"A person is dying of thirst and you force feed her dry biscuits, is that considered doing things for her own good?"

"Do not twist my words. I never said such a thing!" The old crone voice raised several pitches higher. And it caused a buzz to come from the door. Mo Li frowned as she moved towards the door. As she opened the door, she saw the small bug immediately. She plucked it off and walked out, waving her hands as she went.

​​

Participating in the IMO was a waste of time and it would not mean anything to her. She was not unlike the original Mo Li, she was not a rebel without a cause. She had clear conviction and self-driven goals, she was not going to let anyone or anything knock her astray from her path.

In her past life, Mo Li had no one to rely on but herself. This came with its upsides and downsides, the downside was that Mo Li could sometimes be overly willful, unable to empathize with other's feelings; the upside was that Mo Li had always been the master of her own fate.

When she returned to the classroom, Mo Li went back to her seat like everything was normal. Before she could even settle comfortable, the sounds of criticism came like waves.

"Look at that face of hers. She only scored perfect in one test and the air has already gone to her head!'

"If you ask me, a model student is someone like our Qiao Qing, who is good at every subject."

"She really thinks our school wouldn't be able to get first place in the IMO without her? Where did she get that confidence to think so highly of herself?"

Hearing the whispering, Qiao Qing had to jump in and defend her sister, "Girls, please be fair to Mo Li. She has tried very hard this time. The tutor big brother hired for her is clearly very good at his job. For the past week, she has been studying until midnight and her hard work is paying off."

Studying until midnight? Mo Li frowned. Qiao Qing lives in the small building beside the main house, where did she get the impression that I've studied until midnight?

"So what? If you ask me, she's only lucky this time."

"That's right, Qing Qing, don't worry. During the real exam, she'll score worse than you."

"Furthermore, we still have Ding Yi. When both of you get first and second places, someone would have to eat her words."

Qiao Qing could only smile apologetically as if on Mo Li's behalf. Internally though, she was worried. If Teacher Sun really picked her to participate in the IMO... based on the difficulty of the mock exam, she might not do well.

...

Mo Li was secretly thankful of the person who planted the bug. It made her known around the school as the top seed participant for the upcoming IMO. After all, that had been personally verified by Prof. Tao Wen.

Therefore, throughout the day, other than a few girls, who were good friends with Qiao Qing, dropped some sarcastic comments which bounced off Mo Li's skin, no one dared to come find trouble with her anymore.

The person who came off worst from the exchange was definitely the old crone. Her conversation with Mo Li inside Prof. Tao's office was heard by the entire student body. Her reputation was injured and became a hot topic for the school to gossip over tea.

Some of the naughtier male students even dared to mock her as she passed by. Whenever that happened, the old crone would think about skinning and eating Mo Li alive.

...

Mo Li returned to the overwhelming silence at home. When she saw the mountain of paper boxes at the door, she knew that her delivery had arrived.

As she walked into the living room, she saw Mo Yi and Mo Yun, the former was reading the newspaper, while the latter was studying up on the latest regulations released by the nation's trade agency.

Seeing Mo Li, Mo Yun shot a gaze at Mo Yi.

To be frank, Mo Li was a source of minor disappointment for Mo Yi. He had an ideal image of the Mo Family daughter in his mind. She would be a gracious lady, a well-reader scholar and an accomplished pianist.

However, Mo Yi realized that since Mo Li was young, that was not going to come true. Like most fathers, Mo Yi pampered young Mo Li with fairytales and dolls, but she soon got tired of them. She could barely sit through a whole story. She claimed that the fairytales were all lies. She even got into arguments with her parents because of it.

Mo Li was registered to take harp lessons when she was 6 but she would never pay attention during classes. After chasing away 3 music tutors with her antics, her parents finally gave up.

Her attitude didn't change for the better after she got older. After all, her class teacher had called more than one time to talk about Mo Li's rebellious and unbecoming attitude. She even scored a fat zero for a few of her tests.

Members of Mo Family were all good students. They aced their academic subjects and were proficient with many other skills.

"Mo Li." Mo Yi began with a severe expression. After all, Mo Li's future hung on the line, as her father, he had the responsibility to have this talk with her.

"I know you've been studying very hard recently, and it is not that you can't splurge on a few things to reward yourself, but you still have to focus on your studies. High school is the turning point in many people's lives."

Mo Li did not say anything but did acknowledge Mo Yi's words with a nod.