“Hey, did you guys see that Porsche at the gate?”

“Yeah, I saw it. It’s just a Porsche, why are you making such a fuss?”

Students who can attend an international school are either rich or powerful. A few luxury cars in the family are nothing unusual, so naturally, they would not think much of a Porsche.

The student who spoke first shook his head. “It’s not an ordinary Porsche. It’s a globally limited edition. My dad wanted to buy one back then but couldn’t find a way!”

Sitting at his desk, organizing study materials, Gu Sui’an’s pen paused. He remembered that there was a limited-edition Porsche in their garage.

But because the design and patterns were too youthful and ostentatious, Gu Yi rarely drove it.

It should be a coincidence.

Student B: “Are you sure you didn’t see wrong? Could someone here really drive a limited edition Porsche?”

“I swear on my 24k golden eyes, I definitely didn’t see wrong, and it was a woman!”

Wow—

At this age, gossip and the opposite sex are the most interesting topics. Instantly, several students in the back row lit up. “It’s true, she’s super pretty. When I went to look at the car, she even smiled at me!”

Student A blushed.

“She’s definitely here to pick up a student. Let’s go see whose parent it is!”

“No matter whose parent it is, this bro is my friend now!”

“Hahaha, no, I think you want to be her brother-in-law!”

“Get lost!”

Amid the joking and laughter, Gu Sui’an quietly packed his schoolbag.

He was like an invisible person, isolated from his surroundings. The few students stopped when they saw Gu Sui’an. Once he walked away, they immediately muttered, “I really doubt whether he can even talk. Whoever shares a dorm with him must be bored to death!”

“Don’t worry, his roommate is the class monitor.”

The student froze. “Oh, what a perfect match, haha.”

The group let out a few meaningful laughs.

After all, the class monitor who worked part-time to pay tuition at the international school was also a weirdo.

On a summer evening, the sunset filled the sky, shrouding everything in a stifling heat.

Yu Lan stood outside the car for a few seconds before she couldn’t take it and returned inside. She took out some anti-perspirant cream and applied it while saying, “Xiao He, keep an eye out. Don’t let him slip away.”

“Got it, Madam.”

Xiao He agreed verbally, but since it was hard to see clearly from inside the car, he simply opened the door and stepped out to wait.

The young master is staying at the dormitory, and after school, he would definitely return to the dormitory, so he had to wait on another road.

Just like that, Yu Lan comfortably took on the role of a hands-off boss.

Anyway, the big boss’s instruction was to “pick him up,” and as for the process, it could be skipped entirely.

However, would this count as overtime? Yu Lan somewhat regretted not asking the butler for overtime pay earlier!

Otherwise, next time she gets a task unexpectedly, she might have to follow some toxic villainess plotline again.

While she was aimlessly scrolling through her phone, she suddenly heard a tapping sound on the car window.

Yu Lan curiously rolled the window down, and a few middle school students crowded around outside the car window. When they saw her, they all opened their mouths in unison.

“Wow—”

Yu Lan raised her eyebrows. She probably didn’t know them, right? “Yes?”

The students pushed each other, and finally, a blushing representative stepped forward, red as a monkey’s butt. “Um, are you a student’s parent? Y-you… you’re so pretty!”

Yu Lan couldn’t help but laugh.

Because she was attending Old Madam Gu’s birthday banquet today, she wore a dark nude-colored mermaid dress. The chest and waist were adorned with diamonds. Her makeup was quite light, paired with a pale pink lipstick. She looked just like a mermaid princess from under the sea.

No, a mermaid queen!

At this moment, the mermaid queen, under the gaze of several middle school students, pinched the golden sunglasses with her fingertips, gently pulled them down, and her long side bangs fluttered back. “Thank you, but I am indeed here to pick someone up.”

“Who are you picking up?”

Just as Yu Lan was about to answer, she caught sight of Xiao He bringing Gu Sui’an over from a distance.

The students also noticed the direction of her gaze and looked over. With one glance, they actually saw their classmate Gu Sui’an!

Of course, they didn’t associate Yu Lan with him at all, so they showed disdainful expressions. “Why is he here?”

Yu Lan paused and asked with a smile, “You know him?”

“Yeah, he’s Gu Sui’an, a weirdo in our class. Since the start of the school year, I haven’t heard him say a single word!”

The student curled his lip. “And during parent-teacher meetings, his parents don’t show up. Everyone in our class suspects he’s an orphan.”

Yu Lan: “……”

Poor old man, he had already been declared dead by his son’s classmates.

But Yu Lan noticed something else. “So, when the teacher asks questions in class, he doesn’t respond either?”

The student scratched his head. “Ah, the teacher doesn’t call on him during class.”

“Why not?”

“Because the teacher said he definitely knows how to solve the problems.”

The others immediately shouted, “Must be cheating! With a personality like his, how could he possibly know how to solve them?”

“Yeah, didn’t someone say they saw him put his hand in his pocket during the exam?”

“……”

Yu Lan appeared thoughtful.

In the book given to her by the system, the main character was the wealthy old man, and there were not many descriptions of Gu Sui’an, his son. Whenever he appeared, it was mostly to be bullied by his stepmother.

But Yu Lan recalled one plot point.

To vent her anger, the original owner once locked her stepson in a cabinet in the storage room for an entire day and night during a party. When the Gu family’s servants found Gu Sui’an, the teenager was already unconscious from dehydration.

This didn’t seem like a serious issue, but Gu Sui’an ended up in a coma for three full days. After waking up, the boy, who was already quiet, completely stopped speaking.

Not only that, he no longer used elevators, and before sleeping at night, he would turn on seven or eight lights in his room. Most people wouldn’t be able to sleep like that, but for the teenager, only then could he sleep soundly.

Yu Lan had read the book, so she knew that Gu Sui’an had claustrophobia.

Now, based on the words of his classmates, Yu Lan realized that this stepson of hers might also be a top student.

Did the old man know about this?

“Aiya, forget about him.”

The few students did not forget the main point and asked, “Sister, who exactly are you here to pick up?”

Yu Lan came back to her senses, and under their expectant gazes, casually pointed with her finger.

“Oh, I’m here to pick up the person you all called the weirdo.”

“???”

As she spoke, Gu Sui’an had already walked closer. When he saw his classmates, he looked slightly surprised. Then, without saying anything, he opened the front passenger door and got in.

The car trembled slightly. Before leaving, Yu Lan smiled warmly and extended her hand from the car window.

“It was nice chatting with you all. Unfortunately, I still have things to do, so I have to leave first.”

The few students looked embarrassed. “Goo-Goodbye.”

They were not happy at all.

Yu Lan changed the topic. “But it’s okay. I’ve already recorded everything. I’ll be sure to listen to it a few more times when I get back.”

This time, the middle school students’ faces turned completely pale.

A family that could afford a limited-edition Porsche was definitely not someone they could afford to provoke.

In an instant, after eating the car exhaust, the group of students were filled with regret. The boy with the monkey-red face even started calling his parents.

Yu Lan could not care less about how regretful they were.

There were so many children in the world, and more than half of them were brats. Why should she be the one to be understanding?

She got the WeChat contact of Gu Sui’an’s homeroom teacher from the butler. After adding the contact, she directly sent over the recording.

As expected of a teacher from an international school, things were handled swiftly. Yu Lan had just seen the “read” status when the other party sent over a long string of apologies. The main idea was that such a situation was his negligence, and he stated that the school would take it very seriously. If the claims were verified, the students who spread the rumors would apologize to Gu Sui’an in person.

At the end, he cautiously asked: was Mr. Gu satisfied with this way of handling things?

Yu Lan raised an eyebrow.

So, the other party knew that Gu Sui’an was Gu Yi’s son.

She lazily typed: [Mr. Gu said, not only must they apologize, they must also write a self-reflection and post it on the school’s bulletin board.]

A private apology only required opening and closing the mouth, with no real consequences. They might even do it again knowingly.

Since they dared to bully a classmate, then let everyone see how they regret it.

After getting into the car, Gu Sui’an immediately put on his headphones to practice English.

After a while, he suddenly heard some rustling sounds from the back seat.

He did not pay attention, only frowned and turned up the volume. But soon after, the noise turned into the ding-dong of phone notifications, accompanied by a woman’s cheerful humming—though not a single note was in tune, it was clear the woman was in a very good mood.

Gu Sui’an felt a bit annoyed.

He had, of course, heard her conversation with those classmates. The perpetrators sympathizing with the perpetrators—how absurd and laughable was that?

But in his heart, another voice kept telling him, “Yu Lan has changed.”

Whether it was a butterfly effect from being reborn or something else, many events from the previous life had not happened in this one.

The Yu Lan of his past life would not buy him clothes, would not ask for just three hundred yuan, and certainly would not come to school to pick him up.

Yet now, all these impossible things had happened.

Gu Sui’an felt as if a layer of mist veiled his eyes, obscuring his vision, preventing him from seeing clearly.

He tried hard to open his eyes, attempting to see the truth.

Suddenly, Yu Lan’s voice came from the back seat in confusion: “Why are you secretly watching me?”

Gu Sui’an snapped back to reality and realized he had been staring at the rearview mirror just now.

Now, he had been caught by her.

The air became a little awkward for a moment.

Yu Lan’s voice was very soft, and when she spoke, there was a bit of a Wu dialect accent: “I know I’m good-looking. Just now, one of your classmates even tried to chat me up. But don’t worry, I don’t have any plans to become someone’s stepmother for the time being.”

Gu Sui’an: “………………”

He must be crazy to think she had changed.

The teenager pulled over the neck pillow and directly covered his eyes with it.

–

The Gu family’s old residence was a courtyard house passed down through generations. It was located in the western district of City A, where every inch of land was worth its weight in gold. The surrounding environment was tranquil, filled with birdsong and the fragrance of flowers, and the scenery was pleasant.

It was Yu Lan’s first time coming here.

Before she arrived, she had already prepared herself to be picked on.

In the novel, the original owner’s marriage to the old man was not out of love, but due to her persistent pestering and countless underhanded tricks.

There was no need to doubt that she had even done criminal things like drugging someone, hoping to cook the rice before the water boiled. Little did she know the man had already seen through her. Not only did he not drink the wine, but he even informed her family of the incident.

There had originally been no possibility between the two. Strangely, later on the old man suddenly changed his attitude and agreed.

Although the novel did not describe the details of this change, based on the plot before and after, Yu Lan guessed that this change was probably related to the Gu family.

She suddenly remembered that the original owner locked up Gu Sui’an during a banquet. Could it have been this very one?

Xiao He parked the car. Yu Lan and Gu Sui’an got out.

It was Old Madam Gu’s sixtieth birthday banquet. Almost half of the businessmen in City A had come to offer their congratulations. There were no parking spaces left in the garage, so Xiao He could only park the car by the roadside.

The entire old residence was brightly lit and bustling with voices. But how many of these people had truly come to celebrate the birthday remained unknown.

Yu Lan stepped in wearing high heels. After walking a few steps, she sensed something and turned around. As expected, she saw Gu Sui’an standing motionless at the door.

She recalled the butler’s words. Although she was very unwilling, she still walked back and extended her hand.

A trace of confusion flashed through Gu Sui’an’s eyes.

Yu Lan pouted: “Hold my hand.”

In the distance, someone from the old residence had already noticed them. A servant went inside to report. Gu Sui’an lowered his eyes. In his line of sight, the woman’s hand was fair and slender, so delicate that even he could break it with just a gentle force.

Whether she has changed or not, they would know after tonight.

Yu Lan grew impatient from waiting and simply took the boy’s wrist. “What is there to be afraid of? Let’s go.”