On the way back, Chu Fanyin still hadn’t come down from her joy. She kept muttering about all the dishes she was going to make for her precious daughter when they got home.
“Cola chicken wings and sweet and sour spare ribs are a must—Xiao Bao loves those. And pineapple sweet and sour pork, and crispy fried meatballs…”
Chen Mian, sitting beside her, heard his mom rattling off a bunch of sugary dishes and couldn’t help but complain with a frown: “Mom, with all that sweet stuff, are you trying to give someone a sugar coma? It’s not like Chu Luyu’s the only one eating later.”
“Shut up. Your sister hasn’t been home in ages. What’s wrong with letting her have her way today?” Then, her mood suddenly dipped. “Ever since I slapped her that time, it’s been so long since we’ve all sat down and had a peaceful meal together.”
A few months ago, the original owner had thrown a massive fit because Chen Mian accidentally broke a bottle of her cosmetics.
She’d screamed and yelled that he did it on purpose just to make her miserable.
Chu Fanyin had tried to calm her down, speaking gently and coaxing her, promising to buy her new makeup—even ten sets if she wanted.
But the original owner wouldn’t let it go. She even accused Chu Fanyin of favoring her younger son, saying she just wanted her to shut up. Then she’d wailed that she was unwanted in this family, that everyone was sick of her.
Fine then—she’d just go die! She’d go die!
No matter how willful the original owner was, Chu Fanyin could tolerate it.
But this daughter was the precious child she’d brought out of such adversity. Chu Fanyin had always treated her as her most important person. Hearing her talk about dying completely broke her.
With red-rimmed eyes and trembling hands, she’d given Chu Luyu a hard slap across the face and screamed at her: “How much longer are you going to keep this up?!”
It was after that day that the original owner started coming home less and less.
She’d only call when she needed money from Chu Fanyin. Until later, when she accidentally overheard something about the engagement between her stepfather’s family and the male lead’s family—then she’d swaggered back home with her head held high.
The driver, an old employee of the Chen family who knew the mother-daughter situation well, saw Chu Fanyin’s spirits flagging and quickly offered a few words of comfort.
“Madam, it’s been months now. Even if Miss still had any resentment, time must have worn it down by now. Don’t go overthinking things.”
Every time Chen Mian heard about this incident, he felt uneasy himself.
Truth be told, he actually felt guilty toward Chu Luyu because of that slap—but he never showed it on the surface.
Taking the driver’s cue, he chimed in too: “Yeah, Mom. And honestly, you weren’t wrong to hit her back then. She was being annoying.”
Chu Fanyin was so mad she wanted to smack this unfilial son too: “As if you’re not annoying! You’ve given your father and me plenty of headaches too!”
“Tch…”
Chen Mian looked like he couldn’t be bothered to argue and went back to scrolling on his phone.
A WeChat notification popped up at the top of his screen.
[Big Brother]: How is she?
[Chen Mian]: Nothing serious, just period cramps. The doctor gave her a painkiller shot. She seemed fine after waking up, but Mom freaked out and insisted on dragging her home to look after her for a few days.
When Chu Fanyin had dragged Chen Mian to the hospital, Chen Zhou had happened to text him earlier asking about how things were at home. He’d been on a business trip for over half a month. During that time, Chu Fanyin and Chen Huanian had gotten into a fight—apparently, Chen Huanian hadn’t been home for days. Chen Zhou seemed very concerned about his father and stepmother’s situation, checking in with Chen Mian now and then to ask if the two elders had made up.
Around noon, the brothers had been chatting when Chu Fanyin suddenly rushed to the hospital with her younger son in a panic. Chen Mian had casually mentioned Chu Luyu’s hospitalization to his older brother.
[Big Brother]: Is she staying at home for a few days?
There was a long pause before a reply came.
[Big Brother]: I’m coming home today too. Should land around evening.
Chen Mian was baffled.
[Chen Mian]: Didn’t you say earlier that you wouldn’t be back for a few more days? Why the sudden change?
Chen Zhou seemed to have gotten busy—no more replies came through.
—
Chu Luyu rode back in Jiang Hezhou’s car.
On the way, she chatted excitedly with the system, asking about her family members.
Chu Luyu: [What do they like and dislike? Any taboos? I saw that cheap younger brother of the original owner had a sour face all day and kept snapping at people. Seemed like he really doesn’t like me. Should I stay out of his way?]
System Cuihua: [The original owner’s brother is a dutiful son—he cares a lot about his mom. I don’t know what’s in his heart, but on the surface, he’s pretty accommodating to the original owner. She used to be awful and always picked fights with him. He’s hot-tempered too, but when they argued, he’d usually just go red in the face, stiffen his neck, and storm out to cool off by himself. As long as you don’t go too far, he probably won’t cause you trouble.]
System Cuihua: [As for the mom’s attitude, you saw it today. She’s fiercely protective and spoils the original owner rotten. About seventy percent of the original owner’s personality was enabled by her. So with her, you can pretty much do and say anything—as long as you’re not committing arson, murder, or threatening suicide, she’ll go along with it.]
System Cuihua: [As for the others in the family…]
Chu Luyu caught the hesitation in the system’s tone: [Is there something wrong with the stepfather and stepbrother?]
System Cuihua: [Not exactly. The stepbrother’s fine—the original owner never had any major conflicts with him. The stepfather… At first, he was just like her mom—quite fond of her and protective. But because the original owner was so high-maintenance, always causing some drama every few days, and with the mom unconditionally and unreasonably taking her side every time, he’s grown more and more exhausted over the years. Recently, they had a huge fight over some small matter related to the original owner, and he’s been staying at the company ever since, not coming home.]
Chu Luyu hadn’t expected that at all. She opened her mouth but didn’t know what to say.
In the real world, after her father kept remarrying, he’d essentially left her half-wild.
He would cover her living expenses, but he never allowed Chu Luyu to live with him. She knew, though, that this was surely a condition set by each new wife he married.
After all, who would want to live with a stepdaughter around all the time? So every single time, she had always been the first one her father gave up on.
Now, hearing the system talk about the original owner’s mother and stepfather, her feelings were truly complicated.
From her perspective, Chu Fanyin was a mother as good as any could be. Since she was here now, she couldn’t let things continue to deteriorate like before.
Chu Luyu: [Cuihua, I’ve decided—this time when I go back, I’m going to help repair the relationship between the original owner’s mother and stepfather. Since I’m now in the original owner’s place, enjoying everything she had, I also have an obligation to clean up the messes she made. But wait, something just occurred to me…]
She hesitated for a moment before continuing: [Cuihua, I’ve actually been wanting to ask—why did I end up transmigrating here? And after I came, where did the original owner go?]
System Cuihua: [Every host comes with the mission of helping the plot get back on track. As for the original owner… she chose to end everything here herself. Even if it weren’t you, someone else would have come to take her place.]
Chu Luyu felt a bit dazed. She’d originally felt somewhat guilty for taking over the original owner’s life, but after hearing what Cuihua said, she was filled with confusion.
Why would anyone give up such a good life? Was it because the starting point was too high, so the threshold for happiness and contentment was also too high?
And she, who had grown up receiving so little in the real world, found this current life particularly wonderful?
Her expression unconsciously turned pensive and wistful. Jiang Hezhou, driving beside her, had no idea what she was thinking. Seeing her suddenly off, he assumed her stomach was acting up again.
“Does your stomach hurt again?”
Chu Luyu snapped out of it, turned to him, and shook her head. “No.”
The road ahead was smooth and empty. Jiang Hezhou kept one hand on the steering wheel, his posture relaxed and composed as he spoke: “Has it always been this painful during your periods?”
Chu Luyu was surprised that a guy would so openly discuss period issues with her. But then she remembered—he was a forensic doctor, a medical professional. Of course he wouldn’t be bothered by such topics.
She told him the truth: “Yeah, it’s really painful every time.”
Jiang Hezhou was silent for a moment, then replied: “A colleague of mine knows an experienced Chinese medicine practitioner specializing in gynecology. I’ll take you to see him in a few days and have him take your pulse.”
Chu Luyu blinked and asked: “If I need to get my constitution regulated, does that mean I’ll have to drink herbal medicine?”
“Most likely.”
“No way. I can’t handle that.”
Jiang Hezhou assumed she was afraid of the bitterness. His tone softened unconsciously, as if coaxing her: “If you’re scared of the taste, I can ask them to make the medicine into pills. You can just swallow them with water.”
“…It’s not the bitterness. It’s the dietary restrictions.” Chu Luyu looked a little embarrassed and averted her gaze. “Last time I took Chinese medicine, I couldn’t eat anything spicy, stimulating, or ‘fattening’—it was so depressing. I can’t do that. I can’t handle it.”
Jiang Hezhou didn’t say anything, but Chu Luyu could already read a hint of speechlessness in the surrounding silence.
After a moment, he spoke again: “I remember when I first met you, every time we ate, you said you were on a diet. Why haven’t you mentioned that lately?”
Chu Luyu panicked and quickly asked the system what was going on.
System Cuihua: [The original owner was indeed very concerned about her figure. She was always doing liquid fasts or egg fasts. The times she met the male lead just happened to fall on her diet days, so she barely ate anything each time.]
Chu Luyu: […] [So what do I do now? I’ve been here for days and I’ve been eating pretty freely at every meal. Has the male lead already noticed something’s off? Is he testing me now?]
System Cuihua: [I don’t think so. You’re just a supporting character who’s been annoying him. He probably wouldn’t pay that much attention to your oddities. He was probably just asking casually—don’t scare yourself.]
The system made sense. Chu Luyu also figured she was just a minor supporting character in the drama; logically, the male lead wouldn’t care about her.
Still, to be safe, she decided not to answer the question directly.
Just then, the traffic light ahead turned red. Taking advantage of the dozens of seconds Jiang Hezhou didn’t need to drive, she leaned over toward the driver’s seat.
“What do you mean by that? Are you saying I eat too much now? That I’ve gotten fat?”
She mimicked the way she’d seen girls online pick unreasonable fights with their boyfriends, tugging on Jiang Hezhou’s sleeve and pouting.
“Tell me—are you really starting to find me annoying?”
Chu Luyu had no idea how adorably playful she looked right now.
As she leaned in, sunlight streamed through the windshield onto her face. Her fair skin, already flawless, looked even more perfect under the light—so smooth that even pores were invisible. A soft gleam shimmered in her eyes, like water rippling in sunlight, bright enough to catch anyone’s attention and soft enough to make people want to sway along with her.
Jiang Hezhou caught that citrusy scent again—sweet, so sweet it made his head feel strangely fuzzy.
The light turned green. A car behind them honked impatiently. He snapped back to reality as if waking from a dream, pulled his arm away from Chu Luyu’s grip, his expression growing taut.
“Let me focus on driving.”
Chu Luyu froze. She looked down at her hand, which he’d shaken off, and asked the system in disbelief: [Cuihua, did you see that? The male lead… he just flung my hand away like it was a parabola! Oh my god, I was just joking around and being playful—why did he overreact like that?]
System Cuihua: [He’s already irritated by you. You suddenly leaned in close and tugged his sleeve, being all clingy—of course he’d be annoyed! A big reaction is totally normal.]
Chu Luyu suddenly realized: [Right, the male lead doesn’t like me. It must be really annoying when someone you don’t like grabs your sleeve and acts coy.]
With that, she looked relieved, turned back around, and settled properly into the passenger seat.
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