“Brother, is she really dead?”
“No, she just passed out.”
“Wuwu, I thought we’d never have to be bullied again!”
Qiao Xihe had just regained consciousness when two children’s chattering voices rang out beside her ear, noisy enough to give her a headache.
Wasn’t she just in the laboratory? Why were there children here?
She was about to open her eyes when a huge chunk of memory came flooding in.
She had actually transmigrated! And into a novel she had just been reading, no less.
The body she was in now belonged to the first cannon-fodder villain the protagonist group encountered in the book, a girl who shared her exact name, and who was also the bad girl who left a deep shadow on the protagonists when they were children.
There were four people in the protagonist group, two boys and two girls, all full siblings born to the same mother.
The original owner of this body had lost her father early, and her mother had taken her along and remarried the father of these four siblings.
The four siblings’ father worked away from home and only came back once every few months, so the original owner and her mother ran wild bullying the four siblings at home, setting dogs on them, whipping them with tree branches, and in winter, forcing them to break the ice and jump in to fish.
The family’s conditions were decent enough that they could just about eat their fill, but all the good things went into the mother and daughter’s stomachs.
The four children were still young at this time, the oldest only eight, so naturally they didn’t dare resist.
Recalling those things, Qiao Xihe’s eyes twitched.
This original owner was really something else! Still so young, but so vicious!
And her mother, vicious and shrewish besides, if anyone in the village couldn’t stand to watch and tried to speak up for the four children, her mother would curse them out on the spot!
“Brother, she, she looks like she’s waking up!”
Qiao Xihe opened her eyes and saw two skinny little beans standing in front of her.
These were the eldest of the protagonist group, Shen Wanzhou, and the youngest, Shen Wanyin. The brother was eight now, the sister four.
“She’s really awake!” Shen Wanyin let out a startled shriek and hid behind Shen Wanzhou.
Qiao Xihe rubbed her head and sat up. She was about to say something when she heard Shen Wanzhou say stiffly, “You insisted on climbing the tree yourself, that’s why you fell. It has nothing to do with us.”
Climbing a tree? Right, the book had written it, the bad girl had a sudden whim to climb a tree one day, and ended up falling.
After waking up, she had blamed the whole thing on the two siblings and beaten them savagely with a tree branch.
“I know. It’s not your fault, it was my own carelessness.” Qiao Xihe tried to keep her voice as gentle as she could.
Shen Wanzhou clearly froze for a moment, then his face turned wary again, his small fists clenching.
What was this vicious stepsister up to now? Was she saying the opposite of what she meant? Was she about to grab a tree branch and hit him and his sister?
“Don’t be nervous, it really isn’t your fault.” Qiao Xihe saw through what he was thinking and softened her voice a little more. She stood up, brushed the dirt off herself. “Are you two all right? Weren’t scared, were you?”
Shen Wanzhou said nothing, only took a step back, pulling Shen Wanyin with him.
Shen Wanyin’s small voice sounded from behind him, “Brother, what’s, what’s wrong with her…”
Qiao Xihe silently wept inside.
It was all the original owner’s fault for doing so much wrong, even if she acted gentle now, these two siblings probably wouldn’t easily believe her!
“What happened before was my fault.” Qiao Xihe tried once more, “Just now when I fell, I suddenly felt like it was heaven’s punishment for me. I won’t bully you two ever again.”
Shen Wanzhou still watched her warily, his lips pressed tight.
“If there’s nothing else, you two go home first.” Qiao Xihe lowered her head in defeat. “I want to be alone.”
She still needed to properly process this ridiculous transmigration!
Shen Wanzhou looked as if he’d been granted a pardon, and without a moment’s hesitation, grabbed Shen Wanyin’s hand and ran.
Qiao Xihe sat back down where she had just been and went through everything from the book in her mind.
The four members of the protagonist group would all achieve success and glory in the future.
Shen Wanzhou, the eldest, eight years old this year, would place first in the imperial examinations at fifteen and become the youngest chancellor of the dynasty at twenty.
Shen Wanmu, the second, seven years old this year, would become the head of Sacred Heaven Pavilion, the largest intelligence organization in the martial world.
Shen Wanjin, the third, five years old this year, wasn’t particularly impressive herself, but in the future she would make the Third Prince fall for her at first sight, and he would break through every obstacle to marry her as his princess consort!
As for the fourth, Shen Wanyin, right now she looked like a little bean, but in the future she would be a dashing female general with an illustrious record of military achievements.
And she, the vicious and unlucky Qiao Xihe, would be killed off by the protagonist group once they had gained a bit of power.
And they would even throw their bodies into the deep mountains, to be devoured by wild beasts.
Thinking of that miserable scene, Qiao Xihe couldn’t help shuddering.
No, she absolutely could not let the plot develop as normal!
But she wouldn’t get in the way of the protagonist group’s success. What she needed to do was be good to them, incredibly good, and then cling tightly to the four of them, so she could rise along with them in the future!
Qiao Xihe broke into a villain’s smile.
Just then, a “ding” suddenly sounded in her mind, and right after, a voice rang out: “Congratulations, host, on successfully binding to the Strategy System. Complete tasks to receive generous rewards!”
“Oh oh, a system! You’ve finally arrived.”
System: “? Why aren’t you surprised at all?”
Qiao Xihe raised her eyebrows. “What’s there to be surprised about? I’ve already transmigrated into a book, shouldn’t I be entitled to a system too?”
System: “…Fine, I guess.”
“You just said you’re called the Strategy System? What does that mean?”
“It means the host needs to continuously pursue and win over the target I set for you. Once you complete a pursuit, you’ll receive a generous reward. There may be small side quests along the way, and completing those will also come with rewards.”
“Sou ga! What kind of rewards are there?”
“Host, please look.”
A huge warehouse suddenly appeared before Qiao Xihe’s eyes.
Food, toys, medicinal herbs, modern medical equipment, and more, so much that she couldn’t take it all in.
In short, if she could think of it, the warehouse had it.
“Damn, this system of yours is really something!”
“Host, please mind your manners.”
“You don’t get it, that’s just a figure of speech.”
Having thought of a way to save herself, and now having a system too, Qiao Xihe’s mood improved quite a bit.
“Who’s my first pursuit target?”
“Shen Wanyin.”
Qiao Xihe’s eyes lit up.
Wasn’t this a coincidence?
She was just planning to improve her relationship with the protagonist group, so since that was the case, she might as well start with Shen Wanyin.
She remembered that Shen Wanyin was the youngest in the protagonist group, so right now she was the most innocent, and didn’t hold grudges.
“Your first pursuit task has officially begun. Target: Shen Wanyin. No time limit. Reward to be kept secret for now. Host, I hope we can get along well in the future, from now on you can call me Little Gong, or Old Gong!”
Qiao Xihe: “? Something about that feels not quite right.”