Chapter 3
What was it like to sever all ties with your family at twenty-two?
I couldn’t quite say.
There was loss, regret, relief, loneliness, and a weary acceptance of fate’s caprice.
After that, no one came to visit or care for me.
A nurse took pity on me and brought me three meals a day. I thanked her politely.
She looked as if she wanted to say something, but it ended in a long sigh.
“No family quarrel should last overnight. Don’t dwell on it. Focus on recovering and living your life. That’s what matters.”
I thanked her with a smile but had no idea how to answer.
Fortune theft and systems were too mysterious for anyone to believe. No wonder Ye Xiaoxiao spent all day talking to hers.
Her injury had come at the worst time. Director Fu urgently needed his actors on set.
She pleaded with him again and again, but nothing could change the outcome. He dropped her from the production.
The news delighted me.
Everything she had gained by stepping on me would have to be returned.
Still, Director Fu was the first director I had ever met, and I did not want to give up. I truly did love the role.
I stayed up all night studying the original novel and wrote down my thoughts. I used my phone to film a short makeup-transformation video, then sent it to the director together with a long letter explaining everything I understood about the character.
My message vanished without a reply.
I was disappointed, but I did not take it to heart. Life held countless obstacles. This was merely one of mine.
I cooperated with treatment, worked hard at recovering, and was finally cleared to leave the hospital.
On the day of my discharge, I presented the nurses with a silk banner that read: FOR FEEDING ME IN MY HOUR OF NEED, MY GRATITUDE WILL LAST UNTIL I LOSE MY TEETH.
The nurses burst out laughing. We took pictures and uploaded a short video together. By that evening, it had gone viral.
Countless people praised the angels in white for their kindness. Everyone else wanted to know who I was.
[I want this woman’s contact information on my desk in three minutes.]
[It’s over. I just discovered I have a terrible disease called judging people by their looks. Only cuddling a beautiful woman can cure me. Please, pretty lady, give me a cuddle.]
[How can someone that gorgeous be sick? Let the disease torment me instead!]
[I’m really, really good at feeding people.]
[My boss asked why I was so distracted. I showed him this video. Now he wants to know which hospital has nurses who take care of beautiful ladies like her.]
While the internet buzzed, I seized the momentum and opened an account. I posted only one video—the makeup transformation I had sent Director Fu—and nothing else.
Yet the internet’s power was immense.
Within a short time, I had more than ten thousand followers.
The transformation video drew endless praise.
[Good heavens, who just got dazzled? Oh. It was me!]
[Quick, ask our mother-in-law how much bride price she wants. I’ll stop eating and drinking and start saving this instant.]
[@Director Fu Ning, come look! Isn’t this the leading lady you wanted?]
[She looks exactly like the Gu Qingyin I imagined. If only every actress in the domestic entertainment industry had styling this good.]
The public had suffered from stale domestic productions for far too long. Every drama used the same straight eyebrows and semi-permanent-looking makeup. One actress could appear in a dozen shows with exactly the same styling.
So the moment a transformation appeared that was even slightly distinctive and pleasing to the eye, it swept across the internet.
Look how easily audiences could be satisfied!
Unfortunately, no one in the industry seemed to understand that.
The next day, I went to Mount Futu to ask for a protective talisman.
My system kept nagging in my ear that the talisman was useless.
Of course I knew that.
It was merely for show. If Ye Xiaoxiao later discovered that her Koi System had stopped working, I did not want her growing suspicious.
Better for her to blame this protective talisman than suspect that I had a system of my own.
As I descended the mountain, my system told me Ye Xiaoxiao could no longer sit still.
Seeing me take the internet by storm with a single video infuriated her. She followed my example and posted one of her own, but it sank without a trace. Aside from a handful of likes, the reception was astonishingly cold.
Frustrated, she asked the Koi System for a chance to enter show business quickly.
It advised her to attend a dinner party. If she borrowed a little luck there, she had a high chance of meeting a powerful benefactor.
Ye Xiaoxiao agreed.
She dressed herself to look pure and beautiful, then went to the dinner with demure elegance.
At last, I saw the Koi System’s user interface. My name was written plainly in the field labeled Fortune-Transfer Target.
I had thought seeing it with my own eyes would hurt.
It did not. I was surprisingly calm.
My system said it could rewrite my name.
“You may replace it with the name of one of your parents, your brother, or Ye Xiaoxiao’s boyfriend. Each of them meets the required intimacy score.”
Ye Mingchen’s cold face flashed through my mind. Without hesitation, I erased my name from the Fortune-Transfer Target field and wrote his in its place.
I desperately wanted to see whether he could keep smiling at Ye Xiaoxiao once her bad luck landed on him.
That evening, Ye Xiaoxiao went to the dinner and happened to meet the reclusive crown prince of domestic entertainment.
Ren Zeyu rarely appeared in public. He had passed through the city on business, and a friend was hosting a welcome dinner for him. Someone suggested inviting a few beautiful women.
Not one of the women present recognized him.
He watched the flock of painted beauties with cold eyes, a hint of disgust between his brows.
Then Ye Xiaoxiao entered. Her purity shone like a beam of light into Ren Zeyu’s heart.
She sat there quietly and stiffly, as docile as a rabbit. Throughout the dinner, she watched everything with innocent curiosity, like a fairy who had fallen into the mortal world.
Her incongruity caught Ren Zeyu’s interest and stirred the other women’s jealousy.
Someone “accidentally” splashed a glass of water over her arm.
She gave a soft, restrained little “ah.”
That one sound stole Ren Zeyu’s soul.
He smiled with interest and personally took a tissue to wipe Ye Xiaoxiao’s arm…
Elsewhere, Ye Mingchen was shopping with his girlfriend.
She clung to his arm with a sweet smile, rose on tiptoe to touch his injured head, and blew gently over the wound.
Above them, a billboard came loose…