After Transmigrating into a Novel, I Am in a Relationship with My Scummy Ex-Girlfriend’s Mother - Chapter 1

The dark night sky was pierced by a flicker of light as a low-profile black Maybach drove into a massive, bustling venue filled with the clamor of a crowd.

Sitting inside the car, Huo Qingzhuo cast a casual glance toward the people outside. For a fleeting moment, she thought she saw someone—a person in a white dress so radiant that she seemed to make the countless flashing cameras grow dim.

“Qingzhuo, what are you looking at? We’re about to enter. Get your head in the game!”

Beside her, Huo Qingzhuo’s manager followed her gaze but saw nothing more than a swarm of reporters huddled together.

“I’m looking at a beauty. The one in the white dress. Help me get in touch with her once the ceremony is over.”

The beauty vanished in an instant. Huo Qingzhuo withdrew her gaze with a hint of regret and gave the instruction to her manager.

“What white dress, black dress…” The manager looked confused, but since the ceremony was the priority, they agreed immediately just to soothe her. “Fine, fine, fine. Don’t worry, I’ll arrange everything. Just make sure nothing goes wrong later. Have you memorized your speech? Are you thirsty?”

Inside the venue, the Winslleton  Golden Statue Awards ceremony was underway. As the highest honor in the international performing arts industry, the Winslleton  was the ultimate crown dreamed of by almost every actor. Countless people spent their entire lives chasing that small golden statue.

Awards were announced one by one, and as the night neared its end, the excitement reached a fever pitch. With the announcement of the Best Actress category, the atmosphere in the hall hit its climax, and the applause was like thunder.

“The winner of the Winslleton  Best Actress Award is—Huo Qingzhuo!”

Huo Qingzhuo took a deep breath, steadying her trembling hands. She stood up, wearing a graceful smile as she acknowledged those around her.

Her magnificent golden gown unfurled as she stepped onto the star-studded red carpet, heading toward the pinnacle of her glory.

Standing on the podium, Huo Qingzhuo smiled as she walked toward the presenter. She had no idea that the massive crystal chandelier above her head was already teetering on the verge of falling.

Crash!

A deafening roar echoed. The youngest Winslleton  Best Actress, at the most brilliant moment of her life, was robbed of her breath. The news instantly dominated headlines across the globe.

“Where am I?”

Stripped of consciousness in an instant, Huo Qingzhuo’s last memory was seeing herself lying in a pool of blood with the small golden statue resting just beside her hand, yet she could do nothing.

When she regained consciousness, she found herself in a small room. Hovering in front of her was a strange-looking little bug.

“Time and Space Administration at your service. Intelligent System No. 007 is activating… Activation successful. Binding with host successful. Mission initiated by default. Ding!”

The strange little bug mumbled a string of words and flew in front of Huo Qingzhuo, blinking its two small, black-bean-like eyes. “Hello, Host. I am System 007 from the Correction Department of the Time and Space Administration. This is the Space-Time Transit Station. We are currently performing a space-time correction. Please cooperate with our work.”

“What… what kind of thing are you?” Huo Qingzhuo didn’t understand a word it said. She only cared about one thing: “Am I dead or not?”

The little bug flew back a bit and projected an image onto the wall. It showed Huo Qingzhuo lying in blood, surrounded by a crowd. “By human standards of life and death, you are dead. Dead as a doornail. There was no point in even trying to resuscitate you. But for the Time and Space Administration, you have simply returned to your own correct trajectory. Consider it a rebirth.”

Huo Qingzhuo: “???”

“Ding!”

Before Huo Qingzhuo could ask more, a sound similar to an elevator reaching its floor rang out. The little bug retracted the projection and took flight.

“We have arrived. Commencing host integration preparation immediately. Data transmission in progress… Ding! Transmission complete. Proceeding with immediate fusion and correction!”

“Wha—” Huo Qingzhuo was utterly confused. Before she could finish her sentence, she suddenly felt weightless and fell straight down. Before she could even scream, her consciousness plunged into darkness once again.

“Hosts these days are getting more and more obedient. As expected, things are much simpler when they have no choice.”

System 007 emerged from the void, looking at the seventeen-year-old Huo Qingzhuo lying on the bed. It closed its eyes and entered stealth mode.

The moment 007 vanished, the Huo Qingzhuo lying on the bed suddenly sat up like a drowning person breaking the surface, gasping for air, her eyes filled with lingering terror.

Gasping, Huo Qingzhuo frantically surveyed her surroundings and quickly scrambled off the bed. “Where is this now? What is going on?”

“Memory fusion, begin!”

No one answered her. There was only 007’s mechanical prompt.

As soon as the voice faded, Huo Qingzhuo felt as though her brain was being forcefully stuffed with something. The pain was so intense she almost wanted to roll on the floor.

After clutching her head and banging it against the floor several times, she collapsed. Those strange memories that did not belong to her were now firmly embedded in her mind.

“Wait, Shen Junfu? Why does this name sound so familiar?”

Even though she was forced to accept the memories, Huo Qingzhuo reviewed them carefully. Regardless of the circumstances, these were clues, and knowing something was better than being completely in the dark.

Upon further inspection, she actually found the problem.

In these memories, Shen Junfu was “Huo Qingzhuo’s” girlfriend. Like “Huo Qingzhuo,” she was a student at Shengguan Middle School. She came from a wealthy family, had a stunning figure and face, a colorful romantic history, and countless exes. She was a textbook “scumbag.”

This identical name and the strikingly similar description immediately reminded Huo Qingzhuo of a script she had once rejected.

That script was adapted from a Yuri (Girls’ Love) novel. She had read the original work back then, but because the villainous female lead in the book shared her name, she found it too uncomfortable and turned down the role.

In the original novel, Shen Junfu was the protagonist of a “playboy-turns-good” campus romance. The lead, Shen Junfu, was a scumbag who flirted with everyone she met. She would fall in love and then break hearts repeatedly until she met her “true destiny,” Wei Qingqing. At that point, she turned over a new leaf, cleared out her “fish pond,” and performed a classic “chasing the wife at the crematorium” redemption arc.

The villainous supporting character, “Huo Qingzhuo,” was Shen Junfu’s last girlfriend before she reformed. She was insecure and cowardly, deeply in love with Shen Junfu to the point of throwing away her dignity. But as soon as Wei Qingqing transferred to the school, Shen Junfu fell for her instantly. Ignoring “Huo Qingzhuo’s” bitter pleas, Shen Junfu broke up with her. From then on, “Huo Qingzhuo” hated Wei Qingqing and embarked on a path of self-destruction as a crazed villainess.

In the end, “Huo Qingzhuo” was kidnapped in place of Wei Qingqing and died a tragic, accidental death—an ending that the readers actually cheered for.

Thinking about the novel she had read and comparing it to her current memories, Huo Qingzhuo felt absolutely terrible.

It was the same Shen Junfu, the same Shengguan Middle School. The current date was August 31st, and tomorrow, September 1st, was the first day of school. Both she and Shen Junfu were in Class 12 of the third year.

Furthermore, the first day of the new semester was also the day Shen Junfu’s “true love,” Wei Qingqing, would transfer into Class 12.

Getting up from the floor, Huo Qingzhuo grabbed a mirror and stared at her youthful face, then looked down at her thin, flat-chested frame. She let out a wail and collapsed back onto the floor.

“007! Get out here! Give me an explanation, what exactly is going on?”

She threw a pillow into the void, knowing the little bug was there.

Deftly dodging the pillow, 007 appeared out of thin air. “Warning: Host is not permitted to attack the system!”

“Speak. What is this about?” Huo Qingzhuo reached out and grabbed the flitting 007 in her hand.

“Host, let go of me first!” Fluttering its tiny transparent wings, 007 never expected that a human could actually catch it. Unable to break free, its tone immediately softened.

“You’re right. This is indeed the world of the novel The Gentleman’s Pure Virtue. You are the villainous supporting character, Huo Qingzhuo. There has been a minor error in this timeline, so it needs someone to fix it. I happened to see your immense potential, Host, and gave you rebirth in another form. This is a mutually beneficial arrangement. So Host, please let go. We aren’t enemies; we’re friends.”

“I’ve never seen a friend like this,” Huo Qingzhuo said, not loosening her grip. “You mean I am now that Huo Qingzhuo? The one who gets kidnapped by mistake and dies on her eighteenth birthday? Is this a ‘rebirth trial card’? I won’t even live for a year, and I have to be humiliated like that?”

“Host, you should cherish this. You should know how many people would beg for even less than a year of life. Having it is already good enough.” 007 pried at Huo Qingzhuo’s hand, attempting to escape.

“It is ‘good,'” Huo Qingzhuo sat up, tightening her grip on 007 to prevent its flight. “But I, Huo Qingzhuo, have always been an insatiable person. Since I’m here, one year isn’t going to satisfy me.”

“Warning! Warning! Host is not allowed to alter the plot, otherwise, you will be wiped out!”

Hearing Huo Qingzhuo’s words, 007’s hair—if it had any—would have stood on end. Its tiny wings fluttered rapidly as it tried to stop Huo Qingzhuo’s dangerous thoughts.

“Wiped out? By you?” Huo Qingzhuo sneered, looking dismissively at 007 in her palm. “Do you really think I’m such a fool? You say you saved me and gave me a chance at rebirth, but the more I hear, the more it sounds like you made a mistake and need me to fix it. Otherwise, why would this Huo Qingzhuo have the same name and look exactly like me? I imagine if you could just find anyone to replace me, you wouldn’t have gone to the trouble of killing me with a chandelier and transporting me here.”

“You… you… you’re talking nonsense! The Time and Space Administration manages countless dimensions. Finding someone with the same name and face is easy! Host, do not be so conceited and make wild guesses!”

007 flickered with a brief burst of glitchy code before quickly retorting.

“Fine,” Huo Qingzhuo said slowly, smoothing her hair as she began to inspect the original owner’s room and wardrobe. “Then go ahead and wipe me out, and go find someone else.”

“I…!” 007 was momentarily stunned. It had clearly detected that this host had an extremely strong will to live; how could she give up her life so easily?

“Host, are you really not afraid of death?” 007 was still trying to intimidate her, but its voice lacked conviction.

Huo Qingzhuo casually pulled two pieces of clothing from the closet and threw them on the bed. “I’m afraid. But while life is precious, freedom is worth more.”

“This…” 007 felt that ever since it updated its programming, it had never encountered such a difficult host. Yet, it truly could do nothing to her. “Actually, Host, everything is negotiable. How about this? You cooperate with me, and we just follow the villainess’s plot for less than a year. When the ending comes, I can arrange a fake death for you, right? That way, you’ll still be free. What do you think?”

“Oh? That sounds quite nice,” Huo Qingzhuo raised an eyebrow and picked up a baseball cap. The original owner’s family was poor, and the brim of the hat was already washed out and fading.

“Then… Host, what are you doing?” 007 started to say something else but quickly squeezed its eyes shut as it saw Huo Qingzhuo start to undress.

“Changing,” she replied. As a basic skill of an actress, Huo Qingzhuo changed clothes extremely fast. Even holding 007 in one hand didn’t slow her down.

Once changed, Huo Qingzhuo picked up her phone, sent a text, pulled on the baseball cap, and walked out.

Only then did 007 dare to open its eyes. Seeing Huo Qingzhuo hop onto a bicycle, it was completely lost. “Eh? Host, where are you going?”

“To break up with Shen Junfu.” Huo Qingzhuo rode the bike with one hand, her tone perfectly calm.

“What?! Didn’t we just agree? Host, you’re being unethical! You can’t change the plot!”

Having never seen such an unpredictable host, 007’s entire system was crashing.

“Who agreed with you?” Ignoring 007’s struggles, the corners of Huo Qingzhuo’s mouth curled upward as she sped up. “I don’t trust you one bit!”

“How can there be such a cunning and treacherous host!”

Having its scheme exposed, 007 erupted in a fit of powerless rage in Huo Qingzhuo’s hand.