4 Chapter 4: Friends

The weekend passed quickly and soon it was Monday. Su Ning had spent the past few days pestering Mother Qin to let her go back to school since she was bored at home. Mother Qin had been against the idea initially as she wanted her daughter to get more rest. However, after much pleading Su Ning managed to convince Mother Qin to let her attend school on Monday.

Su Ning was quite excited since she has been out of school for 7 years. In her past life, before her family's economic situation deteriorated, she enjoyed going to school and hanging out with her friends. However, after her father's small company went bankrupt, he became addicted to alcohol and further plunged the family into debt. He never tried to find employment elsewhere. Afterwards, her mother tried to work to support the family but ended up falling ill and dying of ovarian cancer. Su Ning's life had changed drastically; she took on multiple part time work to finish her studies. She had no time or money for friends or hobbies. In the end, she chose a university major that would provide financial stability in the shortest period of time. She slowly repaid their family's debt and tried to save money for retirement while supporting her father's vices. Who would have known she would die before age 30.

Now, as Su Ning, she has the freedom to enjoy school life and maybe even pursue some extracurricular activities! Buoyed by these positive thoughts, she waved goodbye to Father Su who dropped her at the school entrance. Su Ning did not notice anything wrong until she entered her classroom, 1-3 (Grade 1 class 3). Somehow, her reception feels lukewarm. She had been on leave for at least a month and a half due to her surgery. So Su Ning was expecting a more heartwarming welcome from her classmates. Instead, they just nodded and said some perfunctory greetings.

Su Ning had a rather bemused expression on her face as she found her desk from her memories. Just then, a shy bespectacled girl wearing pigtails, greeted her enthusiastically. "NingNing, I am so glad you are back! I brought you some soymilk." Su Ning recognized her immediately as Li Youqing. The original body has many memories of this person so Su Ning responded sweetly. "QingQing, thank you! I missed you."

The little girl Youqing froze at Su Ning's words. Then proceeded to tear up and hug Su Ning. 'Ah?! Well I guess it's alright that the original body doesn't have many friends. At least she has someone who deeply cares for her like QingQing.'

Meanwhile, Youqing who was deeply touched cried in her heart. 'My NingNing has finally called me by my nickname! She even said she missed me!'

"NingNing, I photocopied the notes for the classes you missed." "Wow. Thank you so much! Let me treat you to milk tea after class for this!" "Uhm really?! Okay!" 'As expected NingNing is the best. She is only cold outside but inside she is actually a nice girl.' thought Li Youqing.

Before class started, Su Ning took the opportunity to ask something she has been curious about. "QingQing, after surgery I lost some of my memories. I'd just like to ask, am I an outcast in school?" QingQing's eyes widened as she refuted Su Ning's question. "N-No way! It's just Su Ning is so pretty like a fairy and is absent a lot so… so our classmates were unable to get the chance to get close to you." Su Ning was dumbfounded, "Ah?! Then how did you and I become close?" Li Youqing's cheeks reddened as she recounted how Su Ning had given her some Belgian chocolates and how she followed her around ever since.

This reasoning was a bit… childish, no it's definitely childish. Plus, from looking through the original Su Ning's memories, it appears that she didn't like the flavor of the chocolates she got from the Gu Mansion so she just gave QingQing the entire box. It was definitely not out of goodwill. But seeing the sincerity and eagerness in the other girl's eyes, Su Ning could only utter. "As I thought, QingQing is my best friend." This further elicited a shriek of joy from Li Youqing which didn't go unnoticed by other people in class.

Su Ning began to hear murmurs around them and was slightly embarrassed. She turned to Youqing who sat in front of her and said "I would like to get along with the rest of our classmates as well. So help me pick out some snacks to give them later okay." Li Youqing nodded in agreement.

Soon after a girl with chin length hair and freckled face sat beside her. Su Ning decided to take initiative to greet her tablemate. "Hello, I am Su Ning. I just got back from the hospital and lost some of my memories. Can you please remind me of your name?" The girl was somewhat surprised at how polite Su Ning was speaking. They were only tablemates for 2 weeks before Su Ning took a leave so they didn't know each other well. "Hello, I am Lin Miao. It's nice to meet you." "En, let's get along well." Su Ning grinned.

The rest of the day flew by fast. Before school let out, the head teacher of 1-3, Mr. Song reminded everyone to nominate 2 participants for the school singing contest to be held next month. The students were very excited since the school will be open to the public that day and there are no classes after the singing contest. The students usually go out to play together after.

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