Chapter 5

Chapter 5

From that day on, Zhou Chi began working even harder.

[Here it comes, here it comes! The male lead is finally going to fight in underground matches. I told you, there’s no future in manual labor. Just moving boxes, who knows how long it would take for him to make a comeback and strike it rich?]

The System was particularly excited and even gave me a rare compliment: [Not bad. Even though you’ve made a mess of the plot, at least you’ve finally gotten things back on track.]

At this moment, I was crouching by Zhou Chi’s bedside.

Once again, I was applying medicine to his wounds.

He deliberately kept things from me, never mentioning the injuries on his body. But I knew that since he started fighting in those underground matches, they would only become more frequent.

[It’s all thanks to how well you handled the plot last time. That outfit really humiliated the male lead. Spending a lover’s money… tsk, anyone who could endure that is as patient as Han Xin.]

I counted the wounds on Zhou Chi’s body-one, three, five…

“I already returned those five thousand yuan to Jiang Yuan. I didn’t use his money to buy the gift.”

The System froze for a moment, then shrieked, [What the hell? No, then where did you get the money?]

Right. I had no savings, no job, and not a single credit card.

Where did the money come from?

I adjusted my hat and remained silent.

[I’ve been meaning to ask-why are you so strange toward the male lead? You’ve been like this from the start. You should just do what a vicious female supporting character is supposed to do. Instead, you secretly pick up flowers, apply medicine, and buy gifts. Why do you keep doing these meaningless things?]

The System couldn’t help but speak up.

I rested my chin on my hand and looked out the window.

In this new neighborhood, there was a tall, lush tree right outside the window.

Hearing the System’s question, my eyelashes fluttered.

“Actually, this isn’t the first time we’ve met.”

In the second month after I was brought back to the Lin Family, the System found me.

As the true daughter of the Lin Family, I didn’t receive the favoritism I had imagined. When the Zhou Family went bankrupt, the Lin Family found it difficult to back out of the engagement for the sake of their reputation. So, they had me marry in place of their pampered fake daughter.

The System appeared suddenly and told me that the man I was marrying was actually the male lead of an urban “comeback” novel. I was his vain and vicious ex-wife; after the male lead divorced me, he would succeed in starting his own business and achieve great wealth and status.

[If you stay in character and finish the plot, I will reward you with a large sum of money,]
the System had said. But that didn’t actually tempt me.

What I cared about was its other sentence:

“You mean, as long as I stay in character, the male lead’s story won’t change, and he’ll be able to make a comeback later and stop living this hard, bankrupt life?”

So, I agreed to the System.

The System didn’t know that I had met Zhou Chi a long time ago.

It was during the eighteenth year after I had been switched at birth. My family had torn up my university admission letter and forced an engagement on me. I stole my ID card and ran away, wandering around the entrance of a university. Eventually, I went to a hot pot restaurant to earn a living.

After scalding my arm, the restaurant kicked me out. I had nowhere to live and nowhere to go. Pain makes a person fragile. While I was standing on a bridge, feeling the wind, I met Zhou Chi.

The twenty-year-old Zhou Chi already had a mature and steady air about him. He took the disheveled me to eat my very first McDonald’s meal. When we left, he packed up the leftover food and walked me to the university entrance. Hidden quietly at the bottom of the paper bag with the ‘M’ logo was a hundred thousand yuan.

“That was the first time I learned that you could still go to school even without an admission letter.”

“I learned that even if you can’t afford tuition, the government has policies to provide financial aid.”

It was just that the mountain village I came from was poor, backward, and feudal.

[No wonder you grew up with this kind of personality,]
the System said after a long silence.

I pursed my lips and gave an embarrassed smile.

I was supposed to have become vicious and vain in that twisted environment, but after meeting Zhou Chi, my life took a turn.

Zhou Chi had probably forgotten. A long, long time ago, I had already received his kindness.

[Do you think Zhou Chi recognized you as that girl from back then?]
the System asked. It didn’t notice that this time, it hadn’t used the cold, clinical label of “male lead.”

“Probably not.”

Back then, I was dowdy, insecure, and scrawny. I looked very different from how I do now.

“I don’t want him to recognize me, either.”

Thinking about the bad things I was doing now, I felt ashamed again. If he saw that the girl he once helped had become so stupid, vain, and vicious, he would be very disappointed.

The System’s voice was stiff: [Don’t overthink it. The plot you’re following is part of helping him make his comeback. As a male lead, his path isn’t supposed to be smooth sailing.]

“I know, I know,”
I repeated.

That was why I was willing when the fake daughter made me marry in her place, and why I was willing to complete this mission. I wanted to see Zhou Chi pull himself together; I wanted to see him rise again.

It was just…

The image of Zhou Chi’s body covered in wounds flashed through my mind. Relying on backbreaking labor, fighting in underground matches, and humbling himself before others.

My eyes slowly grew moist again.

“Why does achieving success have to involve so much suffering?”

I didn’t like it.