Downtown, a high-end chain five-star hotel, inside the elevator.
The elevator floor is covered with a soft dark carpet. Shi Qing presses the button for her floor, standing alone quietly in front of the elevator doors, watching the numbers jump floor by floor.
The floors steadily rise as the system begins to outline the plot for her.
[Your role in this world is the female lead, An Qing, the eldest daughter of the An family.]
[The An family has two daughters. An Qing’s mother passed away early, and later An’s father remarried, bringing a stepsister An Yue who is only a few months younger than An Qing.]
[Since the arrival of the stepmother and stepsister, An Qing changed from a pampered young lady to a little nobody with no presence.]
[She originally thought she would live like this forever, until on her twentieth birthday—when the story begins—An Yue schemes against her, causing An Qing to catch her longtime boyfriend checking into a hotel room with her. Heartbroken, An Qing flees, accidentally enters the wrong room, and meets the 23-year-old young CEO Shen Jiyuan.]
[Shen Jiyuan is wealthy, young, handsome, cold and reclusive. It’s said he hates women approaching him and has severe cleanliness obsession. That night, after drinking spiked alcohol, he mistakes An Qing for someone his rival arranged, looks down on her, but under the drug’s effect, spends the night with her.]
[Because of the huge blow from her boyfriend’s betrayal, An Qing does not push him away and escapes early the next morning. But soon after, she discovers she is pregnant… Finally, An Qing decides to raise the child alone.]
[An Qing gives birth abroad to a genius son, An Baobao. Three years later, she returns to the country for work and encounters Shen Jiyuan again. Their child looks almost exactly like him and instantly grows close to Shen Jiyuan, who has always been a well-behaved child, devising ways to get them together…]
Shi Qing’s lips curl into a slight smile, her fingertips gently stroking the knuckles of her other hand.
She never interrupts the system’s narration or comments. From her expression, it’s impossible to tell if she’s ignoring it or listening carefully.
The elevator rises silently inside the luxurious hotel, the faint humming sound in the quiet space is sharp to the ear.
The elevator’s polished surfaces clearly reflect her face.
The young woman has a slender figure, long black hair flowing over her shoulders, wearing a pure white shirt with a loose knit sweater over it.
Her eyes, like a gentle deer drinking spring water, peek from under thick, long black eyelashes. The pupils are deep, black to the point of no bottom.
As she raises her hand, the reflection’s fingers move in sync, resting just below her eye.
How strange… this body clearly doesn’t belong to her.
Before entering the quick transmigration mission, Shi Qing was already dead.
This is not unusual—every second, thousands of people die in accidents in the human world.
But after Shi Qing’s death, someone was willing to sacrifice their own life to keep her soul.
The young man who sincerely made this wish possessed great power. Everything he had could greatly change this world.
He was willing to use wealth, ability, and even everything he owned to revive Shi Qing. But reversing life and death requires tremendous energy. Though for a short time, it was unclear what impact it would have on the world.
Thus, after much discussion, an entity known as the “Main System” in this world asked Shi Qing if she was willing to enter the quick transmigration worlds.
These secondary worlds, born from existing novels, movies, and other fictional stories, are called “sub-worlds.” Repeatedly entering such constructed worlds is called “quick transmigration” in trendy terms.
Shi Qing can recuperate by entering these worlds. The flow of time differs in sub-worlds, allowing her to gain time and collect energy.
Shi Qing didn’t ask much and agreed immediately.
The main system was surprised, “You have no questions?”
Shi Qing was indifferent, “I’m already dead.”
Negotiating with a giant unknown entity, having no cards in her hand, what choice does she have but to agree? Besides, she’s already dead. How much worse can it get?
Besides, it sounds interesting.
Not wanting to show her curiosity, she added, “After going through these… quick transmigration worlds, I can be revived?”
She remembered that in the end, she hadn’t even left a corpse behind.
Main system: “You can rest assured.”
“So, what do I need to do?”
“…Nothing special. The story plot will be told to you at the start. You can live it as you like, but the world’s will will force you down the main storyline, which is usually hard to change.”
“Hmm, I see.”
“Entering the story world, you will unavoidably become entangled with the characters. If anything happens, you can always call your system for help…”
Then the main system recalled that because of emotional entanglement, her soul ended up here. Pausing, it asked, “Do you have any preferred story types or ones you’re good at handling?”
Shi Qing looked down at her translucent, faintly glowing fingertips, thinking for a moment, “Hmm… romance. I quite like that.”
Main system replied, “Got it.”
“Entering the story world, how do I gain energy? Where does it come from?”
“The closer you get to the story’s center, the more energy you gain. Of course, you don’t have to do that. After experiencing enough worlds, you’ll have enough energy to revive.”
Shi Qing smiled slightly, “I’ll work hard.”
Shi Qing was soon assigned her first story.
The elevator rose floor by floor, the little device called the “Anytime System” diligently reporting the plot: “After several twists and turns, Shen Jiyuan finally realizes he has feelings for you and begins to pursue you…”
“System, just one more question. What happened to the original An Qing?”
The system paused, “After consulting with the original protagonist, she was reincarnated into another world.”
After summarizing the story, the system thought the original protagonist’s reincarnation into an ordinary life was wiser than being a lead in this story.
Shi Qing didn’t care about the system’s thoughts; she was thinking about her own situation.
When she entered this body, she inherited An Qing’s memories.
This girl, barely in her twenties, was hopeful about everything and treated others gently. Though residual emotions remained in the body, they did not interfere with her.
The system’s summary was almost done, and Shi Qing could guess what would happen next.
She didn’t want to comment on the plot but wanted to understand the logic and basis behind it.
The most interesting part of the story was the excessive “coincidences.”
A one-night stand “coincidentally” leading to pregnancy, various reasons making An Qing unable to abandon the child, and years later “accidentally” falling in love with the child’s father.
These coincidences exceeded human limits and were manifestations of “world’s will.” In other words, as long as she played An Qing, no matter how hard she tried, she couldn’t avoid meeting the male lead. The whole world would secretly and openly push them together.
If she could use this to her advantage… interesting things might happen.
How could she make this story more fun?
The elevator dinged and stopped smoothly.
Stepping out, a warm breeze and fragrance greeted her. Even before entering the male lead’s “CEO area,” she could sense the hotel’s luxury.
Shi Qing didn’t wait for the system’s prompt and checked her phone for messages.
The message from stepsister An Yue, sent an hour ago, was at the top of her inbox.
After confirming the message, she put away her phone and walked toward the suite number mentioned in the text.
Her steps were light and unhesitant, like a gust of wind, reaching the door An Yue had notified her about.
Before the system could react, Shi Qing pushed open the door.
Then, she raised her phone.
She even turned on the flashlight; the glaring light flickered several times, capturing a vivid scene in the room—two people on the bed, frozen like two silly geese, looking at her in ridiculous surprise.
Shi Qing smiled and waved at them.
Their eyes met, and without giving them time to react, she closed the door.
A loud noise came from behind the door. Shi Qing turned her head and walked away quickly. To avoid being too overconfident and suffering a tragic ending as soon as she entered the first world, she hurried forward and stepped directly into the elevator.
Shen Jiyuan’s presidential suite was on the top floor, which had only one room and was very strictly managed. Entry and exit required keycard access, so it was practically impossible for anyone to approach unnoticed.
Shi Qing casually pressed the buttons a few times. The elevator suddenly jolted and ascended straight up, quickly reaching the top floor regarded as a forbidden zone.
Without any trouble, she easily arrived at the top floor, where the story’s male lead, Shen Jiyuan, was also present.
This floor had only one door, appearing impregnable.
Shi Qing came to the door and simply pushed it lightly—it opened.
The door was actually just ajar, not locked. Such carelessness, placing too much trust in the hotel’s security, she thought, shaking her head silently, but without hesitation, she stepped inside.
She hoped that after tonight, he would remember to always lock his door wherever he went.
The space was large and furnished with the finest furniture, but it revealed no personal style or taste. There was no sign of anyone present since this was just a reception area. Presumably, there were several suites here. Shi Qing stepped further inside and found Shen Jiyuan in the innermost bedroom.
“Found” was a loose term since she did not see him, only hearing the sound of water from the bathroom.
Shi Qing glanced around the bedroom.
The plot stated that every time Shen Jiyuan came to this city, he stayed in the hotel’s top-floor suite. Normally, this wealthy young master would decorate the suite according to his preferences.
But this bedroom, even more than the formal, lavishly decorated reception room outside, showed no personal character.
There were no decorative paintings on the walls, no flower vases or lamps on the bedside tables.
The arrangement seemed to say: “This is only a place to sleep. No other functions are necessary.”
One’s living space reflects one’s personality.
Shen Jiyuan was a man of high moral standards and strict self-discipline, detesting women approaching his body. This aloof and indifferent “high mountain flower” type clearly could not escape the plot’s whirlpool.
What’s worse, the person he now met was not the original An Qing, but Shi Qing disguised as the female lead.
Shi Qing sighed quietly in her heart and shifted her gaze to the bedroom’s only conspicuous furniture—a large, eye-catching bed.
It seemed that although the young master Shen adhered to minimalism, he had no interest in asceticism. The bed was covered with silk sheets that perfectly matched her stereotypical image of a domineering CEO.
Shi Qing walked to the edge of the bed, her black hair falling on both cheeks. She slightly lowered her head, looking down at the bed from above.
Tonight’s story would all happen on this bed.
Since entering the room, it had been unusually quiet. The system, after finishing reporting the plot, had fallen silent. Shi Qing guessed it was no longer by her side, which was naturally better.
If she had to be fully tied to the system—day and night—that would be too inconvenient.
Of course, this did not mean she planned to do bad things right away. Usually, she was a polite person.
Her attitude toward Shen Jiyuan depended on his attitude. If he was not so rude, she wouldn’t do anything excessive.
Shen Jiyuan’s attitude toward her would be met with the same.
So far, her actions followed roughly the original story’s direction. She hadn’t done anything outrageous.
Honestly, she was very curious about Shen Jiyuan.
He was the center of the world, the favored son of heaven—the story’s him was simply the top man in the world, with the most perfect looks and temperament.
What kind of face was that, exactly?
After carefully examining the bedroom, Shi Qing smoothed the wrinkles on her clothes and sat on the edge of the bed.
She waited for a long time before the bathroom water stopped running.
The door was opened from the inside.
Steaming, humid water vapor drifted out, and through the mist, a young man appeared in her sight.
Bright light shone on him. He wore only a bathrobe, drying his wet hair. His damp black hair clung to his neck, water droplets running down his chest into the robe. His legs were long and very fair.
Shen Jiyuan took two steps forward and saw Shi Qing sitting at the bed’s edge.
He suddenly stopped and stood still, silently appraising the unexpected guest in the room.
For a moment, there was no sound.
Shi Qing had no intention of speaking first. Shen Jiyuan was exactly as described in the story. Out of her mischievous curiosity, she wanted to see how this cold beauty would react in such a situation.
She didn’t wait for Shen Jiyuan to speak.
After a few long seconds of silence, Shen Jiyuan raised his foot and walked over to Shi Qing, suddenly lifting his hand to pinch her chin.
He stared at her unblinking.
His gaze seemed to examine and consider from above, but all this lasted only an instant. He obviously made his judgment quickly.
“Again with the spiked drinks, again with the drugs. So it’s for this kind of thing?” A fleeting cold smile appeared on his face. “Who sent you here?”