Chapter 2

Chapter 2

Five minutes later, four men lay sprawled across the ground in various twisted positions.

I had one of them by the throat, my face ice-cold.

“I haven’t been back in over a year, and you don’t recognize your daddy anymore? Is this your first day running with the streets? Since when do random strays get to act wild in front of me?”

“Back when I was cracking violent criminals’ skulls, you lot hadn’t even been let out yet!”

With one hand, I swept the scattered cash into my pocket. With the other, I slammed his head into the wall-bang, bang, bang.

Both my movements and my tone were practiced and vicious.

“Five grown men with all your limbs intact, and this is all the money you’ve got? Who are you trying to fool?”

“Got any more? Talk!”

The bullet comments went deathly silent.

[No, wait, what-what just happened??]

[Was the supporting female lead always this kind of character?? Why does she look even more experienced than the guys across from her??!]

[Holy crap, I just replayed it several times! Those were five adult men! She-she dislocated one guy’s jaw with a single punch??!]

The other four thugs immediately wailed and begged for mercy. “That’s all! We really don’t have any more, ma’am!”

“We’re all from the same world here. Give us some face! We failed to recognize a big shot. Please be magnanimous and let us off this once-”

A young man in white suddenly barged in and stared at me, dumbfounded.

Then I suddenly heard an electronic voice.

[System: Host, hurry and save-huh? Wait?? Is this the Little White Flower heroine???]

[Strange Young Man: I don’t know either, System. Weren’t you the one who said this world’s plot had collapsed and told me to come save the Little White Flower?]

I looked at this uninvited guest in slight surprise.

Under the dim yellow streetlamp, he was a tall, slender figure with a rather down-and-out air. Dressed in white from head to toe, with features so beautiful he looked like an immortal from the heavens.

Light in form, light in aura, like a handful of snow drifting down into this filthy place.

…

Inside McDonald’s, I wolfed down a hamburger.

The strange young man said his name was Bai Xi.

A warmhearted citizen who happened to pass by and bravely stepped in for justice.

The bullet comments were filling up with question marks too.

[Who is this hottie?? There wasn’t anyone named Bai Xi in the book!]

-Looks like I’m the only one who can hear Bai Xi and the System talking.

[System: Straight bangs, white dress, poor-she looks right. She is the Little White Flower heroine!]

Little White Flower heroine? Looks like they meant Su Wanwan.

So they had mistaken me for the heroine.

[Bai Xi: Looks…? How are you even less reliable than I am? Didn’t you read the plot summary??]

[System: I have so many worlds to oversee. How am I supposed to remember the names of every male and female lead in every world?]

[Something went wrong in this small world. The supporting female lead deviated from the main storyline, causing the female lead to remain in the slums.

The limited information available is only this-she matches every part of the heroine setup! It has to be her!]

-So they didn’t know the heroine’s name?

Bai Xi asked me what my name was. I swallowed the meat from my hamburger.

“…Wei Liang.”

Sure enough, the System didn’t notice anything wrong and continued discussing things with Bai Xi.

[System: It doesn’t matter that the hero-saves-the-beauty scene didn’t happen. In any case, as long as you’ve made contact with the female lead, that’s enough.

Your mission is to take over the second male lead’s role and redeem the Little White Flower heroine from the slums!]

The corner of my mouth twitched.

I couldn’t help sneering inwardly.

Su Wanwan and I both came from the slums.

She had a happy family. Even as a poor student, she could attend an elite private high school because her parents were willing to sell everything they owned to support her.

Her whole life was smooth sailing. She was even fancied by the young master from the best family there and married into wealth.

The worst thing she’d experienced was being born in the slums. What about her needed redeeming?

My so-called birth parents had never paid a single cent for me. Even my miscellaneous fees during compulsory education were borrowed from kindhearted neighbors.

The moment I graduated from middle school, they grabbed me and tried to hand me over to an old bachelor in exchange for a hundred thousand in bride price.

I was the one who picked up a kitchen knife and went berserk, making such a huge scene that I severed ties with them and ran away.

I borrowed money everywhere, carried cement at construction sites, and worked a pile of part-time jobs to earn my tuition, only to be cursed by the bullet comments as a vicious supporting female lead.

Why didn’t anyone come redeem me? Why did every good thing have to rush straight to Su Wanwan?

-Two idiots who had the wrong person.

A nasty little thought crossed my mind. At the very least, I’d freeloaded a meal at McDonald’s.

After we finished eating, Bai Xi said he would take me home.

I glanced at him. “I’m sleeping here tonight.”

Bai Xi froze. “Sleeping here?”

I slumped forward onto the table, my tone indifferent. “I have no home to go back to.”

[System: What a perfect opportunity, Host!]

[You can take her home! It’ll also improve your relationship! Defeating the male lead and taking his place is your bonus mission!]

I sneered inwardly.

But to my surprise, in the next second, Bai Xi took out his phone, tapped a few times, then turned the screen around for me to see.

-It was the page for a chain hotel he’d already booked.