Chapter 70: The Humiliated Heiress of the Arranged Marriage (Complete)

The next day, Bai Qian woke up in a fury and decided to run away from home.

She couldn’t pack her own luggage, nor could she let that girl know her plans, so she hid her intentions before heading out.

After Chi Miaohan dropped her off at the teaching building as usual, Bai Qian immediately blocked all of the girl’s contact methods.

At noon, she went straight to the library, leaving no chance for her to be found.

Just as the last class of the afternoon ended, Shan Chan—who had vanished for several days—sent a perfectly timed message asking where she was.

Bai Qian was mulling over where to spend the night when she saw the message and instantly had an idea.

Instead of typing, she made a voice call.

“Shan Chan, are you home? Can you put me up for the night?”

The background noise on Shan Chan’s end was chaotic—she was probably out shopping. “I’m over by West Gate Food Street. What’s up? Did you fight with your little sister? My phone’s about to die. Why don’t you come find me? I’m at Zhouji Barbecue Stall.”

Before Bai Qian could respond, the call cut off automatically.

Without hesitation, she packed up her books and headed to the food street to meet her.

But in the end, she couldn’t even make it past the entrance, let alone to the barbecue stall.

Her delicate body couldn’t handle the overwhelming mix of smells and refused to let her get any closer. It forced her to wait across the street at the intersection.

Normally, she could just call Shan Chan again, but with her phone dead, that wasn’t an option.

Bai Qian silently cursed her body, but in the end, she had no choice but to yield to reality.

Chi Miaohan had clearly been trying to reach her nonstop. The moment Bai Qian removed her from the block list, the phone rang.

Little Wild Dog apologized with genuine sincerity on the other end. “Sis, I was wrong. I swear I won’t be greedy anymore. Please don’t be mad, okay?”

As if I’d believe you!

Bai Qian huffed. “I’m at West Gate Food Street by your school. Come pick me up.”

Chi Miaohan sounded mildly surprised. “How’d you end up there, Sis?”

The young lady snapped petulantly, “None of your business! Hurry up and get over here!”

“Okay, okay, okay. Stay right there, Sis. I’m coming now.”

While waiting, Bai Qian popped into a nearby fruit shop and rented a power bank.

A few minutes later, Chi Miaohan arrived.

Bai Qian handed her the power bank. “Shan Chan’s at Zhouji Barbecue Stall. Give this to her and have her come out to meet me.”

“Got it.” Chi Miaohan barely caught her breath before heading off again.

After a few minutes, she returned alone.

Bai Qian glanced behind her. “Where’s Shan Chan?”

Chi Miaohan hooked her arm through Bai Qian’s. “She won’t put you up anymore, Sis. Come home with me, okay?”

As she spoke, she pulled Bai Qian closer into her embrace. “I’ll really listen to you from now on. I promise.”

Bai Qian couldn’t win against her and finally gave in with a coquettish warning. “If there’s a next time, I swear we’ll break up!”

“Okay, I guarantee there won’t be.”

…

While Chi Miaohan busied herself in the kitchen preparing dinner, Bai Qian curled up on the sofa watching TV. After a moment’s thought, she called Shan Chan.

They’d parted ways at the bar that night, and Bai Qian had sent her messages afterward, but Shan Chan hadn’t replied once during the entire National Day holiday.

If she hadn’t messaged first today, Bai Qian might have started suspecting she’d been blocked.

The call connected just before the system could auto-hang up.

Before Shan Chan could say a word, Bai Qian beat her to it. “Where’ve you been these past few days? I messaged you and got nothing.”

Shan Chan paused on the other end. “Just some stuff. What’s up?”

“Did you get roped into a pyramid scheme or something?”

How else could she explain someone going completely incommunicado for a full seven days?

“Of course not. You think I’m that stupid?”

“Then what were you doing for those seven days? Oh, right—I never asked. After you took her to the hospital, what did the checkup say? She’s okay, right?”

At the mention of Chao Lulu, Shan Chan’s voice grew a little unnatural. “Nothing serious. Just low blood sugar.”

Bai Qian didn’t notice and pressed on. “Good to hear. So, seriously, where were you those days?”

A long silence stretched out from the other end.

Bai Qian waited a bit, and when no response came, she wondered if the call had dropped. Then Shan Chan spoke up, sounding a touch guilty. “Those days… I was in bed the whole time.”

The young lady fussed with concern. “Were you sick? How’d that happen out of nowhere? And you were eating barbecue while ill?”

“No, it’s… um… I spent the National Day with that little sister.”

“?”

Another long, heavy silence followed.

Several seconds later, Shan Chan finally spoke again, her voice noticeably subdued this time. “That day, didn’t I take her to the hospital? It was too late after the check-up—she couldn’t get back into the school, and she didn’t have her ID. No other choice, so I brought her home. I told you, she just happens to hit right at my type. It’s been days now; I can’t even remember who made the first move. But that night… you know what happened.”

“…”

It took a long while before Bai Qian found her voice again. “How long have you two even known each other before…? Shan Chan, are you sure you didn’t get played?”

Though Chao Lulu wasn’t set up as a scumbag woman in the original plot, what if reality deviated from it somehow?

Shan Chan defended herself with wide-eyed innocence. “I didn’t want to either, but she was really too beautiful. I’m a total face-connoisseur, and she perfectly matches my aesthetic. Turning her down would’ve been totally unreasonable.”

“…” The unreasonable part was her behavior right now.

“Hey, don’t worry about me. Just think of it as a one-night stand—or a few-night stand. The school’s huge; unless we go looking for each other, our paths won’t cross. Relax! I’ll take good care of myself!”

Since the person herself didn’t seem to care, Bai Qian, as an outsider, saw no need to fret excessively on her behalf.

She could only pray in silence that the girl wouldn’t get scammed.

In the end, it proved that the original plot and reality aligned in most of their core elements.

Though she had no idea why Chao Lulu’s storyline had veered in this direction, Bai Qian finally breathed a genuine sigh of relief months later when she heard that Shan Chan was officially dating her.

~~~

Chi Miaohan and Bai Qian’s first shared birthday—she wanted nothing but a handwritten love letter from her.

Bai Qian was baffled. “You’re sure you don’t want anything else? Just a handwritten letter from me?”

Chi Miaohan corrected her solemnly. “Sister, it’s a love letter.”

“Fine, fine—a love letter. That’s really all you want?”

“Mm.”

Bai Qian unfolded the stationery and, as she set pen to paper for the first word, couldn’t help asking curiously, “Why the sudden request for this?”

Chi Miaohan gazed at her tenderly. “Because Sister said it herself: handwritten words carry the most sincere emotions.”

Bai Qian paused for a long moment before remembering when she’d said that offhand remark. The thought that her casual words had been cherished so deeply softened her heart, infusing it with a touch of sweetness.

~~~

In the original plot, the scum male protagonist didn’t appear until after university graduation.

His first encounter with the female protagonist was pure chance. They were attending separate class reunions in the same hotel, on the same floor, so the odds of crossing paths weren’t low.

That single meeting doomed the female protagonist’s entire future.

Nearly four years in this world, and Bai Qian had never imagined she’d one day have such a terrifying nightmare.

She jolted awake, the room shrouded in silence broken only by her own breaths, growing heavier with each gasp.

The dream image seared her eyes—the young girl ravaged head to toe, without a single patch of unmarred skin. She panted several times, still unsteady, when the girl in her arms stirred awake as well.

Not fully alert, her voice carried a hint of drowsiness. “Sister, having a nightmare?”

Her hand instinctively stroked Bai Qian’s back.

“Don’t be afraid. I’m right here.”

Bai Qian clutched tightly at her clothes, her warm, trembling voice thick with lingering fear.

“Chi Miaohan, let’s get married.”

The hand on her back stilled for a moment, then drew her deeper into the embrace, as if determined to meld her into her very bones.

“Okay.”

~~~

The wedding venue was an unusual one.

They chose the osmanthus grove at Chi Miaohan’s school.

As the two exchanged rings, a gentle breeze swept through, sending golden osmanthus blossoms cascading from the high branches like a shower of raindrops.

The golden osmanthus flowers adorned their ceremony.

And brought to vivid life the young girl’s daydream from years before.

“Miss Chi, you may now kiss Miss Bai.”

~~~

“New World transmission complete. Welcome, Guardian, to the New World. Objective—change the female protagonist’s ending of being trampled after her true form is exposed.”

★★★

Jiang Yusheng had a brawl lined up today with that crew from No.3 High School.

The spot was set near their school.

It was a construction site still under development. The workers clocked out at five-thirty, and by six, the place was a ghost town.

Perfect timing for a fight.

No adults to break it up, no busybodies to snitch—just endless clouds of dust.

Her foot came down hard on the ground. When she lifted it, a spray of fine gravel and dust billowed into the air, evoking the epic showdowns of wuxia films where heroes and tough guys squared off in grand style.

Construction sites always had bricks lying around, of course.

But those things hurt like hell when they hit you. A few months back, two rival groups had clashed right here. In the heat of the moment, one fighter grabbed a brick and smashed it into his opponent’s skull.

There was a sickening thud, and as the man crumpled to the ground, blood trickled onto the dirt.

He was lucky—not dead, just a mild concussion.

After that, whenever fights broke out, no one dared use weapons or objects anymore.

A flurry of hurried footsteps approached now, the gritty crunch of all sorts of shoe soles grinding into the sand. Jiang Yusheng, half-leaning against an unfinished brick wall, turned her head toward the sound.

An unlit cigarette dangled from her lips. Her sharp, unrelenting eyes slowly swept over the faces of the newcomers before settling on the girl at the front.

The girl was dressed head to toe in black. Against Jiang Yusheng’s pristine white outfit, the contrast was striking in the fading glow of the evening sun.

“Just you?”

The girl straightened up as she advanced with her group, her posture ramrod straight—like a pine tree marching into battle.

Jiang Yusheng sneered dismissively. “One of me is plenty.”

Her opponent paid no mind to the attitude. What should have been a soft, gentle face twisted into something fierce.

This wasn’t their first brawl.

A real brawl meant bare fists—no holds barred.

It had started back in their first year of high school, a chance encounter that sparked their rivalry. They’d traded blows countless times since, evenly matched with wins split down the middle. For them, it was less a fight and more a workout.

Jiang Yusheng struck first, whipping her leg out in a horizontal kick. It rose halfway through the air before the other girl blocked it effortlessly with her knee, eyes unflinching.

Jiang Yusheng cocked her fist to follow up—then, out of nowhere, a spark of fire erupted from the core of her chest.

The instant it flared, her whole body shuddered. Strength drained from her limbs, and she collapsed straight to the ground right in front of her opponent.

Gu Wanching’s incoming punch whistled through empty air. She didn’t press the advantage while Jiang Yusheng was down; instead, she halted and frowned at her. “What’s wrong with you?”

Jiang Yusheng opened her mouth to reply, but then she felt an odd itch creeping along both sides of her scalp. Her expression shifted in alarm. She grabbed Gu Wanching’s clothes for leverage, hauled herself to her feet, and bolted without another word.

Gu Wanching: ?

Stumbling and disoriented, the girl rushed toward the alley mouth. She wasn’t watching where she was going and didn’t notice the person rounding the corner right in her path, heading straight her way.

There was a muffled thud.

Clutching her throbbing forehead, Jiang Yusheng barreled right into the stranger’s chest.

The unfamiliar scent wafting from the stranger was crisp and pleasant, like a cool balm dousing the flames flickering in her heart. Dazed by it, she lost herself for a moment. By the time Jiang Yusheng snapped back to reality, the strange itch on her head had vanished.

At the same moment, two long, fluffy white floppy ears sprouted from her skull, emerging like some kind of magic trick.