Jiang Yiyan had just finished dealing with the 6.18 mega sales promotion. As soon as she got home, she collapsed onto the bed and fell into a deep sleep.
Just before drifting completely into unconsciousness, her parents’ nagging still rang in her ears. The general idea was that someone from a neighbor’s family was getting married again, and now among all the girls in their apartment building who were about her age, she was the only one left who was still single.
They warned that if she did not hurry up and get married, the only option left would be a divorced man with a child. Becoming someone’s stepmother would not be an easy life.
Jiang Yiyan was so tired she could barely keep her eyes open. Besides, her parents urging her to marry had long become routine background noise. She simply did not care.
“A stepmother is fine. Instant motherhood without the pain of childbirth. What’s so bad about that? In fact, I don’t want a young bachelor at all. I’d rather find someone divorced with a kid!”
“You… you unfilial girl…” Jiang’s mother was so angry she could barely get the words out.
Jiang’s father glanced at their daughter sprawled on the bed like a completely exhausted puppy and felt a pang of sympathy. He quickly pulled Jiang’s mother toward the door.
“Let her sleep first. She’s been coming home late every night these days. It’s been rough on her.”
Jiang’s mother also felt sorry for her daughter, but she clearly cared even more about her lifelong happiness.
“She’s already twenty-seven. Fine, maybe she doesn’t need to get married immediately, but she doesn’t even have a boyfriend. We’re getting old. How long can we stay by her side? She still needs a family of her own.”
“We’ll talk tomorrow. Tomorrow I’ll sit down and reason things out with her.”
Their voices gradually faded. At some point, the room became completely quiet.
Without her parents’ endless chatter, Jiang Yiyan could finally sleep soundly.
She had only said those words casually, never expecting that when she woke up, they would turn out to be prophetic.
She slept incredibly deeply. When she finally woke, she felt refreshed and full of energy, as if she had been completely revived. The exhaustion from her previous late nights and overtime had vanished without a trace.
Still half asleep, she sat up groggily. Looking at the unfamiliar surroundings in front of her, she instinctively called out, “Mom.”
But in the next moment, she sensed something was wrong. Jiang Yiyan instantly became fully awake.
Where was this?
The bedroom alone was almost half the size of her entire home.
And the bed… this was definitely not her modest 1.5-meter bed. This one looked at least 2.4 meters wide, big enough for her to roll around on several times.
There was also a semicircular floor-to-ceiling glass window, along with an interior design style that screamed understated luxury and sophistication.
Staring at everything around her, Jiang Yiyan was completely dumbfounded.
“H-hello? Is anyone here?” she asked cautiously.
But the moment she spoke, she realized something else was wrong.
Even her voice had changed.
Her voice used to be quite pleasant, but after several years working in shopping malls, constant speaking for work had gradually damaged it. The clear, youthful tone she once had had become slightly hoarse.
Yet now, her voice sounded crisp and melodious again, as if it had returned to what it used to be.
Spotting a dressing mirror not far away in the bedroom, Jiang Yiyan rushed toward it in a few quick steps.
But the face reflected in the mirror was both familiar and unfamiliar.
It looked like her, yet it did not.
She could tell the features and brows vaguely resembled her own outline, but it was far more beautiful than she had ever been.
It was as if her original face had been enhanced with flawless filters and meticulous retouching. Her features were picturesque, every detail exquisitely refined.
Jiang Yiyan covered her mouth in disbelief.
What on earth had happened?
She had only taken a nap. How had she suddenly become someone else and ended up in a completely unfamiliar place?
She pinched her cheek hard. The pain was real.
This meant she was not dreaming.
Before she could investigate further, a rustling sound suddenly came from outside the door.
Hearing someone approach, Jiang Yiyan immediately held her breath and quietly slipped behind the door to listen.
A middle-aged woman’s voice spoke first.
“Madam should be awake by now. Miss Meimei, why don’t you knock and go in?”
Then came the soft, childish voice of a little girl.
“But Daddy isn’t home. Will Mommy agree?”
Feng Ma chuckled gently as she coaxed her. “Miss Meimei is Daddy and Mommy’s precious treasure. Madam will definitely agree.”
She said this to comfort the child, though in truth she felt uneasy.
Madam’s whole heart revolved around the master. Now that he was away on a business trip outside Shencheng, Madam was probably busy racking her brain over how to chase after him. How could she possibly have the time or energy to attend Miss Meimei’s kindergarten parent-child event?
But the children were innocent. She did not want to burden the little girl with the complicated realities of the adult world.
For now, she could only comfort her. If it really came down to it, she would swallow her pride and try her best to persuade Madam. After all, Madam was Miss Meimei’s biological mother. Even if she sometimes neglected her daughter, she would not truly abandon her.
Encouraged, Wen Meimei could not wait any longer and raised her hand to knock on the door.
“Mommy, Mommy, open the door! Mommy, open up! Meimei has something important to tell you. It’s very, very important!”
At this moment, Jiang Yiyan’s heart had practically leapt into her throat.
She had not even figured out what was going on yet, and suddenly she was facing this unexpected situation.
To say she was nervous would be an understatement. She truly felt completely at a loss.
Although she was no longer a rookie in the workplace and had developed some ability to think on her feet, she had never encountered anything like this before.
Just as she was panicking, she suddenly noticed the doorknob moving.
The little girl’s voice came again from outside.
“Feng Ma, the door can open. Mommy didn’t lock it.”
As soon as she finished speaking, Wen Meimei stood on tiptoe and used almost all her strength to twist the handle open.
Realizing what was happening, Jiang Yiyan knew there was no time to jump back into bed and pretend to be asleep. Instead, she stood by the door, acting as if she had just been awakened.
Leaning lazily against the doorframe, she raised a hand to cover her mouth and yawned.
“What is it?” she asked casually.
The moment Wen Meimei saw her mother, her eyes lit up.
“Mommy, Meimei has something very important to tell you.”
The little girl was only four or five years old, still short and round like a tiny winter melon. Standing in front of the tall, slender Jiang Yiyan, she had to tilt her head back just to see her mother’s face.
Jiang Yiyan took the opportunity to study the child before her.
The little girl had a round, snow-white face like a delicately carved jade doll, and her large watery eyes made her look irresistibly adorable.
It was only at that moment that Jiang Yiyan realized what the child’s name was.
“Meimei?” She seemed to grasp something, her brows knitting slightly. Then she repeated it with the full name. “Wen Meimei?”
“Mommy, what’s wrong?” Wen Meimei suddenly became nervous.
Children might be young, but they were often perceptive. Right now she had clearly sensed that something felt different.
“Did Meimei do something wrong?” she asked anxiously.
Sometimes Mommy could be fierce and lose her temper with her, and that scared her. But when Mommy was kind, she was very gentle.
“Meimei knows she’s wrong. Mommy, please don’t be angry.” Afraid of upsetting her mother, Wen Meimei instinctively apologized.
Looking at the little girl whose face had instantly filled with grievance, Jiang Yiyan fell into silent contemplation.
Feng Ma also felt a bit worried.
The master was not home, so Madam was probably in a bad mood. Whenever Madam felt unhappy, even Miss Meimei received very little patience.
Afraid Madam might lash out again, Feng Ma quickly stepped in to smooth things over.
“Madam, Miss has been waiting for you downstairs for quite a while. I told her you should be waking soon, so she came upstairs to find you. Miss really does have something important she wants to tell you.”
“Feng Ma?” Jiang Yiyan turned her gaze toward the middle-aged woman.
Feng Ma hurriedly continued taking the blame upon herself.
“There’s a parent-child event at the kindergarten. Since the master isn’t home, Madam will have to attend. Otherwise… Miss might be laughed at by the other children.”
By now, Jiang Yiyan had more or less figured out what was going on. Strangely enough, her mood calmed down instead.
She smiled. “I understand. Go downstairs first. I’ll change clothes and come right away.”
Madam had not exploded in anger. In fact, she even seemed to be in a fairly good mood. Feng Ma was both surprised and delighted.
“I’ll take Miss downstairs first then.”
Feng Ma immediately took Wen Meimei’s small hand.
Wen Meimei kept turning back to look.
Jiang Yiyan remained leaning against the doorway, maintaining a deliberately gentle smile the entire time.
Only after Feng Ma led Wen Meimei downstairs did Jiang Yiyan finally drop the expression.
She shut the door at once and began pacing wildly around the bedroom.
What was going on?
Had she transmigrated into a novel?
Her job kept her busy and exhausted, but whenever she had a little free time, Jiang Yiyan liked nothing more than curling up at home reading novels or watching dramas. As an experienced web-novel reader, the concept of transmigrating into a story was hardly unfamiliar to her.
But she had never imagined something like this could actually happen to her.
A novel coming to life?
Wen Meimei, Feng Ma… weren’t these characters from the novel she had just finished reading recently?
Although they were minor characters with very few appearances, they were the two most important people around the novel’s “vicious” female supporting character Jiang Yiyan. Because of that, Jiang Yiyan remembered them very clearly.
Yes, the villainous supporting character in that novel happened to share the exact same name as her.
Perhaps because their names matched, Jiang Yiyan had read every scene involving that character particularly carefully. She had even cried buckets while reading the exclusive epilogue focused on Jiang Yiyan.
In the novel, Jiang Yiyan was indeed a villainous supporting character, but she had not been born evil.
There were reasons she had become so detestable.
Her parents’ sudden marital breakdown during her youth, her mother’s death from illness, and Shu Yao gradually replacing her position as the young lady of the Jiang family. Each of these had dealt her devastating blows.
Shu Yao was the female protagonist of the novel titled Devoted Love. When she was a teenager, she followed her mother after remarriage into the Jiang family.
Her biological father was a gambler who not only lost money drinking and gambling but also abused his family. After drinking, he often beat both Shu Yao and her mother.
So when her mother later remarried Jiang Yiyan’s father, Jiang Cheng, Shu Yao treasured her new life dearly.
Both mother and daughter were exceptionally beautiful and gentle by nature. At first, Jiang Cheng did not pay much attention to this stepdaughter. Out of consideration for his wife, he simply refrained from treating her harshly.
But after living under the same roof for a long time, he saw how sensible and obedient she was, and gradually began treating her like his own daughter.
Especially after his former wife passed away, his own daughter became increasingly rebellious and difficult to manage.
In comparison, Jiang Cheng felt even more strongly that this stepdaughter was gentle and kind.
Once comparisons began and dissatisfaction took root, father and daughter drifted further apart.
From then on, Jiang Yiyan’s personality slowly began to change.
In Devoted Love, Jiang Yiyan appeared from the very beginning as a negative character. She did not have a large number of scenes, but every time she appeared she was inevitably making trouble and digging her own grave.
She was the embodiment of falsehood, ugliness, and malice, existing solely to highlight Shu Yao’s truth, kindness, and beauty.
Naturally, her ending was tragic.
The love she had seized eventually fell apart. After Wen Mochuan grew completely disappointed in her, he divorced her. Their daughter Meimei’s custody went to Wen Mochuan.
Later she even developed a drug addiction and was imprisoned for several years.
In the epilogue, when she was finally released, her grown daughter did not feel close to her at all. Instead, she was far closer to her aunt Shu Yao, who shared no blood relation.
By middle age, Jiang Yiyan had nothing left.
Unwilling to have any contact with people from her past, she moved alone to a small town.
The rest of her life could be described politely as quiet and ordinary. In truth, it was little more than poverty and loneliness.
Jiang Yiyan: “…No!”