Moving On from the Tsundere, I Choose the Perfect Sweetheart

Chapter 4: Chapter 4: The Poor School Beauty—Su Qinghe

The afternoon—or rather, evening—sun of winter wasn’t as harsh as in summer. Besides being a bit dazzling, it actually felt quite warm on the skin.

At Mountain City First Middle School, atop the tallest academic building—the one for the senior class—a graceful figure stood silently.

She sat on the edge of the rooftop railing, her small feet, clad in a pair of simple white canvas shoes, dangling and swinging gently in the air.

It was just after school let out, so the campus was swarming with students. Hearing gasps from the crowd ahead, more and more people rushed over to see what was happening.

The crowd below the academic building was growing larger by the second.

Everyone looked up, whispering amongst themselves as they watched the slender figure on the rooftop railing.

”Holy shit!”

”What’s going on? Sitting on the edge of the roof like that... Is she thinking of jumping?”

”I think it’s a girl!”

”Damn... isn’t that the pauper school beauty from Class 5? What’s she doing up there?!”

”Pauper school beauty?”

”Who’s that?”

Just then, a boy with glasses chimed in.

”Dude, seriously? Are you living under a rock? You don’t even know the pauper school beauty, Su Qinghe!”

”That’s Su Qinghe! She dresses simply but has such a pure, pretty face. She looks so gentle and delicate that every guy who sees her can’t help but feel a desire to protect her!”

”And most importantly, she’s a total brainiac!”

”Freaking hell, she’s number one in every grade-wide exam! And you’re telling me you don’t know who she is?!”

”Did you spend every single awards assembly on the toilet or something?!”

A boy who was only about a meter and a half tall but weighed an estimated 220 pounds shot him a look of utter contempt.

”Uh... sorry, I’m a first-year...”

The bespectacled boy pushed his glasses up the bridge of his nose, mumbling sheepishly.

”Pfft!”

”Go on, get out of here. Just a first-year brat, no wonder you don’t know anything!”

The heavy tank... oh... the 220-pound boy, upon learning the other was a first-year, waved his hand dismissively.

He then ignored the clueless, bespectacled first-year.

He looked back up at the pauper school beauty, Su Qinghe, on the edge of the rooftop and muttered in confusion, ”It’s definitely Su Qinghe. But she’s smart and beautiful, like a character straight out of a novel. Why would she suddenly want to end it all?”

”Yeah! I heard the school was going to recommend her for admission to Qingbei!”

”Why would she give up now of all times? What’s going on?”

”Right?”

”She has such a bright future ahead of her. Why would she suddenly want to jump?”

”Who the hell knows!”

...

”Everyone disperse, disperse!”

”Get away from the building!”

”Keep your distance! Back up!”

Just then, the school administrators, having received the news, rushed to the scene. They shouted at the crowd to disperse, wiping sweat from their foreheads.

They couldn’t help it!

They had to be frantic—if Su Qinghe really did jump and ended up killing a few students below, the situation would be catastrophic!

”Su Qinghe, you have to stay calm! We can talk through anything! You’re still young, there’s a whole world of... bah, I mean, there’s a whole beautiful world out there waiting for you to see. Please don’t do something you’ll regret!”

Su Qinghe’s homeroom teacher, Cheng Qiang, had arrived at some point and was shouting up at her from the crowd.

He was so nervous he was starting to speak incoherently.

Meanwhile, Director Luo Yubiao was leading a few security guards and teachers, racing up to the roof as fast as they could.

”Can someone tell me what the hell is going on?!”

”Isn’t the rooftop door always kept locked? How did she get up there?!”

Luo Yubiao gritted his teeth, yelling at the head of school security as they sprinted.

”Director Luo, the door really is always locked! Our guys check it on their patrols every day!”

”We... we really don’t know how she got in!”

The head of security felt like he could cry.

”All right, now’s not the time to be assigning blame. Let’s just hurry up there!”

”Getting her down safely is more important than anything!”

”Otherwise, if something really happens, none of us will get off easy!”

someone reminded the group.

Those words sent a jolt through everyone.

They couldn’t help but pick up their pace, practically flying toward the rooftop of the academic building.

This time, they were truly flying.

...

Meanwhile, Su Qinghe sat on the rooftop railing. Dozens of meters of open air were right below her feet. If she were to lose her balance and fall, she’d be dead or crippled.

But from this height, death was all but certain.

Yet Su Qinghe’s face showed not a trace of fear. Instead, she gazed down calmly.

The pre-dusk sunlight had softened, spilling over Su Qinghe’s face and hair.

The slightly frizzy, yellowish tips of her hair, a sign of malnutrition, seemed to be dyed a shade of gold. Even her eyelashes, catching the sunset’s afterglow, looked all the more heart-wrenchingly lovely. She looked like a princess, but even more so like Cinderella stepping out of an oil painting, inspiring an irresistible urge to pity and protect her.

Indeed!

A person can have the wrong name, but never the wrong nickname.

Pauper school beauty—it was a well-deserved title.

Down below, the crowd of onlookers continued to stare upward, and her homeroom teacher, Cheng Qiang, was still shouting nonstop.

She lowered her head slightly.

A gentle breeze swept by, lifting the bangs from Su Qinghe’s forehead and revealing the exquisite face beneath.

Her complexion was very pale, an almost unnatural shade of white.

It was different from a naturally fair skin tone.

Clearly, it was the result of long-term malnutrition.

If one had to describe it, it was the sickly pallor of a Western vampire.

Leaning forward to look down, she could vaguely make out the crowd below and faintly hear the shouts of her homeroom teacher.

She couldn’t hear him clearly, though.

But from his frantic expression and the desperation in his voice, she could guess he was yelling the usual things: don’t do it, don’t be impulsive, we can talk about anything.

After all, that’s how it always played out on TV.

But!

She was so tired.

’Why does heaven always refuse to spare those who suffer!’

’There was a time when, even though the hardships of life were suffocating her, she was always full of hope. She always believed things would get better, that everything would be okay in the future!’

’Dad left, Mom left, and now even Grandma, the one person she had left to depend on, was gone...’

’Maybe she really was what the villagers said she was—a jinx. Everyone who got close to her, everyone she loved, was cursed to die, one by one...’

’So what was the point of her existing in this world?’

’Maybe I should have died back when I was three...’