CHAPTER 1

The September sun in the mountain village was unusually scorching. Before noon, the sun was already blazing high in the sky.

Wen Yang was wilting under the sun. Her hair clung to her cheeks and neck, her eyes dazed, as she shuffled forward like a zombie.

In her ears echoed a tone-deaf child’s singing, completely devoid of rhythm or melody. To her, it sounded like hundreds of frogs croaking in chaos, making her wish she could destroy her eardrums.

“Did I transmigrate into a farming novel? Or maybe a post-apocalyptic parenting one?” Wen Yang asked irritably.

“Uh… you can think of it as the prologue to an urban romance, where the seeds of love are sown in a mountain village” the system replied awkwardly.

Wen Yang realized she shouldn’t have expected anything sensible from it.

Five months ago, a freak accident caused Wen Yang to transmigrate into a trending novel, along with a useless system that answered most of her questions with “I don’t know” and repeatedly told her to “just wait.”

When she first arrived, it was nighttime. The chirping of insects was deafening, a crescent moon hung high, a cool breeze rustled the trees, and her jet-black, shiny hair swayed in the wind as she groped her way in the dark—she looked like a ghost wandering the night.

“Host, hello,” the system suddenly appeared, completely unaware of the situation.

“Host, host, host,” it chanted incessantly, overly excited on its first mission. Its lively tone and persistent repetitions startled Wen Yang.

She quickly snapped back to her senses, assumed a defensive posture, and scanned her surroundings warily. She asked in a steady voice, “Who’s talking?”

The system cleared its throat:
“Ahem, hello, Host. I am the transmigration system, Task System 006 from the Transmigration Headquarters. Welcome to the novel Unforgettable Love. You are now part of the Transmigration Corps. You may act freely as long as you don’t alter the main plot. Your current role in the story requires you to complete the assigned tasks. Once the plot concludes, you can return to the real world and regain your life.

It is an honor to serve as your dedicated system for this mission. Feel free to ask any questions, and System 006 will be at your service 24/7.”

Although the system fumbled midway and forgot its lines, it dutifully delivered a full introduction, ensuring the outro was flawless. It clearly took its job seriously.

Wen Yang listened with a frown. A novel world? Transmigration? Hadn’t she already died? She recalled the scene in the hospital, where a group of people had sobbed and cursed the driver who caused the accident. And now she was told she had transmigrated into a book?

She scoffed internally. Ridiculous.

The sheer absurdity of the situation kept her rational.

In a cold voice, she questioned, “How do I know you’re not lying?”

The system, feeling wronged, replied pitifully:
“Please don’t worry, Host. Once the male and female leads officially meet, the story will begin. At that point, you’ll enter the main storyline and see for yourself that what I’ve said is true.”

The system’s aggrieved tone didn’t stir Wen Yang’s sympathy. Though she refrained from pressing further, her wariness didn’t waver.

Wen Yang, while skeptical, didn’t dismiss the benefits of transmigration. Completing the tasks meant she could avoid death. Though death wasn’t the worst thing, there was no telling what kind of life she’d draw in her next reincarnation. She preferred her current situation.

Calming herself, she furrowed her brows and pondered. “Why me?” She only read novels occasionally to pass time. Out of millions of avid readers, why was she chosen?

Looking down at her clothes, she asked, “This is my body. What happened to the person I replaced in the novel?”

The system explained:
“The original supporting female character, like you, was selected for transmigration tasks. This created a gap in the story’s continuity. Her role was crucial for advancing the relationship between the leads. Without her, the plot would deviate.

Coincidentally, you share the same name and appearance as the original supporting character. Since you died in a car accident, we chose you to fill this gap as the new transmigration Host.”

Wen Yang nodded in understanding. She asked: “Anything else I should know?”

Prompted by her reminder, the system suddenly remembered an important detail:
“Loading the novel script. Please wait, Host… “

As soon as the system spoke, Wen Yang’s head throbbed violently. A torrent of novel plotlines flooded her mind. Her body stiffened, her gaze unfocused. It took a while for her to recover.

Slowly digesting the story, Wen Yang found that the novel’s plot was divided into two parts: the rural village arc and the urban arc.

The rebellious female lead, raised in a wealthy family, was sent by her mother and stepfather to a mountain village for a transformative experience. There, she met the impoverished but reserved male lead. Their love story began with the clash of her arrogance and his insecurity, leading to sparks of attraction.

In the early stages, the female lead pursued the male lead aggressively. Later, the tables turned, with the male lead dominating her in a similar fashion. By the end, their feelings for each other were clear. It was a sweet romance without much heartache.

The male lead had a hidden identity as the estranged young heir of a wealthy family. Eventually, his wealthy grandfather found him, and he became a domineering CEO.

The few dramatic moments in the book included the female lead’s mother passing away, the male lead going abroad for business, family infighting, and an assassination attempt. The female lead spent two years searching for the male lead before they reunited.

Ultimately, the story concluded with a happy ending.

As for the supporting female character Wen Yang replaced:

Her parents worked away from home for years, and her grandmother, her sole companion, had passed away. She lived alone in a small mountain village.

The supporting character also had ten-year-old twin siblings, a boy and a girl, who were born while their parents were working in the city. Unlike her, they lived in the city with their parents and attended school.

Bitter about life’s unfairness, the supporting character targeted the female lead from the city, secretly causing trouble. She made the female lead believe she was the male lead’s first love, leaving an emotional scar that neither the male nor female lead openly addressed. This misunderstanding caused years of tension between them.

The supporting female character didn’t necessarily like the male lead that much, but her jealousy toward the female lead was undeniable.

The female lead had endless beautiful clothes to wear, a loving family, a house like a castle, people who would coax her whenever she got upset, the ability to buy whatever she wanted at any time, and she could easily have anything her heart desired. Meanwhile, the supporting female character was her polar opposite in life—splendor versus misery. Driven by envy, the supporting female character resorted to all sorts of petty and underhanded tricks.

The forested mountains were filled with mosquitoes, snakes, and rats, and Wen Yang had always disliked densely vegetated areas.

It hadn’t been long since the last torrential rain, so the soil underfoot was damp and soft. Her steps sunk into the ground with each move.

“Where am I supposed to sleep tonight?” Wen Yang asked impatiently, swatting away the incessant buzzing of mosquitoes near her ears. She had already been bitten in several places, and as she spoke, she was scratching her arms nonstop.

“Don’t worry, it’ll be ready soon” the system replied with an apologetic smile, realizing it had almost forgotten something important.

In the blink of an eye, Wen Yang arrived at a house. She curled her lips in disbelief—things were getting more absurd by the minute.

In front of her was a half-open courtyard nestled in the mountain. Wen Yang took a rough look around under the moonlight. The roof was crooked, as though pushed askew by the wind. Bundles of bamboo poles—or perhaps firewood—stood upright in the mud, some of them leaning haphazardly under the eaves.

On a wooden rack, there were iron basins, plastic basins, and leather buckets stacked one atop another.

The yard was partly paved with cement and partly a vegetable patch made of mounds of dirt. The dilapidated old house didn’t even have a door, just a wide-open, pitch-black entrance, like a cave where primitive people might have lived.

The place reeked of an indescribable smell, perhaps from livestock.

Wen Yang’s face dropped. Respecting the geographical differences, she swallowed the curse words on the tip of her tongue, raised her legs, and strode toward the “cave entrance” straight ahead.

“How do I turn on the lights?” she asked, one foot already over the threshold, staring into the darkness.

“To your right, there’s a strip of fabric. Feel for it, grab hold, and pull down lightly. Don’t use too much force,” the system instructed.

Following the system’s directions, Wen Yang cautiously felt along the wall.

“Is it this one?” she asked, applying a bit of pressure as she tugged.

Snap.

A crisp sound echoed as the pull cord activated, and the house lit up. Yellowish light flooded the room, filling every corner.

Wen Yang scanned her surroundings before shutting her eyes. The harsh yellow glow felt blinding. She tried to calm herself down.

“I’m staying here tonight?” Wen Yang managed to squeeze the words out through clenched teeth.

The system didn’t sense anything wrong. “Of course! This is the supporting female character’s house, which already represents the highest living standard in this village. It’s on elevated land, surrounded by stunning mountain views, offering tranquility and a connection with nature. Isn’t it wonderful?”

Your idea of a mountain-view home looks like this? Wen Yang thought to herself, too exhausted to even retort. She decided to accept it as “immersing herself in local life.”

Looking back, Wen Yang couldn’t help but feel she’d dug her own grave.

In real life, she had been an unrestrained, carefree star on campus. After transmigrating into this story, she was now forced to endure a poor life of farming, raising chickens, fertilizing fields, and feeding pigs—just to survive.

To maintain the image of a pure and kind-hearted village girl in the eyes of the locals, she woke up early every day and went from house to house, knocking on doors where there were students. She gathered the little kids who rushed to her cheerfully like sparrows to their mother and led them, a flock of dusty-faced little birds, down the mountain. Along the way, they chirped mountain songs and recited their lessons, heading to school.

As for the so-called elevated land with picturesque scenery, the daily five-kilometer mountain trek to school was pure torture. On rainy days, the muddy roads were a nightmare. If she didn’t end up covered in mud, she’d consider it a lucky day.

In these five months, she had made a hundred round trips, exhausted all her kind words, and done every good deed imaginable. Wen Yang was completely numb. She darkly vowed that the day the main storyline began would be the day she embraced her villain era.

A tractor rattled past, kicking up clouds of dust.

The dirt shower extinguished Wen Yang’s thoughts of rebellion.

“She’s here! She’s here!” The system was thrilled. “Wen Yang, the female lead is on that tractor up ahead. I wasn’t lying—she’s really here!”

The system had grown bold, now addressing her by name instead of calling her “Host.”

“Pfft!” Wen Yang spat out the dirt from her mouth, ignoring it. She stared fixedly at the tractor, which carried a load of people and rolled along before finally stopping at the gate of Sunshine Elementary School.

Wen Yang kept her head down and continued forward. But as she walked, her posture straightened, and her steps quickened ever so slightly.