wedge

Xia Heru woke up early the next day and checked her vote count on the phone. To her disappointment, Han Shuya's photo kept getting votes as usual. Her mood went sour.

She immediately called her father to complain about how second-rate his workers were. When he asked why, she told him everything that happened.

To her surprise, her father grew angry and scolded her, not only for using company resources on such a trivial thing but also for almost causing an incident with the Han family. "Their support is very important to our company," he warned her. "Instead of antagonizing that Han Shuya, you should be trying to make friends with her."

Xia Heru gnashed her teeth in anger after being reprimanded. But the thing that bugged her the most was that she had no idea how Han Shuya managed to get her votes again. After some investigation, she came to the most likely culprit: Ho Joon Jae, the one who created the website.

She then investigated him further. He was the only successor to the Ho family, one of the richest in Country B. He moved to Fengshan city to study computer science at the university and even became the student council president.

Considered a prodigy when it came to computers, he already had enough merits to graduate, but he decided to continue his studies to better prepare for when he takes up the family business. He even enrolled in a business management course along with computer science.

And he had created the site in such a way that he would receive an alert whenever someone other than him tried to operate it, which is what happened the day before when Xia Heru's hacked into the site.

In a penthouse near the university, Ho Joon Jae frowned at the message he received. It informed him that the site was being attacked. He then immediately logged in and noticed how Han Shuya's votes had frozen, while Xia Heru's kept increasing. It wasn't hard to realize that she was the culprit.

He took an hour to solve the problem and a couple more to change the site's code, making it harder to be hacked again.

Xia Heru felt annoyed at that but also happy for learning about him. The thing she desired the most was to be rich and famous, and marrying someone like Ho Joon Jae would fit well with her plans. And so, she decided to pursue him.

The next day, Han Shuya's votes overtook hers.

It would be a lie to say Xia Heru didn't mind it, but she forced herself to calm down and focus on the bigger prize: Ho Joon Jae. 'I'm still the second prettiest on campus,' she thought. 'I can live with that.'

But even second place would be far from her reach. When she logged in the next day, there was a new name occupying second place: Lu Yan Shu.

Xia Heru made a background check on this unknown girl. She was an orphan who got into Fengshan through a scholarship and worked part-time jobs for a living.

This made Xia Heru even more frustrated. Even some poor orphan girl was better than her? She couldn't accept it. Ignoring her father's orders, she once again hired a hacker to tamper with the votes, but this time he was unable to. The site's protection had gotten much better since last time.

And so, the competition became only about Han Shuya and Yan Shu, with only them still earning votes. No one else cared about her. She was forgotten. She became a shadow.

Yan Shu eventually won the title. After that, everyone only talked about Han Shuya's rivalry with Yan Shu.

Xia Heru couldn't accept that, and so she started working on her scheme. First, she got closer to Han Shuya and became her best friend. From there, she lured her into liking Ho Joon Jae, knowing that he already liked Yan Shu.

After Han Shuya was rejected, Xia Heru led her to believe that Yan Shu must have snatched him. Xia Heru's plan worked and she drove an even bigger wedge between the two women who stole the Campus Beauty title from her.

But if the two became friends, then Xia Heru would become a shadow once again. That's why, after seeing the video on the forum, she rushed out to the canteen.