Chapter Fourteen: The Forced Bet

  The days are getting colder and colder, and Jing Xian now feels that it's quite painful to get up and exercise before dawn every day, but she still persists, which even her parents didn't expect.

  The final exams are approaching soon, and after that, it will be winter break. Jing Xin'an is not worried about the exams, but thinks she should plan her winter break well.

  But before she could even wait for her vacation, another unexpected event came that she had to attend.

  It's not that it was sudden, but rather she had just been a bystander in her past life, and although she had reincarnated, her instincts hadn't thought that these things would have anything to do with herself, so she had never paid attention to them.

  Because every year's final exam is followed by New Year's Day, the school holds a New Year's Eve party every year, which enriches students' extracurricular hobbies without delaying their studies.

  And Class 8, the head teacher assigned the task of collecting program tasks to the class leader Zou Ze, and clearly told him that at least five programs must be presented during the dress rehearsal, and at least two or three on New Year's Eve party, this is his task.

  "Ji Xin'an, can you come up with a program?" Zou Ze Zheng was worried about the form in his hand, and happened to see Ji Xin'an. He remembered that she had learned for almost a semester and should have something to show for it, so he asked with a hint of pleading in his tone.

  "What can I play! Now it's just the piano, and even that is only half a song with many mistakes." Zhi Xin An's first reaction was not to go.

  "The piano won't do, it's too heavy to move onto the stage, even if we switch to an electronic one it still won't work. This is a program that Yu Yao has had since elementary school. Why don't you play the violin instead!" Zou Ze looked up and saw Yu Yao chatting with Shi Lin, her program was always the first to be written down.

  "Violin? Are you asking me to go on stage and perform or just play with a wooden stick?" The violin is an instrument that requires a relatively long learning period. Although she has made rapid progress, her current level is still far from being ready for performance.

  "What are you performing?! I've almost found everyone in the class to make up for the five of us." Zou Ze was now fed up, most students nowadays still focused on studying, those with special talents were rare to begin with, and even fewer could perform on stage.

  "Who's left now? How many are there?" Ji Xin'an took over the registration form and saw that the first two names were Yu Yao and Shi Lin, followed by Zou Ze himself, and then there were no more. "Three is not bad, it's just a gesture, if five go up and get brushed down, it won't look good, might as well just have three go up and all get selected!"

  "No way, the old class leader gave a death order, we must choose five." Finally, Zou Ze snatched the form and filled in Ji Xin'an's name. "Ji Xin'an, I don't care what you do, even if it's just holding a wooden stick, you have to go up for me."

  "Hey, isn't this forcing someone to do something difficult!" Ji Xin'an took one look at him writing his own name and immediately became anxious.

  "It's just that some people go to bring glory to the class, but some people go and can't do anything, isn't it embarrassing for Class 8?!" Ji Xin'an was about to grab back the form when Shi Lin, who had been paying attention to them from the side, chimed in with a sarcastic tone.

  "Xīn, who offended you? You bite whoever looks at you wrong, and they didn't even owe you money." Zōu Zé heard this and immediately became unhappy. Originally, he was pressuring Jì Xīn'ān to come up with a program, but she came over to stir up trouble.

  Ji Xin'an hastily grabbed Zou Ze, "Shi Lin, I don't know why you always target me, but let me tell you, a person's patience has its limits, don't go too far." Her face also looked somewhat unpleasant. In their past lives, the two of them didn't have much interaction and she didn't understand her very well, so she didn't know why Shi Lin was always targeting her now.

  "Ugh... I'm so scared, if you have the ability to get an award at the New Year's Eve party, then come back and show it off, what's the point of intimidating me?! You think it's easy? Just you, I don't even think getting through rehearsals is possible." Her appearance made Ji Xin'an think of four words 'shrew scolding on the street', but no matter how many times Ji Xin'an was reborn, she still didn't have the courage to argue back with her, it seems that the phrase "personality determines fate" isn't entirely unreasonable.

  Ji Xin'an was really driven to desperation, "Since you said so, then I'll go and have some fun, but what if I accidentally bring back a prize?"

  "Alright, as long as you can get into the top ten, when school starts again I'll be the class monitor for a month. But if you can't make it, then you'll have to do it for a month instead. How about it, are you up for it?" Shilin's eyes lit up as soon as she heard her words, thinking "I've been waiting for this moment".

  "Compare and compare, Zou Ze, you write it down for me. Ji Xin'an's performance program is electronic piano accompaniment." Ji Xin'an heard her bet and thought that it was okay, just being the duty student, not squatting in the corner singing "Conquest", otherwise she really wouldn't dare to bet.

  "Steady, An An." Chen Zhaoyi grabbed Ji Xin'an from behind, trying to stop her, but it was too late.

  "It's better to regret now than to sweep the floor for a month later." Shilin, of course, wouldn't give her the chance to regret.

  "You... I think you're waiting for a month's worth of sweeping!" Chen Zhaoji was also annoyed by her, and now she could only choose to support Ji Xin'an.

  Xilin snorted in disdain and returned to her seat, while Yu Yao, who had been watching with a cold eye, gave Ji Xin'an a deep look but said nothing and turned back to read her book. Perhaps in her opinion, Ji Xin'an didn't have much of a chance of winning this bet anyway!

  "Ji Xin'an, sorry, if it wasn't for me, things wouldn't have turned out like this." Zou Ze said with some guilt.

  "No big deal, you don't have to feel guilty. If she wants to find fault with me, she can do it anywhere. As the saying goes, 'it's easy to dodge a spear in the open but hard to guard against a stab in the dark'. This time she changed her tactics and I'm still able to handle it! Thanks for telling me this, by the way!" At that time, people were too simple-minded and couldn't hear the other meaning behind Ji Xin'an's words. Of course, she didn't dare say it out loud either, so she just found a way to console herself.

  "If you need any help with anything, just let me know." Zou Ze naturally knew she was comforting herself, but didn't make a big deal about apologizing.

  "Don't worry! You can't escape." Ji Xin'an was indeed telling the truth. This time, in order to perform successfully, they really had to rely on his help.

  "Me too." Chen Zhaoji also joined in, friends have 'difficulty' of course help each other.

  The three of them exchanged knowing glances and smiled at each other silently.

  Of course, they didn't know that this scene made Yu Yao grip the pen tightly in her hand, her fingers already turning white. As for Shi Lin, she was rolling her eyes one after another.

  The power of gossip is mighty, and the news of Ji Xin'an's bet with Shi Lin quickly spread throughout the first year, making Ji Xin'an's head-turning rate increase greatly every day she goes to school, and some people even point at her.

  Ji Xin'an was still optimistically thinking in her heart, fortunately, it didn't spread throughout the whole school. In fact, she was overthinking, as the upperclassmen didn't even put them in their hearts. Even if they heard about it, they would just think of it as two little girls quarreling and playing with each other's mouths!

  So Ji Xin'an became a public figure in her first year of high school, although this was not her intention.