Chapter 7: The World of an Ordinary Girl

Monday. Another rainy day.

Mi Ke stepped out of the girls' dorm with a red umbrella in one hand and a textbook tucked under her arm, crossing the

Hua University campus toward the Sports Science building.

Song Jingyi was in the Performance department, while Mi Ke was in Sports Science, so the two weren't inseparable. When

their class schedules didn't overlap, they only saw each other at lunch and dinner in the cafeteria.

On the walk to the building, Mi Ke noticed a distinct shift in the way people looked at her.

When she'd been fat and ugly, walking anywhere on campus had guaranteed her a steady stream of strange, unwelcome

stares. But today, even as she passed through crowds, closed her umbrella, and entered the building, the students around

her barely glanced her way-as if she were invisible.

Mi Ke folded her umbrella and stepped inside.

Her cool-featured oval face carried a lightness that hadn't been there before.

After last night's upgrade, she'd completely shed the ugly girl tier and become a two-star Ordinary Girl.

A slightly chubby figure. An unremarkable face.

Since the early spring air still carried a chill, she'd layered a gray hoodie over a white T-shirt, which kept her

weight from being as obvious as it would be in summer.

To a stranger's eyes, she was nothing more than an unremarkable girl on a college campus.

And she was enjoying every second of it.

No strange looks. No mockery. No people swerving to avoid her. No inexplicable malice.

The world of an Ordinary Girl.

Although Mi Ke was in the Sports Science department, her major wasn't athletics-based. She studied Sports Human Science.

Her reason for choosing this major was simple.

In high school, her excessive weight had caused more severe wear and tear on her knee joints than the average person.

She'd experience clicking and pain from time to time, and in serious cases, swelling.

She'd gone to the hospital's rehabilitation department for a consultation. Her condition was mid-stage. A single session

of physical therapy plus medication would cost 580 yuan, and she'd need roughly twenty sessions to fully recover-a total

of around 12,000 yuan.

But 12,000 yuan might as well have been a astronomical sum to Mi Ke.

Her parents had divorced when she was in elementary school.

Her father had made a fortune in real estate and married her beautiful mother. But because her mother failed to bear a

son, her father quickly strayed-taking up with another woman.

By the time Mi Ke started kindergarten, her father had kicked both her and her mother out, married his mistress, and

soon fathered a boy.

Her mother had little earning capacity of her own and could only drift from one man to the next-men Mi Ke was told to

call "Uncle."

Fortunately, Mi Ke took after her pot-bellied real estate developer father in looks, which spared her from any sexual

harassment from these uncles.

But the price was her mother's displaced hatred-the daily abuse, the beatings, the venom.

The fact that her mother was still willing to pay for her university tuition had already exhausted whatever dregs of

maternal love remained. There was no question of spending another sum like that on knee treatment.

So Mi Ke had endured three years of pain through high school, gritted her teeth, and tested into Hua University's Sports

Human Science program.

The major covered sports rehabilitation. By studying it, she could treat herself.

She walked into the classroom. The noise of chatter pulled her back to the present.

She found a seat in the middle-to-back rows. When the professor entered, class began as usual. The entire process drew

no special attention.

Halfway through the lecture, the male student beside her turned with an easy smile. "Hey, could I borrow a mar-"

The word "marker" died on his lips. He stared at her face for two seconds, stunned, looking as though he couldn't quite

believe what he was seeing.

"Mi Ke?"

Mi Ke turned her head. Her clear, dark-bright eyes held a calm stillness. "Mm. Did you need something?"

"No, nothing." The guy gave a quick laugh. He forgot all about the marker, ducked his head, and fired off a message in

his dorm group chat at lightning speed.

[Holy shit, I ended up sitting next to that famous ugly girl from our department today!]

[Were the photos you guys showed me last time fake?]

[That Mi Ke girl-she's nowhere near as ugly in person as in the photos. She's just a normal girl, isn't she?]