aware that Maureen was attractive.
As soon as he laid eyes on her two years ago, he couldn't look away.
But given her poor academic performance and thick-skinned nature, Richard initially thought that speaking with her was a waste of time and would deliberately avoid her when he saw her.
However, she had been extremely hardworking these two years, putting in an unknown amount of effort to slowly climb up the ranks to the top five in the regular class.
Actually, she wasn't that bad. When she puts forth effort, no one could contend.
Richard casually casts an unmoved gaze and also casually casts a vote for the person in the twentieth place.
Suddenly, he heard someone shouting his name. It sounded like Maureen's voice.
He stopped in the corridor, hooked his lower lip, turned back with a distant expression, only to find that it was another schoolgirl.
The girl rushed over to hand him a bottle of mineral water.
Instantly, Richard's expression changed, becoming quite annoyed.
Before the girl could run over, he had already silently walked upstairs.
Except for Tuesday when he asked Josephine to deliver his notebook, Maureen practically hadn't appeared within his line of sight this week.
During the sports class of the elite class on Wednesday, Maureen would always ask for leave from the teacher on the excuse of her period, stealthily sneaking off to the sports field to find him.
The same went for every Thursday when he would go to the broadcast room, Maureen would always be there waiting for him.
And then there's the basketball game every Friday.
For two years, Maureen would never miss any of his games— But this is the first time in two years that from the start to the end of a game, she didn't show up amid the crowd.
The international class and the elite class were on the same floor, yet Richard had never run into Maureen.
These past few days, Maureen hadn't passed by the window of the elite class— it seems that for the entire week, she had gone out of her way to take the longer route, always going up and down the stairs near the office building instead.
Richard finally realized, she was really avoiding him intentionally.
But why? Despite the lack of emotion on Richard's face, he walked into the classroom with an icy demeanor, unconsciously glancing in the international class's direction, irritated beyond words.