Ning Xi entered the bathroom.
The floor was slightly damp, yet there were no water marks. It wasn’t hard to tell that He Kezhou had mopped the floor after using the bathroom.
She stood before the sink and looked up to see herself in the mirror, momentarily stunned.
The woman in the mirror had a delicate, palm-sized face that was pale and luminous, with two unnatural patches of flush on her cheeks. Her voluminous rose-gold curls were soft and airy, making her look as if she were wrapped in a soft glow. Her large eyes were bright and liquid, her nose bridge high and refined, with a slightly upturned tip, and her cherry-like lips held a faint pink tint. She was cool yet sweet, like sugar dusted with frost on a winter’s day.
This was the first time Ning Xi had truly looked at the original owner’s face and body since transmigrating into the book.
This face was the kind that would strike you as stunningly beautiful at first glance.
It bore a six or seven out of ten resemblance to her pre-transmigration self.
She blinked, and the person in the mirror blinked back.
Ning Xi pressed her hand against her still-burning cheek and struggled hard to banish He Kezhou’s body from her mind.
She really didn’t want this frail body.
Her original body, thanks to years of dancing and strict dietary control, had been healthy and full of vitality even without striking looks.
It was far superior to this one.
She raised her hand to measure against her head—the original owner was shorter than her, only about 165 centimeters.
Ning Xi lowered her hand and let her gaze fall on the two matching black and pink mugs on the shelf above the sink.
Both had toothbrushes sticking out of them.
Ning Xi tossed away the original owner’s pink piggy toothbrush and was lucky enough to find a new black toothbrush in the cabinet beneath the sink.
She didn’t need to guess—He Kezhou had bought it.
Ning Xi struggled for ages to unwrap the new toothbrush.
She didn’t like using a cup to brush her teeth, so she habitually cupped water in her hand and brushed her teeth carefully.
The toothbrush in her right hand kept brushing against the wound on her palm, sending sharp little jabs of pain.
After finishing, Ning Xi placed the black toothbrush into the pink mug on the shelf.
Dragging her weary body along, she turned off the living room light and, by the light of the moon, lay back down on the sofa and wrapped herself in the blanket.
This night had drained her completely.
Her hand instinctively reached for her phone.
A second later, she remembered—the original owner’s phone was in the bedroom.
He Kezhou should be asleep by now.
If she went in to get it, she’d wake him.
Ning Xi closed her eyes and forced herself to sleep.
She thought it would be hard to fall asleep, but within a few minutes of closing her eyes, her consciousness sank.
Soon, though, she was jolted awake by a nightmare.
In the dream, she watched He Kezhou get hit by a car and sent flying.
The scene shifted, and the man stood across the road, staring at her with silent, cold black eyes. His flawlessly handsome features were a bloody mess.
Ning Xi shot up from the sofa in terror.
Outside, the sky was bright with morning light, sunlight spilling across the living room sofa and making everything gleam.
Ning Xi wiped the sweat from her neck and instinctively glanced toward the second bedroom.
The door to the second bedroom was wide open.
He Kezhou had already left for work.
Ning Xi walked into the room and saw the bed exactly as she’d left it when she went out last night. She pressed her fingers to her brow.
He Kezhou hadn’t slept in the bed last night.
Right now, He Kezhou was physically repulsed by her.
Ning Xi found the phone she hadn’t touched all night on the nightstand and used the disinfectant wipes He Kezhou had bought to wipe down the phone inside and out.
She pressed the screen.
Face unlock activated, and the home screen popped up with a low-battery warning at 4%.
It was 7:48 in the morning.
Ning Xi sat on the bed and plugged the phone in to charge, then opened the social media app.
Messages: 99+.
She skimmed through the unread messages, her brow furrowing deeper and deeper.
The original owner, unemployed and stuck at home, hadn’t been content with solitude—she’d been chatting heatedly with different men online. She’d even frequently made excuses to hint that those men should transfer her money.
Ning Xi was terrified that the original owner had swindled a lot of money online.
Only when she saw that just one man named A Cheng had sent the original owner three transfers of 520 did she breathe a sigh of relief.
Her finger slid down, accidentally tapping into a new message.
A Cheng: [Transfer 5200]
A Cheng: [I want to see you today.]
A Cheng: [Let’s meet up.]
Ning Xi tapped into his Moments and saw a post from an hour ago—a photo of him hauling bricks at a construction site with a self-encouraging caption. She fell silent for a long while.
Making money is so hard—why not buy yourself something nice to eat and improve your life?
What’s the point of an online romance? Getting scammed?
Ning Xi, already irritated by the nightmare and these annoying messages first thing in the morning, tapped into her balance. Seeing there was still 2,030 yuan in spare change, she transferred 1,560 to the man with the A Cheng profile picture.
The man’s message bombardment continued for a full half hour.
During that time, Ning Xi only replied once: “Money received. We’ll talk later.”
The original owner had too many friends on her list—Ning Xi’s fingers ached from deleting them all.
She uninstalled the dating apps and the live-streaming platform the original owner had used.
With the phone screen and friend list now clean, she let out a breath.
After A Cheng accepted the transfer, Ning Xi deleted him without a second thought.
Then she went through all the original owner’s payment apps.
Upon seeing that she owed less than a thousand yuan on Huabei, her heart, which had been in her throat, finally settled back down.
Last month when her salary came in, He Kezhou had helped the original owner pay off debts from several platforms. The original owner had promised He Kezhou that if he helped her pay off all her debts, she would never spend beyond her means again.
Such a promise, in the short term, the original owner would keep.
But when she truly ran out of money, she would still overspend and borrow ahead again.
Wait, there was still the credit card.
Ning Xi logged into the app.
The credit card had already been swiped for nearly five thousand.
Adding it all up, aside from the 470 yuan left in her WeChat wallet, she was in debt by six thousand.
Dear heavens.
She was about to cry herself poor.
Ning Xi mentally tallied her creditors. Her biggest creditor right now was He Kezhou.
The second biggest was Meng Yizhen.
She opened the wardrobe and found the blue 20-inch suitcase hidden beneath a pile of clothes.
Opening the suitcase, neatly arranged inside was 180,000 yuan in cash.
Logically speaking, being this broke, seeing so much money—even if she couldn’t use it—should have cheered her up a little.
But she really couldn’t bring herself to smile.
The original owner had taken half a month to transfer this 300,000 yuan out.
120,000 had been deposited into a bank card, and over six days, 60,000 had been transferred via WeChat to the scammer posing as a plastic surgery intermediary.
The remaining 180,000 was all here.
The scammer intermediary was still waiting to swindle more money from her, and she could still contact him.
Ning Xi decided to go to the police station immediately, right now, to file a report and have the case registered.
The scammer was still waiting to cheat her out of more money—maybe, just maybe, this money could be recovered.
She zipped up the suitcase and stuffed it back into the wardrobe to hide it.
Ning Xi hastily washed up, skipped breakfast, grabbed a power bank, picked up her phone, and headed straight for the police station.
On the way there, she shed tears of regret.
Dear heavens, I accept transmigrating into this book, but could you at least give me a friendlier timeline?
For example, before the original owner had viciously abused and humiliated He Kezhou—transmigrating to when the two were just in a long-distance online romance.
Or, for instance, before the original owner had stolen this money.
Wishes were beautiful; reality was harsh.
Ning Xi resigned herself to her fate.
She was unemployed now, without even the money to rent a place. Her survival going forward was something she needed to consider.
She couldn’t bring herself to live like a parasite the way the original owner had, and she wouldn’t do so.
With hands, feet, and skills, she would always find a way to put food on the table.
Ning Xi wanted to run away, but before she ran, she needed to save up enough money to pay He Kezhou back.
In three months, the original owner had really spent an enormous amount of He Kezhou’s money.
She not only had to save up to repay He Kezhou, but also save enough to cover rent and living expenses outside.
Monetary debts were easy to repay; debts of gratitude were not.
The original owner owed He Kezhou a monetary debt and also a debt of gratitude. That was why she said He Kezhou was her biggest creditor.
Karma forms a closed loop. It’s only a matter of time.
Since she had now taken the original owner’s place, all future consequences would fall on her.
Ning Xi didn’t want to bear an ending she couldn’t handle.
Luckily, it wasn’t too late to make things right.
Walking down the street, the sun was so bright she could barely keep her eyes open. She deeply regretted rushing out without an umbrella or tying up her hair.
She lifted her hair to cool off.
In June, Xincheng had already entered summer.
The sun scorched her skin painfully.
The scrapes on her knees meant Ning Xi couldn’t walk fast even if she wanted to.
The nearest police station on the map was nearly three kilometers away.
There was a direct bus, but she had to squeeze through two crowds before she managed to board.
Ning Xi got off the bus looking pale and green around the gills.
She rubbed her face hard, mustered her spirits, and walked into the police station.
That 120,000 yuan—she had to get it back.
She wanted to curse every scammer in this world to have the worst luck, to choke on even cold water.
All those who lacked discernment, who fantasized about getting something for nothing, or who were manipulated by their own desires and got scammed—they deserved it and weren’t worthy of sympathy.