“How did we corrupt Shang Xu and Ji Yan? He Family's Eldest Miss, could you stop falsely accusing us?” Jiang Yi spread his hands. “They’re clearly the abnormal ones.”
He Chan rolled her eyes at him, folded her arms, and snorted. “You behave improperly yourselves, then call others abnormal. I don’t care what you do, but don’t persuade Shang Xu and Ji Yan to join you in your depravity.”
Jiang Yi muttered, “They’d have to be persuadable first.”
Hearing this, He Chan’s expression improved.
Ji Yan calmly served juice to the two ladies as He Chan’s fate flashed through his mind.
The System had only asked him to save his own fate and Su Xiang’s; it had made no demands concerning the other Female Supporting Character, He Chan.
Yet He Chan, the Female Protagonist’s foremost rival in love, had a far more tragic ending than either of them.
The He Family and The Shang Family were evenly matched in status. He Chan and Shang Xu grew up in the same compound residence, but one later entered politics while the other went into business. Everyone in The Entertainment Industry knew of He Chan’s feelings for Shang Xu, and even the elders of both families strongly encouraged the match.
Shang Xu was cold by nature, but He Chan was open and proactive, and he never directly rejected her. Everyone assumed they would end up together—until the Female Protagonist, Lin Ranran, appeared.
At first, He Chan did not take Lin Ranran seriously. She sympathized with Lin Ranran’s circumstances and offered her help. Only after Shang Xu repeatedly broke his principles for Lin Ranran did He Chan realize that something was wrong.
But by then, everything was too late. Her attempts to save the situation or cause trouble became key developments that deepened Shang Xu and Lin Ranran’s feelings, drawing the male and female protagonists ever closer.
He Chan, whose family background, abilities, appearance, and talent all surpassed Lin Ranran’s, was just like Su Xiang. Unwilling to watch the man she deeply loved have all his attention stolen by an ordinary girl, she began down an extreme path.
When threats and enticements failed, the male protagonist Shang Xu turned against He Chan, warned her, and drew a clear boundary. He Chan descended into madness and sought to target Lin Ranran through illegal means.
Yet how could Lin Ranran, the Female Protagonist, possibly come to harm? He Chan instead dragged the entire He Family into the conflict, and Shang Xu and Ji Yan joined forces to suppress them. In the end, The He Family withdrew from Hai City, while He Chan suffered humiliation and self-harm.
Ji Yan gave He Chan a complicated look. Who could have imagined that He Family's Eldest Miss, now proud and dazzling, would fall so far three years later?
“Why hasn’t Shang Xu arrived yet? Wasn’t his flight at five?”
He Chan looked anxious, regretting that she had not gone to the airport to receive him herself.
Su Xiang took her hand and comforted her. “The driver arrived long ago. Flight delays are normal. He should be here soon.”
He Chan turned her head again. “How does my makeup look? Has it smudged?”
“No, you look beautiful. Perfect.”
Seeing He Chan so uneasy, Su Xiang felt heartache for her Best Friend. The one who loved more deeply was always more humble. Though she was an existence worshiped by all of Hai City, she feared she was not good enough whenever she faced Shang Xu.
Compared with Shang Xu, Su Xiang felt Ji Yan was better. Whether he was genuinely attentive or merely acting out of gentlemanly conduct, Ji Yan treated her with consideration and thoughtfulness and never made her feel troubled or inferior.
Her gaze met Ji Yan’s. He nodded, patted the back of her hand, and said, “I’ll go take a look. Perhaps some heedless idiot has held him up.”
A brief warmth passed across the back of her hand, and Su Xiang felt her heart tighten once more.
Although they were engaged, she and Ji Yan were not very intimate in private. They had kissed only once, at their engagement ceremony. Even when attending various events, she usually merely linked her arm through Ji Yan’s. Actively touching him like this was exceedingly rare.
Under everyone’s watchful eyes, Ji Yan walked out of the Private Dining Room. The noise outside grew louder, and he frowned slightly; he was accustomed to quiet.
According to his memories, Shang Xu and Lin Ranran first met in the bar’s main hall. Lin Ranran’s pure, makeup-free appearance aroused wicked intentions in two scumbags. Relying on their small amount of money, they tried to force themselves on her, but Shang Xu happened to pass by and rescued her.
Their second meeting resulted from the bar manager’s hidden ulterior motives: he sent Lin Ranran, who had a part-time job there, to Attend to them in the Private Dining Room.
Lin Ranran already felt grateful to Shang Xu. Seeing the extravagance and wastefulness of their social circle for the first time made her even more nervous, and she feared providing poor service. In her carelessness, she poured half a bottle of alcohol onto Shang Xu’s legs.
Shang Xu did not ask Lin Ranran to compensate him and instructed the bar manager not to deduct her wages. Lin Ranran still felt deeply sorry to Shang Xu and insisted on paying him back.
Their repeated interactions deepened their bond.
Ji Yan let out a mocking laugh. The memories given by the system went to great lengths to tell him that Lin Ranran was an innocent, principled, and self-reliant woman. Yet in his eyes, Lin Ranran’s actions looked more deliberate, no different from those of people seeking a shortcut.
To verify his guess, he decided to interrupt the male and female protagonists’ first meeting and see how things developed afterward.
Seeing him appear, the manager bowed and scraped with a fawning smile. “Young Master Ji, what can I do for you?”
“Young Master Shang will arrive shortly. Have your people keep watch. Don’t let any heedless trash cause trouble and ruin Yunqi’s atmosphere.”
“Yes, yes.”
“Also, he family's eldest miss and my fiancée are here today. Don’t send any more female servers. Have two men pour the drinks instead.”
“Understood.”
After giving these instructions, he turned sideways and leaned against the railing. From this angle, he could see the entrance and most of the hall.
From an angle outside his line of sight, Lin Ranran could see half of his profile. Her colleague beside her stamped her feet with excitement.
“Do you know who he is? He’s Young Master Ji of Ji Corporation. It would be wonderful to serve in Young Master Ji’s Private Dining Room and get noticed by him, like in a romance drama.”
Lin Ranran looked at him curiously. “But isn’t Young Master Ji already engaged?”
As a Haicheng native, she had seen the news about the Su and Ji families’ Marriage Alliance spread across all the major social platforms some time ago. Even she had learned quite a bit about it, so she could not understand her colleague’s thinking.
“So what if he’s engaged? Everyone knows it’s merely a Business Marriage Alliance.” The scantily dressed colleague curled her lip.
“For families like theirs, marriage is nothing more than a way to maintain a glamorous façade. Which man or woman who comes to work at Yunqi doesn’t want to catch the eyes of these young masters and young misses? Even if we can’t rise to their level, whatever slips through their fingers would feed us for the rest of our lives.”
As she spoke, she gave two more soft snorts. “Lin Ranran, don’t tell me you didn’t have thoughts like that when you came here to work.”
Hearing this, Lin Ranran felt humiliated. Embarrassed and furious, she flushed and hurriedly explained, “I’m not like that. I didn’t have such thoughts. I just had no other choice.”
“All right, all right, you don’t need to explain yourself to me. Those young masters might sympathize with your story. But seriously, Lin Ranran, you’re prettier than all of us and a university student from a prestigious school. You might succeed. Once you make it big, don’t forget to introduce your sisters to the circle. I’m on good terms with the manager; if the opportunity arises, I’ll have you serve in a Private Dining Room.”
“I’m not, I didn’t, you—”
As her colleague waved and walked away, Lin Ranran could only swallow her flustered explanation. She looked toward the upstairs railing again, but the person was already gone.
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