“I’m going to take a shower.”
The man’s voice was low and restrained.
Shen Yuan opened her eyes, and the first thing she saw was the yellowed ceiling.
The sound of trickling water from the bathroom reached her ears.
In the dim rental apartment, the cloying sweetness of cheap aromatherapy mixed with the musty smell of damp clothes, stifling and dizzying.
A few dresses were scattered by the bed, and a row of lipsticks had toppled over on the vanity.
The phone screen was still lit, paused on a chat interface.
【You must sleep with him tonight.】
【Didn’t you say you wanted to have his child? If you keep stalling, the one-year deadline will be up.】
【A man like Xu Anran—once you have his child, even if he regains his memory later, there’s no way he’ll just ignore you.】
Shen Yuan: ??
Wasn’t she working overtime writing a script? Where the hell had she ended up?
A loud buzz exploded in her head.
The next second, a flood of memories that weren’t hers surged into her mind.
Scenes flashed by frame by frame—
An icy river, amnesia, falsely claiming to be a savior, forcing someone to be her boyfriend, spending his money, ordering him to wash her underwear…
Shen Yuan lay frozen in bed.
She had transmigrated into a book.
She’d been thrown into an old-school angsty romance novel, becoming the vicious female supporting character who shared her name—Shen Yuan.
As for the original body’s personality… how to put it?
Bad-tempered, lazy, scheming, thick-skinned—she had every annoying trait imaginable, a veritable all-rounder in the world of vicious female supporting characters.
Half a year ago, the male lead, Xu Anran, had been pushed into an icy river by someone. After losing his memory, he was rescued by the real female lead.
The original body had accidentally learned of Xu Anran’s identity: the missing heir of the Xu Group.
A bona fide hidden rich man.
So she took advantage of his amnesia, falsely claimed to be his savior, and leveraged that debt of gratitude to force Xu Anran into being her boyfriend for a year.
Xu Anran sold cars at a dealership during the day and delivered food at night, with most of his earnings going into the original body’s pockets.
Not only did she take it for granted, but she also threw tantrums and broke things at the slightest provocation, even tossing her underwear at him to wash.
And her ultimate goal: to get pregnant with Xu Anran’s child within the year, so that when he regained his memory and returned to his wealthy family, she could climb up the ladder through the child.
Shen Yuan’s face turned pale inch by inch.
Wow.
This wasn’t a vicious female supporting character—this was a con artist, wasn’t it?
In her previous life, she’d been nothing more than an ordinary scriptwriting assistant, staying up three nights straight to revise a script before finally dropping dead at her computer. Her last thought before dying had been, “This client isn’t even human.”
She’d read this novel before.
At the time, she’d even taken a screenshot and posted it on her social media to complain: “Which author is this heartless with names? The vicious female supporting character is actually named Shen Yuan. What did I, Shen Yuan, ever do to deserve this?”
Well, now.
She’d complained, and the universe had just shoved her right in.
“Click…”
The bathroom door opened at that moment.
Xu Anran walked out.
His black hair was damp, plastered against his temples. His upper body was bare, with only a white towel wrapped around his waist.
Water droplets slid down his collarbone, traced over his chest muscles, paused at the edges of the two lines on his abdomen, then slowly disappeared into the folds of the towel.
Shen Yuan’s gaze involuntarily followed that droplet the whole way.
Then she met Xu Anran’s eyes.
Cold.
Like a frozen lake in winter, devoid of any warmth.
Shen Yuan quickly looked away.
It wasn’t that she wanted to look—it was his fault for walking around without clothes on, right?
Xu Anran gave her no time to react. He walked straight to the bed and lay down.
The mattress sank under his weight, and a wave of fresh post-shower warmth mixed with the light scent of body wash washed over her.
He closed his eyes and said softly, “Come on.”
Shen Yuan was completely frozen.
Come?
Come for what?
She wondered if her ears were playing tricks on her. “What?”
Xu Anran didn’t open his eyes, his voice flat. “Didn’t you say you wanted to do it?”
“Just now you were threatening suicide to force me, and now you’re not in a hurry?”
Shen Yuan’s mind exploded with a bang.
Another wave of memories surged up.
Her predecessor had just been clutching a piece of broken glass, wailing and crying, snot and tears streaming down her face, forcing Xu Anran to sleep with her.
If he refused, she’d slash her wrists to show him.
Shen Yuan: …
Shame shot up from the soles of her feet, scorching through her spine, all the way to the top of her head.
She wished she could vanish on the spot.
Xu Anran saw her not moving, and the corner of his lips twitched slightly, carrying a hint of sarcasm. “What, not satisfied with my cooperation?”
His hand reached toward his waist.
Long, slender fingers pinched the corner of the bath towel and slowly began to pull it away.
The white fabric was tugged open a sliver.
Every alarm in Shen Yuan’s head went off at once.
Stop! Stop, stop, stop!
This was no gift-wrapped scene!
This was the evil supporting female lead’s death wish in action!
She practically lunged at him, pressing down hard on his hand with both of hers, her voice cracking. “Wait!!”
Xu Anran looked down at her.
The distance was too close.
The man had just showered, still carrying the dampness of steam, his brows and eyes cold as ice.
Shen Yuan’s palms burned, and she immediately let go.
“I’ve changed my mind.”
Xu Anran said nothing.
Shen Yuan forced herself to continue. “Not tonight.”
A pause.
“And not ever.”
The air went silent for two seconds.
Xu Anran’s gaze shifted from cold to scrutinizing.
Shen Yuan completely understood.
If she were him, she wouldn’t believe it either.
One minute she’s threatening him with broken glass to force the deed, the next she’s declaring herself free of desire—this plot twist would make even readers curse the author for losing their mind, let alone Xu Anran.
“What are you trying to do now?” Xu Anran’s voice dropped low.
Shen Yuan swallowed hard.
She wanted to say: I want to live.
But that would sound even more insane.
So she lowered her eyes and spoke very quietly. “I’m not trying to play any games. Just… suddenly realized I was pretty awful before.”
Xu Anran looked at her for a few seconds—scrutiny, confusion, and finally wariness.
“You actually think you were awful?”
Shen Yuan was choked speechless.
The sins of her predecessor were now all dumped on her head.
She accepted it.
Shen Yuan clenched her fingers, trying to steady her voice.
She didn’t defend herself, only said, “Yes.”
Xu Anran was silent for a few seconds, judging which act she was putting on this time.
In the end, he said nothing more. He got up from the bed and began to dress.
The zipper of his jeans pulled up, he slipped on a black long-sleeved shirt, and finally picked up the delivery box by the door.
“Six more months.”
His back paused for a moment.
“When the one-year term is up, I’ll leave. Shen Yuan, no matter what game you’re trying to play now, I won’t change my mind.”
The door slammed shut with a bang.
Shen Yuan stood still, her shoulders slumping.
Six months.
That meant the plot had already reached its midpoint.
In another six months, Xu Anran would regain his memory and return to the Xu family.
In the original book, her predecessor refused to give up even after he regained his identity, threatening him with “savior” and “pregnancy,” but the truth came out, and Xu Anran utterly despised her.
She fell from grace, drowning in debt, and finally fell for a pig-butchering scam, lured to northern Myanmar.
Her ending in two words: a miserable death.
Shen Yuan shuddered.
No.
She had barely gotten a second chance at life—she absolutely would not follow her predecessor’s path.
She didn’t want to marry into a wealthy family, didn’t want to fight over the male lead, and definitely didn’t want to be sent to northern Myanmar.
She only wanted to live a stable life—ideally with enough to eat and wear, occasionally binge-watching shows, and keeping a cat.
Not too much to ask for, right?
Shen Yuan took a deep breath, her gaze landing on the table.
A cold boxed meal sat quietly there, a sticky note beside it.
【Eat less spicy food. Don’t throw a tantrum over stomach pain again.】
The handwriting was crisp, the strokes carrying a hint of impatient scrawl, but the content revealed an indescribable thoughtfulness.
Shen Yuan stared at the note, a pang of sourness rising in her chest.
Xu Anran clearly despised her, yet he still remembered her weak stomach.
This man.
He’d been deceived out of his feelings, his money, and half a year of his freedom—and still had to deliver food orders in the pouring rain at dawn.
What was the original body’s heart even made of?
Shen Yuan put the boxed meal in the microwave to heat it up, then sat down and ate it bite by bite.
The dishes were plain, the rice a bit hard, but she ate with great seriousness.
Before her sudden death in her past life, it had been a long time since she’d had a proper meal.
After finishing, Shen Yuan began tidying up the room.
She sorted the scattered clothes, arranged the cosmetics, tore up the original body’s ambiguous and explicit planning notes, and tossed them into the trash.
Then she took out paper and a pen and listed her current situation.
First, Xu Anran must not be provoked.
Second, the savior identity was fake—she had to find a way to back out without angering him.
Third, save money within half a year and leave this place.
Fourth, absolutely must not get pregnant.
When she wrote the last item, Shen Yuan’s fingers paused, her face flushing, before she pressed down hard with another stroke.
Absolutely not.
…
At one in the morning, the door lock clicked.
Xu Anran was back.
He carried the chill of night wind and rain, the shoulders of his delivery uniform soaked through.
As he entered, he first looked toward the living room, as if already bracing for an interrogation or a mess scattered everywhere.
But the room was quiet.
Only one lamp was on, the floor had been mopped, the table was clean, and the clothes on the sofa were gone.
Shen Yuan sat by the table, a piece of paper in front of her.
Hearing the sound, she looked up at him.
“You’re back.”
Her tone was flat—not the commanding air of before, nor deliberately softened into a coaxing whine.
Xu Anran’s eyes darkened slightly.
Shen Yuan pushed the paper over.
“These are a few points I wrote down. Take a look.”
Xu Anran didn’t move.
So Shen Yuan read them out herself: “First, from today on, we sleep separately. You take the bed, I’ll take the sofa.”
“Second, you don’t need to give me your money anymore. I’ll earn my own.”
“Third, I’ll handle the housework myself.”
“Fourth, once the six-month period is up, we go our separate ways.”
She paused.
“And you don’t have to worry about me using the savior thing to pressure you anymore.”