Chapter 4

“I’m not as good as Xia Xue, I can’t pretend like she does. So go find her! See if she’ll marry you! Hahaha~”

Lin Wanting spat out the words, hatred deepening in her heart. Saying them out loud today didn’t bring the satisfaction she had imagined—it felt more like rubbing salt into her own wound.

“Lin Wanting, I hate you. I’ll make you regret this!” Wang Xing snarled, furious. In the end, he had come away with nothing but empty hands.

Lin Wanting slammed the door. Outside, rain began to pour, lightning splitting the sky—just like the night she had been killed in her past life. Panic-stricken, she ran back to her room.

Curling up in a corner on her bed, she felt dizzy from how quickly things had shifted.

Wang Xing wandered the rain-soaked streets in a rage, eventually finding himself in front of Xia Xue’s house. He wanted to test her—see if she was sincere or just playing him.

Xia Xue opened the door and saw him standing there, drenched like a drowned rat. She immediately stepped forward and embraced him in the rain.

Wang Xing hugged her back tightly. “I was with Lin Wanting. You don’t mind?”

Xia Xue shook her head. “I know everything about you two—how far you’ve gone, everything. I don’t mind.”

Inwardly, Wang Xing slapped his thigh in glee. He had spent over a year coaxing that naïve fool Lin Wanting, and here her best friend fell for him after only their third meeting. He regretted not meeting Xia Xue sooner.

“Then will you marry me? I know it’s sudden.”

“Not sudden at all. But… what about Lin Wanting? Wasn’t she already set to marry you?”

“Xia Xue, after meeting you, I finally understand love at first sight. You care about me, you give me self-respect—I don’t have to grovel like I do with Lin Wanting.”

Xia Xue’s heart swelled with emotion. For years she had lived in Lin Wanting’s shadow, and this was the first time she felt she had truly won.

In a rush of excitement, she wanted nothing more than to marry Wang Xing right away—just to make Lin Wanting regret not treasuring such a handsome man.

【System: Please complete today’s sign-in task. To make up for yesterday, you must complete one task~】

Lin Wanting tapped “Sign In Today” and saw that the make-up task for yesterday was to open the household safe.

Her heart skipped a beat. She’d thought of the safe before, but she had no idea what the password was.

Then a message popped up: 【Password: 723717】. She hesitated. The password was today’s sign-in reward—and she hadn’t had a facial mask in days. She still missed that cool, refreshing feeling.

Last night, Lin Haifeng hadn’t come home—a rare overnight absence. Qiao Yilan hadn’t slept at all, wondering how he could still be fooling around outside in his current situation.

The safe was in Lin Haifeng’s study, which was always locked. Her mother had one key, and there was a spare.

Without realizing it, she walked into her mother’s room. “Mom, where’s Dad?”

“Your dad didn’t come back last night,” Qiao Yilan said tiredly. What use was money when nights were spent alone?

“Then I’ll call him. What if he’s drunk somewhere, sleeping on the street?”

The reason Qiao Yilan hadn’t called was simple—pride. Mother and daughter both shared a stubborn streak.

“Hello, Dad? Why haven’t you come home?”

Hearing his daughter’s voice instead of his wife’s, Lin Haifeng actually sounded disappointed.

“I drank too much last night and fell asleep at the factory,” he said—such a neat and respectable excuse. Qiao Yilan, eavesdropping, clearly didn’t believe it. Neither did Lin Wanting, whose real goal was to find out when he’d be home.

“Oh, so when will you be back?”

“Is something wrong? Why the sudden call?”

“No, I just missed you!”

His tone toward her was the same as always—neither warm nor cold, calm on the surface. But he was firmly against her marriage.

When the call ended, mother and daughter exchanged a silent understanding. Lin Wanting returned to her room.

If Qiao Yilan didn’t leave her bedroom, she couldn’t get the key. Without the key, she couldn’t complete the make-up task. Without the make-up task, there’d be no perfect attendance bonus.

The perfect attendance reward was displayed as a big question mark. There were still half a month’s worth of days left to earn it.

When her mother finally fell asleep, Lin Wanting gathered her courage. She had never felt so guilty in this life.

Step… step… step… she moved in time with her mother’s breathing, pausing when it hitched. At last, she saw the key. She took a deep breath—wasn’t this a lot of work just to complete a system task?

Key in hand, she crawled out of the room. Qiao Yilan, a light sleeper, heard the noise but chose to ignore it.

In the study—normally off-limits—Lin Wanting finally had a chance to see what her father was hiding.

The safe stood in plain sight. First, she needed to complete the task. Then she’d look around.

Carefully, she opened it. Her heart was pounding—she didn’t even know the full extent of her family’s assets.

Closing her eyes, she savored the moment, then opened them—only to find it completely empty.

Her mother had said all the family’s money was kept there. Good thing she had checked early—where had it all gone?

Standing up, she searched for other hiding places. Suddenly, she understood—the system had made her open the safe for another reason entirely.

Meanwhile, Wang Xing was already thinking of using Xia Xue to get back at Lin Wanting—to make her regret everything.

Xia Xue’s family had three children, and she was the eldest. Her parents weren’t overly strict with her, and even if Wang Xing’s background was poor, they believed a married daughter was like water thrown out.

“Xia Xue, you’re wonderful! I regret not meeting you sooner.”

“Oh, it’s not too late now!”

Xia Xue gave him a shy look, practically willing him to take her right then and there.

“So when will we get married?”

“Whenever you decide~”

She was secretly delighted at snagging such a handsome man—unaware that he was the very one Lin Wanting had discarded after a deadly wake-up call in her past life.

“Will you invite her?”

“Why wouldn’t I? I want her to see our happiness with her own eyes.”

Xia Xue was still debating something in her mind, afraid it might involve her own family.

“I hope she’s blinded by it!” Wang Xing wanted Lin Wanting to see he could still find a rich girl without her.

“Do you hate Lin Wanting? I have a way to get back at her.”

Wang Xing was too focused on revenge to notice the change in Xia Xue. She wasn’t a simple one either—now two skilled pretenders had found each other.