☆ 1. Time-travelled

At the end of February, the train station was packed with former educated youths who’s returning to the city after being granted early retirement due to illness or hardship.

Those bold enough, daring enough, and with connections to help them find opportunities in the provincial capital, were all carrying large bags, flocking to the platform in a rush and hurriedly boarding the train.

The narrow and dimly lit corridor was crowded with people searching for seats and stowing their luggage. Chattering echoed all around, while the old, sealed green train car had no ventilation, filled with the stifling mix of various body odors and sour smells—noisy and suffocating.

Ji Meng sat in her seat, staring wide-eyed at the unfamiliar, old-fashioned scene before her.

In her 27 years of life, Ji Meng had never imagined she’d “hit the jackpot” like this!

She had time-travelled!

Just half an hour ago, she had failed yet another blind date and was pouting playfully at her adoptive mother, the dean, on the phone when suddenly, a fuel tanker approaching head-on exploded.

The explosion was sudden and massive. Ji Meng didn’t even have time to react. Just as she was about to be consumed by the rapidly expanding orange flames, she heard an electronic voice ask if she wanted to live.

“Do you want to live?”

Of course! Who wants to die if they had the chance to live?

So without hesitation, Ji Meng shouted, “Yes!”

When she opened her eyes again, she found herself on a green train and had been bound to a system calling itself “Sansan.”

And it told her that she had time-travelled!

She had transmigrated into a book she had curiously skimmed through a few days ago, an old-style BE (Bad Ending) novel, and become the biological mother of Su Qiu, a tragic yet powerful supporting character in the story.

In the novel, Su Qiu’s descent into madness and blackening began when she discovered that the person who had ruined her career, destroyed her looks, and caused her grandmother’s tragic death was none other than her own mother, who took away all the family’s money and abandoned her.

Now, she had transmigrated into the role of that very instigator, and was currently on the train, fleeing back to the city with the stolen money!

What made things even worse was that in just two hours, her daughter back home would suffer an accident, getting hit on the head. When she woke up, she would regain her memories and transform into the dark and tragic female supporting role, Su Qiu.

At that point, Su Qiu would undergo a hundredfold blackening, going on a crazy path of vengeance. Not only would she die miserably, but the small world itself would collapse along with her!

【Host, host, are you listening?】

【The train is about to depart, and the bus outside heading to Xiaopan Village will leave in five minutes too. If you don’t hurry, you won’t make it in time to stop little Su Qiu from awakening her memories and blackening.】

In order to be more friendly, Sansan had switched its electronic voice to a soft, cute childlike tone, reminding Ji Meng.

“……”

“I got it!”

“Excuse me, please make way.”

No matter how frustrated she was, Ji Meng wasn’t about to risk her own life. Grumbling, she grabbed the old leather suitcase by her feet, stood up, and began squeezing her way through the crowd, pushing past the human walls with great difficulty.

There were too many people and it was too crowded. Ji Meng was drenched in sweat, but she didn’t dare stop. After getting off the train, her slender figure darted through the crowd, rushing straight outside.

Ji Meng didn’t have the original body’s memories, so she wasn’t familiar with the old-fashioned train station, nor did she know the way home. She had to rely entirely on the system’s navigation and reminders to find her way out of the station.

Her mind was in a daze as she tried to recognize roads and rush along. By the time she boarded the old bus, Ji Meng was completely out of breath, exhausted.

“If I had to time-travel, why didn’t you just let me arrive before the original body left home?”

Sprawled on the hard seat, surrounded by the nauseating stench of chicken, duck, and goose droppings, Ji Meng couldn’t help but complain.

【This specific time and place were the only suitable conditions for you to cross over, host!】

The system, which seemed very patient, replied kindly, and even complimented her to win her favor:

【Host, you were amazing earlier! You ran as fast as an athlete. No wonder Sansan chose you from countless worlds.】

“Can we tone it down with the dramatic?”

Ji Meng rolled her eyes at the overly anthropomorphized system, wondering where it had come from—it was clearly just data, but acted so human.

Probably because she had grown up as an orphan, able to survive anywhere, didn’t fear marriage or children, and even liked them, Ji Meng found it not too hard to accept this whole situation of transmigrating into a book, becoming a widow, and unexpectedly getting a daughter. Aside from worrying about how sad her adoptive mother, the dean, would be after losing her, Ji Meng wasn’t too shaken. Covering her nose for a while to endure the smell, she asked Sansan:

“I don’t have the original body’s memories, and I don’t know much about little Su Qiu or… the elderly family member. How am I supposed to handle them later?”

Earlier on the train, the system had already explained to Ji Meng that it had originally planned for the original host to be reborn and raise the daughter, ensuring Su Qiu’s happy upbringing to prevent her from blackening and to maintain the stability of the small world.

However, after the original host was reborn, the first thing she thought about wasn’t reuniting with her daughter. Instead, she began plotting how to eliminate Su Qiu, who had dragged her to death in their past life, once and for all.

This dangerous thought was detected by the system, which then sent the original host’s soul to a desolate world for labor reform, and brought Ji Meng in to replace the original body.

Pulling someone in from the outside world consumed a lot of energy, and now the system was completely drained, barely able to maintain its online state. As a result, it couldn’t extract the original host’s memories to give to Ji Meng, which is why she didn’t inherit any of them.

Without the memories, she didn’t even recognize the people, let alone know how to interact with them.

【Host, don’t worry! Sansan has already collected some information about the original owner, little Su Qiu, and the people they interacted with. I’ll transmit this information and scenes of their interactions to you shortly. After reviewing it, it will be as if you’ve gained part of the original memories, which more than enough for you to handle daily interactions.】

Sansan, enjoying the childlike voice it had adopted, noticed that the host was adapting well, so it made its voice even more cutesy.

【In addition, you don’t have to stick to the original host’s personality. She just lost her husband, so any change in her temperament would be entirely reasonable.】

“Oh.”

Hearing this, Ji Meng didn’t say much more. After resting for a bit, she had Sansan pass the information to her.

The smell inside the bus was even worse than on the train. The road was uneven, and the bus jolted constantly. Every now and then, they hit large potholes, rattling Ji Meng so hard it felt like her soul might leave her body. Normally not prone to motion sickness, even she was struggling to endure it this time.

After managing to get through the brief overview of the original host’s life, the bumpy bus finally reached the town. Ji Meng hired an ox cart to take her back to the village.

The village was ten miles away from the town, all on a rocky road. After enduring the bumps for a while, Ji Meng eventually became numb to it. But as time passed and the moment of the original host’s daughter’s blackening drew near, Ji Meng grew anxious, fearing she wouldn’t make it in time.

“Five minutes until two hours have passed. Where’s the original host’s daughter now? I’ll go straight to her,” Ji Meng asked the system as the ox cart stopped at the village entrance and she jumped down.

【Well… Sansan doesn’t have enough energy left, so I can’t determine little Su Qiu’s exact location.】

The system’s voice weakened. It might be the most useless system ever—couldn’t even do basic tracking. Sigh.

“…What’s the point of you then!”

Realizing she couldn’t rely on the system, Ji Meng wasted no time. Using the fragments of information she had received earlier, she headed straight toward the house.

There was a sick elderly person at home, and Su Qiu was very filial to her grandmother, so she likely wouldn’t have gone far.

“Su Qiu!”

At a crossroads, Su Erhu, along with his two younger sisters, ran over and stopped a little girl running toward them.

“Su Qiu, my grandma said she saw your mom carrying a bag and leaving today. Did she abandon you?”

Su Erhu spread his arms wide, using his round, chubby body to block Su Qiu. He sniffed, pulling back the snot threatening to reach his mouth, and asked her smugly.

The road ahead was completely blocked, leaving Su Qiu with no way to escape. She clenched her small hands and quietly took two steps back. Hearing Su Erhu’s words, her long curled eyelashes trembled, her large eyes dimmed, and after a while, she slowly replied:

“No, Mom didn’t leave, and she didn’t abandon me. She just went to our home near the military base to get some things she didn’t bring back.”

Su Qiu’s voice was soft and weak, clearly lacking confidence.

Her mom really had abandoned her.

When her mom left that morning, she had been awake. In fact, she had dreamed about it days earlier, seeing her mom leave.

But she didn’t dare stop her. Her mom was very scared.

If she tried to stop her, her mom might tie her up and throw her under the bed, just like in the dream.

She would get sick from the cold, and her grandmother, trying to find her, would fall down the hill and never wake up again.

She couldn’t let anything happen to her grandmother, and she didn’t want to be tied up by her mom, so she didn’t stop her. She hadn’t even dared to tell her grandmother yet.

She had run out today to find Uncle Shi at the village clinic to tell him about it, hoping he could help her explain it to her grandmother. But when she got there, Uncle Shi was busy, and afraid her grandmother would start looking for her, she hurried back.

“You’re lying!”

“My grandma said your mom never planned to keep you after your dad died. She was even going to run away with that educated youth, Xu, but somehow changed her mind and got an introduction letter from Sanwa’s uncle to marry someone else!”

“Everyone knows about this except for your dying grandma,” Su Erhu sneered, refuting her.

“Your father’s dead, your mom doesn’t want you anymore, and your grandma is about to die too. Soon, no one will be left in your family. My grandma said that once your grandma dies, you’ll be sent to another family as a child bride, and we’ll move into your house. Then I’ll get to eat meat every day…”

Su Erhu’s family and Su Qiu’s were distant relatives. Unlike Su Qiu’s father, Su Cheng, who was a soldier and a military officer, Su Erhu’s father, Su Dazhi, was notorious in the village for being a lazy scoundrel, constantly stealing and shirking work. His family lived in poverty.

Su Erhu and his sisters had always been envious and jealous of Su Qiu.

Even though Su Qiu had a mother who didn’t look at her or care for her, her grandmother, Fang Aihua, loved her deeply, and her father, Su Cheng, regularly sent money and gifts from the army. Su Qiu never lacked candy or meat to eat.

Su Erhu is used to being a bully and greedy by nature and often goes to steal Su Qiu’s candy.

However, Su Qiu had always been a beautiful, delicate child, and her grandmother, Fang Aihua, made sure she was dressed cleanly and prettily like a New Year’s doll, making her the favorite of the village children. Whenever they saw Su Erhu bullying her, they would jump in and beat him up.

After being beaten too many times, Su Erhu grew to hate Su Qiu.

Now that he knew Su Qiu was in trouble, and that her house would soon belong to them, and she would be sold off as a child bride, Su Erhu couldn’t wait to taunt and show off in front of her.

“Your grandma’s the one who’s dying!”

Su Qiu was only four and a half years old. She had spent over six months with her mother at the military base the previous year, so she hadn’t been exposed to the term “child bride” and didn’t know what it meant. However, when Su Erhu said that her grandmother was about to die, Su Qiu’s cheeks flushed red with anger, and she furiously yelled back.

“You want to live in my house? Not a chance! Uncle Zhu said that my dad was a martyr, and I’m the daughter of a martyr. If anyone bullies me, I can report them, and they’ll be sent to labor reform or prison!”

“Get out of my way, Su Erhu! You won’t bully me anymore—I’m not scared of you now!”

Worried about her grandmother still lying in bed at home, Su Qiu forcefully shoved Su Erhu.

Although Su Erhu looked stout, he was actually quite weak and just a six-year-old child. Unprepared for the push, he stumbled and fell to the ground.

The ground was full of sharp stones, and Su Erhu’s chubby little hand got scraped, bleeding from the wound.

“Su Qiu, you little brat! How dare you push me!”

Seeing the blood on his scraped hand, Su Erhu started wailing.

“Su Zhaodi, are you dead or what? Hurry up and teach her a lesson, or when we get home, I’ll have Grandma beat you to death.”

Su Erhu was the only boy in his family, and because he often stole things from Su Qiu, the other kids in the village disliked him. They often ganged up on him whenever they saw him. Ever since a child in the village had been eaten by a wild animal a couple of years ago, his two twin sisters were always sent to follow him whenever he went out to play.

If something were to happen to Su Erhu, the two sisters would definitely face a brutal beating when they got home. Seeing that Su Erhu’s hand was scraped and bleeding, Su Zhaodi and Su Laidi’s faces turned pale.

“Su Qiu, who told you to hit Erhu!”

Su Qiu hadn’t expected to push Su Erhu down. She glanced at her own hand in panic. When she saw the tall and fierce-looking Su Zhaodi and Su Laidi glaring at her, she shuddered and quickly hid her hands behind her back.

“I didn’t mean to hit him. It was you who blocked my way.”

“Su Zhaodi, Su Laidi, hurry up and grab her! I’m going to get my revenge!”

Su Erhu’s hand was burning with pain. Since the three Su sisters had started following him around like bodyguards, he had been running rampant in the village. This was the first time he’d gotten hurt, and his bad temper flared up. Grabbing a stone, he got up and approached Su Qiu.

Su Zhaodi and Su Laidi didn’t dare disobey his orders. They were used to farm work, and even though they were only eight years old, they were quite strong. In just a few steps, they reached Su Qiu and grabbed her by the arms, lifting her off the ground.

“Let me go, Sister Zhaodi, Sister Laidi! I didn’t mean it. Please let me go. My grandma is still waiting for me at home…”

Su Qiu struggled desperately, but she was so small that she couldn’t break free. Tears welled up in her eyes as she begged.

The Su sisters, twins who were often neglected because they were girls, usually only received kindness from Su Qiu’s grandmother. Seeing Su Qiu’s pitiful face, they hesitated for a moment. But by then, Su Erhu had already rushed over.

“You little brat, how dare you lay a hand on me? If I don’t smash you to death today, I’m not Su Erhu!”

Su Erhu viciously pinched Su Qiu’s face a few times. Seeing her tearful, pained expression, he grinned wickedly. Then, he raised the sharp stone, the size of an adult’s fist, and aimed it at Su Qiu.

“Brat, stop right there!”

In the distance, Ji Meng saw this scene unfold. Her heart almost leapt out of her chest. She shouted, dropping her suitcase and sprinting towards them.