Licheng, Bishan Residential Area.
Gu Lai woke up slowly. A warm breeze drifted through the window into the room, making her feel relaxed and refreshed.
Opening her eyes to look around, Gu Lai was momentarily dazed. The desk, the wardrobe… everything that met her eyes was completely unfamiliar.
Where is this?
Before she could process her thoughts, a crackling electronic sound rang out of nowhere.
[Host anger level detected reaching 100%. The host has now been dropped into the “Sweet Pet” world.]
A tidal wave of memories surged forward, washing directly over Gu Lai’s brain.
She remembered. Right before losing consciousness, she had been reading a novel titled Sweet Pet.
The second female lead in the book, Cang Wei, could be said to have completely refreshed her understanding of a desperate simp.
The male lead wanted to buy a watch; Cang Wei saved her living expenses for two months without eating or drinking just to hand the money over immediately, only to pass out from hypoglycemia herself.
She couldn’t swim, yet at a single word from the male lead, she jumped into the city moat to retrieve a piece of clothing, almost drowning in the end.
Countless examples like this existed. Gu Lai laughed bitterly, having no choice but to look up and sigh: “Well, that’s quite a life.”
With that, she slammed the book onto the floor and trampled on it fiercely, the sheer fury causing her ears to ring repeatedly.
As for the original book’s protagonist, he was even less of a human being. Not only did the male lead constantly demand money from Cang Wei, but he even deliberately made fun of her by tricking her into jumping into the river in front of his friends.
Just as Gu Lai was transmitting a flurry of flowery profanities over the internal radio,
Crack!
A flash of lightning cut through the darkness like a silver snake.
And then,
That was right now.
Gu Lai sorted through her thoughts without a trace of panic. As a seasoned web novel reader, she was no stranger to concepts like rebirth, transmigration, and systems.
“Very well,” Gu Lai rubbed her hands together. Transmigrating into a supporting character and then slapping faces—she had read plenty of such satisfying web novels, and today she could finally put it into practice.
“Cang Wei, oh Cang Wei, don’t worry. I will definitely vent this frustration properly for you,” Gu Lai muttered to herself, growing increasingly excited.
[The host’s identity is: new transfer student]
The system’s voice sounded once again.
?
Gu Lai was stunned for a moment.
“What? Didn’t I transmigrate as Cang Wei?” she asked in disbelief.
The original book never mentioned any transfer student; this was presumably a cannon fodder extra.
How come everyone else gets to transmigrate as protagonists or supporting leads, yet when it comes to her, she becomes a background NPC?
[The host’s identity is: new transfer student]
The system considerately repeated itself.
Looking at the fluorescent screen, Gu Lai quickly calmed down. Cannon fodder it is, then; who knows, maybe cannon fodder can have their spring too.
Things having reached this state, she chose to accept it. It wasn’t because she was particularly magnanimous, but rather because she genuinely had no other choice.
Since she couldn’t change the current situation, she might as well lie flat and give up.
“How can I return to reality?”
[Complete the mission to return to the real world]
Following the system’s prompt, a light blue panel unfolded before Gu Lai’s eyes.
[Mission: Save Cang Wei, Remaining Time: 99 Days, Mission Progress: 0%]
“Save Cang Wei…?” Gu Lai murmured to herself. She remembered that the original book never mentioned Cang Wei’s ultimate fate.
“What does ‘save’ mean?” she continued to ask, “Does it mean making Cang Wei stay away from the male lead?”
After all, as far as Cang Wei was concerned, the male lead was the root cause of her tragedy.
[Changing the trajectory of fate constitutes saving]
Gu Lai was speechless; the usefulness of that sentence was practically negligible.
“If I fail to complete the mission on time, what will the consequences be?” Gu Lai felt an inexplicable surge of unease. The punishment wouldn’t be something like electric shocks, would it?
[Mission Failure: Elimination]
Elimination, huh? Well, that’s alright. At least it wasn’t some random electric shock. Gu Lai felt somewhat relieved, as she was usually most afraid of pain.
Wait.
Gu Lai processed the meaning of “elimination” in her mind and instantly froze in place. She then began instinctively counting off the various sins of her lifetime.
Good heavens, even though I usually use a top-tier AI to play chess with elderly grandpas, my sins don’t warrant the death penalty, do they?
For a moment, Gu Lai was torn between laughter and tears.
“Changing the trajectory of fate… System, can you be a bit more precise?” Gu Lai asked once more. Since her life was on the line, she didn’t dare take it lightly.
“System?”
“Is anyone there?” No matter what she said, the system refused to speak again.
This damn system—after rambling on for so long, wasn’t that equivalent to saying absolutely nothing?
“If you’re going to be this tight-fisted with words, don’t become a system in the first place,” Gu Lai muttered inwardly, nursing a tiny spark of thunderous anger.
“The mission is probably to make Cang Wei stay away from the male lead. But the specifics will have to be tested out step by step.”
Gu Lai thought that it wasn’t a state of complete despair just yet. With the system panel present, once the mission progress changed, she would be able to figure out the exact objective.
As for the countdown,
That really was a troublesome matter.
Ninety-nine days wasn’t very long, but it wasn’t short either. If it accumulated bit by bit, calculating based on completing one percent per day,
Then she would just barely collapse right before the gates of victory.
Although Gu Lai’s personal motto was “surviving is fine, dying is okay too,” she still had unfulfilled wishes. Even if she were to die, it wouldn’t be inside this book world.
Let’s cross that bridge when we come to it. Thinking of this, Gu Lai’s mind cleared up. She then began checking the identity the system had assigned her on the panel.
Her name hadn’t changed. The system panel was still suspended mid-air, emitting a faint reflection in which Gu Lai’s appearance could be vaguely seen.
Just as it was at eighteen.
“Right, System,” Gu Lai refused to give up and spoke again, “If the mission is completed, aside from sending me back to the real world, are there any other rewards?”
[Mission Reward: 5,000,000.00]
Gu Lai counted that string of numbers with keen interest:
“Units, tens, hundreds, thousands, tens of thousands, Mom, Dad.”
Gu Lai leaped up from the bed. Five million?!
As heaven and earth as her witness, she had never seen this much money in her entire life.
“No more words needed. For the sake of completing the mission, and for a bright tomorrow, I, Gu Lai, will brave fire and boiling water, and will not refuse.”
“Hey,” Gu Lai remembered something else, “What currency am I supposed to spend here? This transmigration happened too suddenly; I didn’t bring any valuables with me.”
The system’s electronic screen, which was just about to fade out, hung suspended in the air once more. As the blue light flickered, Gu Lai saw a stack of cash appear on the nearby desk, mixed in red and green colors, featuring both bills and coins.
“Good system, peace for a lifetime,” Gu Lai pressed her palms together in gratitude.
“Hey, wait a minute,” she spoke up again. The color of the system had shifted slightly, a pure blue tinged with a hint of orange.
Rubbing the bridge of her nose, Gu Lai said, “If I’m inside the book, wouldn’t I have vanished in the real world? If my parents come looking for me…”
This time, before she could finish, the system’s fluorescent screen displayed a line of text:
[Time flow speeds differ]
[99 days in this world equals 99 seconds in the real world]
“Oh, oh,” this time even the voice prompt was absent. Gu Lai felt that this system was quite different from the ones she had read about; its temper was far too impatient.
But that didn’t matter—Gu Lai had never been so magnanimous before—five million, how should she spend it best?
“The sun shines brightly in the sky, the flowers smile at me,” a cheerful nursery rhyme drifted out leisurely. Gu Lai bolted up from the bed as if she had seen a ghost.
Are you kidding me? This singing even came with vibrations, exploding right next to her ear and startling her heartbeats by a couple of beats.
Gu Lai got up, but the sound was still playing. Reaching out to grope around, she found a brand-new silver-white iPhone 4, which was currently displaying an unknown phone number.
Gu Lai picked up the phone and answered.
A female voice came from the other end: “Is this student Gu Lai? I am An Xin, the head teacher of Class Seven.”
Pondering the plot for a moment, she remembered that the second female lead of the original book, Cang Wei, seemed to be in Class Seven.
“Hello, Teacher. I am Gu Lai.”
“Student Gu, today is your first day attending class. I’ll have a student go—”
Before finishing that sentence, the voice on the other end of the line suddenly became distant: “Hey, stop right there! Late again? What number of times is this for the week? Go to the school gate later and pick up the new student.”
Following that, An Xin’s voice returned to normal: “Student Gu, you’ve just transferred and aren’t familiar with the place. I’ve asked someone to meet you at the entrance.”
“Thank you, Teacher.” This sentence was expressed with sincere gratitude. Because Gu Lai had a bit of a poor sense of direction and sometimes couldn’t tell east from west.
Hanging up the phone and glancing at the time, it was currently 8:30 AM.
As a fairly liberated college student, Gu Lai had also survived the bitter trials of high school, and she knew the hardship and bitterness of it all too well.
Glancing around the room, a set of school uniforms was draped over the chair beside the desk, leaving Gu Lai in a moment of silence.
Could it be that school uniforms in every single world are blue and white? She mentally grumbled; the aesthetic of these school leaders really was remarkably uniform, a classic passed down through the ages.
Putting on the school uniform, Gu Lai suddenly gained an extra block of memories, which simply included the information she needed right now.
Her memories automatically surfaced with the school’s location; it wasn’t far away, about a fifteen-minute walk. But she had no intention of walking.
Walking over to the bus stop sign, Gu Lai turned a blind eye to the taxis passing back and forth.
The money given by the system wasn’t that abundant; she should save where she could and spend where she must.
Beep!
A car horn sounded from far away, and a red bus stopped in front of Gu Lai.
“Are you getting on or not?” the driver urged impatiently.
Gu Lai hurriedly dropped her coin into the box and boarded.
There weren’t many people on the bus at the moment, so Gu Lai found a seat by the window. Thinking of the plot in the original book, she pondered her mission.
Soon enough, however, Gu Lai discovered she wouldn’t have time to think about that.
The bus speed increased rapidly, and the scenery along the street retreated swiftly. Immediately afterward, the vehicle made a sharp turn, and Gu Lai almost flew out the window.
What on earth is going on? Was this driver a fighter jet pilot in a past life?
She gripped the seat tightly and sat with a pounding heart, terrified that the driver’s drifting skills would fling her straight into the arms of a grandmother carrying groceries in the adjacent seat.
Gu Lai stole a glance sideways; the grandmother was sitting quietly with her eyes closed, completely unmoving amidst the turbulence. She suddenly felt that she really lacked physical exercise.
Moving like lightning.
When the bus finally stopped, Gu Lai checked the time: the trip had taken five minutes. She guessed that this probably wasn’t even the driver’s full strength.
[No. 7 High School]
“Truly an ace pilot.” Massaging her somewhat sore legs, Gu Lai decided that come tomorrow, she would under no circumstances take this bus route again.
There weren’t many people at the school gate. A sparse few students were walking forward, except for one person who was standing lazily, leaning against the doorway.
Being caught tardy was bad enough, and now she was even made to come out and pick someone up. Cang Wei stood at the school gate with a listless expression and a touch of annoyance.
Hearing the screech of the brakes, Cang Wei raised her eyes to take a look at this esteemed transfer student.
Soft morning light fell upon her. The young girl was examining her surroundings, the corners of her lips curling up unconsciously. Her face resembled peach blossoms in spring, and her demeanor was elegant and composed.
Noticing the gaze, Gu Lai lifted her eyes to meet the person’s gaze ahead, deep in thought. She walked a bit closer and said, “Hello, classmate. I’m the transfer student, Gu Lai.” With that, she extended her right hand forward.
The person opposite seemed to hesitate for a moment, paused briefly, and then reached out to shake hands in return.
“Cang Wei.” Her voice was very clear, clean with an underlying chill.
Cang Wei?
Gu Lai was stunned. She hadn’t expected the person right in front of her to be Cang Wei.
For no other reason than that the original book hadn’t described Cang Wei’s appearance; yet judging by her series of naive and brainless actions, Gu Lai had assumed this person should have a pure, cute, and adorable look akin to a silly white sweet or a delicate white lotus.
But the person right now…
Not so much identical as completely irrelevant.
Her long hair was draped casually over her shoulders, and the sky-blue school uniform made her skin look pale, her lips lacking even much color. A mole sat between her eyebrows; her eyes were clear and aloof, and her figure was tall and slender.
Even when devoid of emotion, she is still moving. Gu Lai suddenly recalled this phrase.
No way, how could this turn out completely different from what she had imagined? Gu Lai silently complained to herself twice in her heart.
She found it completely impossible to imagine this Cang Wei before her as the same person from the book.
Seeing Gu Lai fall silent, Cang Wei didn’t speak further either. With a glance signaling her to follow, she turned and walked into the school grounds.
Gu Lai followed behind slowly, not saying a word. To be honest, she was currently experiencing a bit of social anxiety.
What was more, Cang Wei looked surprisingly aloof, completely unlike someone who would pay her any mind.
The person Gu Lai was currently thinking about was giving her a slight sideways glance.