Forced To Take Care Of The Protagonist, She Can't Leave [Transmigration Novel] - Chapter 1

The car was on its way to the orphanage.

“Brother, why did you decide to visit a village in the city? Is it for a role in your next project?” the driver, Xiao Li, asked, attempting to make conversation.

The young man in the backseat seemed lost in thought. Sunlight from the car window swept across his face. His light brown eyes looked like a pool of spring water. They were clear, yet cold.

About two minutes passed.

“Yes.”

Xiao Li laughed awkwardly, thinking to himself that his brother’s reaction time was truly long.

Gu Qingshi was not intentionally ignoring him. He was dealing with a system in his head that called itself 996. He had died in a car accident on an overpass, and the odds of survival were low. Or rather, he was already dead. What was happening now was the second chance that 996 spoke of.

“You want me to take him out of the orphanage, right?” Gu Qingshi asked, shifting his gaze toward the window with a calm expression. He had arrived a few days ago, and the complex information he had received laid out an absurd fact. He had transmigrated into a book. It was a story about a protagonist rising from poverty to become a winner in life, likely a male oriented leveling up novel.

“Yes, yes. This is your first mission, and the time limit is three days,” the mechanical voice stated dutifully, though there was some static.

Gu Qingshi frowned. What was that noise?

“We are here.” Xiao Li parked the car deftly and peered outside, looking confused. He froze, his face showing a hint of disgust. Was his brother really coming to a place like this?

The orphanage before them consisted of three small buildings. The murals on the walls had faded from wind and rain, leaving the Mickey Mouse character with long black tear like streaks. The courtyard was filled with rusted playground equipment, and fallen leaves were piled everywhere. Several thinly clad children seemed to be at the foot of the wall, scraping at the plaster to eat.

It was truly not very professional.

Gu Qingshi pushed the door open and stepped out. He was tall and slender, his expression composed. He was not in the slightest surprised by the scene before him. In the book, the protagonist was abandoned at birth. If an old woman on the roadside had not picked him up, the story would have ended before it began. This was what 996 called the pre plot.

The protagonist had spent those five years watching his grandmother die on the roadside, being sold to the orphanage by his brother, and then barely surviving in this facility for the last three years. The turning point came when he was eight years old. Someone came to adopt him. Gu Qingshi was currently playing the role of that adopter.

“The mission is simple: you just need to successfully adopt the protagonist and raise him until he is seventeen.”

Seventeen was a key turning point when the protagonist would be discovered by his wealthy parents and taken back to his family. Only then would the true face slapping and revenge plot begin. As for the years between eight and seventeen, the book summarized them in a single sentence, providing very little information. Gu Qingshi felt it would not be that simple. He had arrived a few days ago, and everything here felt identical to the real world. Even his profession as an actor and his life path were seamlessly integrated.

“Is anyone here?” Xiao Li got out of the car and called out, but he did not summon any staff. Instead, he attracted a group of strange children.

A crowd of them swarmed out. They were all under ten, short, and slovenly. Even worse, their appearances were odd. Their eyes were set wide apart, and their faces were flat and round. Some were missing part of an arm, while others were lame. At a glance, not one of them looked healthy.

“Waah, wooah.” The children surged toward the iron fence. A few grabbed Gu Qingshi’s trench coat belt, tugging at it with no sense of boundaries. Gu Qingshi was pulled forward half a step.

Xiao Li became anxious. “What are you doing? Let go, let go.” He tried to pry their hands away, worried about the germs.

Gu Qingshi glanced sideways and said, “It is fine.” His expression remained indifferent. He even extended his hand, and the children immediately switched to grabbing his fingers. The iron fence creaked.

“Woo, you, who are you.” They could not even speak clearly.

Gu Qingshi had already anticipated the situation inside. He looked toward a window. There was nothing there but ivy growing in the shade. The building was dilapidated, but miraculously, there was an air conditioner installed on the third floor.

“Who is it? Who is making a racket early in the morning!” A woman with hair rollers in her head came out. She was plump and bloated, eyeing the doorway with suspicion. How could anyone possibly come here?

Gu Qingshi’s fingers were released, and the children ran off, their faces devoid of any joy as if by instinct. Xiao Li tried to speak, but his arm was pulled back. Gu Qingshi’s cold expression shifted slightly. As if a robot had been triggered, he stepped forward and smiled politely. “Hello.”

“Who are you? What are you here for?” The woman remained guarded, standing in the yard without opening the gate.

Gu Qingshi handed over a business card. “I am from the Shengda Foundation. I am in charge of this region’s operations and am interested in using the Sunshine Orphanage as a pilot project.”

996: “Ah? Warning: host needs to play the role of an adopter. This deviates from the basic historical mode. Issuing a reminder.”

Xiao Li: Ah, is he getting into character?

The woman’s expression changed, her thin eyebrows arching. It was clear she was hooked. “Such a good thing would fall on us?” She folded her arms, still cautious.

Gu Qingshi did not rush. He retrieved his card and explained casually, “Madam, you do not need to doubt me. Your orphanage.” He deliberately hesitated, frowning, and showed a timely look of disdain. “The conditions are so poor. I can apply for a larger grant, and there is quite a bit of profit to be made.” Gu Qingshi stood with his hands in his pockets, looking down at the woman. His aura of authority was so obvious that she involuntarily took a few steps back. She seemed to think it over, then took out a padlock and opened the gate. Her mind was racing as she whispered, “Then, how much money?”

Gu Qingshi said offhandedly, “If it is in the suburbs of Beijing, we can probably apply for about three million. Though it is not much, if we split it. Madam, should we not discuss this?” His eyes changed as he looked up.

The woman was stunned for a moment, then ushered him in with wild joy. Xiao Li feigned calmness, but he was panicking internally. This is just nonsense, right?

As the woman turned her head, Gu Qingshi’s expression instantly returned to calmness. He scanned the building. Where is the protagonist?

“The conditions here are a bit poor, but we work very hard! If we could get the foundation’s investment, that would be truly wonderful!” The woman opened the door to the first floor. The view suddenly expanded.

Gu Qingshi stood against the light, observing the first floor. It was filled with faded children’s desks and chairs. Some of the children had returned and were resting their heads on the tables, staring at him with wide, ignorant eyes, like clueless little beasts.

“Do you have any staff here?” Gu Qingshi asked casually as he stepped inside.

The woman led him upstairs, knowing he was pointing out the poor environment. She retorted loudly, “Of course we do! The teacher is coming over at two in the afternoon. Teachers need to rest, right? We treat our staff very well.”

Xiao Li followed behind Gu Qingshi, his brow knotted. He had been hoping to eat lunch here, but this place was so miserable. Oh my, when is my brother leaving?

Gu Qingshi nodded slightly to show he understood, but then he suddenly stopped. He looked utterly shocked. Xiao Li was not watching where he was going and bumped into his brother’s arm, confused. What is wrong?

His brother was staring straight at a corner.

“What? You just said the favorability was how much?” Gu Qingshi was communicating with the system, feeling a rare moment of negative emotional fluctuation.

The 996 system seemed afraid to repeat it directly and began stating the early plot like a machine. “Because the protagonist, Huo Chen, suffered a kidnapping case in his childhood and later wandered the streets, he was taken in by a lonely old man. But it did not last long. Three years later, the old man was kicked to death on the roadside by a drunkard, and he was sold to the Sunshine Orphanage by the old man’s son for 5,000 yuan. He is currently eight years old.”

Gu Qingshi’s expression turned cold. “I do not need you to repeat the plot. Just tell me the protagonist’s initial favorability toward me.”

“Negative one hundred.”

It was actually negative. The initial mission seemed simple, but it was actually very difficult because there was a time limit of three days. If he did not take the protagonist out within three days, he would be logged out and die completely.

Gu Qingshi’s fingertips felt cold. The mission required him to act as background, maintain a low profile, and not get too close to the protagonist. Since the favorability was so negative, he did not have to worry about the system’s punishment.

Forget it.

His shoulders drooped slightly as he stared calmly at the child. Perhaps because he had stood there for too long, the woman turned around and followed his gaze. “Oh, these children are hard to manage; most of them have mental issues.”

Her tone was filled with disgust. She pointed at the one Gu Qingshi was watching. “That one is especially difficult. Beating does not work, and scolding does not work. He is so old and eats so much. You have no idea how annoying he is!”

Gu Qingshi knew he had already established the image of a profit driven merchant in her mind, placing him in the same category, so he did not argue. He just kept looking for a while.

996 seemed to feel guilty and explained slowly. “The protagonist’s current favorability toward everyone is negative.”

Gu Qingshi understood. It was indiscriminate malice; he was not an exception.

The boy was curled up on a mat near the window. His hair was long, and there were several scars on his chin. But his eyes were incredibly bright, glaring at them fiercely, as if he wanted to bite a piece of flesh off the intruders. He was a perfect example of a young wolf.

Such great malice.

Gu Qingshi withdrew his gaze.

Huo Chen saw the refined person whispering with that cheap woman and felt disgusted beyond measure. His palms were tightly clenched, rubbing against his wrists incessantly.

Leave, leave. Just leave.