Back in her room, Gu You sat at her desk, opened her laptop, and entered the password from the Original Host’s memories. A black interface appeared, and her fingers flew across the keyboard as lines of code rapidly scrolled across the screen.
System Xiao 8 gasped at the sight. [Youyou, where did you get a Golden Finger? You never exchanged for any skills in the System Shop!]
[Heh, what Golden Finger? This is something I learned while studying abroad. Who knew it would come in handy today. So your System has an exchange shop? What’s in it?] Gu You chatted with Xiao 8 in her mind, her fingers never pausing.
[The shop has skills and pills. Skills include martial arts, cooking, musical instruments, and so on; the pills are mostly from cultivation worlds. If you need anything, you can exchange Points for it in the shop. Fair prices, no cheating anyone!] System Xiao 8 said.
Gu You nodded. [Got it. I don’t need anything for now. I’ll come to you if I do later.]
In just a few minutes, Gu You had gathered all the information she needed. Yes, she was collecting the intimate photos and chat records between the male and female leads on their phones. The two of them had used the school forum to ruin the Original Host Lin Youyou’s reputation, so she would return the favor first.
The engagement between the Lin family and the Jiang family hadn’t been called off yet, and many people at school knew about the arranged marriage between the two families. If she exposed their relationship now, the male and female leads would become the ones condemned by the public.
Even if Jiang Hao tried to trace the poster, Gu You wasn’t worried at all—it wouldn’t lead back to her, because she had routed the posting IP address overseas.
With all that done, Gu You took a nice hot bath and, on her first day in this world, slept soundly through the night.
Early the next morning, warm sunlight filtered through the glass curtains. She opened her bleary eyes, froze for a moment, then quickly came to her senses. She got up, washed up, changed into a tracksuit, and headed downstairs.
She jogged a few laps around the neatly arranged villa district, bathed in the gentle sunlight, enjoying the fresh, quiet morning. Her pace wasn’t fast; she breathed in a steady rhythm as sweat slid down her fair cheeks, soaking through her top.
After her run, Gu You returned to her room. By the time she finished showering and changing, the rest of the Lin family was only just getting up.
While eating breakfast, she scrolled through her phone, browsing the school forum. The post she’d made last night had indeed caused an uproar—it already had thousands of shares. Some people had even reposted it to other social media platforms.
“Shocking! Jiang Family’s Young Master Sweetly Dating a Cinderella—His Fiancée Is Truly Pitiful”
The post quickly went viral on Haicheng’s social media. By the time Gu You arrived at school, it had tens of thousands of shares and comments. As the pitiful female protagonist at the center of it all, she received many sympathetic looks from classmates on her way from the school gate to the classroom.
“Good morning, Youyou.” Gu You had just sat down at her desk when Ning Ning walked in, waving in greeting.
Gu You smiled. “Morning, Ning Ning.”
Ning Ning had seen the post on the school forum too. Seeing that Gu You could still smile, she assumed it was just a forced one. She asked with concern, “Are you okay? Do you want me to go teach that woman a lesson for you?”
Both Ning Ning’s grandfather and uncle were military men, and her father was in politics, so she had learned a few moves herself—even three or five burly men couldn’t take her down.
“No need. I can handle this, trust me.” Gu You took a small bag out of her backpack and handed it to Ning Ning. “This is a cake my mom made herself. She wanted you to try it.”
Ning Ning took the cake and glanced at the exquisite chocolate cake, her face lighting up with joy. “Wonderful! I love sweets the most. Please thank your mom for me.”
While things were calm on Gu You’s side, Jiang Hao and Li Qiuman were having a terrible time. When Jiang Hao saw the post early that morning, he was so furious he nearly smashed his phone. When Father Jiang learned about it, he didn’t even bother scolding his son—he immediately had the IT department of Jiang Corporation try to take the post down.
But this was a post Gu You herself had made. Did they really think it would be that easy to delete? The moment it was taken down, it would reappear again, with the shares and comments even preserved.
Jiang Hao and Li Qiuman were in the same class. Their classmates pointing and whispering at them was one thing, but after class, students from other classes kept loitering in their hallway, their eyes all fixed on Jiang Hao and Li Qiuman.
Things had escalated to this point, so there was no longer any reason for the engagement between the Jiang and Gu families to exist. Jiang Hao planned to propose canceling the engagement between the two families at dinner tonight.
Mother Lin never paid much attention to the school forum, so even by the time she came to pick Gu You up after school, she still knew nothing about it. After exchanging goodbyes with Ning Ning at the school gate, Gu You got into the car with Mother Lin.
As the car slowly pulled away, Gu You sat in the back seat eating the snacks Mother Lin had prepared for her. She pulled her phone out of her school uniform pocket and handed it to Mother Lin.
“Mom, have you heard about what happened with Jiang Hao?” Gu You figured Jiang Hao would propose canceling the engagement when the two families had dinner later, so she wanted to give Mother Lin a heads-up.
Mother Lin took the phone and read the post, trembling with anger, and let out a long sigh. She reached out and stroked Gu You’s hair. “Sweetheart, what do you want to do about this? I think… Jiang Hao is not a good match.”
The Lin and Jiang families were old friends, and Mother Lin had watched Jiang Hao grow up. But now, she had to admit she had misjudged him. Even if Jiang Hao were willing to marry her daughter someday, how could she bear to let her daughter suffer such humiliation?
“Mom, actually I found out about this a couple of days ago, and I’ve already thought it through. Since he’s fallen for someone else, there’s no point forcing it. If Jiang Hao proposes canceling the engagement today, let’s agree. As for the business matters between the two families, Dad can handle the negotiations.” Gu You said with a smile.
Seeing that her daughter truly didn’t seem sad, Mother Lin felt relieved. Her daughter being willing to cancel the engagement was the best possible outcome. Otherwise, a forced marriage would never lead to a happy life.
“Good, it’s wonderful that you see it that way, sweetheart. You’re still young—there’s no rush. I hope that one day you’ll find someone who loves you and whom you love in return. No matter what, you’ll always be our Lin family’s little princess,” Mother Lin said.
Gu You nodded in agreement and gently took Mother Lin’s hand. “I’ll take good care of myself. Right now, I just want to study hard, get into a good university, and be a daughter Mom and Dad can be proud of.”
After experiencing that failed relationship, her daughter seemed to have suddenly matured a great deal, and Mother Lin felt both gratified and heartbroken. The little girl who had been carefully nurtured in a greenhouse had begun to grow strong after weathering wind and rain. Mother Lin also developed a bit of resentment toward the Jiang family in her heart. When they met later, she had no intention of giving them a friendly face.