Huo Ruiyang took the antidote and was fine. He instructed his guards to deliver the antidote to his family but did not allow them to say it was from him.

At home, chaos ensued. After Huo Ruiyang left, Xia Anran woke up from her coma and immediately started taking off her clothes.

Seeing Xia Anran’s dazed expression and flushed cheeks, Liang Meijuan quickly rushed her to the hospital for emergency treatment.

After having her stomach pumped and receiving an antidote injection, she suffered a major relapse.

Fortunately, Huo Ruiyang sent someone with the antidote in time, saving Xia Anran’s life!

While unconscious, Xia Anran felt as if she were being tossed between extreme cold and heat—one moment shivering as if thrown into an icy mountain, the next burning as if consumed by flames. In her dazed state, she had no idea how long she had been unconscious.

The strong scent of Lysol suddenly assaulted her senses, making her open her eyes.

The first thing she saw was a white lime-coated wall, green wooden windows, an iron IV stand, and a hanging IV drip slowly dispensing medicine…

For a moment, Xia Anran couldn’t tell where she was.

Ye Lingling walked into the hospital room carrying a basin. When she saw Xia Anran awake, she exclaimed in surprise,

“Anran, you’re finally awake!”

Xia Anran’s expression changed the moment she saw Ye Lingling. Her dazed eyes turned sharp.

After entering the entertainment industry, she had seen enough scheming and deceit. She never trusted anyone—except for her best friend, Ye Lingling. Yet it was Ye Lingling who had set her up, drugged her, and handed her over to a powerful man in exchange for benefits.

Being manipulated and betrayed filled Xia Anran with so much hatred that she wanted to strangle this venomous “best friend” on the spot.

Ye Lingling, unaware of Xia Anran’s change in demeanor, put down the basin, sat by her bedside, and held her hand. Tears welled up in her eyes as she said,

“Anran, you had a fever of 39.8°C and were unconscious for two whole days and nights. You scared me to death! If you hadn’t woken up, I would have sent a telegram to your second aunt.”

A woman in the next hospital bed interjected,

“Your sister really cares about you. She’s been looking after you for two days and nights!”

Ye Lingling smiled through her tears, gazing at Xia Anran with a doting expression.

“This is nothing. As long as Anran is okay, I’d do anything!”

She put on the perfect act of a devoted and selfless “sister.”

Xia Anran had already calmed down. Memories of the original host of this body flooded her mind.

The original Xia Anran’s parents adored daughters. After having three sons, they finally welcomed a daughter and treated her like a treasure.

Her three older brothers, raised under their parents’ guidance, always put her first, giving her the best food and clothes. The whole family doted on her.

When Xia Anran was three years old, her father was seriously injured in battle and retired from the military. He took the family back to their rural hometown, where he became the village Party Secretary.

Ye Lingling was the daughter of Xia Anran’s maternal aunt. She was only a month older than Anran, but their fates were worlds apart. When she was just five, her mother passed away, and her father quickly remarried.

Her stepmother despised having a “burden” in the house and began abusing Ye Lingling the moment she moved in.

Unable to bear watching, Xia Anran’s parents took Ye Lingling in and raised her as their own daughter until she turned eighteen.

Before retiring, Xia Anran’s father had arranged a childhood engagement between his daughter and Huo Ruiyang, promising that the two would marry when they grew up.

Now that Xia Anran was eighteen, Huo Ruiyang’s father sent someone to fetch her, intending for the two to develop their relationship before getting married on National Day, October 1st.

At this time, Ye Lingling’s father and stepmother suddenly came forward to reclaim her, planning to marry her off.

To secure a larger bride price, Ye Lingling’s stepmother arranged for her to marry a violent butcher in his thirties—a man notorious for having beaten his first wife to death, someone no woman dared to marry.

Desperate to escape the marriage, Ye Lingling knelt before Xia Anran’s parents, begging them to let her accompany Xia Anran to Bincheng.

Moved by her plight, Xia Anran’s father, for the first time in his life, humbled himself and went to the county to send a telegram to Uncle Huo, hoping to find Ye Lingling a job or a match in the military.

It was clear that Xia Anran’s family had treated Ye Lingling exceptionally well and never wronged her in any way.

Yet Ye Lingling clearly didn’t know gratitude. After arriving in Bincheng, she worked hard to impress Liang Meijuan and outshone Xia Anran in every way.

It was she who had secretly given Xia Anran the bad idea of going to Huo Ruiyang’s military camp to “assert her claim.”

Lost in thought, Xia Anran didn’t hear Ye Lingling calling her name twice. Seeing her unresponsive, Ye Lingling waved a hand in front of her face and asked with a smile,

“Anran, what are you thinking about?”