Ding Yao was arrogant at his core. Even though his future ending was so miserable, he showed not a single shred of willingness to swallow his pride for the bigger picture right now. After hearing Xu Ziyan’s words, he immediately downed the water in his glass and went off to stir up trouble.
Xu Ziyan looked at the lonely ice cubes left in her cup, then at Yang Anni. “He’s not complaining about the lemon water being sour anymore?”
Yang Anni waved a hand dismissively. “Who cares about him? He gets overexcited when there’s a crowd, coming and going as he pleases. Sorry for dropping by so suddenly without a gift.”
Xu Ziyan smiled. “We’re a little group now, no need to be so formal. I was just bored at home anyway. Let’s go for a swim in the pool!”
The two of them got right to it. They went back to their rooms to change into swimsuits, slathered on sunscreen, and ran to the pool. They even had a servant bring out a floating tray and played in the water for a long time.
Xu Ziyan thought to herself, a person really should know when they have enough. She had transmigrated into the identity of an adopted daughter of a wealthy family. This was like manna from heaven. Whatever her family gave her, she would accept. Without fighting or scrambling for more, she could live happily like this every day. If things continued like this into the future, she could easily imagine living this kind of life forever.
In contrast, look at Song Jie. She was lucky enough to receive sponsorship from a wealthy man, escaping her village girl origins, yet she repaid that kindness with ingratitude by hooking up with her benefactor’s husband. She got money, houses, cars, and became a big star, yet she took the deceased wife’s jewelry, sent her own son back to fight for the family fortune, and framed a young starlet.
The fact that she was now being cursed by the entire internet was entirely her own doing. She was already so beautiful, so rich, so glamorous—owning far more than the current Xu Ziyan possessed. Yet, never satisfied, she kept stirring up trouble.
Looking at it this way, one really needed a good mindset. When material conditions were decent, one should be properly grateful and enjoy life. Otherwise, being greedy like Song Jie, letting desires extend endlessly without restraint, would only lead to losing happiness.
Xu Ziyan closed her eyes and floated on her back on the water, relaxing as a smile touched her lips. The feelings of discontent and anxiety that had been with her since transmigrating here had, after the Song Jie incident, miraculously calmed down. She was starting to feel a sense of belonging here, truly falling in love with this brand-new life.
That night, as Xu Ziyan was drowsy and about to fall asleep, she heard the system’s announcement.
『Congratulations, Host. Mission Completed: Scheme to Force Song Jie Out of the Entertainment Industry. Reward: 1 Skill Point. Mission Completed: Arouse Eldest Brother Fu Qixuan’s Suspicion. Reward: 1 Skill Point. Mission Completed: Assist Lin Xiaoyun in Moving into the Fu Residence. Reward: 1 Skill Point.』
Xu Ziyan was dazed for a moment. She opened her phone and found that the latest and most explosive topic on the Hot Search was Song Jie announcing her withdrawal from the entertainment industry. She had posted a long piece of text expressing helplessness, pain, misunderstanding, being forced into a corner, and so on, adopting a very low-profile, weak stance as she bid farewell to the entertainment world.
With this, the chorus of curses against her stopped. Because “Big Star Withdraws from Entertainment Industry Due to Cyberbullying” became the newest topic. Since everyone’s speculations lacked any evidence, and Song Jie had suffered “severe damage,” some people started to think, ‘She’s already like this, what’s the point of cursing her anymore?’ ‘Even if she did something wrong, isn’t this punishment enough?’ ‘What more do you want her to do?’ ‘Maybe she had her own hardships?’
Song Jie was definitely unwilling, but the Ding family’s reputation was important, the company’s image was important. Old Mr. Ding had spoken, and Song Jie didn’t dare disobey. She could only end this scandal quickly in this manner. Moreover, this was also to prevent further discussion and digging into Ding Jie’s affairs, which would affect Ding Jie’s position in the internal family struggle.
From the netizens’ perspective, it even seemed like Ding Yao had successfully vented his anger, successfully suppressing his father’s mistress, which felt quite satisfying.
But after skimming it, Xu Ziyan noted that in her long post, Song Jie never once admitted to any wrongdoing. If an opportunity arose in the future, she could deny everything at any time and make a comeback. After all, she hadn’t revealed anything; it was all just everyone’s guess.
Xu Ziyan sighed inwardly: 『She’s still impressive. No wonder she could rise from a small mountain village to eventually become the Dowager Empress of a wealthy family.』
In the original plot, the Original Host and Song Jie grew to dislike each other more and more. Song Jie humiliated the Original Host several times at banquets. Furious, the Original Host schemed to force Song Jie out of the entertainment industry.
She never expected the plot mission to be completed in this form. Thinking about it, this whole incident was indeed triggered by her asking Yang Anni to post that group photo. So, she really did have a hand in it.
『How was the mission about the Fu family’s eldest son completed? What does he suspect me of? Did he really bring that Social Butterfly back? But I didn’t assist Lin Xiaoyun.』 Xu Ziyan was completely baffled.
At that moment, Fu Qixuan, who had just arrived home and was passing by her door, stopped in his tracks.
What was that sound?
Fu Qiming beside him slung an arm over his shoulder and whispered, “You heard it too, right? We told you a long time ago, but you wouldn’t believe us, insisting she used some trick to fool us. But that business with that dog Li Dong wasn’t fake, was it? And the Scumbag Brother-in-law’s secret.”
Fu Qixuan still refused to believe it. “Those things could have been information she investigated in advance. She’s that kind of person herself, so naturally she sees everyone as having ill intentions, deliberately getting close to us.”
“Then what about the inner thoughts we heard?”
“A miniature recorder, or some high-tech device we don’t know about. Any possibility is more realistic than hearing inner thoughts.”
Fu Qiming curled his lip. “I can’t get through to you. But you be careful with that Lin… whatever her name is, Yun. Xu Ziyan said she’s bad, so she’s definitely not a good person. She…”
“Enough. Don’t judge my friend. I had someone investigate her when I met her. She’s clean.” Fu Qixuan frowned, his expression darkening.
He was thirty now, in charge of the entire Fu Corporation. When he put on a stern face, he was quite imposing. His younger brother Fu Qiming didn’t dare say more. Instead, he began to relish the thought of the coming drama. This eldest brother was both domineering and severe, lecturing them as if they were grandchildren. Since he wasn’t listening to them now, he was bound to make a fool of himself eventually. Fu Qiming just wanted to see what would happen when he went up against Xu Ziyan.
Fu Qixuan paid no more attention to his brother and went to his own room at the very end of the hall. It was very late. Lin Xiaoyun had already been settled by a servant into a guest room on the first floor.
Ever since his family told him about Xu Ziyan, he found it ridiculous. What kind of person would believe in something like hearing inner thoughts? Xu Ziyan actually used this kind of trick to fool the family, and the even more laughable thing was that the family actually believed it. Even the usually aloof Fu Yazhen joined in the foolishness, even considering aborting the baby.
Now that he was back in the country, his first order of business was to hire ten of the most renowned private detectives to reinvestigate everything. What if Xu Ziyan had framed Li Dong and framed Zheng Wenbo? And now she wanted to frame Lin Xiaoyun? Was she trying to wipe out all the people close to them in one fell swoop? From his perspective, the one with the problem should be Xu Ziyan. He didn’t think there was anything wrong with suspecting her; it was normal logical thinking.
His flight had landed very late. Lin Xiaoyun, being very sensible, said there was no need to send her home, that she could take the bus or subway back by herself. But Lin Xiaoyun’s grandmother was critically ill and in a coma. To pay the medical bills, they had long since sold their house. The basement she was renting was small and unsafe. Since he had hired Lin Xiaoyun as his life assistant, how could he mistreat an employee?
He originally planned to put Lin Xiaoyun up in a hotel for the night. But when he contacted his family, and they heard he was with Lin Xiaoyun, they immediately warned him to be careful—don’t get drunk, don’t go to secluded places, don’t let Lin Xiaoyun near core documents, and so on—which left him utterly speechless. So, he simply brought Lin Xiaoyun home.
Tomorrow, he would let them see for themselves. Lin Xiaoyun was just an ordinary, unlucky girl in need of help. He had checked; everything Lin Xiaoyun said was true. They had been led around by the nose by Xu Ziyan. He wanted to see what kind of “inner thoughts” Xu Ziyan could come up with in front of Lin Xiaoyun.
Fu Qixuan’s room was farther from Xu Ziyan’s, so he couldn’t hear her inner thoughts. Fu Qiming next door, however, could. He listened intently for the system’s reply, terrified it would directly tell Xu Ziyan that they could hear her inner thoughts. If that happened, they wouldn’t be able to get along in the future.
The system’s reply was: 『Fu Qixuan heard about the recent events in the Fu family and believed the Host’s change in behavior was some sort of scheme. Upon arriving home and learning Fu Yazhen was considering an abortion, he grew suspicious of the Host, suspecting you of framing Zheng Wenbo.
The Fu family members, having discovered the unreliability of those around them, warned Fu Qixuan to be careful of Lin Xiaoyun. Fu Qixuan developed a rebellious streak and brought her back to let them see for themselves.
Calculating these two missions, both were ultimately caused by the Host’s changes, so they count as missions completed by the Host.』
Xu Ziyan once again marveled at the power of the butterfly effect. She suddenly felt like she had tossed out a single seed and now flowers were blooming everywhere. What a pleasant surprise! These were missions completed ahead of schedule. The more missions she completed, the less likely the world was to collapse!
001 asked: 『Which attribute would the Host like to allocate the skill points to?』
『Luck, luck, and more luck!』 Xu Ziyan said happily. 『When my luck is overflowing, I’ll definitely be able to just sit at home while rewards rain down from the sky, completing all the missions just through the butterfly effect, haha!』
Xu Ziyan rolled over, got up, used the projector to watch a comedy, laughed while eating snacks, and even complained to the system about the plot. She didn’t feel sleepy again until four in the morning, falling asleep the second her head hit the pillow.
In the next room, Fu Qiming, who had listened to the commotion for half the night, finally let out a sigh of relief and collapsed tiredly onto his bed, trying to muster the will to sleep. Being close enough to hear the inner thoughts was good, but if it was always going to be this lively, it would be the death of him.
However, he was also reassured. It seemed the system didn’t know they could hear Xu Ziyan’s inner thoughts either. The system wanted Xu Ziyan to come and follow the plot, so naturally it wouldn’t help them or save them. Therefore, their ability to hear the inner thoughts was very likely heaven-sent, the so-called “a thread of life.”
This was their chance to save themselves. He had to work hard to make Eldest Brother believe in this. Eldest Brother was more capable than them. Once he believed, he would definitely find a way to secretly help Xu Ziyan complete her missions.
The next day, Fu Qixuan got up at five o’clock. He exercised in the home gym, ate breakfast on time, changed into a suit, and prepared to leave for work, like a robot.
Just as he was about to leave, Lin Xiaoyun hurried over. “I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, Manager Fu. I couldn’t adjust to the time difference, slept very late, and overslept.”
Fu Qixuan nodded faintly. “It’s fine.” Then he looked at her limping foot. “What happened to your foot?”
Lin Xiaoyun smiled as if it were nothing. “I got up in a hurry just now and twisted it getting out of bed. It’s nothing, it’ll be better soon. Let’s hurry to work.”
Fu Qixuan wasn’t the type to mistreat employees. He stood up and said, “Take care of your foot injury first, adjust to the time difference, then come to work. Ask a servant to get you some medicine. We can discuss anything else tonight.”
With that, he left, giving Lin Xiaoyun no chance to refuse. As the car drove out of the Fu residence, Fu Qixuan glanced at the window of Xu Ziyan’s room. In the past, Xu Ziyan got up very early. He had wanted to see what kind of tricks Xu Ziyan was playing this morning, but it seemed Xu Ziyan still hadn’t gotten up yet.
Was she afraid of revealing her flaws in front of him and deliberately avoiding him?