Chapter 3: The Butterfly Effect Triggered by a Breakfast

The school was not far from Jiang Mo’s home, just a ten-minute walk. Upon arriving at the exam hall, the first thing Jiang Mo did was to temporarily ignore the system. He couldn’t have it popping up halfway through the exam, with someone like Biyang suddenly blurting out something like, “Moshi Moshi ten years from now.”

As for Jiang Wanfeng... that woman was somewhat absurd, so she had to be temporarily blocked out as well. Jiang Wanfeng’s temperament must have a reason behind it; having spent so much time with her, Jiang Mo was sure her true nature wasn’t bad—it was just that she was difficult. Not only did her appearance carry a certain sharpness, but her heart was equally prickly.

His future was trapped by Jiang Wanfeng. Only by improving himself first could he hope to change her and thus free his destiny.

Now, the question was: how to turn off the system to avoid distractions during the exam?

“Staring at a beautiful girl for more than three minutes allows a temporary system shutdown for three hours,” the system’s voice rang out.

Jiang Mo nearly slipped into a red-hot panic state before the math exam even began. What nonsense was this? Where was he supposed to find a beautiful girl to stare at for that long? He was already inside the exam hall, waiting for the papers to be handed out. Neither the invigilator nor the hall monitors would let him off the hook.

After a brief moment of thought, Jiang Mo decided to rest with his eyes closed. The first exam was Chinese, which shouldn’t be too affected. Afterward, he could look at a pretty girl for a bit, maybe Hu Yuen or little Tingting. Although his tone had been harsh yesterday, he couldn’t skip his daily “surveillance” entirely.

Having admired Hu Yuen for so long, collecting some interest was only fair.

As for Jiang Wanfeng... she was out of the question. Jiang Mo felt that even if he stared at her for just ten seconds, she’d probably have already planned the name of his grandson. Childhood rivals were like that.

“Beautiful girl, beautiful girl...” Jiang Mo murmured with his eyes closed.

Suddenly, as if responding, a gentle fragrance swept by. The chair in front shifted slightly, and the tips of a girl’s hair brushed against his arm, sending a tingling sensation through him.

He looked up and saw a girl seated in front. She smelled wonderful, like the wheat fragrance from a steamed bun shop he passed every morning.

Just seeing her silhouette was comforting.

[Stared for ten seconds]

[One minute...]

[Three minutes, system shut down]

When the exam papers were distributed, the girl held a stack of answer sheets and test papers. She turned slightly, her cascading hair like willows swaying in the spring breeze, blurring the gentle delicacy of her face, dispelling the weariness of midsummer and brushing past the softness of late spring.

“Classmate? The papers have been handed out,” she said softly.

“Ahem, okay,” Jiang Mo replied, taking the exam papers.

“Oh, and the answer sheets,” she reminded him with a small smile, not quite natural, seeming a bit shy.

Damn, Jiang Mo thought, being treated like a robot by a beautiful girl.

“Oh, thanks,” he said with an awkward smile.

—

Looking at the exam papers and answer sheets in his hands, Jiang Mo felt, for a fleeting moment, that the papers seemed unusually lovely. He wasn’t sure if it was because the beautiful girl had touched them or because he had studied well the night before.

Chinese exams typically started with dictation. Jiang Mo recalled the lines he had memorized:

“Guan Guan cries the ospreys on the island in the river...”

He put pen to paper.

“A fair and virtuous lady, a fine match for a gentleman...”

The Chinese exam lasted two and a half hours. After a whole holiday break, the sudden intensity was a bit hard for Jiang Mo to adjust to.

But when he looked up and saw the glowing white neck of the beautiful girl, he felt a surge of strength. Even the reading comprehension, his weakest point, he wished he could write out every psychological nuance of the author—though that might make him seem a little crazy.

“Beep beep beep~~~”

The end of the exam was signaled by a whistle, mimicking the high school entrance exam format.

“Phew...” Most students exhaled in relief after the Chinese exam.

Apart from a few top arts students, the Chinese results were unpredictable—how well one did depended entirely on the mood of the graders.

The difficulty of the exam was hardly felt.

So, most students left grinning.

Except for the girl in front, who frowned deeply, clutching her stomach and resting her head on the desk.

At first, Jiang Mo thought she was catching up on sleep; adjusting after the holiday’s time difference wasn’t easy, and the cafeteria wouldn’t open for another hour and a half. With so many people in the classroom, resting there was understandable.

But as almost everyone else left and twenty minutes passed, he noticed sweat beads forming on the back of her neck. Something was wrong.

It looked like a stomach ache from missing breakfast. Jiang Mo had experienced that himself, and taking a Chinese exam on an empty stomach was brutal.

A cup of warm water and some alkaline food would help greatly.

He remembered the breakfast he had prepared in the morning for Jiang Wanfeng. Well, he hadn’t eaten it himself; he might as well give it to her as a small repayment for the daily “spying.”

If the little breakfast had consciousness, it would surely feel honored to be eaten by such a beautiful girl.

With this in mind, Jiang Mo wrote a small note and stuck it to the breakfast bag.

To avoid embarrassing her, he gently tapped the damp sweat on her back. In her moment of surprise, he quietly placed the breakfast on her desk and slipped away.

Hiding by the door, he watched as she looked around in confusion and panic before finally noticing the breakfast behind her desk, her expression relaxing as she accepted it.

A few steps outside, the system popped up again. The three-hour shut-off period was over.

“The gentle and charming girl, Chen Yajie, may not be as simple as you think.”

Not again! Jiang Mo groaned. He was close to developing PTSD. Why did every pretty girl have some dark secret?

“Surely my little breakfast wasn’t given to a bad woman? Being eaten bite by bite by a mischievous beauty is quite the reward.”

“Enjoy me.”

“The girl suffers from depression she herself is unaware of, and has underlying physical ailments.”

The system’s voice abruptly stopped in his mind, and Jiang Mo’s thoughts froze.

Not a scandal, but something even more unsettling.

Beautiful things are always desirable; seeing them break is always sad.

Jiang Mo couldn’t tell if she truly had depression, but if the system wanted to play this way, he was in trouble.

“Your life path has slightly changed; the future ending has been altered.”

“Ten years later, Jiang Wanfeng receives a package. After hesitation and softening, she passes it to you.”

“Inside the box is a girl’s memorial photo, a love letter from ten years ago, a cold steamed bun and soy milk, and a worn little note.”

He’d forgotten the earlier details, the middle part too—what good was this ending?

Jiang Mo wanted to see more of this strangely sad and confusing future, but the system cut him off, providing only this bleak conclusion.

“The little note...”

...

The little note was taken down by the girl.

Holding the still-warm bun, Chen Yajie bit into it lightly, silently reading the words on the note as she ate:

“The bun is from Chen’s Breakfast on Zhongshan Road. Eat without worry. I am Qin Shi Huang, who cannot bear to see a pretty girl hungry.”

“Qin Shi Huang...” Chen Yajie didn’t understand the reference but found it inexplicably funny. Her almond-shaped eyes and the corners of her mouth curved into a cute crescent moon, dulling her pain somewhat.

She thought to herself:

“This person is strange. How can he be so sure I’m hungry? What if I have menstrual cramps?”

She imagined that if it were cramps and not hunger... how would she respond to the kindness from ‘Qin Shi Huang’?

Probably force herself to accept it and endure the pain while eating, right?

So embarrassing... The girl’s habit of feeling embarrassed for others struck again.

Fortunately, Jiang Mo guessed correctly: the girl often skipped breakfast to stay alert during the sleepy mornings.

Eating too much before class made many high schoolers drowsy, so they chose to eat less beforehand.

Today, Chen Yajie followed this habit, but it unexpectedly triggered a stomach ache.

“It’s still our family’s bun...” Chen Yajie murmured, sipping soy milk and writing “Thank you” on the little note before putting it into her pencil case.

She glanced sideways, her eyes sparkling as she looked out the window, causing a wandering young man in the corridor to shy away.