Extra 3.1

In recent days, Jiang Rou has not been sleeping well. She wasn’t sure if it was because the internship work was too exhausting, but recently, she had been having strange and unusual dreams.

Ever since Li Xiao had turned himself into the police two months ago, she had been dreaming that she had become Li Xiao’s ex-wife and that they had a daughter together.

The dreams were sporadic, and just last night, she had another dream where Li Xiao had given her a grand wedding on a picturesque island, covered in flowers and balloons, in a very romantic and dreamy setting.

“……”

It was so bizarre. Why was she having such dreams?

Was it simply because she shared the same name as his ex-wife?

The problem was that these dreams were quite embarrassing, and she didn’t dare tell anyone, fearing they might think she was infatuated.

—o—o—o—

Today was the last day of the case. If nothing unexpected happened, Li Xiao would likely be released.

He was truly smart and patient. Over ten years, he had taken revenge on everyone who had caused his daughter’s death, yet he had committed no crimes himself.

Even his earlier confession had been a tactic to lure out a bigger fish—it was all part of a carefully orchestrated plan.

Tomorrow was a holiday, and Jiang Rou planned to call her mother in the evening to ask her to accompany her to the temple for a prayer, hoping to stop having those dreams.

Perhaps due to her recent lack of sleep, Jiang Rou had been feeling uneasy since the morning.

By late morning, her right eye had been twitching incessantly, and she felt a vague discomfort in her chest, which put her in an out-of-sorts state.

At 10:45 a.m., Jiang Rou clutched her chest and suddenly felt a pang of suffocation.

At that moment, a colleague in the office suddenly stood up with a phone in hand and loudly announced that Li Xiao had been hit by a car and killed instantly after leaving the court just Moments ago.

As soon as these words were spoken, Jiang Rou felt her vision blacken and lost consciousness.

—o—o—o—

When she woke up again, Jiang Rou found herself seemingly sitting in a car. She blinked in confusion and looked out the window at the unfamiliar buildings and the people speaking inside the car.

She did not recognize any of them. One man was speaking Mandarin with an accent, and the other two were speaking Cantonese.

Jiang Rou had once trained in G province and had some understanding of the local languages. Although she couldn’t speak it well, she could generally understand it.

The man speaking Mandarin, dressed in a black suit, addressed one of the middle-aged men with respect: “…Please rest assured, I’ll handle the rest. If anyone asks, I’ll say Miss Jiang is on a business trip. No one will know.”

The middle-aged man, with a protruding belly, nodded in approval. “That’s good. Afterward, provide some compensation to her family. After all, she was with me once. I don’t want her to have any regrets.”

“Understood, Boss Wang. I know what to do from here,” his subordinate assured him.

“Hmm.”

After giving his instructions, the man referred to as Boss Wang smiled and walked around to the other side of the car. The young man following him, likely his secretary or assistant, opened the door for him with great respect before taking his seat in the front passenger seat.

The driver, dressed even more elegantly than the suited man outside, was already in the car.

Boss Wang sat down next to Jiang Rou. As soon as he got in, he placed his hand on Jiang Rou’s leg, startling her so much that she jerked her leg away and stared at him with wide eyes.

She was completely bewildered by the situation. She suspected she might be dreaming, but the dream felt too vivid to be fake. She began to wonder if she had somehow traveled through time. Back in high school, she had read a few time-travel novels and had quite enjoyed them, even fantasizing about traveling back to ancient times and making a mark. But that was just fiction.

Her years of education had taught her that time travel should not be possible. Well, she did have a bit of superstition, but it was mostly just for psychological comfort, never something she took seriously.

However, she couldn’t make sense of the current situation. Her head was still aching, her mind was blank, and she couldn’t remember anything.

The middle-aged man did not seem angry at her reaction. Instead, he smiled and asked, “What’s the matter? Don’t you want to part with her?”

Jiang Rou frowned at him. “What?”

Boss Wang smiled and said, “It’s understandable. After all, she’s your biological daughter. I’m not a heartless person. If you truly can’t bear to part with her, you can bring your daughter along as well.”

Jiang Rou instinctively shook her head. If she brought her daughter along, the man would never let her go.

But as soon as this thought crossed her mind, Jiang Rou found herself Momentarily stunned, unable to recall who it was that scared her so much.

The only thing that made her anxious was the subconscious feeling that she might actually have a daughter.

The middle-aged man looked at her pure and beautiful face—feeling an itch in his heart.

Unable to resist, he reached out his hand again, trying to touch her shoulder.

Jiang Rou resisted once more, moving away, and then looked at him with vigilance. She shouted loudly: “What are you doing?!”

The man was taken aback by her shout. His expression darkened as he thought that perhaps he had spoiled her too much in the past few days.

It was interesting to him when women had a temper, but he did not like the idea of raising a spoiled woman who would ride on his head. After all, Jiang Rou was merely a mistress he had planned to keep on the side in the future; if he liked her, he would pamper her, and if he did not, he would discard her.

His tone became colder, “So, you’ve left your daughter and run away with me, and now you think of yourself as something important?”

“If you’ve chosen to be my mistress, you need to appease me properly. It’s not my job to appease you. Otherwise, you can just get lost.”

After hearing this, Jiang Rou, despite her headache, looked at him in shock.

She had felt that the man’s words were strange, but when she recalled his earlier conversation with someone outside about a business trip, she thought she was on a business trip with her boss. Faced with this hands-on, strange boss, she had been contemplating whether to break his hand or cripple his leg.

To her surprise, it was a situation where she had run away, and she ran away with this ugly monster?

Are they insulting me?

Seeing her shock, the middle-aged man thought he might have been too harsh. Looking at her beautiful face, he felt somewhat soft-hearted and said, “Of course, if you behave well, I won’t mistreat you.”

“Mistreat your mother!”

Jiang Rou swore directly and then yelled angrily at the driver in front, “Stop the car!”

The driver, startled, slammed on the brakes.

Jiang Rou swiftly opened the car door and jumped out, slamming it shut with a “bang—.”

Boss Wang in the car probably did not expect Jiang Rou to have such a bad temper; his face darkened immediately.

The assistant sitting in the passenger seat looked on nervously. He hadn’t expected that Miss Jiang, whom Boss Wang had finally won over, would run away just because of one word. Hesitating, he spoke, “Boss, should I go check on her?”

Boss Wang was not one to tolerate nonsense. With a cold face, he said, “Forget it. There are plenty of women. It’s not like she’s special.”

“Yes, sir.”

—o—o—o—

Jiang Rou was afraid that someone might be chasing her, so she ran directly into a small alley nearby.

After several twists and turns, she ended up on a street she didn’t recognize. Everything around her was unfamiliar. Most notably, she noticed that the buildings had an old-fashioned look, reminiscent of a decade or so ago.

The houses were not very tall, and the exterior walls were covered with tiles. Some of the walls were made of green sand mixed with glass shards, a style she had only seen in the old streets of her childhood, which had since been phased out.

Jiang Rou opened the small leather bag on her wrist. Inside, there wasn’t much: a stack of cash, an ID card, a lipstick, and two gold chains wrapped in kraft paper.

It really did look like she was being kept.

Jiang Rou took out a bill and examined it. It was new, but unlike any hundred yuan notes she had seen before, it was green. The year printed on it was 1990.

She looked around at the street, found a clothing store, and decided to go in.

Once inside the store, Jiang Rou pretended to browse through the clothes. After a while, she picked up a garment and walked to a mirror to try it on. As she looked at the reflection in the mirror, she froze.

If she hadn’t undergone the rigorous training from the police academy, she might have lost her composure. Her face turned pale, but she tried to maintain her calm.

At this moment, she clearly realized that she was not dreaming; dreams were never this clear.

The store owner, who had been sitting behind the counter, got up and walked over with a smile. “You have great taste, this dress suits you very well. Would you like to try it on?”

Jiang Rou struggled to suppress her shock and asked, pretending to be calm, “How much is it?”

“9 yuan.”

“……”

Her socks didn’t cost that little.

Jiang Rou glanced at the store owner and then at the dress, wondering if she had heard wrong.

Seeing her stunned silence, the store owner hurriedly explained, “This dress was imported from the South. I heard that girls from the port city particularly like it. Just look at the style—it’s very fashionable. You can’t find this in other stores, so 9 yuan is quite cheap.”

Jiang Rou held onto the dress, feeling embarrassed to refuse it outright. However, staying true to her mother’s haggling instincts, she asked, “Can you lower the price a bit?”

Seeing that she genuinely liked it, the shopkeeper said, “Eight yuan. I really can’t lower it any further.”

“…Alright then.”

Jiang Rou took the dress and left the store. As she walked down the street, she felt a bit hungry and decided to enter a noodle shop, where she ordered a bowl of soup noodles.

After filling her stomach, Jiang Rou had come to terms with the fact that she had traveled to another time. She wasn’t the type to be easily frightened, but with her mind feeling blank and her head aching slightly, she figured she should find a hotel and get some rest.

Just as she left the noodle shop and had walked only a few steps, someone called out to her, “Jiang Rou—”

Jiang Rou instinctively turned around and saw a somewhat familiar woman.

It dawned on her that she must have ended up in the life of someone with the same name.

To avoid drawing attention, she pretended to feel unwell, tapping her head with her hand and shaking her head a couple of times.

The woman hurried over to support her, worriedly asking, “Oh dear, what happened?”

“I thought I was seeing things. How come you’re here?”

Jiang Rou weakly replied, “I’ve been feeling unwell today, so I took the day off. I’ve been wandering around for a long time, but I couldn’t find my way.”

The woman quickly reached out to touch her forehead. It wasn’t hot, but her pale complexion didn’t seem fake. She couldn’t help but ask, “Do you want to go to the hospital?”

Jiang Rou shook her head, “No need. I plan to go home and get a good sleep.”

“Well, let me help you get back,” the woman said.

“Thank you.”

Jiang Rou was guided to a bungalow located quite far from the street, in a more secluded area. It was surrounded by a wall, with the house behind it being made of green bricks and black tiles.

Jiang Rou rummaged through her bag but couldn’t find her keys. Frowning, she wondered, “Where are my keys?”

Seeing her disoriented state, the woman said, “Why don’t you come and stay at my place? Our houses are next door to each other. There’s no one else at my house right now. You can sleep in Minjun’s room; it’s been empty ever since she went to college. I keep it clean…”

As she spoke, she went to open her own door.

Jiang Rou then realized that their houses were indeed next door to each other.

She decided not to be too formal and said, “Thank you for your trouble. I don’t know what’s going on. My head has been bothering me since this morning. I thought it would get better, but it only seems to be getting worse.”

Aunt Wang couldn’t help but say, “It looks pretty serious. You should really go to the hospital.”

“I’ll go another day when I have the time. It might just be from being too tired.”

Aunt Wang nodded, understanding that Jiang Rou had a lot on her plate. With Li Xiao working away from home and Jiang Rou managing both work and child-rearing, it was indeed exhausting.

Jiang Rou took a nap at Aunt Wang’s house. Not one to be careless, she scanned the area before entering. She noticed a black-and-white photograph hanging on the wall of the main room. Judging by the man’s age in the photo, it was likely Aunt Wang’s husband.

She was shown to the room belonging to “Minjun” as mentioned by Aunt Wang. The room was simple and clean, with a desk by the window stacked with thick books, a penholder, and a desk lamp. The bed was covered with a floral quilt.

It seemed safe enough.

She closed the door and went to bed, falling into a deep sleep.

She wasn’t sure how long she had slept, but when she woke up, she took a moment to process everything in the room. It dawned on her that she might really have traveled to another time.

A pang of regret hit her.

So it wasn’t just a dream after all.

Jiang Rou left the room and saw Aunt Wang sitting at the door, picking vegetables. Nearby, a very pretty little girl, around two or three years old, was squatting down. The girl had two small braids and was holding a yellow egg cake.

When she saw Jiang Rou, she immediately broke into a sweet smile and cheerfully called out, “Mommy—”

“…”

Aunt Wang, hearing the voice, looked back. Seeing Jiang Rou looking like she had just woken up, she quickly explained, “I saw you were still sleeping, so I went ahead and picked up Xiao Feng for you.”

The girl called Xiao Feng ran towards her and held up the egg cake. “Mommy eat.”

Aunt Wang looked at the child and laughed. “This kid is really filial. I was wondering why it took ‘her so long to finish eating a steamed egg cake. It turns out she wanted to save it for her mother.”

Xiao Feng noticed her mother hadn’t taken the cake yet and stood on tiptoe.

Jiang Rou looked at her pretty little face and saw that while the child was indeed beautiful, she was also very thin. Her hair was a bit yellowish and she looked somewhat malnourished. When she looked at the egg cake in the child’s hand, for some reason, her nose suddenly tingled with a hint of emotion.

It was hard to tell if it was the lingering feelings of this body or her own compassion for the child.

Earlier that morning, her mother had prepared to abandon her and run away with someone else.

Jiang Rou reached out and patted the child’s head. “Mommy isn’t hungry. You eat it yourself.”

Xiao Feng was even happier when her mother patted her head. She pulled her hand back from holding the cake high and broke the egg cake into pieces, raising the larger portion up. “Mommy, eat this.”

Jiang Rou felt a warmth in her heart and accepted the cake. “Okay.”

Then she turned to Aunt Wang and asked, “Auntie, do you know where I can find a locksmith? I need to get a new lock.”

Aunt Wang thought she had lost the key and said directly, “No need to make it so complicated. I’ll give someone a call, and they’ll come over soon.”

“Don’t leave either. Stay for dinner tonight.”

Saying this, Aunt Wang got up and went inside to make a phone call.

Jiang Rou didn’t refuse and simply replied, “Then I’ll trouble you, Auntie.”

Seeing Aunt Wang go inside, she squatted down to help peel beans.

In the evening, Jiang Rou assisted in preparing two dishes and a soup. During dinner, there wasn’t much conversation. Jiang Rou could tell that the original owner didn’t seem to be very familiar with this Aunt Wang.

Neither of them were talkative people, but the atmosphere was still quite pleasant.

Especially the child named Xiao Feng, who, though only two or three years old, was very well-behaved. She could eat on her own and was much more capable than Jiang Rou’s little nephew.

—o—o—o—

After dinner, the locksmith arrived. Jiang Rou had him change the locks on both the yard gate and the main door inside. Then she took the child and went back to “her home.”

This home was similar in layout to the neighboring one but was much dirtier. The yard was filled with wood and wood shavings, messy, and with hardly any clear space.

Seeing that it was getting dark, Jiang Rou decided to leave the mess for now. She sent the child to the room and went to the kitchen to boil some hot water for washing up.

But the little girl didn’t listen and kept following her closely.

After Jiang Rou finished boiling the water, she gave the child a bath.

The little girl sat in the basin, holding onto the edge with her small hands, quietly allowing Jiang Rou to scrub her back.

Seeing that her hair was a bit oily, Jiang Rou decided to wash it as well.

After giving her a thorough bath, Jiang Rou poured a basin of clean water over her to rinse off the soap.

Once Xiao Feng was clean, Jiang Rou dried her off and carried her to the bed in the room.

She instructed the child to sit quietly and went to take a shower herself.

—o—o—o—

When Jiang Rou returned to the room, the little girl was indeed sitting still, waiting patiently. Seeing Jiang Rou come in, she looked up with a smile.

Jiang Rou’s heart softened once again as she climbed onto the bed, arranged the blanket, and then turned to dry the child’s hair.

The little girl, sitting in front of her, happily said, “Mommy, you were so good today. You smiled at me many times, gave me food at dinner, and even bathed me just now.”

When she heard this, Jiang Rou paused her movements.

The little girl turned her head to look at her and cautiously asked, “Will Mommy be this happy tomorrow too?”

Jiang Rou’s heart felt warm and she gently replied, “Yes.”

The little girl’s eyes crinkled into a smile. She was very happy.

—o—o—o—

At bedtime, Jiang Rou noticed that the little girl was inching closer to her in the bed. Without thinking much, she reached out and held her close.

The little girl looked at her with wide eyes and quietly grasped her clothes, as she whispered: “Mommy, I love you so much.”

Jiang Rou’s emotions were complicated.

She felt as though she hadn’t done anything special.

After some hesitation, she gently patted the child’s back. The little girl quickly fell asleep with a faint smile on her lips—maybe because she was having a good dream.

Upon waking, Jiang Rou looked at the shabby surroundings and realized she had adjusted to the situation.

She didn’t have the original owner’s memories and wasn’t clear about the current circumstances, but she decided to take things one step at a time.

Jiang Rou was not very clear about “Jiang Rou’s” job. From her chat with the neighbor the day before, it seemed the original owner worked in a large hotel. If she was not mistaken, it should be the place where Mr. Wang had taken her away yesterday.

At that time, she had seen people in uniform through the car window, like hotel staff.

The man who had seen off Mr. Wang also now seemed like he might have been a hotel manager or something similar.

She was not sure if it involved helping rich people with shady dealings, but Jiang Rou did not have a good impression of that place and did not plan to return.

Anyway, the original owner had money on her, so she would not starve for the time being.

With this in mind, Jiang Rou, after waking up in the morning, comfortably changed into the dress she had bought the day before.

In the room, there were still quite a few things belonging to the original owner. The table was covered with her skincare and cosmetics, and the wardrobe was full of her clothes. The original owner had probably been afraid of being discovered, so she had taken nothing when she eloped, only money and gold.

Jiang Rou also changed the little girl’s clothes. However, the little girl had very few clothes, only two changeable dresses, and the material was not very good; it felt rough to the touch.

There were a few pieces of better-quality clothing in the wardrobe, but they were already too small and could not be worn.

Jiang Rou looked at the pile of the original owner’s clothes next to her and felt somewhat speechless.

But she did not say anything. After changing the child’s clothes, she braided the little girl’s hair into two pretty pigtails and then took her out to brush her teeth and wash her face.

The child was particularly easy to handle. Jiang Rou had originally worried she would not be able to care for the child, but it turned out the child was very well-behaved, not crying or making a fuss.

There was not much food at home, so Jiang Rou decided to take her out to eat.

The little girl held Jiang Rou’s hand and happily followed her. Jiang Rou took her to a breakfast shop and bought soy milk, steamed buns, and dumplings.

After they had eaten and drunk their fill, Jiang Rou took the child to school. At the school gate, she also bought a pack of Wangzai small steamed buns and two bananas from a convenience store and put them in the child’s backpack.

The little girl was reluctant to go into the kindergarten when they arrived, standing at the gate and looking at Jiang Rou with longing eyes.

Jiang Rou squatted down, gently smoothing her hair and clothes. “Go in, Mommy will pick you up in the afternoon.”

The little girl looked up at her with hopeful eyes. “Really?”

Jiang Rou nodded seriously, “Yes, be sure to listen to your teacher at school. Mommy will come to pick you up in the afternoon, and I’ll make you something delicious for dinner, okay?”

Though the little girl was still reluctant, she nodded vigorously and waved her hand, “Then goodbye, Mommy.”

“Go in now.”

The little girl entered the kindergarten—turning her head back to look at Jiang Rou every few steps.

Jiang Rou did not head straight home. Instead, she went for a stroll on the street and bought two new outfits for the child. She did not buy dresses but opted for short-sleeved tops and seven-point shorts, believing that dresses were not very practical for a kindergarten-aged girl.

After buying the clothes, she visited a shoe store and purchased a pair of white shoes and a pair of sandals. She also bought several flowered hair ties from a nearby boutique.

Finally, she went to the market and bought meat and vegetables.

By the time she returned home, it was already past ten in the morning. Jiang Rou washed the child’s new clothes along with the ones she had changed out of last night and then cleaned the entire house.

—o—o—o—

In the afternoon, Jiang Rou kept her promise and went to the kindergarten to pick up the child.

The little girl, seeing Jiang Rou standing at the gate, was overjoyed. She turned to her little friends and proudly announced, “That’s my Mommy.”

The children’s world was simple. Seeing Jiang Rou, they couldn’t help but compliment her, “Your Mommy is so pretty.”

“Wow, you have a Mommy too.”

“Why didn’t your Mommy come to pick you up before?”

The little girl puffed out her chest, “I have a Mommy. My Mommy was too busy before, so she couldn’t come to pick me up. I can go back by myself; I know the way.”

“Look, your Mommy is smiling.”

“Your Mommy is so beautiful. She looks just like you.”

The little girl smiled even more happily.

When Jiang Rou took the child from the teacher, she politely said, “Thank you, and sorry to trouble you, teacher.”

The young female teacher was taken aback for a moment, then smiled and said, “It’s no trouble.”

After a pause, she added, “Please come pick up the child more often. It seems she doesn’t have anyone to pick her up usually.”

Jiang Rou nodded, “I was too busy before to take care of her, but that won’t be the case anymore.”

She then looked down at the little girl and said, “Say goodbye to the teacher.”

The little girl waved her hand happily and said in a clear voice, “Goodbye, teacher.”

The teacher’s expression softened a bit.

Holding Jiang Rou’s hand, the little girl began to skip along. She glanced back at Jiang Rou and said with a smile, “Mommy, I’m really happy today.”

“Is that so? Mommy is happy too.”

“That’s great!”

—o—o—o—

In the evening, Jiang Rou prepared sweet and sour ribs, potato slices, and mushroom and vegetable meat soup for dinner.

The little girl ate a lot and, with her face raised, sweetly smiled at Jiang Rou, “Mommy, it’s so delicious.”

Jiang Rou smiled back.

Over the next few days, Jiang Rou took care of the child while trying to gather information about the world she was in.

However, before she could find out much, on the afternoon of the fourth day, the man of the house returned.

It was a Friday. After picking up the child, Jiang Rou had taken her out to eat, and afterward, they had strolled around and she bought the little girl a small toy.

The little girl held the toy tightly, reluctant to let go.

When they reached their front door, the neighbor lady saw them and smiled, “Why are you only coming back now? Your husband just returned and rushed out to find you.”

“…”

Jiang Rou felt a pang of anxiety. After exchanging a brief greeting with the neighbor, she took the child and returned home with a troubled mind.

Upon opening the gate, she saw the luggage scattered in the yard.

The little girl was very happy, “Daddy’s back! I missed Daddy so much.”

Jiang Rou couldn’t bring herself to smile. She hadn’t expected to face the husband of this body so soon. With a headache, she opened the door and then went back to the yard to pick up the scattered luggage.

As she picked up a black bag, she heard the little girl’s excited voice, “Daddy—”

Instinctively, Jiang Rou looked up and saw a man standing at the door. Seeing the man’s face, she gasped in shock, “Li Xiao?”

Without thinking, she blurted out, “Aren’t you dead?”

Then, as if she had seen a ghost, she threw the black bag away and shouted loudly to the little girl, “Xiao Feng, come here!”

The man standing at the door stared at her and, upon hearing this, narrowed his eyes dangerously.