At 3:30 in the morning, Qiao Man woke up from the heat.
The first thing she did upon opening her eyes was turn on the light and survey her surroundings.
The seven or eight square meter bedroom, illuminated by the light, resembled an intestine clogged with grease, making it feel even more cramped and crowded.
Good, it seemed she was still here.
After sitting quietly for a moment, Qiao Man went to the even more cramped bathroom to fetch a towel, then filled a basin with cold water and carried it to the balcony.
She soaked the towel in the basin, where it quickly absorbed the water. Qiao Man wrung it out and wiped her body with a detached expression.
The summer night was sweltering, the air stifling. The cool towel offered a fleeting relief from the heat before the oppressive warmth returned.
Dropping the towel, Qiao Man walked to the window and silently gazed down at the street below. Suddenly, a thought crossed her mind—
If she jumped from here right now, could she return to the real world?
Yes, she had traveled through time.
She remembered it clearly: two months ago, after finally obtaining her divorce certificate and stepping out of the civil affairs bureau ready to embrace her new life, a large truck had suddenly careened toward her.
Everything went black, and when she regained consciousness, she found herself in this shabby little apartment.
It took her several days to fully grasp that not only had she traveled through time, but she had also been transported into a web novel titled Zhu Ma Rao Qing Mei, becoming the villainous female supporting character who shared her name, Qiao Man.
In the novel, the female supporting character appeared to be an innocent, delicate flower on the surface, but in reality, she was scheming, two-faced, and sinister.
After falling in love with the male lead at first sight, she began devising ways to drive a wedge between the male and female leads. What should have been a simple, sweet romance was dragged out to nearly 800,000 words because of her character.
Being transmigrated as the villainous female supporting character didn’t bother Qiao Man much.
But…
If this villainous female supporting character was not only an orphan with no one to rely on but also so poor that she had to survive on subsistence allowances and student loans, with her entire worldly possessions consisting of a few faded clothes, a bicycle without wheels, and a dilapidated 50-square-meter hazardous apartment that couldn’t even be sold—
Then she had some serious objections.
As someone who had never experienced poverty since birth, Qiao Man was utterly bewildered the first time she woke up from the heat on a summer night.
Now, having been abruptly awakened by the heat again, she had grown adept at fetching water to cool herself, opening the window for ventilation, and even contemplating whether jumping from here was worth a shot.
Of course, she didn’t jump. Instead, she found a few bottles, filled them with cold water in the bathroom, and planned to hug them while sleeping later.
The old building offered no privacy. The moment she turned on the tap for just ten seconds, her neighbor started cursing loudly next door.
Unfazed, Qiao Man continued filling the bottles and glanced at her reflection in the mirror.
The face in the mirror had the cool, detached demeanor of a 27-year-old, yet the features were youthful and tender.
She had realized on the first day that this was what people called “physical transmigration.”
She herself had been directly transported into the novel, only her skin and physical condition had reverted to that of a 20-year-old—the age of the novel’s female supporting character.
This was probably the only benefit of transmigration. After all, not everyone got to experience youth twice.
After staring at her youthful reflection for a long time, Qiao Man found a part-time translation job the very next day and immediately bought an air conditioner on a 36-month installment plan.
The two hottest months passed in the daily grind of translation work. Just as she finally saved enough to pay off the installments in one go, her landlord showed up.
It was only then that she discovered even this shabby 50-square-meter apartment was rented.
It was just a short-term rental for the summer.
Now that summer was ending, it was time for her to move out.
All her belongings amounted to a few faded clothes and a bicycle without wheels.
After paying the rent, she had only a little over a hundred yuan left in her pocket—not even enough to buy a decent scoop of ice cream.
Qiao Man thought for a moment and said to the landlord, who was wearing flip-flops and shorts, “The air conditioner is brand new—I just bought it.”
The landlord glanced at the pristine unit. “Oh, then take it with you.”
Qiao Man: “…”
“But if you take it apart, you probably won’t have anywhere to put it,” the landlord said kindly, showing consideration. “How about this—just sell it to me directly? That way, we both avoid the hassle of dismantling it.”
Qiao Man had been thinking the same thing. “I bought it for 3,200. How much will you give me?”
The landlord thought for a moment, then held up two fingers.
Selling a nearly new air conditioner for 2,000 was a bit low, but taking it apart would indeed be troublesome.
Just as Qiao Man was about to nod in agreement, the landlord shook his fingers. “Two hundred.”
Qiao Man: “…I’ll take it apart and take it with me.”
“Alright, then hurry up. Don’t delay me from renting it out to the next person.”
Confident that a poor college student like her couldn’t possibly manage to dismantle such a large appliance, the landlord strode off with his nose in the air.
Qiao Man sneered and glanced at the calendar on the wall.
Tomorrow was September 1st—the day Jing Da started the new semester.
The original Jing Da had two campuses: one in the south of the city and one in the north. Both the female supporting character and the female lead were at the southern campus, while the male lead was at the northern one.
This semester, as juniors, students from both campuses were moving to a new campus outside the Seventh Ring Road. Students in the same majors would also be merged into single departments and attend classes together.
The male and female leads were only reunited after the campuses merged, and it was after moving to the new campus that the female supporting character met the male lead and subsequently became a member of his study group. From then on, she began meddling in the relationship between the childhood sweethearts.
Qiao Man had no interest in following the plot, nor was she interested in the so-called male lead.
If her financial situation allowed, she wouldn’t even bother wasting time at school—she’d focus solely on finding a way back to the real world.
But the problem was, her financial situation didn’t allow it.
She had no money left to rent a place.
The little money she had left couldn’t even buy a scoop of ice cream.
After thinking it over, she couldn’t find any place cheaper for food and lodging than the university.
So, after careful consideration, Qiao Man packed up all her belongings—along with an air conditioner she had nowhere to install—and headed to Jing Da’s new campus to check in.
On the first day of the semester, the entrance to the new campus was as crowded as a marketplace.
Ignoring the stunned looks around her, Qiao Man used a borrowed trolley to haul her luggage and the air conditioner, walking confidently toward the girls’ dormitory.
Even though it was already September, the weather was still sweltering.
Fortunately, her dorm was on the first floor, so she didn’t have to carry the air conditioner’s outdoor unit upstairs. Even so, by the time she moved everything into the room, she was drenched in sweat.
It was too hot. She decided she hated summer.
Irritated, Qiao Man took a quick shower in the dorm bathroom. Seeing that it was almost noon, she changed into fresh clothes and headed out.
After moving to the new campus, her old meal card no longer worked. She needed to get a new one at the campus administration office and grab lunch at the cafeteria.
It was the first day of the semester, and even at the hottest time of noon, the campus was bustling with activity.
Qiao Man strolled leisurely along the shaded path, dressed in a short-sleeved shirt and loose shorts yet carrying herself as if walking a Paris fashion runway. Her erect posture and fair skin drew numerous glances.
She had grown accustomed to such attention since childhood, and even in this unfamiliar novel world, her composure remained unshaken. The slight tilt of her chin made her resemble a proud little goose.
The new campus was vast, with the dormitories situated quite far from the administrative office.
As Qiao Man began perspiring again during her walk, growing somewhat irritable, someone suddenly exclaimed while looking at their phone: “Someone’s confessing to Bai Xingyu near Zhi Xing Lou!”
Bai Xingyu was the female protagonist of “Zhu Ma Rao Qing Mei.”
Like a stone rippling through water, the remark sent students scattering in all directions rushing toward one location.
Witnessing this spectacular scene, Qiao Man thought to herself: novels truly are novels. In reality, even if someone were suing the school, you wouldn’t see such a crowd gathering for spectacle.
Since the administrative office was also in Zhi Xing Lou, Qiao Man moved with the flow of people while recalling the plot of “Zhu Ma Rao Qing Mei.”
If she remembered correctly, this scene marked the first meaningful reunion between the male and female leads after their falling out during the summer before senior year of high school—the true beginning of their story.
Having yearned for each other for two years, their long-awaited reunion occurred amidst the female lead being confessed to by a male supporting character. The tsundere male lead, too proud and awkward to approach, acted as if she were merely a stranger.
Spotting him in the crowd initially delighted the female lead.
But the very next moment, stung by his indifferent expression, she impulsively accepted the male supporting character’s confession.
The male lead turned away coldly and later encountered the female supporting character, Qiao Man, in the campus garden.
And then?
Qiao Man soon arrived before Zhi Xing Lou, ignoring the jostling crowd of onlookers as she ascended the steps while recalling the subsequent plot—
The female lead, still unaware that her childhood sweetheart had already caught the attention of the female supporting character, quickly regretted accepting the confession. Mere three hours later, she unilaterally declared the confession void.
To compensate the male supporting character, she offered him a six-figure check, which ultimately made him the laughingstock of the entire school.
This unfortunate male supporting character was the primary antagonist in “Zhu Ma Rao Qing Mei”—the most devoted “simp” orbiting the female lead.
His role in the novel paralleled Qiao Man’s: both served as obstacles to the main couple’s romance and sources of frustration for readers.
After moving out of the marital home a year ago, Qiao Man had briefly immersed herself in online novels. While most stories faded from memory almost immediately, she retained vivid recollection of this particular male supporting character from “Zhu Ma Rao Qing Mei.”
Not because his characterization was exceptionally striking or well-developed, but because…
He shared the same name as her husband.
To be precise, her ex-husband.
In this same novel, the villainous female supporting character bore her name, while the villainous male supporting character shared her ex-husband’s name. Such coincidence made it impossible for her not to remember.
Though both shared names with novel characters, her ex-husband gained freedom through divorce while she transmigrated into the novel as a destitute white lotus. The contrast made her situation particularly tragic.
Sighing at the whims of fate, Qiao Man stepped onto the final stair leading to Zhi Xing Lou.
“The first time I saw you eating oden at the convenience store entrance, I fell in love at first sight.”
A completely insincere confession line suddenly rang out. Qiao Man abruptly halted her steps, paused for three seconds, then turned back with an incredulous expression.
At the very center of the surrounding crowd, a languid yet noble young man seemed to sense something. His gaze cut through the chaotic mass of people, precisely capturing her shocked expression.
The moment their eyes met, the confession came to an abrupt halt.
Qiao Man: “?”
Him: “…”
Qiao Man: “???”
Him: “…”
Qiao Man: “…”
If she wasn’t mistaken, the person currently confessing to the female lead in that crowd seemed to be the ex-husband with whom she had just signed divorce papers two months ago?