“A Fan, I’ve prepared some clean clothes for you. Do you want to change into them first?”
Ming Yazhi’s voice grew softer toward the end, and a flicker of satisfaction passed through her eyes when she caught sight of the hickeys on Zhu Fan’s neck.
Everything was going according to her plan.
The Zhu family was strict, conservative, and traditional in their ways. Zhu Fan had been groomed by her grandmother as the heir to the Zhu Group since childhood. In her nineteen years of life, she had never once done anything out of line.
Ming Yazhi sneered inwardly. The high-and-mighty young miss had never lacked handsome, high-quality suitors chasing after her, yet she could only set her eyes on one man—Fang Qibai.
And for Fang Qibai, she was willing to make such a huge sacrifice.
She admitted that Fang Qibai was indeed outstanding—good-looking, from a good family, not to mention the Fang family’s unshakable political and commercial standing in the capital.
It was just a pity that he was the eldest son least favored by his father in the Fang family.
Thinking of Fang Qibai, Fang Qizhou’s face involuntarily surfaced in her mind. Just the thought of that man made her shiver.
Fang Qizhou had been brought back to the Fang family at age eight to be acknowledged as a legitimate heir. Everyone assumed an illegitimate son couldn’t possibly make waves. But later, the illegitimate son gained more say than the eldest legitimate son, won more of Fang’s father’s favor, and was even personally designated by him as the group’s heir.
Thinking of the rumors about Fang Qizhou and the things he had done in the past, Ming Yazhi couldn’t help but tremble.
That man was a complete madman, through and through.
Zhu Fan had provoked someone like that—endless trouble was waiting for her in the future.
None of Ming Yazhi’s thoughts showed on her face. She reached up and pulled the curtain that separated the front driver’s seat from the back, reminding Zhu Fan to change her clothes.
The car drove smoothly, the air conditioning was just right, and the plush seats were extremely comfortable. Zhu Fan’s eyelids could barely stay open.
Hearing Ming Yazhi’s reminder, she forced her eyes open and reached for the dress in the paper bag. The soft fabric slipped through her fingers as she shook it out, the white pleated skirt flaring open.
She glanced at the length of the dress, then thought of the bruises on both her knees from kneeling, and put the dress back into the bag.
Ming Yazhi pouted. “A Fan, don’t you like the clothes I prepared for you?”
“I picked them out specially according to your favorite style.”
“There aren’t any other clothes in the car, and we’re almost out of time. Once we get to your house, if Aunt Yin and Uncle see you looking disheveled, they’ll be really angry.” Ming Yazhi deliberately emphasized the words “looking disheveled.” “They might even blame me for not taking good care of you.”
Zhu Fan lifted her eyelids and looked at Ming Yazhi, who hadn’t stopped talking since getting in the car and whose every word was framed as being for her own good. “Ming Yazhi.”
Though Zhu Fan hadn’t said the name loudly—her voice low and hoarse—it still sent a jolt of panic through Ming Yazhi. She quickly sat up straight. “Wh…What’s wrong?”
“A Fan, you never call me by my full name. Did I do something to make you angry?”
Looking at the girl whose eyes had instantly reddened, Zhu Fan was momentarily stunned. Out of the corner of her eye, she spotted a silk scarf in the bag. She took it out and wrapped it around her neck, covering the hickeys.
“Is this a bit better?”
Ming Yazhi nodded and broke into a smile. “It’s just that your clothes are all wrinkled. It’s such a shame to have you wearing those.”
Zhu Fan cut off whatever Ming Yazhi was about to say next. “I’ll sleep for a bit. Wake me when we arrive.”
Ming Yazhi quietly studied Zhu Fan, who seemed to have already fallen asleep, and couldn’t suppress the curve of her lips.
Zhu Fan was extremely sleepy, but the thoughts in her mind refused to stop racing.
Who would have thought that one day she’d actually transmigrate into a novel?
A friend had recommended this novel to her back then, saying there was a supporting character in it with the exact same name as hers. She’d told Zhu Fan to read it word by word, just in case she transmigrated into the book and needed to survive until the end.
That kind of joke was just something you listened to and let go.
She had added the book to her shelf at the time and even opened it to skim a few chapters. In the end, she found it wasn’t really to her taste and went to check the comment section instead.
The comment section was full of spoilers. In the later stages, almost every chapter was about how the male and female leads were being sweet and lovey-dovey, and in the end, the lead couple ended up with two kids and a happy ending. And the villain who appeared the most in the book, existing to drive the plot forward—Fang Qizhou—jumped to his death from a psychiatric hospital building.
Zhu Fan had a habit when reading novels: she liked to skim through at lightning speed, never really retaining the plot in her head. Most of the time, she’d forget what she’d read the second she finished it.
At this moment, all she could do was shed tears of regret.
She should have read it word by word.
She wondered how Grandma was doing now…
Zhu Fan suppressed her emotions.
The old lady was definitely strong. Besides, their farewell had been destined from the very beginning.
To keep herself from dwelling on Grandma, Zhu Fan began sorting through her current situation to distract herself.
When she’d crossed over last night, the original body’s memories hadn’t disappeared.
The original body had always relied on and trusted Ming Yazhi deeply. But whether Ming Yazhi actually treated the original body as a friend was another matter entirely.
Zhu Fan realized that the courage-boosting drink Ming Yazhi had given the original body last night was off.
And the whole scheme of the original body offering herself to save someone—that had been Ming Yazhi’s idea too.
Thinking of this novel’s male lead, Fang Qibai, an elegant and handsome face surfaced in Zhu Fan’s mind.
Fang Qibai came from an ultra-luxury wealthy family. From a young age, he had excelled academically, winning countless competition awards. From family background to personality, and even his looks, he was utterly flawless—the ideal child in the minds of countless parents.
A person envied by so many, whose starting point at birth was a finish line ordinary people could never reach in a lifetime—yet the sole obsession of his early years was merely his father and mother’s approval, and a little bit of their love.
Fang’s father and mother had been united through an arranged marriage.
Because of this marriage, Fang’s father was forced to be separated from his first love for a full eight years.
Fang’s father loathed this marriage bound by mutual interests, and he loathed Fang Qibai, the son who should never have come into this world.
When Fang Qibai was eight, Fang’s father brought his first love and their illegitimate son back to the Fang household.
By then, Fang’s father had already firmly grasped the group’s real power, with no need to fear anyone or anything.
Fang Qibai’s mother threatened suicide, refusing to sign the divorce papers.
This marriage that maintained its surface and final dignity was pushed to a dead end when Fang Qibai’s mother was rushed to the hospital for emergency treatment.
Fang Qibai’s maternal grandfather died in a car accident on his way to the hospital to see his daughter.
Until Fang Qibai turned twenty-two, he had always been a bargaining chip his mother used to compete for favor.
In contrast, Fang Qizhou, the illegitimate son who had been brought back into the family, had only lived eight years of hardship with his mother.
But even so, those eight years, he had grown up surrounded by his mother’s love.
To make up for his first love and the young son who had been left outside, Fang’s father devoted all his time, energy, wealth, and love to the two of them.
A child raised in such overflowing love as Fang Qizhou—his final ending was jumping off a building in a psychiatric hospital to end his life.
Zhu Fan hugged her knees and propped her chin on her hand, shaking her head. She was thinking too far ahead.
She wouldn’t even live to see that time.
The brotherly feud between Fang Qibai and Fang Qizhou—as a cannon fodder, she only served to push a small part of the plot forward. Now that the real precious daughter had returned, the subsequent plot had little to do with her, a cannon fodder who only had 99 days to live, right?
99 days—could they be any more generous?
Zhu Fan grumbled inwardly.
After grumbling, she comforted herself: fine, 99 days was still more than 99 hours.
A person should learn to be content and grateful.
In her memories, the original body had taken the initiative to offer herself up. The cause of this whole affair was Fang Qibai throwing a punch at Fang Qizhou. It wasn’t that Fang Qizhou was fragile and got beaten badly—rather, when the two clashed that day, Fang Qibai had the geographical advantage.
Fang Qizhou was punched down the steps by Fang Qibai’s fist.
This became the hottest topic of the first week of Jing University’s semester.
The video of Fang Qibai hitting someone spread quickly and widely within ten minutes. Not only did every Jing University student have a copy, but students from neighboring Xi University, who loved watching the drama, launched another round of circulation.
By the time the matter fermented to its peak, the country’s top prestigious university was caught in a storm of public opinion.
In the end, the video and the hype were suppressed—but that was only after three hours had passed since the incident.
Fang Qizhou wasn’t seriously hurt, but the damage to his reputation was significant.
At the time, no one had expected that Fang Qibai, as the college’s student representative, would clash with his own younger brother at the opening ceremony.
When Fang’s father learned of this, he, as always, unconditionally favored Fang Qizhou—let alone the fact that this time, the fault lay with the eldest son.
Fang’s father, heartbroken that his youngest son had been beaten and humiliated, directly banished Fang Qibai to the ancestral hall of the old estate. He left word that Fang Qizhou would decide when to forgive his elder brother, and only then could Fang Qibai return from the old estate.
This was the fourth day of Fang Qibai kneeling in the ancestral hall of the Fang family’s old estate.
Zhu Fan leaned against the car window and opened her eyes.
A beauty trap only works if it actually works.
Original body, use your brain.
You liked Fang Qibai, so you went and slept with his younger brother.
If Fang Qizhou could be swayed by a woman’s words, then he wouldn’t be the madman everyone feared and dared not speak of.
Ming Yazhi and the original body’s combined IQ—add them up and you’d get 250, and that’s being generous.
The car came to a smooth stop in front of the Zhu family villa.