Shift! The Side-Character Heroine

Chapter 14: Looking For A Helper

Translator: EndlessFantasy Translation Editor: EndlessFantasy Translation

After Zhao Youyue recovered from her thoughts, she helplessly realized that she still have a lot of homework to do. Well, she was just a tenth grader, how can there be so much homework, she pondered while feeling depressed.

Subconsciously, Zhao Youyue wished to use her phone to check for the solutions straight away, saving herself some mental effort. However, she suddenly remembered the version of herself who studied extremely hard in the Dimensional Gate. How can she let herself be outshined by ‘Xu Jing’?

She silently left her phone beside her bed to charge and conscientiously started to complete her homework. This made her feel more at peace. Otherwise, if she was no longer able to enter the Dimensional Gate one day, wouldn’t she become a completely useless person?

Therefore, Zhao Youyue decided that she still needed to work harder in real life, even though these efforts seemed sporadic, as if they were sudden inspirations. For example, today she may have painstakingly completed her homework without the help of her cellphone; but if she had overindulged herself during the holidays and had not even written a single word on her homework up till the very last day, she would surely leave her conscience behind...

Zhao Youyue is indeed this kind of girl. If one was to comment that she is a lazy person, Zhao Youyue would somewhat show that she can be hardworking at times. To comment that she is the sort of person that is super diligent and has the motivation to improve will be a bigger baloney. Even she herself gets terrified when she is slacking off.

Currently though, she has a heart that longed to mess around and seek sense of presence. But what she needed was a positive image, not the kind of clown-like image where she will do something silly and embarrass herself. Even if she gained a sense of presence that way, there will only be jeering laughters when people thought of her. Urm, not to mention, she will still be easily forgotten...

Zhao Youyue did not solely want to become iconic characters in those novels, manga-s and games. In fact, she wanted to be the ideal heroine even in real life and will be paid great attention wherever she goes and receive heartfelt respects from everyone.

As Zhao Youyue gathered up a burning passion, she suddenly remembered something and her face sunk – she still needed to write the 3,000 words remorse letter, what a pity!

Although few days have passed, Mr. Qiu has yet to ask her for the remorse letter. Perhaps he has really forgotten about this matter. However, the possibility of this is quite low because the seventh-generation Fruit Phone that was confiscated from her was rather expensive. If it were some random books that were confiscated, it will not be a big deal even if they were not returned. But still, it is impossible that an expensive item like a cellphone is not being returned.

Therefore, Zhao Youyue must produce the 3,000 words remorse letter as soon as possible, just in case. Meanwhile, she has decided that as long as Mr. Qiu does not proactively request for the remorse letter, she will treat it as if nothing has happened and try to slip by the unpunished...

She has just completed her homework. For some of the questions which she was really unable to solve, she had no other way but to check for the correct solutions using her phone. This troubled her and in fact made her even more appreciative of the time spent learning in the Dimensional Gate. She also decided that whoever got in the way of her learnings in the manga, be it the hero or one of the “plain Jane-s”, she will make them suffer the consequences. As for now, she hoped to spend a longer time learning within the Dimensional Gate so that she can boost up her wobbly foundation from her previous days. She had no idea how long the manga “Pure Romance” could go on as a series but in any case, the longer the better.

Zhao Youyue was not so ambitious as to create an iconic character instantaneously and to also inherit a powerful ability. She found out that it was not really bad to become a side-character’s background board, silently learning and gathering knowledge. Well, this way seemed pretty reliable though.

Since working on her homework has drained most of her positivity, she certainly did not want to write the remorse letter on her own. She pondered in her mind, which candidate could she approach for help, hmm...

Nowadays in school, she has actually gotten closer to her classmates. Her relationship with her deskmate, Zhou Fang can be considered the closest. Sometimes they will casually chat about some girls’ topics. But one thing for sure was that Zhou Fang will surely be unwilling to help her with the remorse letter, let alone her bestie and dorm mate, Zheng Wen. In terms of her personality, Zhou Fang was not the type of person that is eager to lend a helping hand. What is more that this is a rather risky matter to do. If they were found out by Mr. Qiu, the consequences will be dire. It could completely wreck the relationship between Zhou Fang and herself as deskmates.

Undeniably, some girls can be quite petty. At times they will keep the smallest matters into their hearts. It is feared that this will gradually develop into unmanageable bigger issues. On the other hand, boys are comparatively much better in that aspect. Even if they physically fought, they will still have a chance to become best buddies again as long as they do not take it by heart.

Apart from Zhou Fang, Zhao Youyue has also gotten closed with the two boys seated in front of her, Wang Yang and Jiang Chao. The first person enjoyed web novels and the other one liked manga-s. Both of them have a common language after all and often hard-sell their respective favored works to one another.

Coincidentally, “Pure Romance” was also one of Jiang Chao’s top favorites. While he was vigorously recommending this sexually themed manga to Wang Yang, he noticed that Zhao Youyue was also intently listening. Immediately, he restrained his perverseness, changed the topic in the speed of light and started talking about another battle manga.

To discuss a particularly sexual manga in front of a girl was indeed quite an embarrassing affair. Little did they know, that the very experienced Zhao Youyue has already finished reading the latest issue of “Pure Romance”. She even played a side-character’s background board in the manga.

Well, probably because they noticed that Zhao Youyue seemed to be interested in the topics of their discussion. They had the feeling that Zhao Youyue was not the uptight kind of girl who seemed concerned about her studies. Come to think of it, she had gotten her cellphone confiscated just as the semester started. Indeed she is one of us...

At the same time, she did not seem to patronize the two of them. As usual, they often turned around and chatted with Zhao Youyue after classes ended. The two of them also enjoyed mocking each other in front of Zhao Youyue and telling corny jokes with deadpan expressions to make her laugh. Well, it is because she looked really nice when she laughed.

Appearance was a consequential fact. In reality, they thought Zhao Youyue seemed rather compatible with them. She had an easy-going personality and it did not wasted much efforts in getting along with her. As for Zhao Youyue’s deskmate Zhou Fang, they felt that she was the epitome of boring girls. Correspondingly, Zhou Fang also would not think twice to plaster the word “Dislike” on her face. She was totally disinterested in web novels, manga-s or anything like that. Oh well, she perceived these as a huge scourge towards her study.

However, Zhou Fang’s results was actually not that bad, she ranked eighth in the entire class for the pre-test. This meant that she had a very firm grasp over her junior high knowledge, unlike dabblers like Zhao Youyue who messed about throughout her days in junior high.

It was still alright to chat casually with these two boys, but to ask them for help with the remorse letter will be akin to forcing them to do something beyond their abilities.

The other students she was closer with, were none other than the respective subjects’ representatives who came to her every morning to collect her homework. Among these people, the mathematics subject representative, Chen Hao always seemed chattier with her. But he was very inclined with Sciences, less so with arts or languages.

She suddenly thought of one candidate, a boy named Han Leng who was also her classmate. He was very good at writing essays. In fact, when the language test paper was being explained this time, Mr. Qiu even asked him to read aloud his essay as the model answer.

Most importantly, Zhao Youyue remembered that he was actually her classmate since junior high. Even at that time, he already had the title “gifted scholar” as he was adept at writing. It was rumored that he even started a business on ‘Love Letter Ghostwriting’. Hmm.. She thought perhaps she could ask him for help. After all, they are former classmates...