“Are you feeling better? I’m about to head out to deliver orders.”
A low, slightly hoarse male voice came from beyond the glass door. Ning Xi, sitting on the toilet, jolted.
Her unfocused, wandering pupils slowly contracted as she looked around in bewilderment.
A tall figure was faintly visible beyond the glass door.
The pearl-textured tiles on the wall shimmered with a soft, lustrous glow.
Ning Xi was stunned. Wasn’t she in the dance studio? Where was this?
Was she hallucinating?
She reached up to rub her eyes.
The next second, she froze, staring at the hand she’d extended.
The hand before her was so pale it looked as though it had never seen sunlight. It bore delicate, diamond-studded nail art—a length she would never have gotten done herself.
Before she could figure it out, a dull, dragging pain in her lower abdomen made her gasp.
Ning Xi pressed hard against her stomach, breaking out in a cold sweat. Her whole body felt like boiled noodles—limp and utterly devoid of strength.
This feeling, she knew all too well.
Every month, she went through this.
But her period this month had ended last Wednesday.
Her ears rang as fragments of memories that didn’t belong to her flooded her mind.
Ning Xi froze.
She’d transmigrated into a book?
What a joke!
She remembered clearly that she’d been taking a nap in the dance studio at noon when the air conditioning suddenly gave out. Overwhelmed by the heat, she’d gone downstairs to buy an iced coffee.
Wait—she remembered now.
While crossing the crosswalk, she’d been knocked flying by a speeding motorcycle. Before losing consciousness, the audiobook she’d been listening to to lull herself to sleep at noon was still playing in her earbuds.
Now, she’d transmigrated into that very novel.
She’d become the vicious female cannon fodder of the same name, Ning Xi, who didn’t survive past the first three chapters.
He Kezhou, standing outside the bathroom, hesitated before knocking. “Should I come in?”
The bathroom was eerily silent—completely unlike Ning Xi’s usual style.
The door handle pressed down, and Ning Xi’s pupils contracted.
She parted her pale, bloodless lips, but the pain in her stomach left her momentarily unable to speak.
Hearing no sound from inside, He Kezhou assumed she’d fainted in the bathroom again, just like last time.
The door cracked open, revealing most of the man’s frame to Ning Xi.
The sudden opening of the door left Ning Xi completely frozen on the spot. Her face flushed crimson—embarrassed and panicked.
But the man seemed already accustomed to such scenes. His gaze was restrained, not wandering.
“Don’t come in…”
Ning Xi’s breath was unsteady, her voice trembling.
Seeing that she hadn’t passed out, He Kezhou felt slightly relieved.
The woman’s face was as white as paper, as if she might collapse at any moment. Her hair and clothes were soaked with sweat, and a strange, unpleasant odor hung in the air.
He Kezhou gripped the door handle, hesitating for a few seconds without closing the door right away. His eyes fixed on the floor, he lowered his voice. “Sorry.”
Ning Xi’s lashes fluttered as she was struck by the man’s appearance.
This face—it was practically a perfect, sculpted model.
His figure was tall and sturdy, with clean, sharp bone structure. Even in his delivery uniform, his outstanding bearing was undeniable. Lean but not frail, his cold, chiseled profile was sharp and severe.
But at this moment, his brow was veiled with numbness and exhaustion.
Sensing her scrutiny, He Kezhou lowered his head even further.
Ning Xi hated it when he wore his delivery uniform.
He Kezhou assumed she was staring at him to scold him for showing up in front of her in his delivery clothes, annoying her.
In reality, Ning Xi was startled by his weary expression and the bloodshot eyes.
How long had it been since he’d rested?
She was terrified he’d drop dead at any second.
At that thought—
Ning Xi’s heart lurched.
God, what heinous crime have I committed for you to punish me like this?
The man standing in her line of sight was He Kezhou, the male lead’s roommate.
And He Kezhou was the tool she—the vicious female cannon fodder—used to get close to the male lead, dreaming of climbing the social ladder and becoming a wealthy wife.
Three months ago, the original owner had started an online romance with He Kezhou using heavily photoshopped, face-hidden photos of long legs in ultra-short skirts.
Even during the online phase, she’d deceived both his heart and his money.
After meeting in person, she’d initially been satisfied with He Kezhou’s looks and physique.
But when the original owner saw the roommate who’d driven He Kezhou to the café—the male lead of the novel—she could no longer contain herself.
He Kezhou was just a mechanic at a run-down auto shop.
Ask about his parents—he stayed silent. Ask what university he’d attended—he stayed silent too.
The original owner couldn’t stand He Kezhou’s silence and lack of romance.
Curious about his roommate, she developed a strong interest in him. She took the initiative to propose cohabitation with He Kezhou, promising to wear pretty little dresses for him every night.
The original owner’s purpose in moving in together was simply to make it easier to get close to He Kezhou’s roommate.
She told He Kezhou that since they were already boyfriend and girlfriend, cohabitation was inevitable anyway.
He Kezhou initially disagreed, feeling that moving in together right after meeting was too fast.
If they were to live together, it should be after their relationship had stabilized.
By then, he could rent a new place and give Ning Xi a better standard of living.
The original owner refused.
If He Kezhou moved out, she’d lose her access to his roommate.
One night, the original host called He Kezhou crying, saying she had lost her job and been kicked out by her landlord.
With nowhere to go, Ning Xi softened He Kezhou’s heart.
After they moved in together, He Kezhou’s roommate almost never came back.
And it was from this point that the original host learned that this apartment belonged to He Kezhou’s roommate, who never came home.
His roommate gave her the sense that his family background was anything but simple. Through women’s intuition and subtle clues, she discovered the true wealth of He Kezhou’s roommate’s family.
The original host thought she had the figure and the face to take a shortcut. Working at a kindergarten, rising early and toiling late, enduring endless frustration every day—after paying rent and living expenses, she’d have nothing left at the end of the month, and would still owe two or three thousand on Huabei.
Whoever wanted to live that kind of exhausting, soul-crushing life could have it.
From then on, the original host completely gave up on working.
Every day at home, she’d shop online when bored and order takeout when hungry.
She maxed out her credit cards, overdrawing her limits on payment apps, yet it was never enough.
At first, she worried about what would happen if she couldn’t pay it back and her credit record got blacklisted.
Later, she discovered that as long as she shed tears, cried that she couldn’t control herself, that work pressure was too much, that she was sick—He Kezhou would find a way to fill the gaps for her and earn money to spend on her.
All her energy went into staying home and waiting for He Kezhou’s roommate to show up.
The one and only time He Kezhou’s roommate came back, he ran into the original host lounging in the living room in revealing clothes.
After that, he never returned.
From then on, only He Kezhou and she lived in this apartment.
No, to be more precise, it was just her.
He Kezhou spent no more than five hours at home each day.
Ning Xi sat on the toilet, curled into a ball.
This wasn’t even the worst of it.
By this point in the story, the original host had already secretly transferred three hundred thousand yuan in batches from the backup card that the male lead’s older brother had given He Kezhou—the one meant to support the male lead’s company in its early stages.
He Kezhou hadn’t noticed because that bank card wasn’t linked to mobile banking. This backup fund was part of an agreement between the male lead’s older brother and He Kezhou: when the male lead needed capital, He Kezhou would contribute it under his own name as an investment.
Of the three hundred thousand the original host had secretly transferred out, she’d already blown through one hundred and twenty thousand.
And that one hundred and twenty thousand wasn’t even spent—it was swindled away by a fake plastic surgery clinic intermediary.
What made it worse, the original host had already booked a flight to South Korea for half a month later, behind He Kezhou’s back.
The scammer intermediary had told her that the top plastic surgeons were hard to book, so she absolutely had to go in half a month.
The original host’s initial plan was to secretly transfer all the money in the card and go get plastic surgery.
Her beautiful vision: get her face done to look exactly like the male lead’s ex-girlfriend, and after returning home, she would surely live happily ever after with him.
As it turned out, in a foreign land, she was swindled out of everything—money and all—left with only a return ticket home.
With no way out, she latched back onto He Kezhou. She lied to him, claiming she had a terminal illness and needed expensive surgery to save her life, and that she’d had no choice but to touch that money.
The original host used a forged medical record, certain that He Kezhou wouldn’t abandon her, playing on his sympathy.
The male lead was both helpless and speechless at He Kezhou for never learning his lesson and being such a lovesick fool.
He was also disappointed and furious at his own older brother for not trusting his abilities and secretly slipping money to the people around him.
He Kezhou was his employee, yet he’d accepted his brother’s money—that was unbearable to him.
He fired He Kezhou.
After losing his job, He Kezhou moved them to a new place, going from part-time delivery work to full-time delivery work.
To pay off her debts and earn money for her treatment, he rented a basement that never saw sunlight.
Going from frugality to luxury is easy; from luxury back to frugality is hard.
The original host, on one hand, complained that He Kezhou couldn’t give her a more comfortable life, and on the other, faked illness to manipulate him. She schemed to bleed him dry, forcing him to earn money around the clock.
In the end, the man was hit by a car and killed while delivering food.
Only after his death did she learn that he was the youngest son of one of Hong Kong’s wealthiest tycoons.
The tycoon had his son’s vicious girlfriend, who had caused his death, thrown into the mountains. There in the mountains, she gave birth to child after child, and finally died in childbirth in a sheep pen.