I Was Just a Scumbag Extra, But She Loved Me Anyway [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 39

“Cooperating with characters from the original storyline? That’s something you’ve never done before. Why are you choosing this path now, Host…?”

The system had been stunned for days by the uncanny tacit understanding between Su Chenli and Scumbag A. After being forced to witness their outrageous antics, it had grown almost numb to everything and asked this weakly.

“Relax. It’s not the first time I’ve acted recklessly in a small world,” Su Chenli replied, leaning lazily against the staircase railing. She gazed into the kitchen, where Pei Nanxu was busy, and continued, “This is all for better control of the plot. Even back during the H City arc, we never found out why Pei Nanxu showed up on set before we did. Don’t tell me you know what changed?”

The system silently shed metaphorical tears, feeling like a failure of a system:

“…I don’t.”

“Exactly,” Su Chenli said. “Even stopping her from meeting Yu Xi would be a win.”

The system, now too ashamed to argue, could only agree:

“You’re right, Host…”

“What are you doing, just standing there?”

Pei Nanxu’s voice suddenly rang out from the kitchen.

She had felt someone watching her, and when she looked up, she caught sight of Su Chenli standing on the staircase, her expression somewhere between a smirk and a smile.

Ah—caught.

But Su Chenli didn’t bother hiding. Instead, she casually walked downstairs holding a notebook. Lately, strange memories had been surfacing in her mind, and she’d been wanting to have a little “chat” with Pei Nanxu.

The kitchen in the Su family’s villa was separated from the dining area by just a wall. Though the family didn’t usually eat in the kitchen, it was still immaculately designed. Su Chenli glanced around briefly and thought it was even bigger than the living room of the place she had rented while filming in her original world.

Pei Nanxu was standing behind the counter, holding a glass of freshly made juice.

Looks like she was making juice.

Su Chenli’s gaze drifted over Pei Nanxu’s hands. She took a seat at the long table meant for breaks, placed her notebook on it, and said nonchalantly, “I accidentally came across some of my old school stuff just now—thought I’d come down and show you.”

“From school?” Pei Nanxu frowned slightly, eyeing Su Chenli warily.

“Yeah.” Su Chenli pulled a school badge from under the notebook. “Do you remember this?”

Pei Nanxu’s eyes landed on the badge, and her expression froze for a moment. She averted her gaze uneasily. “Why are you suddenly bringing that out?”

Su Chenli slid the badge in her direction, speaking in an unhurried tone. “Wasn’t this the reason I got punished by you for the first time?”

Pei Nanxu pressed her lips together but said nothing.

“At the time, the school suddenly cracked down on dress code violations. Anyone without a badge had to stand in front of the flagpole and read a written apology during the flag-raising ceremony,” Su Chenli said, propping her chin up with one hand and idly spinning the badge with the other. “You were on the student council’s discipline committee—you must’ve known about it. But we had breakfast together that morning, and you didn’t say a word. Then you went and docked my points yourself at the gate.”

“That was because you…” Pei Nanxu started instinctively, then bit her lip and fell silent, clearly annoyed with herself.

“Because I what?” Su Chenli looked at her, her smirk deepening. “Because I bullied you first? Because I used to drag you out of bed in the middle of the night to do my homework? Because I didn’t let my friends hang out with you? Or…” her voice softened, “was it because I accidentally kissed you?”

At those words, Pei Nanxu’s expression changed instantly. She set the juice down on the counter with a thud, clearly annoyed. “What are you trying to do by bringing this up?”

Given our relationship now, what’s the point in saying this kind of thing?

That thought caught in her throat and never made it out. The tension in the air thickened. Pei Nanxu looked deeply at Su Chenli, then turned and walked out of the kitchen without another word.

Su Chenli remained seated for a while, then reached out and opened the workbook filled with Pei Nanxu’s neat handwriting.

In the original plot, Pei Nanxu had clearly fallen for the original host first—so how did everything end up changing?

And when would her beautiful older sister finally recognize her?

“Host, are you sure bringing up events from the original storyline at this point won’t confuse Jiang Youning about her identity? What if she starts to believe even more strongly that she’s actually Pei Nanxu? It might not affect the task directly, but wouldn’t it make her even less likely to recognize you?”

Su Chenli lowered her eyes. “I don’t have any better options.”

Perhaps it was due to the constraints of their current roles, but no matter what Su Chenli did, Pei Nanxu refused to come close. She remained guarded, always keeping her distance.

Su Chenli couldn’t help but run her fingers along the edge of the workbook.

The original host had met a pitiful end too—unable to be with the person she loved because of some unknown reason. But really, Su Chenli wasn’t doing much better. If things kept going this way between her and Pei Nanxu, she might end up just as miserable.

…And that was something she wasn’t going to let happen.

Meanwhile, Pei Nanxu walked briskly away from the first floor, not even daring to glance back. Everything Su Chenli had brought up—she remembered it all. She just didn’t want to.

When the Cheng family first found her, Pei Nanxu had already been fourteen years old—old enough to understand most of what was going on. Not that the Chengs had made any effort to hide the truth from her.

She knew from the very beginning why she was taken from the orphanage. She remembered the warning—no, the threat—that Cheng Zhaohai had given her before she followed Cheng Xi into the Su household.

The mess of the past came rushing back, unbidden.

Pei Nanxu returned alone to the second floor and stepped onto the terrace, the place she often sat to read or go through documents alone. She slumped into the rattan chair, resting her forehead in her hand, her expression dim.

Back then, knowing full well that she had ulterior motives, her days in the Su family had been filled with anxiety. She constantly felt guilty around everyone and rarely spoke. Her homeroom teacher at the new school even suspected she had a form of social withdrawal.

Chairman Su was preoccupied with business and barely registered her presence in the house. Cheng Xi was clearly flustered herself and paid her little attention. In that huge Su family mansion, Su Chenli was the first person to really notice her.

—Even if she had barged in with a flashlight, pried open her bedroom door, and bossily dragged her off to do homework for her.

Pei Nanxu still remembered how Su Chenli, who had only been about the same height as her at the time, had taken her hand and led her up to the third-floor room. With arms crossed and a proud, awkward look on her face, she’d said:

“You’re pretty and smart, so I’ll give you some credit. Do what I say, and I’ll give you good food and fun stuff, got it?”

No one else in the Su family paid her any mind. It was Su Chenli who constantly pulled her into various activities—sometimes to play games, sometimes to build LEGO sets together. When Su Chenli’s rich-kid friends didn’t like Pei Nanxu, Su Chenli simply banned them from hanging out with her and told Pei Nanxu to make friends with the academic high-achievers at school instead.

…Back then, things between them were awkward, sure—but at least they still managed to get along.

Everything changed the day Pei Nanxu brought Su Chenli the finished homework.

Su Chenli was in the bathroom taking a shower, and just like always, Pei Nanxu sat at her desk, working on assignments. But this time, Su Chenli took unusually long to come out. Pei Nanxu grew a little concerned and walked over to check—only to collide head-on with Su Chenli, who had flung the door open and was striding out without a care.

At the time, they were about the same height, and their lips accidentally brushed in the crash.

In that moment of stunned silence, Pei Nanxu met Su Chenli’s equally startled gaze. It was then, as her heart skipped a beat, that she suddenly remembered—she was supposed to keep her distance from Su Chenli.

Whether considering her motives or her position, growing close to Su Chenli would only end up hurting them both.

So the next day, Pei Nanxu deliberately left for school without waiting for her. As fate would have it, she was assigned to monitor the school gates that morning—and ended up deducting Su Chenli’s points.

Twelve-year-old Su Chenli thought she had done it on purpose, and was so angry she ignored her for a long time. As for what happened after that… perhaps it was because she eventually figured out why Pei Nanxu had really come to the Su family, and her attitude gradually began to change.

If Su Chenli hadn’t brought it up just now, Pei Nanxu might’ve completely forgotten that there had once been a time when the two of them got along.

But Pei Nanxu truly couldn’t understand why Su Chenli was suddenly dredging up the past. They’d been at odds for so many years, and that fragile friendship from their early days had long since been buried and forgotten…

Then, she suddenly remembered something Su Chenli had said in the car outside the Dreams of Former Liang set. A faint, uncertain thought crept into her mind:

Could it be that, after all these years of mutual antagonism, Su Chenli had only just realized… she liked her?

Setting aside whether that was even possible…

She certainly didn’t feel that way.

…At least, Pei Nanxu told herself she didn’t. She pressed her hand to her chest, trying to convince herself.

But somewhere along the line, she had started to feel this inexplicable sense of loss and urgency. It was like she had lost something incredibly important—something she had to find. And every time she thought of it, the ache would return.

She had tried to fill that void with all kinds of things, but nothing worked. Nothing felt right.

Old belongings, the only toy she had ever received as a child, even the newly renovated orphanage—

None of it matched. None of it was what she was looking for.

After years of circling back to the same emptiness, Pei Nanxu came to a painful realization:
She seemed to be… in love with someone.

But that feeling had no basis in reality.

She had grown up in an orphanage, then moved into this house at the start of middle school under the care of the Cheng family. She had been living as a guest in the Su household ever since. She had never really owned her own life—so how could she even begin to speak of something like love?

And yet that feeling was unbearably intense. A deep, subconscious yearning made her want to run out and search for that person every time she remembered the matter remained unresolved.

The problem was… Pei Nanxu didn’t even know who she was searching for.

She couldn’t remember the person’s name or voice, let alone their face. All she had was a vague sense—an overwhelming longing for someone, a deep, desperate yearning…

But it couldn’t be Su Chenli.

They had grown up together. If it was Su Chenli, what was she still searching for? Honestly, the chances of it being Su Chenli were even slimmer than it being Yu Xi.

If not for the faint shadow of long-lost familiarity she saw in Yu Xi, Pei Nanxu wouldn’t have taken the initiative to get close to her at all.

Thinking of Yu Xi, Pei Nanxu instinctively opened her phone.

Yu Xi always shared things with her—big and small. Sometimes it was just idle chatter, other times she poured her heart out. Yu Xi was completely sincere in her feelings for Chu Ningxin. Unfortunately, Chu Ningxin was absolute scum.

Pei Nanxu had only meant to check her phone out of habit, but the moment she unlocked it, she received a new voice message from Yu Xi. Startled, she tapped to listen.

Yu Xi’s tearful voice came through the speaker:

“Nanxu, you once said if I ever wanted to leave Chu Ningxin, you’d help me. Does that promise still count?”

Pei Nanxu froze. All her scattered thoughts vanished. In the next second, she shot to her feet.

At the same time, Su Chenli was downstairs, arms folded, still trying to figure out how to break through her beautiful sister’s defenses—when the system’s notification popped up.

“Host, host! There’s been another development in the plot! It’s reached the point where Scumbag A starts chasing after his ‘wife’! Your recent cooperation with him is working wonders!”

“What? The plot’s moving forward again?” Su Chenli asked, surprised. “How far along is it now?”

“We’re past the halfway point! What’s next should be the loyal second female lead helping Yu Xi escape Scumbag A’s watchful eye—wait, oh! Right! The second female lead!”

It’s her beautiful sister again!

Su Chenli realized it faster than the system did. Before it could even finish, she was already sprinting toward the staircase leading to the second floor. She cursed inwardly as she ran. The plot had advanced again?! And right now of all times—just when she was finally getting somewhere. The worldline had to stir things up again!

But before she’d even climbed halfway up the stairs, she ran into Pei Nanxu rushing down.

One look at Pei Nanxu’s expression, and Su Chenli’s heart sank. She asked in a low voice, “Where are you going?”

Pei Nanxu paused briefly, her gaze complicated as she looked at Su Chenli. But in the end, she didn’t stop. She walked past her and said, “I have something urgent.”

“Hey!”

Su Chenli didn’t need to think hard to guess—it had to be serious. She grabbed Pei Nanxu’s wrist, a little panicked. “Don’t go. Have you thought about the consequences?”

In the original story, Su’s father had seriously considered pressing charges and demanding restitution because Pei Nanxu had gone all out to help Yu Xi.

What if it escalated to that point again?

But Pei Nanxu only glanced back at her, then calmly pried Su Chenli’s hand off and said:

“It’s nothing major. I’ll be back soon.”

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