Chapter 17: The Storyteller

Qi Youren really wanted to pry open his sister-in-law’s head and see how it was put together. Did she truly think he was some kind of great philanthropist in Qijiazhuang, doing good deeds with no expectation of return? He wasn’t so flush with cash that he was desperate to burn it. He was willing to pay for Qi Miao’s schooling because he knew she had good grades and might, in the future, become successful enough to give him some kind of return. As for finding a wife for his nephew? That was pure foolishness.

His nephew, Qi Feng, was a decent-looking fellow, but his character was exactly like his parents’: lazy and afraid of hard work. He spent all day loafing, stealing chickens, and peeping at widows while they bathed. You could ask anyone within ten miles, and they’d tell you no one would willingly push their daughter into that fire pit to be with a scoundrel like him. He was already in his twenties and still dreamed of getting married. He might as well go back to dreaming.

Qi Youren left in a huff, leaving Qi Sanzhu and his wife to look at each other.

“You shouldn’t have brought up getting the oldest a wife,” Qi Sanzhu grumbled to his wife. “You should have just agreed to the schooling. Once you had the money, then it wouldn’t be too late to talk about other things.”

But his words just made Wang Guihua even angrier.

“You good-for-nothing, you didn’t say a word just now, and now you have something to say? He’s as sharp as a tack—do you really think you could outsmart him? If I had agreed, he would have just given the money directly to the school. Believe me. No, I need to go talk to our mother again. We need to figure out how to use this whole situation with Miao to get some benefits out of your uncles and cousins.”

With that, Wang Guihua wiped her face, smearing snot and tears onto the kang bed before getting up and leaving. Qi Sanzhu thought for a moment and then followed her, planning to snag some tobacco from his oldest brother while he was there. They left their still-unconscious daughter on the bed and just walked away.

As the “Qi Miao” on the bed heard that the room was completely empty, her eyelids fluttered, and she opened her eyes. In reality, she had been awake since Qi Youren entered the room, but she didn’t understand where she was or what was happening, so she had pretended to be unconscious. After listening to the entire conversation, she finally understood. She had become her late little aunt, Qi Miao, and was living again.

And from Qi Youren’s attitude toward her, she wasn’t reborn in her original world.

“Qi Miao” raised a hand, looked at her fingertips, and started to laugh.

The expression on Qi Miao’s face was worse than a sob.

It seemed she had transmigrated into the character biography she wrote for her stepfather, Qi Yin. For publication, and at her stepfather’s direction, she had blurred many details and covered up many ugly truths. Like how her own little aunt, Qi Miao, had actually died. In the biography, it was because her parents wouldn’t let her go to middle school, so she gave up on life and jumped into the reservoir. Later, in the TV show adapted from the book, she was given a happy ending where the male lead funded her college education, and she left Qijiazhuang forever, never to return.

But in reality, she was sexually assaulted by Qi Youren’s youngest son and then thrown into the reservoir. Her parents guessed the truth from the marks on her corpse, but Qi Youren paid them 200 yuan to keep quiet and help cover up the vile crime. Once, Qi Yin was a man who hated evil and even tried to get the scoundrel locked up. But later, as a socialite, Qi Yin only wanted to maintain a facade of peace. So came the biography—a mix of truth and fiction, using goodness and beauty to hide all the darkness and ugliness. It used a beautiful, kind facade to hide a cunning and manipulative true nature, just like the female protagonist of the book: her mother, Jiang Huiwan.

“What?! Xu Huirong is getting married?”

Jiang Wanwan was stunned when she heard her mother’s words. What in the world is happening? Didn’t Xu Huirong just meet Li Shiyuan last week? How could they decide to get married so quickly?

“That’s just how people get married around here—they meet twice, and that’s it.”

Her mother’s face was calm, as if this were the most normal thing in the world, which made Jiang Wanwan’s reaction seem overdramatic.

“Besides, Li has come to our house often before. They’re practically childhood sweethearts. Why would they hesitate when they know everything about each other?”

Jiang Wanwan was speechless. The number of times the two had met in their lives could probably be counted on two hands. The claim of them being “childhood sweethearts” was a huge stretch.

Her mother continued to talk to herself as she folded clothes.

“Now that your sister is getting married, it’s your turn. Since you’re so intent on being with that Shen Sanqian, stop messing around and get your wedding done with, too.”

Jiang Wanwan was just about to reach for a peach on the table to take a bite when she froze, staring at her mother as if she were a Martian. Was this really the same mother who was so angry about her and Shen Tingjun dating that she had to be hospitalized? How long had it been? And now she was accepting the “gang leader” as her son-in-law? The sun must have risen in the west today!

Her mother didn’t seem to mind her daughter’s astonished expression. She calmly folded the last piece of clothing, then pointed toward the living room door.

“Go on, open the door. I need to talk to you.”

I get it, I get it, Jiang Wanwan thought as she opened the door. She’s afraid someone might be eavesdropping. She looked at how professional her mother was at having a private conversation. Could she really have been a secret agent who graduated from a military academy?

“I received a letter from the provincial city. It was from Shen San… Shen… Shen…”

Jiang Wanwan knew her mother had no idea what his name was, so she whispered, “Shen Tingjun.”

“It was from Shen Tingjun’s uncle. He said he found some records from Shanghai that showed your scoundrel father didn’t just disappear. He must have heard some rumors, because he escaped overseas with his family.”

Wow, so the original owner had some cliché backstory of being a capitalist’s daughter? Jiang Wanwan thought to herself, though she maintained a concerned expression.

“Did his uncle threaten you with it?”

“No, he heard from Director Shen that Shen Tingjun had made me so angry I was hospitalized, and he felt incredibly guilty. So he helped destroy the file about your father.”

“I never thought that your father, that menace, could still affect you even after he disappeared. Now that I know, I can’t ignore it. Even if the file proving his whereabouts has been destroyed, who knows if there are still people out there who know the truth?”

“Marrying Shen Tingjun and living a stable life under his uncle’s protection is the safest way.”

Listening to her mother, Jiang Wanwan understood the reason for the change in her attitude toward Shen Tingjun. At the same time, she couldn’t help but feel confused. Given her mother’s actions, it was clear she cared about and was concerned for her daughter. So why was she so heartless toward her in the TV show?

The only person who could answer this question was probably the one who wrote the story, now residing in Qijiazhuang.