“Yes, it’s her. Right after your comrades withdrew yesterday afternoon, she was taken away last night.”
Gu Shaoxuan spoke with righteous indignation: “I strongly suspect that those people were likely her accomplices. Otherwise, why would they need to take her away in such a hurry?”
Chu Lingfeng’s lips twitched. Were he and Yuan Zheng her accomplices?
“No need to investigate. I was the one who picked her up last night.”
Gu Shaoxuan: “…”
The other police officers: “…”
“She applied to go to the countryside herself. Last night, I was just taking her to the station. She should have boarded the train early this morning.”
Gu Shaoxuan was stunned for a long moment before he managed to respond: “Where did she go?”
How could she go to the countryside? Why would she go to the countryside? What had he ever done to wrong her?
He had even given up the employee family housing for her and handed her fifteen hundred yuan.
Never mind that she had sent five hundred yuan to someone else right after receiving the money—she still had a job! How could she just go to the countryside?
Moreover, such a major decision, and she hadn’t even discussed it with him. Did she still regard him as her husband at all?
Chu Lingfeng continued walking without stopping, replying indifferently: “Where else would one go when sent to the countryside?”
For some reason, he didn’t want to tell Gu Shaoxuan the truth.
He had no respect for this man—divorcing his wife for another woman and causing the death of his own child.
No wonder Nan Zhu would rather leave, even knowing the dangers outside, than stay here any longer.
Since she no longer wanted anything to do with them, he couldn’t betray her.
Still, he disdained lying, so he gave this ambiguous answer, leaving it up to Gu Shaoxuan to interpret it as he wished.
The possibilities for where one could be sent to the countryside were vast—he could imagine whatever he liked.
Gu Shaoxuan stared darkly at his retreating back: “She wanted to go to the countryside, so you just sent her? She just had a miscarriage—her health is so fragile. How could you…?”
Chu Lingfeng turned back and looked at him coldly: “Do you even care? How long has it been since you last saw her?”
All of Gu Shaoxuan’s words stuck in his throat. He wanted to defend himself, but he didn’t know what to say.
He had only pretended to divorce her—why didn’t anyone believe him?
…
Meanwhile, in the middle of teaching a class, Liang Yourou suddenly heard a mechanical voice in her mind.
“Alert! Alert! The female protagonist is moving away from the host. She has left the system’s range. The system can no longer capture the female protagonist’s aura, which is extremely detrimental to the host. Please locate the female protagonist as soon as possible.”
Liang Yourou shuddered, and the chalk in her hand fell to the floor.
The female protagonist is moving away? That bitch Nan Zhu has left the system’s range?
How could this happen?
She quickly asked inwardly, “What is the range of your detection?”
“The system can capture her anywhere within the city.”
Liang Yourou frowned. So, Nan Zhu had left Leshi?
Why would she leave? She was an orphan—where could she go? Had she found clues about her biological parents and left to reunite with them?
No, all of that should belong to her.
Since she had been reborn, she was the true female protagonist of this world.
“What effect will her departure have on me?”
Taking a deep breath, she bent down to pick up the chalk and calmly asked.
“This system is a Female Protagonist Cultivation System. It can only gradually transfer the original female protagonist’s aura to the host, allowing the host to replace her and become the new female protagonist.”
“If we fail, the system will collapse, and you will relive the same path as your previous life, or even worse.”
Liang Yourou’s heart trembled, and the hand holding the chalk shook uncontrollably.
Relive the same path as her previous life, or even worse?
No! She absolutely could not walk that path again. She wanted to become the new female lead, to replace Nan Zhu’s life.
“Is there no way to steal someone else’s luck and transfer it to me?”
When she was reborn, she had accidentally bound herself to this system and learned that she was merely a cannon-fodder supporting character in a fictional period novel.
Her intense resentment at the moment of her death had attracted the Female Lead Cultivation System, which bound itself to her. It could help her seize the female lead’s luck, steal her life, and become the new female lead.
But this system was truly useless. Apart from helping her steal the female lead’s luck, it couldn’t assist her in any other way.
She had no choice but to shamelessly use her deceased father’s connections to force Gu Shaoxuan to divorce the female lead and marry her instead.
Only if Nan Zhu suffered more would she thrive, until she successfully replaced the female lead, became the new protagonist, and lived a happy life.
Everything had been progressing smoothly until Nan Zhu was discharged from the hospital and unexpected events began to unfold.
First, the Gu family was robbed, and now Nan Zhu was leaving?
Moreover, Nan Zhu’s departure could cause her mission to fail, leading to an even worse fate than her previous life?
No!
Absolutely not!
She would never allow it!
“Teacher, are you okay? Are you feeling unwell?”
She remained crouched without responding, prompting a curious female student in the front row to ask.
Liang Yourou snapped back to reality, supporting herself on the desk as she stood up.
“Class, I’m not feeling well. For the rest of this period, please study on your own.”
She had to stop Nan Zhu from leaving.
Staggering out of the classroom, she paid no attention to the bewildered students behind her.
After requesting leave, she hurried out.
Gu Shaoxuan had driven her to school in the morning, and she didn’t have a bicycle. To get to Gu Shaoxuan’s school quickly, she had to hire a bicycle to take her there.
But when she rushed to Gu Shaoxuan’s school, she was informed that he had taken the day off.
Standing in the school corridor, Liang Yourou felt a sudden chill run through her body.
How had things come to this?
Shouldn’t that bitch Nan Zhu have obediently returned to work at the textile factory, slowly losing everything to her, and ending up alone in her old age?
No, she couldn’t just sit back and do nothing!
She quickly left the school, not returning to the Gu residence but instead heading to another district and entering a dark, narrow alley…
…
Thanks to Yuan Zheng’s assistance, Nan Jin smoothly settled into a sleeper berth on the train.
Clatter! Clatter!
Amid the rhythmic clattering of the train, Nan Jin drifted in and out of sleep.
When mealtime came, Yuan Zheng bought food, woke her up, and always tried to make the meals as refined as possible.
Looking at the dimming sky outside, she couldn’t help but ask, “When will we arrive in G City?”
“Tomorrow afternoon,” Yuan Zheng replied, studying her expression. “Are you feeling unwell anywhere?”
Nan Jin shook her head. Apart from her period not being completely over, she was fine otherwise.
After resting for a few days, the injuries from her beatings in prison no longer hurt much.
“What are your plans next? Do you really intend to stay in the countryside forever?”
Holding her chopsticks, Nan Jin gently picked at the food in her bowl, her voice soft.
“I have no plans. I’ll take it one day at a time.”
Yuan Zheng said seriously, “Comrade Nanzhu, you are still young and have a long road ahead of you. Men are not the entirety of life—women can hold up half the sky.”
“You are perfectly capable of living well on your own. With the country developing in all aspects, you may still find a suitable partner in the future and form a harmonious family.”
“You really shouldn’t trap yourself in a dead end—it only brings suffering upon yourself.”