Chapter 2

Dong Xiaohong didn’t seem to mind Su Xiaoxiao’s rejection and even praised her a few more times. But for some reason, Su Xiaoxiao just didn’t like her. She thought Dong Xiaohong was way too fake, her tone, her expressions, everything about her felt overly rehearsed.
Grandma Su, seeing her granddaughter’s lack of manners, gently patted her shoulder. “Xiaoxiao, greet your aunt properly.”
Twenty-three-year-old Su Xiaoxiao was actually being forced to play along. Pretending to be shy, she hid behind Grandma Su, clutching at her clothes, and said softly, “Hello, Auntie.”
“Wow, Xiaoxiao is such a good and polite girl,” Dong Xiaohong exclaimed, feigning emotion. “If only I had such a sweet daughter.”
“If you have a daughter, she’ll definitely take after you, pretty and well-behaved,” Grandma Su said with conviction. “When Yongzhong comes back, I’ll tell him to hurry up and…”
“Let’s go,” Su Xiaoxiao tugged at Grandma Su’s sleeve, cutting her off before she could ramble further.
“I’m heading off then,” Grandma Su said, patting Su Xiaoxiao’s head before turning to Dong Xiaohong. “You’d better keep a close eye on that Jin Qishan boy, or he’ll be completely out of control when he grows up.”
Oh, so that boy’s name was Jin Qishan.
Jin Qishan, Jin Qishan…
Wait.
That boy’s name was Jin Qishan, his father was Jin Yongzhong, his stepmother was Dong Xiaohong, and she was Su Xiaoxiao, who lived across the hall from him…
Su Xiaoxiao suddenly froze. Wasn’t this exactly the setup from her own unfinished novel, The Overbearing CEO and His Childhood Sweetheart?
Could it be… she had transmigrated into her own story?
Soon, Su Xiaoxiao confirmed it, she had transmigrated. And worse yet, into the body of a side character she’d barely written anything about before abandoning the novel halfway through.
She knew because, the moment she stepped outside the neighborhood, she saw businesses everywhere under the “Shen” name, Shen’s Cakes, Shen’s Convenience Stores…all belonging to the male lead, Shen Yi.
Her novel told the story of how the male lead, Shen Yi, and the female lead, Shen Hua, grew up together. Their parents had once been colleagues, living in the same staff housing.
Shen Yi and Shen Hua were born in the same year, and since their parents were close, the families jokingly arranged a childhood betrothal.
There were many kids around their age in the compound, but whenever they played house, Shen Hua was always the mom, and Shen Yi was always the dad.
When Shen Yi was barely able to talk, he’d already said he wanted to marry Shen Hua when he grew up.
But things changed when Shen Yi turned four.
His grandmother fell seriously ill with cancer, and the family needed a lot of money for treatment. Both of Shen Yi’s parents were salaried workers, and they couldn’t afford it. So, his father, Shen Kun, made the bold decision to quit his job and go into business.
Though his grandmother eventually passed away, Shen Kun’s business grew rapidly, and soon he opened several chain stores across the city.
Later, Shen Yi’s mother, Sun Tingya, also quit her job to help manage the business, and the family moved out of the staff compound into one of the city’s first villa districts.
Meanwhile, Shen Hua’s family faced the opposite fate. By the time she was in second grade, both of her parents had been laid off. Her father, Shen Hai, became a taxi driver, while her mother, Zhang Qian, took a job as a supermarket cashier.
The two families drifted apart, their gap in wealth and status widening until they lost contact completely.
Shen Yi and Shen Hua went down very different paths.
Shen Yi attended elite private schools, chauffeured to and from class every day.
Shen Hua, on the other hand, moved constantly with her struggling parents, living a precarious life.
The turning point came when Shen Yi entered high school.
Since his private school mainly prepared students to study abroad, something he had no interest in, he transferred to the top public school in S County: S County No. 1 High School.
And it was there that he met Shen Hua again.
By then, years had passed, and they had both forgotten each other, but there was a spark of familiarity between them. As they spent more time together, their connection deepened, and affection naturally bloomed.
You’d think they’d finally get together, right?
Of course not, it couldn’t possibly be that simple.
To make the plot more dramatic, Su Xiaoxiao had created a ruthless, calculating villain who would do everything possible to tear them apart through lies and manipulation.
And that villain…was none other than Jin Qishan, the boy now living right across the hall. Cold-blooded, cruel, and vengeful, he thrived on bringing misery to others because of his own unhappy life.
At the thought of that, Su Xiaoxiao broke into a cold sweat and nearly burst into tears.
She also remembered why Jin Qishan had been sitting outside earlier, Dong Xiaohong had tricked him into taking out the trash, then deliberately left to “run errands,” locking him out.
He had no key to get back in, so he’d been standing there waiting for her return.
But since he’d caught a fever from being drenched in the rain the night before, and hadn’t eaten breakfast, he soon collapsed at the door.
Fortunately, he was still young right now. Otherwise, based on what Grandma Su had just said about him, their whole family might not have lived to see another sunrise.
The realization made Su Xiaoxiao break out in a cold sweat.
Getting this script was a nightmare. She wanted to bang her head against the wall. She wanted to go home.
But how was she supposed to get back?
In the days that followed, Su Xiaoxiao tried everything to return to her world.
She tried committing suicide, but it hurt too much, and she loved life far too much to go through with it.
She tried sleeping through it, once, she even slept for an entire day and night straight. It terrified Grandpa and Grandma Su so badly that they almost called her parents, Su Junhua and Wu Xinyu. Luckily, she woke up on her own with a pounding headache before they did.
She even tried standing in the rain during a thunderstorm, hoping lightning might strike her back home, only to run into Jin Qishan, who looked at her like she’d completely lost her mind.
After two exhausting weeks of failed attempts, Su Xiaoxiao finally gave up.
Since she was here already, she might as well make peace with it.
Su Xiaoxiao believed in karma, that everything happened for a reason. There had to be some purpose behind her being brought into this world.
…
Summer vacation passed quickly, and Su Junhua soon completed the paperwork for her school transfer.
On the first day of school, the homeroom teacher, Yao Yulian, led Su Xiaoxiao into Class 3-2 and introduced her to everyone.
Standing on the podium with a bright smile, Su Xiaoxiao said, “Hello, everyone. My name is Su Xiaoxiao. I’m your new classmate. I hope we can all learn from each other and make progress together. Thank you.”
Her fair skin, round cheeks, and big, bright eyes made her look especially soft and adorable in her pink dress, like a walking cotton candy puff.
After a long summer of blazing heat, all her classmates had tanned several shades darker, making her pale complexion stand out even more.
Both the teacher and the students were immediately taken by this cute, pretty girl with dimples that showed when she smiled.
Well, everyone except for the boy in the corner, with messy hair and dirty clothes: Jin Qishan.
The moment Jin Qishan noticed Su Xiaoxiao, she noticed him too. He was sitting alone in the back corner beside the trash can.
So the villain was already being ostracized even at this age, huh.
When it came time to assign Su Xiaoxiao a seat, Yao Yulian hesitated.
Because Su Xiaoxiao had arrived a few hours late, all the other seats were already taken. The only empty one left was beside Jin Qishan.
But Jin Qishan…
Yao Yulian really couldn’t bring herself to seat a soft, sweet-looking girl next to that gloomy boy, yet no one else was willing to switch seats with him.
Jin Qishan seemed to read her thoughts and glared at Su Xiaoxiao, his eyes full of accusation, as if blaming her for causing him trouble.
Suddenly, Yao Yulian smiled and pointed to a tall boy in the back. “Feng Zihao, move the desk next to Jin Qishan up here, beside the podium. Su Xiaoxiao, you can sit there.”
Afraid Su Xiaoxiao might not like sitting up front, she quickly added, “We’ll keep things like this for now. In a few days, once we’ve had a placement test, I’ll rearrange the seating again.”
“Okay, thank you, teacher.” Su Xiaoxiao smiled politely.
Honestly, sitting beside the podium was a relief compared to sitting next to Jin Qishan.
What if she accidentally offended him someday?
The villain was infamous for his vengeful nature.
But what Su Xiaoxiao didn’t know was that her little flicker of relief had not gone unnoticed. Jin Qishan caught it all, and his eyes grew even colder.
The new transfer student naturally drew everyone’s attention. As soon as class ended, a crowd of students swarmed around her, firing off questions.
Wang Xiaoxia, who sat behind her, asked, “Xiaoxiao, where are you from? Why did you transfer to our school?”
Su Xiaoxiao answered simply, “From N City. My family’s originally from here, so I came back to study.”
Her deskmate, Dai Lainan, gasped. “Wow, you’re from N City? I’ve seen it on TV! It’s huge and so beautiful!”
The others chimed in one after another. “You’re amazing, Xiaoxiao! I’ve never even left S County. What’s a big city like? Are there a lot of buildings?”
Seeing how curious they all were, Su Xiaoxiao found their innocence oddly amusing. She began describing skyscrapers, giant malls, trains, airplanes, and museums.
When she mentioned airplanes, nearly the entire class crowded around her.
Dai Lainan stared wide-eyed. “You’ve been on a plane before? Is it really that big?”
“I’ve been on it a few times. It’s huge,” Su Xiaoxiao said, glancing around the classroom. “About the size of two classrooms put together, it can hold a lot of people.”
Everyone gasped. “Wow!”
But one boy suddenly shouted, “You’re lying! Planes aren’t that big, I’ve been on one!”
Wang Xiaoxia frowned. “Luo Zhi, when have you ever been on a plane?”
Luo Zhi puffed out his chest proudly. “Of course I have! During summer vacation, my mom took me to the martyrs’ memorial in B City. I rode a plane there!”
Su Xiaoxiao laughed. “You mean a fighter jet, right? I was talking about a passenger plane, the kind that carries people. They’re different.”
Luo Zhi didn’t really understand the difference between a fighter jet and a passenger plane, but he couldn’t find a comeback, and his face turned red with frustration.
Seeing that, the class admired Su Xiaoxiao even more.
Thanks to her “airplane experience,” Su Xiaoxiao became instantly famous, everyone in her grade soon knew about the beautiful new girl from the big city who’d ridden planes multiple times and looked like a princess.
Between classes, students from other classes would gather outside Class 3-2 just to catch a glimpse of the legendary transfer student.