L: [Why does your photo look different from before?]
It was just a simple line of text, flat and matter-of-fact in tone, yet it inexplicably made one feel tense and pressured.
In the dormitory, a slender figure sat on a chair.
The girl was very beautiful, with delicate features. Her palm-sized face was full of facial features—under curved brows were a pair of almond eyes, her gaze lowered, lashes curled and upturned, lips somewhat pale, a few stray strands of hair clinging to her temples, but still unable to hide the lovely contours.
The only flaw was the reddened bump on her head—from being hit.
But right now she had no time to worry about the bump on her forehead.
Su Yunting stared motionlessly at the message on the screen, lightly pressing her lips together.
Gazing at her phone, her dark pupils were filled with intense nervousness.
As the message appeared, the girl’s fingertips holding the phone curled together.
Her breathing stopped in an instant, her heart suspended high, as if about to plunge into an abyss.
Memories from the dream flashed rapidly through her mind.
Could he be suspicious?
That’s right, Su Yunting had awakened.
It turned out she was a cannon-fodder side character in an online-dating novel.
The female lead, Su Yunting’s roommate He Jiaojiao, was fishing for money through online dating in pursuit of climbing the social ladder.
When sending photos, because she had a delicate, petite look and feared her online love interest wouldn’t like it, she had a flash of inspiration and merged a photo of herself and Su Yunting together, sending that instead.
Using the composite photo, she raked in money hand over fist.
And her, Su Yunting.
In the story, she was nothing but a cannon-fodder tool.
Few appearances, heavy blame, miserable ending.
In the dream, after she learned that He Jiaojiao had used her photo for online dating, she wanted to make her confess the truth.
But before Su Yunting could act, He Jiaojiao’s scandal of stringing along multiple men as a gold-digger was exposed.
He Jiaojiao thought it was her doing, and fearing retaliation, seized the opportunity to dump everything on her.
With a double-flash, she went on a crazy blame-shifting spree.
It wasn’t me, it was Su Yunting!
She wanted to explain, but no one believed her.
Whether it was the photos or some daily information, He Jiaojiao had stolen it all from her. She took the blame for He Jiaojiao.
In an instant, Su Yunting’s reputation was ruined. She was cursed at, bullied, expelled from school, and finally sent to prison for fraud, working a sewing machine.
And because of this, He Jiaojiao had real-life contact with the male lead.
She clearly remembered.
In the dream, before she was taken away, He Jiaojiao stood before her, looking down at her from above, and said with a smile:
“Su Yunting, if you hadn’t tried to expose me, how would any of this have happened?”
“But I should thank you. Thanks to you taking the blame for me, I can now appear before Yu Li with a clean slate.”
“I’m the only girl who has ever had contact with him. After this, I’ll definitely be with him, welcoming my beautiful future. As for you—since you wanted to expose me, then take the consequences in my place.”
Su Yunting sat frozen in the chair.
Tightly gripping her phone.
The scenes from the dream were too real, vivid before her eyes.
Those curses, accusations, malice—overwhelming and surging toward her. Those days were truly painful.
She didn’t want that.
So to escape her original ending, the normally honest and dutiful Su Yunting made a bold decision.
She had already walked the path of making He Jiaojiao confess—and the result was devastating.
So this time, she was going to choose a different path.
As a veteran user of Yangshizi, Su Yunting knew all too well that she was just cannon fodder.
So she was afraid that no matter how hard she struggled, she could not escape the arrangements of the plot.
Just like how she would be hit today—even though she hadn’t taken that road, she was still struck on the head by a ball.
There was only one thing that could resist the plot, and that was the Protagonist Halo.
The Protagonist Halo—she didn’t have one, but that didn’t mean others didn’t.
For example, the male lead, who was also a protagonist.
So, in order to change the tragic ending of the original plot, rather than passively accepting it, it was better to strike first!
Since you used my photos for an online romance, I’ll just steal your boyfriend.
Use a halo to fight a halo.
Use magic to defeat magic!
A suspected honest person, driven to having no other options, went completely all out.
The male lead, Shen Yuli—the book said he was cold-natured, indifferent to women, and had met He Jiaojiao through an online romance.
Su Yunting only knew the plot related to herself. Up until she was written off, she had no way of knowing what came after.
Su Yunting could not determine whether he had a hand in her ending.
Nor did she know whether they ended up together in the end.
Judging from the current situation, Shen Yuli was her best choice for escaping her ending.
So the first thing she did after waking up was add Shen Yuli on WeChat.
In order not to expose her identity, He Jiaojiao used an online romance app for their chats.
It was precisely because of this that Su Yunting found this loophole to exploit.
Moreover, He Jiaojiao currently had a lot of fish in her pond, and she still didn’t know that L was Shen Yuli.
Su Yunting held her phone and sent a friend request.
[Hello, I’m your girlfriend.]
She hadn’t used her brain at all.
After sending it, she realized something was wrong and immediately corrected herself.
[I’m your online girlfriend, Little Sweetheart. I don’t want to use the online romance app anymore. May I add you on WeChat?]
[I can send a photo to prove my identity.]
Time passed second by second. Because of nervousness, the girl’s back was ramrod straight.
Su Yunting’s heart was pounding.
Was cannon fodder’s fate really this bad? She wasn’t going to get stuck at the very first step, was she?
Could the ending really not be changed?
The light in Su Yunting’s eyes gradually dimmed.
Just then—ding dong.
The friend request was accepted.
Su Yunting’s darkened eyes suddenly lit up.
Before the other party could even ask, she immediately and conscientiously sent a photo.
Step one, adding WeChat: success!
But before she could even feel happy, a message from the other side froze the smile that hadn’t yet risen to her lips.
L: [Why does your photo look a little different from before?]
Su Yunting’s eyes widened: !
What she had sent was not a full-body photo showing her face.
After all, although the photos He Jiaojiao sent used her face, they had all been through image blending and Photoshop.
If she directly sent her own photo, the risk of being exposed was too high.
In the photo, the girl wore a mask, covering most of her face, leaving only a pair of beautiful eyes.
Because in those photos that He Jiaojiao had Photoshopped, the eyes were still the part that most resembled her real self.
Even so, she had still been suspected.
Lying for the first time, Su Yunting’s heart pounded wildly.
Her brain went blank for a moment.
Just then, in the silent air, the phone dinged again, instantly pulling Su Yunting’s somewhat blank thoughts back.
What did he send now?
She glanced down—just one look.
Su Yunting’s hand trembled, and the phone clattered onto the table, lying there silently like a corpse.
Just like the current Su Yunting, she also wanted to just lie there like a corpse.
L: [Why aren’t you saying anything?]
L: [Or are you lying to me—you’re not Little Sweetheart.]
Little Sweetheart—He Jiaojiao’s nickname on the online dating app.
There was a pause between the two messages, as if the person on the other end wasn’t in a hurry, just asking casually.
But it felt completely different to Su Yunting.
It was as if she was about to be exposed at any moment.
Su Yunting’s whole body tensed up. How do you manage to type such terrifying words with such plain text?!
Of course she wasn’t Little Sweetheart.
But could she say that?
Of course… she couldn’t!
What to do?
Stupid brain, think fast!
Su Yunting slapped herself on the head.
“Hiss…”
The pain made her suck in a sharp breath, and a thin mist of tears welled up in her eyes, making her look pitiful.
Her head, which had already been aching a bit because of Shen Yuli’s words, now hurt even more.
But Su Yunting couldn’t care less about the pain on her forehead.
Her brain spun at lightning speed.
Was she really going to be exposed right from the start?
Should she confess?
Confess that she wasn’t Little Sweetheart.
After all, Shen Yuli hadn’t been among the men who had sent her in.
Maybe he would be willing to believe her, willing to help her.
In just one second, this thought was snuffed out by Su Yunting.
She didn’t want to go through that tragic ending again.
And if she were exposed now, what if it skipped all the later steps and she was directly logged off?
She didn’t dare gamble, and she couldn’t gamble.
Even if she was on the verge of death, she had to struggle.
To hell with it, who cares!
Su Yunting pressed her lips together, her eyelids lowered slightly, and picked up the phone lying like a corpse on the table, starting to type with rapid taps.
[La la la la, new book is out, babies! I, Hu Hansan, am back again! (hands on hips, imposing version)]
[1v1, the original book is the original book, now is now. In the original book, the male lead never liked He Jiaojiao. Everyone just turn off your brains and read!]
[Finally, wishing all the big babies who click on this book sudden wealth, sudden beauty, and sudden weight loss!!]
[Author System Reminder: Reading mission activated. Start reading!]