She remembered now. Without the original host acting as an emotional roadblock, they had gotten married very quickly.
But the book explicitly stated that Xu You got married at twenty-four and passed away from an illness at twenty-five.
Twenty-five…
She remembered that Xu You was four years older than Xu Mingwang. Yesterday was Xu Mingwang’s nineteenth birthday, which meant Xu You was…
At this moment, Song Zhi felt as if she had fallen into an abyss of ice.
She could not fathom the consequences of losing Xu You. She had already made plans before this.
If Xu You liked Fu Nian, she could let go and quietly watch her walk down the wedding aisle.
If Xu You didn’t like Fu Nian, then she would actively make a move, wanting to try even if she might be rejected.
She had made countless assumptions, but she had never considered what would happen if she lost Xu You altogether.
She didn’t dare think about it, and she couldn’t accept it.
In fact, the moment she transmigrated and received the original host’s memories, she had thought it was such a perfect, happy ending for the male and female leads to eliminate the interference of the malicious female supporting character and end up together.
But during their interactions over the past few days, she realized things weren’t like that at all.
Xu You’s family had always treated her as a commodity for a marriage alliance, eager to ship her off directly.
Fu Nian, who seemed so deeply affectionate, didn’t actually love Xu You all that much either, yet he still used his power to force Xu You to be with him.
And Xu You didn’t love him back.
In such a predicament, Xu You was the least equipped to fight back.
She had no network or connections, leaving her with no choice but to remain in the Xu family as a puppet at the mercy of others.
…She was unwilling to let Xu You turn into that.
Xu You noticed that Song Zhi seemed exceptionally downcast after returning, and the gaze she directed at her carried an unspeakable complexity of emotion.
Without making a scene, Xu You sent a message to her subordinate:
[Xu You]: Send me a copy of Song Zhi’s itinerary from this afternoon and her internet search history.
[Gu Yao]: Boss, why are you suddenly paying so much attention to Song Zhi?
[Xu You]: Less nonsense.
Gu Yao’s information gathering skills were as fast as ever. After reading through the data sent over, Xu You understood.
So she had gotten sad after looking up her past experiences.
But… these were things Song Zhi herself should have known to begin with, so why did she specifically have to search for them online?
Combining this with Song Zhi’s unusual behavior over the past few days…
She beckoned Song Zhi over with a wave of her hand and said softly, “Come here.”
Song Zhi felt miserable in her heart right now. To be honest, she didn’t want to get close to Xu You because she definitely wouldn’t be able to resist the urge to pull the woman into a tight embrace. However, since Xu You told her to come over, she still walked over obediently, no matter how reluctant she felt.
Xu You’s voice was very calm. “Why are you unhappy?”
Song Zhi pursed her lips tightly. “I’m not unhappy.”
Xu You picked an orange out of the fruit bowl, peeling it methodically with her slender, fair fingers before handing it to her. “Want some orange? It’s quite sweet.”
Without a second thought, Song Zhi took it and was about to put it into her mouth when her wrist was suddenly caught by Xu You.
She looked at Xu You with a bit of confusion. “What’s wrong?”
Xu You said with an unchanged expression, “I remembered incorrectly. This orange doesn’t taste good, so don’t eat it after all.”
“Oh… alright.”
Song Zhi threw the orange into the trash can. Her heart ached terribly, this was an orange Xu You had personally peeled for her, after all! Sob.
As she was grieving over her orange, she completely failed to notice the deeply meaningful look Xu You was giving her.
Song Zhi had always been malicious and dim-witted, she had even used her own orange allergy to frame her before.
Yet the person in front of her didn’t seem to know about it at all, and had stupidly tried to stuff it into her mouth.
She found it very interesting.
Since the soul currently inside Song Zhi’s body wasn’t her original self, where on earth did this dazed, foolish idiot, who couldn’t hide a single thing on her face, come from?