Gu You rubbed her head and slowly lifted it to look around. She was in a classroom, where a female teacher was lecturing at the podium. She looked at the open book in front of her—oh, it was English class.
“Xiao 8, why didn’t you warn me that entering a Mission would give me such a headache?” Gu You rubbed her temples, grumbling inwardly.
The voice of the System, Xiao 8, sounded in her mind: ”This is your first time entering a Mission. You’ll get used to it. Would you like to begin receiving the Plotline?”
“Let’s wait a bit. We’re in class right now—what if the teacher calls on me?”
Gu You looked down at the English book on her desk. For someone who had studied abroad, the contents of this book were child’s play.
She could score full marks without listening at all, but she still put on an appearance of paying close attention.
When the bell finally rang, the teacher announced class was over. Students streamed out in groups of three or five—some heading to the school shop, some to the rooftop to smoke, others to the restroom.
Gu You hadn’t yet received the Original Host’s Plotline and was afraid of giving herself away, so she hurriedly followed a few girls to the girls’ restroom, shut herself in a stall, and called for the System to transmit the Plotline.
The Original Host was named Lin Youyou, the daughter of the Lin family in Haicheng. Her parents doted on their daughter endlessly, and her eldest brother was a devoted sister-con.
Growing up in a wealthy family with her family’s unconditional pampering had made her spoiled and willful.
The family business was naturally handled by her eldest brother, so her family’s expectations of her were low—as long as she was happy, that was all that mattered.
Lin Youyou had a childhood-friend fiancé, Jiang Hao, the young master of the Jiang family, who was in his final year of high school just like her.
The only problem was that the Original Host, Lin Youyou, was a hopeless academic failure, while Jiang Hao was a top-three student in their grade.
Originally, the male lead Jiang Hao had been lukewarm toward Lin Youyou. The parents of the Jiang and Lin families were friends as well as business partners, so Jiang Hao had no objection to the engagement. Marriages between wealthy families were perfectly normal.
But in their final year, the unexpected happened. The female lead, Li Qiuman, transferred into Jiang Hao’s class.
On the very first day of the new term, Li Qiuman’s bicycle crashed into Jiang Hao’s limited-edition sports car right at the school gate.
The two of them started arguing at the gate. Jiang Hao hadn’t intended to make a fuss at first, but when he saw Li Qiuman’s cool, stubborn eyes, he decided he wanted to tease this girl.
The argument ended with Li Qiuman unable to pay the hundreds of thousands in repair costs, so Jiang Hao proposed that she run errands for him at school, repaying the repair fees with her labor.
Li Qiuman’s family only ran a small fast-food restaurant; her parents couldn’t earn hundreds of thousands in a year. Where would she get the money to compensate for Jiang Hao’s car repairs?
But she’d run into this on her very first day at the new school, and there was no avoiding it, so she had no choice but to agree to Jiang Hao’s demand and run errands for him at school.
When he first made the request, Jiang Hao simply found the girl rather interesting.
But as he spent more time around Li Qiuman, he gradually came to understand just how different this girl was.
Although Li Qiuman’s family was poor, she treated money as nothing. Every time Jiang Hao gave her money to buy things, he never asked for the change back.
Yet every single time, Li Qiuman returned the leftover money to him. When he gave her little trinkets as gifts, she refused to accept any of them.
In the past decade-plus, Jiang Hao had never encountered such a contradictory girl in his life. Most people, when poor, would set aside their ridiculous pride.
When Jiang Hao learned that Li Qiuman went to work a part-time job every day after school, he slipped her a bank card, but no matter what, she refused to take it.
Jiang Hao and Li Qiuman grew closer and closer at school. Every break between classes, Jiang Hao would have Li Qiuman buy him food and drinks.
When he played basketball, he had Li Qiuman hold his jacket and towel for him.
After school, Jiang Hao often took Li Qiuman out to dinner and to the movies.
By the time the Original Host, Lin Youyou, caught wind of it, Jiang Hao and Li Qiuman were already together, appearing as a couple most of the time.
Lin Youyou’s feelings for Jiang Hao ran deep. Since childhood, her parents had told her that Jiang Hao would become her husband one day.
She had always believed it too. So no matter how spoiled and willful she was, in her world, there was only ever one Jiang Hao.
Unable to accept this outcome, and egged on by a pack of bad friends, Lin Youyou bullied Li Qiuman at school, and even hired people to cause trouble at the place where Li Qiuman worked her part-time job off campus.
Jiang Hao proposed to his family that the engagement be called off, but Lin Youyou refused no matter what.
She had the Lin family put out word that if the engagement were canceled, all joint projects between the Lin family and the Jiang family would be suspended.
They would also withdraw all investments. This would cost the Jiang family over a billion.
Jiang Hao, who would stop at nothing to get what he wanted, actually drugged Lin Youyou and knocked her out when she went to a bar to drown her sorrows, took some photos of her, and slandered her as being promiscuous.
Then he posted the photos on the school forum, where they racked up an astronomical number of views and shares. Countless people left comments on the forum cursing Lin Youyou as shameless.
That Li Qiuman was no good either. On the surface she seemed indifferent to fame and fortune, refusing to bow to money—all an act—while scheming behind the scenes.
The comment section on the forum was led by her using a sock-puppet account, guiding others to attack Lin Youyou.
Pointed at and whispered about by her classmates at school, Lin Youyou fell into despair under the weight of public opinion.
After Lin Youyou’s death, the Jiang family, fearing that Father Lin and Mother Lin would seek revenge over the matter, struck first: they staged a car accident that killed both of them in what appeared to be an accident.
The Lin family’s eldest son, suffering the deaths of his sister and parents one after another, along with the news of the Lin family business collapsing, broke down under the blow and lost his mind. He was sent to a psychiatric hospital.
Meanwhile, the male and female leads got engaged in college and later held a grand wedding.
The story of this ordinary girl marrying into a wealthy family successfully caught the media’s attention, and the media plastered everywhere their coverage of this “modern Cinderella” tale.
After receiving the entire Plotline, Gu You felt that this Lin Youyou really was pitiful—to end up like this over a man who had never cared for her.
But there was no helping it. Lin Youyou was a Villainous Female Supporting Character, and in the end she always had to make way for the female lead.
“What is the Original Host’s wish?” Gu You asked the System, Xiao 8.
Xiao 8 replied, “First, cancel the engagement with Jiang Hao and make sure the male and female leads come to no good end. Second, protect her parents and her older brother. Third, study hard, get into a good university, and live this life well.”
Gu You nodded. “The Original Host’s demands aren’t high at all. So, how far along are the male and female leads in their relationship now?”
“Yesterday, Jiang Hao had just confessed to Li Qiuman, which means today is only their second day of dating,” Xiao 8 said.
Only the second day—no rush, take it slow. After receiving all the Plotline, Gu You walked out of the bathroom and, looking in the mirror above the sink, saw that the Original Host had quite a lovely face.
A slightly youthful oval face, clear and bright eyes, gently curved willow-leaf brows, long lashes trembling faintly like butterfly wings, and fair, flawless skin. What an innocent, pure-looking girl.
As someone who appreciated good looks, Gu You was quite satisfied. She smiled.
Having finished admiring the Original Host’s beauty, Gu You walked back to the classroom to continue class.
She planned to study hard—after all, the Original Host’s wish was to get into a good university.
It had been over a decade since her last college entrance exam, so preparing for it again would take some serious effort.