DISCLAIMER:

THIS IS NOT MY NOVEL, MY ONLY PURPOSE IS TO SHARE THIS NOVEL!

PLEASE SUPPORT THE ORIGINAL NOVEL, THE AUTHOR, AND THE TRANSLATOR.

ORIGINAL AUTHOR/S: Taozi Wanwan & 桃枝丸丸

Jiang Xiaoman had a nightmare.

In her dream, she saw her uncle lying completely motionless in a pool of blood, his face completely pale. The pool of blood kept spreading wider and wider, its color getting thicker and darker as it gradually merged with the dark of night…

As if her nose smelled the thick smell of blood, Jiang Xiaoman opened her eyes and cried out. “Waa!”

Just as she cried out, she immediately remembered that her grandmother had always been coughing lately and couldn’t sleep well. Tonight, it looked like the coughs finally subsided. Afraid of disturbing her rest, she quickly shut her mouth and cried in silence.

She sobbed and wept until she was out of breath. It was very pitiful.

“Mi, mister System…” Jiang Xiaoman’s two chubby little hands twisted the pillow cover as she cried until she was out of breath. She stammered, “My, my uncle was beaten by someone… I saw a lot of blood.”

Jiang Xiaoman was a precocious child who was wise beyond her age. While other children were still being deceived by old wives tales like the Old Mama Tiger, she had long been taught popular science by the system and knew that it was just deception. She knew that people could die if they bleed out, and people who die would never wake up again. It was different than just sleeping.

The system helplessly sighed, “I already told the host, this is something that will happen sooner or later.”

When it was bound to her when she was three years old, the system told Jiang Xiaoman that she was the real daughter in a story of fake and real daughters, and she was dealt the cannon fodder script.

After losing their daughter, her wealthy parents adopted a girl who resembled her and poured their love for her on the fake daughter. Meanwhile, her life after being lost was miserable and unsatisfactory.

When she reached the age of four, the family who adopted Jiang Xiaoman would be destroyed. First, Jiang Xiaoman’s uncle would get into a fight with someone and die from his injuries after the doctor failed to save him. After that, her grandmother couldn’t handle the blow and followed suit.

Jiang Xiaoman would become an utterly unwanted child. Going from one place to another, sometimes struggling even to eat, she would grow up in a life full of hardships. She would only be reunited with her wealthy parents when she was fifteen, and finally ended her life of poverty in the backwater mountain region.

It’s just that Jiang Xiaoman was still too young. Even after the system talked at length, saying in righteous indignation about how outrageous it was that the fake daughter would take everything from her, she was still confused. She didn’t understand what a cannon fodder supporting female cast meant; she didn’t even know how to write the word evil.

She could only pick up the parts that she understood; the system said that with her origin, she should’ve been free to do whatever she wanted, no need to be hard on herself.

That night, Jiang Xiaoman told her grandmother that she would eat twice her daily quota of candies and snacks, she would not eat the carrots that she hated, and she would not go to bed until she finished watching the cartoons. In the end, not only did it not go the way she wanted, but she was also spanked by her grandmother.

Grandma had a temper, but she usually doted on Jiang Xiaoman a lot and did not easily lay her hand on children. Because of the system’s words, Jiang Xiaoman suffered a lesson without understanding why. She clutched her small butt feeling greatly wronged, and never dared to make unreasonable demands anymore. She also no longer cared about her identity as the villainess.

Until she had such a dream tonight.

Jiang Xiaoman had already had the same dream for several days, but the dream was very blurry on the previous days. Tonight was the first time that she could clearly see what happened.

Could uncle really encounter a calamity like the one in the dream? She hadn’t seen her uncle for many days.

Jiang Xiaoman was very scared. She cried but didn’t dare to cry loudly, so she twisted the pillow cover with both hands and bit it as hard as she could to silence her sobs.

“I don’t want Uncle to die, I don’t want Grandma to die. I don’t want to be an unwanted child.” Jiang Xiaoman wiped her tears. “Mr. System, don’t you have any way?”

She knew that the system was very powerful. Whenever she cried, it could magically create snacks like candies and cookies for her. Grandmother would not let her eat sweets too often in case it ruins her teeth. At that time, she would secretly exchange her points with the system.

The system looked at the panel that showed less than ten points and fell into a weird silence.

Not to mention that it was a villain system whose job was to urge Jiang Xiaoman through the plot, even if it really wanted to save, there weren’t even ten points… save with what [1]?

For the first time, the system experienced for itself the sorrow of humans and experienced what is called the pain of ‘a penny stumps a hero’ [2].

“Mr. System can’t do anything either.” The system answered truthfully.

The timing when it’s bound with the host was not right. It should have been after Jiang Xiaoman was reunited with her wealthy family, but there was an error with the program and the timing was messed up. The system was bound when Jiang Xiaoman was still a toddler. Facing the villainess in a child’s body, the system was also very depressed.

What could a three or four years old child do?

It could give out tasks to earn points for doing bad things. At most, Jiang Xiaoman could secretly smash a plate when her grandmother was not looking. The system closed one eye and rewarded her with some points, hoping to plant the seeds of evil and encourage her to do bad things. Later on, Grandma replaced all the plates with unbreakable metal plates, so Jiang Xiaoman couldn’t even earn points this way.

Life really was not easy, even the system wanted to sigh.

Without points, it also could not be upgraded. It tried to honestly and diligently do its job to bind with the host to grow up and be a big villain system, but now it seemed too difficult.

Jiang Xiaoman couldn’t get a solution from the system, so she laid down and sobbed, and finally fell asleep when she was too tired from crying. In her sleep, she was still worried about her uncle, so she couldn’t sleep well.

–

The next day, Jiang Xiumei woke up early as usual when the sky was only slightly bright. After preparing some soup and water, she went to wake Jiang Xiaoman up. But when she opened the door, she was surprised.

Jiang Xiaoman’s blanket had been kicked to the ground a long time ago, and her short hair was messy like a chicken coop. Traces of tears from last night were still on her face, her pair of big eyes were swollen, and her chubby little face was red. It wasn’t clear what she was dreaming about, but she was sobbing with a half-opened mouth and looked very miserable.

“My dear good child.” Jiang Xiumei was taken aback and woke her up. “Xiaoman, what’s the matter? Are you sick?”

Jiang Xiaoman had always slept with her. The child behaved very well at night and never cried, and she had a very gentle and delicate sleeping face. It was only because Jiang Xiumei was sick lately and afraid of spreading the sickness to her that she chose to sleep in a separate room. Otherwise, who would have the heart to let such a young child sleep alone?

But who knew that after only a night apart, the child would become like this?

Jiang Xiumei put her hand on Jiang Xiaoman’s forehead and was relieved when she found that she didn’t have a fever.

“Grandma…” Jiang Xiaoman put her arms around Jiang Xiumei’s neck and rubbed it in her arms, her milky voice sounding weak.

Seeing that she was okay, Jiang Xiumei breathed a sigh of relief. She picked her up and brought her to the bathroom, gave her a small toothbrush, and said, “Quickly wash up and brush your teeth, then come with Grandma to school. We’re going to be late if we don’t leave soon.”

Jiang Xiumei was an old lady with no particular skills. Her son was disobedient and rarely went home. She had no choice but to work to support her family. She cooked and served meals for students in the canteen of the small town’s elementary school. She didn’t feel relaxed leaving her alone at home, so she would take Jiang Xiaoman with her every time she went to work.

Jiang Xiaoman replied unhappily, and obediently washed her face and brushed her teeth.

After hanging up the small toothbrush and towel, Jiang Xiaoman started daydreaming. She wanted to cry again when she thought of last night’s dream, but she closed her mouth and held back.

Even if she told Grandma, she wouldn’t believe it. Only Jiang Xiaoman could hear Mr. System’s voice and communicate with it. If she told her, Grandma would say that she was talking nonsense and find a shaman to cure her.

Jiang Xiaoman tried talking about it once, but Grandma thought she was talking nonsense and asked the town’s shaman to exorcise the evil spirits. Saying that it could drive away the evil spirits, the shaman brought a burning red iron pot and chased Jiang Xiaoman all over the yard, scaring her silly.

Notes:

1. Literally\, “save with my head?”

2. Even a hero can’t escape money problems

Ever since then, Jiang Xiaoman never dared to talk about the system or the future anymore.

She had to figure out a way herself.

Jiang Xiumei carried her to school and started steaming baozis and mantous [1]. At this time, two other grannies had arrived, one was boiling soy milk, and the other was washing vegetables.

The ingredients for the mantou were already prepared last night, so she could steam them in the basket without taking much time. Jiang Xiumei was busy in the kitchen, so she let Jiang Xiaoman sit in the dining hall and play by herself.

She was a very good and obedient child who never made people worry. Sometimes, she could sit there all day long. Others say that Jiang Xiaoman was an obedient and sensible child who knew how to calm down. Only she knew that whenever she was being quiet, she was actually chatting with the system.

But today, she was really not in the mood.

The system was also very silent and did not say a word.

Jiang Xiaoman’s soft and white little face was wrinkled in distress. She didn’t know where her uncle was or what he was doing.

Grandma always scolded her uncle for never being at home and said that if she had given birth to a stick [2] instead, even it would’ve been more sensible than him. But every time he came home, he would bring Jiang Xiaoman sweets and snacks that were only available in the city. Among them was something called chocolate that she liked very much.

Jiang Xiaoman loved him very much and didn’t want him to die at all.

“Grandma.” The more Jiang Xiaoman thought about it, the more she couldn’t sit still. She went to the kitchen and asked her from the door, “Why hasn’t uncle come back yet?”

When Jiang Xiumei heard Jiang Xiaoman mention her idiot son, she immediately sneered, “It’s better if he did not come back. Maybe he already died somewhere out there. Always hanging out with his no-good friends, maybe it’s better if he dies out there, it saves me from having to take care of his funeral. Hmph!”

Jiang Xiumei scolded him as usual. After she finished, she turned her head and saw that Jiang Xiaoman was crying very pitifully, and was blinking her eyes and looking at her. Her eyes were so watery, like grapes dipped in water, that they broke Jiang Xiumei’s heart.

“What’s the matter?” Jiang Xiumei wiped her hands and immediately rushed over to ask.

Jiang Xiaoman sobbed. “I, I don’t want Uncle to die, I don’t want, I want him to come back. Grandma, I saw Uncle in my dream. It was horrible, I, I want him to come back…”

The child was crying so pitifully that Jiang Xiumei could only say, “Okay, I won’t let him die. Just wait, after Grandma finished steaming these baozi, I will call your uncle to ask where he is.”

Jiang Xiaoman’s tears turned into a smile, and she kissed her Grandma.

There weren’t many students in the school, so naturally she didn’t need to prepare too many portions. Jiang Xiumei quickly closed the steamer and finished cooking.

She also became irritated when she thought of her unlucky son. When she thought about it, it was indeed time for him to come home. Jiang Xing had been gone for quite a while this time.

After breakfast, Jiang Xiumei took Jiang Xiaoman to the principal’s office to borrow the phone.

Jiang Xiumei was rather miserly, and there was no one to contact at home anyway, so she didn’t have a landline installed. But Jiang Xing was someone who followed the trends and fashion and bought a mobile phone before anything else. It was pretty convenient when you needed to find the person now.

After a few beeps, the call finally connected.

Jiang Xiumei immediately said, “Where are you, you stupid son [3]? Are you still coming home or not? Xiaoman misses you, where are you? Quickly come home to your mom!”

The person on the other side was silent for a while, but the one who replied was a female voice. “Hello, may I ask if you’re the patient’s family? Please come to the city hospital, the phone’s owner is currently being treated in the emergency room——”

Notes:

1. Both are types of buns. Baozi(also called bakpao) are usually filled\, while mantous aren’t.

2. Calling someone a stick means they’re really stupid/insensible – she’s saying that he’s even worse than a literal stick

3. Literally\, “turtle son”