Song Zhi opens her eyes to find herself inside a campus science novel, cast as Shen Yanchuan’s ex-girlfriend, “the most beautiful and most hated woman in the book.” In the original plot, she’s shallow and clingy, always holding him back. In the end, a more accomplished heroine replaces her, while Shen Yanchuan rises to legendary heights in a so-called “peak romance.” But the System tells her she must keep up her difficult-girl act and break up with him at the designated point to survive. Song Zhi plans to follow the script until it’s time to leave, but then she sees Shen Yanchuan at the entrance to the lab building after an all-nighter, forcing himself to keep working on his data. His fingertips are cold, and the bloodshot veins in his eyes look like a shattered web. She suddenly understands that the original story’s “peak” comes at the cost of his life. So she makes a scene in public while secretly dismantling the plot: she uses scandal to secure resources, and misunderstandings to shield him, rescuing him from his doomed fate. The original heroine arrives right on schedule, but for the first time, the plot goes off the rails. Shen Yanchuan looks at her and asks quietly, “Are you going to leave, or will you stand by my side?”
