Chapter 1

Chapter 1

I had not heard from the System in years.

When it reappeared, Xu Chengzhou and I had just brought our son home from the amusement park.

Xu An’an clung to my hand and begged to have McDonald’s delivered for dinner. I was about to lecture him about eating too many hamburgers when a familiar electronic hum sounded in my ear.

Then came the System’s mechanical voice.

“Host. It’s been a long time.”

It took in the happy family of three before it and seemed to choke. For once, it did not know how to begin.

“Here’s the situation. Do you remember that book-transmigration mission from all those years ago?

“Ever since you left, the target’s mental health has steadily deteriorated. He’s very unstable now.

“Then there’s the son you had back then. He keeps demanding to see you.

“Could you… go back and visit them?”

I froze.

It would have been impossible to forget that part of my life.

Back then, I had been diagnosed with cancer and given less than three years to live. At the worst point of my treatment, I became bound to the System.

It sent me into a tragic romance novel about a couple who separated and eventually reunited. My mission was to win over the devoted second male lead.

If I could persuade him to step away from the endless entanglement between the hero and heroine and agree to marry me, my mission would be complete. I could then choose to remain in that identity forever.

My old life did not have much time left anyway, so I treasured the chance.

When the heroine abandoned the second male lead, Cheng Su, I stayed beside him. I comforted him and kept him company.

Little by little, his indifference softened into warmth and consideration.

Then one drunken night ended in confusion, and I became pregnant.

I thought we would finally marry.

Instead, his voice turned cold.

“Shen Zhi, you have no family standing. I can’t marry you yet.

“Have the child first. Once he’s older and the family accepts him, then we’ll marry.”

That child was my first son.

His name was Cheng Nian.

I poured all my time, energy, and love into raising him.

The Chengs were an old and immensely wealthy family. They controlled more than a dozen listed companies and had interests in more industries than anyone could count. Cheng Su was their eldest son.

They might have looked down on me, but Cheng Nian was their eldest grandson. The entire family doted on him.

Almost every week, someone took him to the family estate so his grandparents could see him. By his first birthday, an investment account had already been opened in his name.

When he was three or four, I still took taxis whenever I went to pick him up. Cheng Nian could already tell the difference between the interiors of a Rolls-Royce sedan and a Cullinan.

When he was five or six, I held him on my lap and taught him basic arithmetic.

One day he threw down his pencil and looked up at me.

“I’m inheriting the company anyway. What’s the point of learning this stuff?”

I could not believe such words had come from a child.

I gave him a long lecture. Cheng Nian burst into tears, and Cheng Su, unable to bear it, took him back to the family estate.

Father and son stayed away for months.

When I finally saw them again, I brought a meal I had cooked and went to the estate to fetch Cheng Nian. I wanted to tell him that his mother had spoken too harshly and should not have scolded him that way.

Instead, I watched him climb out of a black luxury car.

He held Cheng Su’s hand with his left and the hand of a woman in high heels with his right.

In his sweet little voice, he said, “Ye Xi, marry my dad!

“My mom and dad aren’t married, so you can marry him instead!”

I stood frozen, still holding the lunchbox.

Ye Xi was the heroine of this world.

After all those twists and turns, she had come back.

She tilted her head, stole a glance at Cheng Su, and smiled.

“Why? Don’t you want your mom and dad to be together?”

Cheng Nian hesitated.

“But… Grandma and Grandpa don’t like my mom. Dad doesn’t like her either.”

Cheng Su said nothing. His face remained calm, without a flicker of reaction.

I should have seen it coming.

Some small, pathetic part of me had kept hoping things would get better.

They never did.

The devoted second male lead would always be drawn back to the heroine. Even the child I had borne him was no exception.

It made me look ridiculous.

I turned away without speaking to any of them.

That night, I activated the System again.

“I’m abandoning the mission.

“I want to go home.”