Chapter 6 The person the original owner likes

“Cough, cough… cough… cough…”

A bite of egg went down the wrong pipe. Song Yiyi’s face flushed red as she coughed violently. The discomfort made her eyes turn red, and tears welled up instantly. She hurriedly grabbed the cup of water nearby and gulped it down in one go.

After inheriting the original host’s memories, the reason Song Yiyi felt that even if the original host married Cen Bowen, she wouldn’t make a fuss over Kang Ying, was because of what Cen Yue once said. The truth was, the original host didn’t like Cen Bowen at all.

The one she liked was her stepbrother, Gu Chengze.

This kind of feeling wouldn’t be easily accepted even in modern times, let alone in the current era.

It was unclear when it started. Perhaps it was from the time she could remember, knowing Gu Chengze wasn’t her biological brother yet still receiving his gentle and meticulous care. Or perhaps it was when she first saw him in military uniform, his warm and refined features forever etched in her memory.

Or maybe it was that year when she was fifteen.

The original host had gone up the mountain to play, but a flash flood destroyed the slope. Gu Chengze happened to be on leave, and without caring for his own safety, he searched for her for two days and one night, carrying her home when she was barely conscious.

When he found her, there were deep marks on her wrists and wounds all over her neck and legs.

When she woke up, her family asked her what had happened, but she couldn’t recall. Those two days became an inexplicable blank in her mind. The only thing she remembered was Gu Chengze carrying her home on his back.

His back was so broad and warm. His voice was filled with gentle reassurances, which to this day still warmed her heart.

Before she turned fifteen, she was the type to roam the hills and rivers, giving her whole family headaches. But ever since Gu Chengze rescued her from that flood, she completely changed, becoming the obedient and docile person she was now.

After her eldest brother joined the army, he came back to Songjia Village every year on family leave. Each time, he would bring her gifts — in summer, fashionable city dresses and Dacron shirts; in winter, expensive imported down jackets. There was always a variety of trinkets, with colorful hair clips piling up into a small mountain.

One year, when she was preparing for the college entrance exam, her father’s teaching was too vague, so she often pestered Gu Chengze. Under the parasol tree in front of the house, he would patiently break down and explain difficult problems to her.

In winter, her stepmother would knit several sweaters for both her and her brother. She learned from her stepmother and spent a whole winter knitting a crooked scarf, which her stepmother had to help finish. Embarrassed to give it to him, she kept it by her bed.

When Gu Chengze returned on leave a few days later, she saw that he had wrapped that scarf — looped around several times — snugly around his neck, covering his mouth completely.

When villagers teased, “Chengze, why are you wearing woolen pants around your neck?” he proudly lifted his chin.
“This is a scarf our Yiyi made for me. One of a kind.”

She remembered how dazzling his smile was then.

Before leaving, Gu Chengze had ruffled her hair with a laugh.
“Yiyi, the scarf looks great. Big brother really likes it.”

Never mind that it let the wind through. Never mind that it was ugly.

The feelings of a young girl quietly grew over the years until they could no longer be hidden — yet they were doomed to remain buried in her heart forever, never to see the light of day.

The original host understood this and had never intended to confess. But now she was already twenty. Her brother still unmarried, her stepmother often fretted herself sleepless over it.

Such a gentle woman would often pull her aside, her face full of worry:
“Your big brother really is too stubborn. He’s already thirty. At his age, other people’s kids are running all over the place, but he hasn’t made a move. Does he want to be alone forever? What will he do when he’s old? He should at least think about it — in a few years, I’ll be old too. Who will help him raise his children then?”

Every time she went to the city, her stepmother would call him, tirelessly bringing up the topic of finding a partner. Her brother always seemed busy, brushing her off every time.

Unable to push the older one, her parents set their sights on the original host instead.

Her father would say, “You’re a girl. It’s different for you than for your brother — you can’t afford to wait.”

He started arranging blind dates for her among his former students.

After meeting one or two, she refused to go again. When her father asked why, she simply said they weren’t suitable, there was no spark.

As her refusals piled up, her father grew suspicious. When she wasn’t home, he searched her belongings and found her diary.

This was the day before Cen Bowen came to deliver money to Gu Chengze.

After learning the truth, her father trembled so much he couldn’t utter a complete sentence. He tore her diary to shreds and burned it all in the stove.

The two had the most intense quarrel in the twenty years since she was born.

The next day, Cen Bowen’s arrival became the original host’s lifeline.

She wanted to escape that home — she couldn’t face her father, nor her stepmother.

Her stepmother, unaware of the quarrel’s cause, carefully told her as she left with Cen Bowen, “It’s good to get away for a while. I’ll send a telegram to your brother — you can stay with him.”

Lowering her voice so Cen Bowen wouldn’t hear, she added, “Yiyi, remember, if anything comes up, discuss it with your brother first. Choosing a partner is important — let him help you make the right choice.”

Until the moment they left, her father never spoke another word to her.

This matter was known only to the original host and her father. Even Cen Bowen didn’t know.

So how did Cen Yue find out?

Song Yiyi lifted her eyes, meeting Cen Yue’s gaze. His ink-dark pupils were unfathomable. She could read nothing from his expression.

“Comrade Commander, that joke isn’t funny at all.”

With a thin sheen of moisture over her eyes, she tilted her head up and enunciated clearly, “If you have nothing serious to discuss, I’ll be leaving. My fiancé is still waiting outside.”

She stood, turned, and opened the office door.

The moment it opened, Cen Bowen’s face appeared before her. Seeing her, he grinned carelessly.
“Let’s go, I’ll walk you back.”

Song Yiyi declined. He still had training, so she retraced her steps from memory back to Gu Chengze’s home.

As a deputy regiment commander, Gu Chengze had applied for family housing before she arrived.

The moment she entered, she headed straight for the bed, burrowed under the covers, and tried to fall asleep.

On the way back, she had thought things over carefully — there was only one way to return, either through some external shock or by sleeping.

Perhaps because the housing was newly assigned, Gu Chengze’s belongings were few. The bedsheets were army green. On the desk were several books and a fountain pen she recognized.

In the original host’s memories, beneath the parasol tree, the young man’s slender fingers had gripped that pen as he tapped her forehead with a smile.
“Focus.”

Her consciousness grew hazy.

She wanted to go back.
She wanted her enamel basin cake.
She wanted to know what was really going on with her body.

When she opened her eyes again, Song Yiyi quickly scanned her surroundings—