Chapter 3

I woke up feeling incredibly refreshed and headed to school.

Asher and Serena entered the classroom one after another after the second period ended.

Serena, walking in behind Asher, had swollen, glistening lips and flushed cheeks.

Faint hickeys peeked from her neck. It was obvious to anyone what had happened last night.

Asher’s friends exchanged knowing glances and started chanting: “Asher, what happened? Weren’t you going to confess to our class president, Avery? How did you end up with Serena overnight?”

As they spoke, their eyes darted between Serena and me.

They were all curious how Asher, who had rejected Serena so many times, had suddenly gotten together with her overnight.

Asher shot me a dismissive glance, then pulled Serena into a tight embrace.

“Serena and I had some misunderstandings before, but now they’re cleared up. Say hi to your new sister-in-law!”

At his words, Serena’s face flushed deep red, and she quickly buried her face in Asher’s chest.

At the same time, she cast a guilty glance my way. I gave them a bland look and returned to my worksheets.

Serena and I used to be best friends. We were neighbors back then, and we practically lived at each other’s houses, always sharing meals and sleeping over.

I remember being smaller than other kids my age, and often getting picked on by classmates.

Afterwards, she would always take me to confront the bullies. We promised to be best friends for life.

But later, in middle school, her dad got into gambling, and the sounds of him yelling and hitting people often came from her house. My parents told me not to go to Serena’s house anymore. But I felt sorry for her, so I kept playing with her.

Until eighth grade, I suddenly had a growth spurt, and my features became more defined.

The boys who used to bully me started sending me love letters and told me the real reason they had picked on me in elementary school: it was Serena who had used the snacks I gave her to bribe them into bullying me. When I found out, I confronted her.

She sneered, “Why? There’s no why. I just didn’t like you.”

I was heartbroken. Around that time, my parents’ company also started making a profit, and they decided to give me a better environment for school.

We quickly moved out of our old neighborhood. I never expected we’d meet again in high school. I thought we’d be casual strangers.

Until one day after school, I saw her being beaten by a group of people in an alley.

When I went to help her, I found out she was the other woman, and the people beating her were the man’s wife and her friends.

I promised to keep her secret. The very next day, she stood on the rooftop, crying and accusing me of campus bullying.

There was less than a hundred days left until the college entrance exams.

This time, I was determined to study hard, aiming for a top-tier university in finance and management, to take over the company and expand it significantly.

Because Asher had been reborn and was already an adult mentally, he wasn't afraid of the teachers’ authority.

He openly dated Serena at school, not even trying to hide it. He even dramatically recorded their love story on his phone and posted it online.

This was the era when the internet was booming. I knew he wanted to get into the influencer game.

In just a few days, Asher and Serena’s accounts were gaining significant traction.

Ever since I was subjected to that online mob in my previous life, I realized the immense harm that biased, one-sided reports from sensationalist online accounts could cause.

Later, I started learning how to run an account myself, to expand my influence and speak up for more people who faced injustice.

Gradually, I understood how to crack the algorithm for going viral and successfully built a following.

In my spare time, I even started a daily couple’s account with Asher in my previous life, explaining the techniques to him and guiding him to become an internet influencer.

I scrolled through his current account’s cringey, low-quality videos titled “High School Love Daily.” I clicked one open.

They were hugging and deeply kissing, the captions vulgar and overly dramatic. Serena in the video smiled sweetly, swaying her hips in a way that left little to the imagination.

I closed my phone, the comments below full of disgusting remarks.

The account he was running now was the exact case study of the simplest, most successful launch by a popular influencer that I had analyzed and explained to him years ago in my previous life.

It involved starting with controversial content to gain traction, then leveraging a major incident to ‘cleanse’ their image and go mainstream.

I had told him that while this method was simple, promoting problematic values could easily get you banned, and successful transformation was incredibly difficult. Clearly, he had only heard the “simple” part. This time, he was using this strategy directly. I wondered how he planned to pivot later.

I didn’t pay them any more attention. With my experience from the previous life, I also registered an account, studying and running my own content page simultaneously. I absolutely had to seize this internet opportunity.

Their public displays of affection didn't last long. Soon, their indulgent, anti-study behavior was reprimanded by the school, and their parents were notified.

Reportedly, the principal’s office was utter chaos that day. Asher’s family was very conservative.

Knowing that Asher’s grades had plummeted and he faced expulsion, his mother immediately grabbed Serena’s hair in the office and slapped her repeatedly, left and right. The teachers present couldn’t even stop her.

She only stopped when Serena’s dad showed up and saw the scene.

Asher’s mom then started yelling obscenities at Serena’s father. Serena’s father, a notorious lowlife, wasn't angry after learning Serena and Asher were dating and had slept together.

Instead, he started demanding a hefty payout from Asher’s family.

Initially, Asher’s parents refused, but since Serena was underage, taking it to the police would mean Asher could be charged with sexual assault.

And so, with the teachers as witnesses in the office, they negotiated the payout and got engaged.

The principal had originally wanted to expel both of them, but Asher’s mother threw such a dramatic, shameless tantrum on the floor that he reluctantly compromised, agreeing to expel only one.

Asher’s parents, who hated Serena, forced her to drop out so their precious son could continue school.

They believed their brilliant son had Ivy League potential, but was now obsessed with the internet, talking crazy about making money online.

Serena’s father, after getting the money, didn't care about her at all.

Serena dropping out for love caused a huge stir, spreading throughout the school.

The campus social media was filled with praises for their love story.

I seized the opportunity to report on this incident. Soon, the story went viral online, and they gained even more popularity.

Asher was overjoyed, immediately telling Serena to start live streaming from home to make money.

Just as I expected, their follower count skyrocketed.

Their account name changed from “Serena’s High School Love Daily” to “Serena, High School Dropout, Caring for Boyfriend Daily.” I created a new burner account to follow them. After school, I saw them engaging in sleazy live challenges and casually sent them a few thousand dollars in donations.

Watching their beaming faces, a slight smirk played on my lips.

Enjoy this happy time while it lasts.

In the days of peak popularity, Asher took a leave of absence from school to live stream with Serena at home.

He returned to school three weeks later. Asher caused a stir, strutting in his latest Air Force Ones and a PRADA outfit.