Chapter 1: The Child-Rearing System

Zhu Jia felt a heavy eyelid and a slight headache. Her last memory was of a road trip to Tibet with two college classmates. Zhu Jia had just graduated and found a satisfying job in the city where her university was located, and the trip was meant to be her graduation vacation.

However, things didn’t go as planned. A sudden car accident shattered all their plans. They were happily chatting in the car when there was a deafening crash—a large truck collided with their car, flipping it over. Zhu Jia’s last conscious moment was her body tumbling inside the car.

Zhu Jia slowly opened her eyes, squinting through a crack, and saw a luxurious crystal chandelier. Could this be a high-end private hospital? She turned her neck and realized she was lying on a soft European-style bed, large enough to fit four or five people. What kind of hospital would have such a large bed?

She looked down at her body and noticed she was wearing a pink satin, thin, sleeveless nightgown she had never seen before. Her arms were smooth and flawless, with no signs of injury. Her head buzzed—this didn’t feel right!

Zhu Jia immediately sat up from the bed, vigilantly surveying the surroundings. She was in a luxurious, beautiful bedroom that was about the same size as the small rented apartment she had just moved into. Where was she? Was she dreaming? She pinched her face—it hurt, so it wasn’t a dream. Could she have crossed over?

“Ding ding ding, hello, host, I am System 8888, at your service,” a mechanical voice suddenly rang in Zhu Jia’s head. “Don’t doubt it, you have indeed crossed over. Have you heard of the book The Young Master’s Childhood Sweetheart?”

Zhu Jia was shocked. She had actually experienced something she had fantasized about during her teenage years—she had crossed into a book! She must not have survived the car accident, and for the first time in her life, she was grateful to be an orphan—if she had died at 22, it would have devastated her parents. “Since I’m here, I’ll make the best of it,” she thought. Having read hundreds of transmigration novels, she wasn’t worried about handling whatever came her way.

“Uh, 8888? Hi,” Zhu Jia recalled the details about The Young Master’s Childhood Sweetheart from her mind. She had read so many romance novels that she couldn’t remember all their names. Based on the title alone, it sounded like one of those trashy novels she had scrolled through on Weibo before bed. “I don’t really remember if I’ve read it.”

“That’s okay, I’ll briefly summarize the plot for you.” Suddenly, Zhu Jia’s mind swirled as information flooded in.

The Young Master’s Childhood Sweetheart was a melodramatic and tragic novel popular ten years ago. The gentle and beautiful female lead was the daughter of the male lead’s tutor from his middle school years. She had loved him secretly for years, but he, cold and aloof, never paid her any attention. Due to differences in family background, she was nearly heartbroken.

She kept her unspoken love throughout her university years, but after graduation, the male lead married a haughty, malicious rich girl. A few months later, the male lead announced they had a son. Heartbroken, the female lead fled abroad to study.

A year later, unable to forget the male lead, she returned to find that he had divorced the rich girl. The female lead, both sad and relieved, pursued the male lead, enduring countless trials, misunderstandings, and tragedies (such as amnesia, car accidents, miscarriages, kidney removal, broken legs, and the male lead being engaged to another woman). After 500 chapters, the male lead finally pursued her, and they lived happily ever after, together with the male lead’s son.

Zhu Jia was left rubbing her forehead, stunned by the sheer level of emotional manipulation. “I should never have clicked on this trashy novel before bed,” she thought. She swore to herself to only read strong female lead stories from now on to avoid becoming a victim of such a plot if she ever transmigrated again.

“8888, so where exactly am I now? Am I supposed to be heartbroken and flee abroad for a year, only to return later?” Zhu Jia asked, at least relieved she wouldn’t have to deal with the worse parts of the plot right away.

“Host, did you misunderstand? You don’t need to go abroad,” the system replied.

“But in the original, didn’t the female lead go abroad after graduation? Isn’t that exactly the stage I’m at now?” Zhu Jia felt an ominous sense of dread.”Uh, host, you might have misunderstood. You’re not the female protagonist; you are the third female supporting character in The Young Master Mo’s Childhood Sweetheart, which means you’re the Miss Zhu from the Zhu family whom Young Master Mo married last week,” the system’s mechanical voice seemed to have a hint of helplessness.

“What… What!?” Zhu Jia, who had been calm, was now on the verge of losing control. She knew from her years of reading early tragic romance novels that there was only one group of people who would suffer more than the female protagonist who had to endure heart-wrenching trials: the female supporting characters! At least the female protagonist would have a normal ending, but the supporting character would never end well. They either die, get disfigured and bankrupt, or end up in prison…

Zhu Jia lay down helplessly. Things were even more troublesome than she imagined. “8888, could you please explain more about my role?”

“No problem, host. Your name is Zhu Jia, the second daughter of the nouveau riche Zhu family. The first time you saw the male protagonist, Mo Yichen, you were deeply attracted to his handsome appearance and strong family background. People like the Zhu family, small-time nouveau riche, never had a chance to meet someone from the Mo family, who belonged to the upper class. However, after repeatedly pursuing him without any boundaries, Mo Yichen agreed to marry you last week for reasons unknown.

You signed a one-year marriage agreement. After one year, Mo Yichen would give you a large sum of money as compensation. But according to the original plot, your marriage won’t last even a year. Soon, you’ll be kicked out, and the Zhu family will be ruthlessly retaliated against by Mo Yichen. This is because he discovers that you’ve been abusing the illegitimate son he just brought home!”

“What? An illegitimate child he just brought home? Where is he?”

“Uh, host, please look at the small bed next to your vanity. Isn’t there a little crib covered with a mosquito net?”

Zhu Jia got off the bed and walked over to the vanity. Sure enough, she saw a very small, slightly tilted oval crib with a tightly covered mosquito net, and it had four wheels underneath. From a distance, it looked like a uniquely designed movable storage rack, which is probably why Zhu Jia hadn’t noticed it earlier.

“This is the illegitimate child the male protagonist brought home today?” Zhu Jia vaguely saw a small silhouette lying in the oval crib, but couldn’t make out the details through the mosquito net.

“Yes, that’s him. Ahem, let me continue explaining your next plot. You’ve just been married to Mo Yichen for a week, and yet he blatantly brings home an illegitimate child. Today, you were so angry that you broke several valuable ornaments in the living room, chased away all the servants carrying the child, and cried while demanding to know who the child’s mother was. You even threatened to send the child to an orphanage if he wasn’t taken away tomorrow…”

Zhu Jia: “…Did I really do all of that? Doesn’t that mean I’ve completely offended the male protagonist?”

System: “Luckily, you only did the first two things. You didn’t have time to call Mo Yichen and question him because you fainted in the room. When you woke up, you had already become the host.”

Thankfully, there was still a chance to fix things. Offending the male protagonist was the worst thing to do. In the hands of the male protagonist’s mother, the author, anyone who offended him would be severely punished.

“Looking at it this way, my script isn’t too difficult. As long as I survive the one-year marriage and don’t get kicked out by the male protagonist, I’ll get a large sum of money and can live a carefree life, right?” Zhu Jia felt relieved, even starting to feel some faint hope for the future.

“Host, don’t think too far ahead. Your biggest problem is not this. After divorcing the male protagonist, you will use every method to stop the main couple from being together, constantly hopping on the male protagonist’s bottom line, and eventually, five years later, tragically die…”

Zhu Jia: “So, if I don’t stop the male and female protagonists from being together, I won’t die?”

System: “Not really. You’ll still die five years later…”

“So no matter what I do, I’ll die in five years? By the way, how am I going to die tragically?” Zhu Jia was slightly angry. What was the point of all this? She had already died once—did she have to die again in this trashy novel?

“As for how you will tragically die, the original text didn’t describe it in detail. It just mentioned a tragic death. After all, we are the third female supporting character, and the author probably couldn’t be bothered to come up with a specific way to kill you. In any case, you will die,” the system explained.

Zhu Jia: “…Can the author be any more careless? So now I’m supposed to just give up and wait to die?”

“Host, now let me tell you the key point!” The system’s mechanical voice seemed filled with emotion. “Ding ding ding! Actually, we have a system name. We’re called the 8888 White Chubby Baby Raising System!” the system cheerfully said. “If you want to change your tragic future, start right now. Raise the child well, and accumulate 3 million points in the system to change your fate of dying early.”

“Raise the child well?” Zhu Jia looked at the small, blurry outline in the crib. She slowly lifted the mosquito net. The afternoon sunlight was soft, and the pale yellow warm light cast a thin golden edge over the crib. She held her breath gently, seeing a tiny, curled-up figure swaddled in a blanket.

Zhu Jia had never seen such a tiny baby—thin, small, soft, and white. The baby’s eyes were closed, and his thin lips were slightly parted. Zhu Jia couldn’t help but smile.

“I’ve never seen such a small baby.”

“That’s normal. Xiao Wen was just born 20 days ago, not even a month old,” the system replied.

“Then where is his mother? Why did the male protagonist bring him here?” Zhu Jia couldn’t understand this, but one thing did click—Mo Yichen’s purpose in marrying her was to give this illegitimate child a legal mother. Otherwise, the child’s identity would always be questioned and criticized.

Zhu Jia had hardly ever shown herself in his circles, and the Zhu family was far from those real aristocratic families. So it made sense that he would want everyone to believe that the child was Zhu Jia’s, thereby giving him a legitimate identity.

But what if the child’s real mother had some disgraceful background or had already met with an accident? Zhu Jia pondered this quietly.

“Host, I’m sorry. I cannot answer about Xiao Wen’s background; this is part of the hidden storyline and will be revealed later. Now, let me explain the system rules to you.”

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