“Big gossip!” A WeChat message popped up. It was from Li Wangshu’s deskmate, Lin Can.
“Do you remember the businessman who came to visit the underprivileged students at the graduation ceremony? The super young, super handsome guy wearing a burgundy shirt and glasses?”
Li Wangshu thought for a moment. Although her mind had been completely occupied with exam preparations lately, the man had been exceptionally handsome. He had exactly the kind of refined, charming villain vibe she liked, so she actually remembered him.
“A little. I think his surname was He.”
“Yes, that’s him! I heard he’s still in Xilin and never left. Someone spotted him tonight on Bar Street. They said he brought several minors with him, and some of them are supposedly from our school.”
Tsk.
A real scumbag then. She instantly lost all interest.
After casually chatting with Lin Can for a few more messages, she ended the conversation.
There was only one week left before the college entrance exam. Her parents had strictly forbidden her from helping at their food stall anymore.
It was already 8:30 p.m. and the sky had gone dark. But at this time of year, business continued well into the night. Their snack stall usually stayed open until around eleven or midnight before closing, so she was home alone.
After hearing the gossip, she felt refreshed enough to continue studying. She finished another practice exam, stretched lazily, and headed toward the refrigerator to grab a drink.
The moment she turned around, she saw a blurry figure sitting beside her bed.
It was a woman wearing a white modernized qipao, stained with large patches of blood.
Damn! Her luck was really terrible tonight.
“Don’t be afraid.”
The woman had barely finished speaking before freezing.
Instead of screaming or fainting like she expected, the girl grabbed the broom beside the door and swung it straight at her.
“Wait—”
A gust of wind swept through, and the ghostly figure flickered.
“Holy crap! It really is a ghost!”
The broom passed right through the woman’s body, completely shattering Li Wangshu’s understanding of reality.
Still, she had already died once, transmigrated, and been reborn. Compared to ordinary people, she had seen stranger things. She quickly calmed herself.
“Who are you?”
“I… am you.”
That answer sent goosebumps racing across her body.
Instinctively, Li Wangshu stepped backward. Realizing the broom was useless, she tossed it aside and grabbed an electric fly swatter instead. She wasn’t sure whether electricity worked on ghosts.
She swung it at the ghost again.
“Wait! Wait! I mean no harm!”
The ghost’s figure trembled again, looking increasingly anxious.
“I really am you. I’m the original owner of this body.”
After recovering from the shock, Li Wangshu’s brilliant mind finally caught up with what the ghost was saying.
“You’re the original owner of this body?”
But that didn’t make sense.
When she had transmigrated into this body, it had belonged to a six-year-old child.
The ghost standing before her was clearly an adult woman.
Yet the woman nodded.
“Yes. My name is Ji Lian. I’m the original owner of this body… and the supporting female character in this novel.”
“A novel? A supporting female character?”
There was simply too much information to process. Her brain nearly crashed.
Over the next half hour, the ghost named Ji Lian explained her pitiful yet tragic life.
Only then did Li Wangshu learn that the world she had lived in for twelve years was actually the setting of a novel about switched-at-birth daughters.
Ji Lian was the true daughter of the prestigious Ji family in Baijing. She had been secretly switched at birth by the Ji family’s nanny, whose own daughter replaced her.
That daughter was the novel’s female protagonist—Ji Mo.
Tomorrow, the Ji family would finally discover Ji Lian’s whereabouts.
In the novel, after being taken back to the Ji family, the real daughter was timid, cautious, and constantly trying to please everyone. Yet the fake daughter repeatedly framed her, accusing her of stealing her parents, her brothers, her belongings, and even the man she loved.
Gradually, everyone came to hate her.
Eventually, she snapped.
She truly became a villain, committing one terrible act after another.
Then she was framed into spending a night with a psychologically twisted man who had a criminal record.
Forced into marriage, the two villains joined forces and committed enough crimes to violate nearly half the criminal code.
In the end, they both died tragic deaths.
As Ji Lian spoke, she cried continuously.
Her life had truly been miserable.
“A voice told me that you’re someone from another world who carries immense merit, which is why you were able to be reborn inside my body.”
Ji Lian looked at Li Wangshu with sorrowful eyes that sent chills down her spine.
“As payment for giving you this body, you must fulfill my wish. That voice also said this body can only be used for fifteen years. Twelve years have already passed. In three more years, you’ll die. Only by fulfilling my wish and breaking free from the restraints of the story can you truly become yourself and live a happy life.”
So…
She had just been threatened this casually?
“Your wish…” Li Wangshu frowned. “Is it revenge? Honestly, I think a lot of what happened in your previous life was partly your own fault.”
Her blunt words made the ghost seem even paler.
But Ji Lian didn’t argue.
She simply shook her head.
“I only wanted them to love me. My father, my mother, my brothers… I just wanted to know how I could earn their love.”
“And my husband…”
“It doesn’t matter whether he loves me or not.”
“But… I want him to experience what it feels like to be loved.”
“I can understand wanting your family’s love, but that old man? Wasn’t he a complete psychopath? Why him too…?”
“He isn’t…”
“He treated me very well.”
“We were both victims of fate.”
For a moment, Li Wangshu couldn’t decide whether Ji Lian had developed Stockholm Syndrome or whether two villains had genuinely found comfort in each other.
One thing was certain.
The ghost carried resentment.
But even more than that, she desperately longed to be loved.
Ji Lian had three wishes:
“The story officially begins now.”
“Tonight at 9:30 p.m., at Night Bar on Bar Street, the police will conduct a surprise raid.”
“He Yu will be framed for doing something inappropriate involving minors.”
“He’ll be arrested and sentenced.”
“You have to save him!”