Striving for Harmony After Transmigrating as an Alpha Female Supporting Character - Chapter 31

At 11:30 PM, Ai Xiaoyu said goodnight to Jing Nianxun. Lying in bed, she stared with open eyes at the sky outside the window.

Because it was New Year’s Eve, the city had not yet fallen into silence despite the late hour. Fireworks rose and bloomed from every direction, making the sky exceptionally lively.

At midnight, following the System’s instructions, Ai Xiaoyu closed her eyes and fell into a deep sleep.

The next day, she was woken by a cacophony of shouting, talking, and the sound of things being smashed.

Opening her eyes, Ai Xiaoyu saw a dilapidated ceiling, a lamp missing its shade, and wallpaper peeling off the walls.

She struggled to sit up, her arm bumping into a hard object, yet she felt no pain.

She stared at the object for a long time before realizing it was a bookshelf she had installed herself; it had been tossed carelessly onto the bed.

Scattered across the bed alongside it were dolls she had won from claw machines, a worn-out harmonica, a deflated basketball, and her award certificates from middle school.

This was her room, her old room.

Ai Xiaoyu had returned to her original world. According to the System’s instructions, she could wander here in a soulful state for a single day. Although she was nearly transparent, invisible to others and unable to change anything, she could use her eyes to see her family, her friends, and the place where she had lived for twenty years.

The door to the small room was shut. Ai Xiaoyu carefully navigated through the clutter on the bed and stepped down. She was still wearing the clothes from the book world; her clean, comfortable wool coat looked utterly out of place in this dust-filled room.

Everything in the room looked as though it had been ransacked. Every cabinet and drawer stood open, and belongings were piled on the bed and floor. If she didn’t know that there was nothing of value here, she would have suspected a burglary.

She picked up the red-covered middle school certificate from the bed, intending to put it back. But when she opened the small drawer, she found it empty and looted. The lock, which she had once used, was rusted and had been forced open.

Where were her things?

Where were the “treasures” she had cherished for twenty years?

That drawer was supposed to hold the glass marbles and slingshots she played with in elementary school, the collectible cards from instant noodle packs, her competition certificates from middle school, the first love letter she received in high school, and her secret diaries and casual sketches.

They might have seemed like trivial items, but they constituted the memories of her twenty-odd years of life.

Ai Xiaoyu’s hands began to tremble slightly. Where had her memories been moved?

The certificates were on the bed, the love letter had been torn to pieces and thrown under the bed, the marbles and slingshot were eventually found behind a hidden cabinet, and her sketches had been tossed into the trash as waste paper.

Ai Xiaoyu gazed at the chaotic room. It was a familiar space, yet the displaced decorations and the abandoned or forgotten objects made it look incredibly foreign.

And this was only six months after she had left.

“THUD.”

The door swung open, and the voice of a grumbling middle-aged woman rang out: “Ai Chen, stop playing games! Get over here and help me clear this out! Your girlfriend is the one moving in, not me!”

The woman wore an apron and held a broom. With one hand on her hip and the other on the doorknob, she tilted her head to look at the mess in the room. Her brow was arched high, her eyebrows twisting like two angry little snakes.

The moment Ai Xiaoyu saw her like this, she knew her younger brother had provoked her anger again.

Ai Chen, her brother, was twenty-two and a recent college graduate. When she was still here six months ago, he hadn’t found a job; it seemed he still hadn’t.

And the fuming woman before her was her mother, Ma Qinglan.

Ma Qinglan had met the wrong man in her youth. After marrying and having children, she had a massive fight with their father and divorced him. Raising two children on her own hadn’t been easy. To make matters worse, the brother was a disappointment; he had nearly been expelled for neglecting his studies and now spent his days at home idling away, failing to find work. Even after finally getting a girlfriend, he didn’t treat her well.

Consequently, though Ma Qinglan was only in her early forties, her hair was already streaked with white, as if covered in a thick layer of frost. Her face, rarely pampered, was etched with wrinkles and hollows, the sallow marks of years of hardship.

The brother still didn’t move. Ma Qinglan tossed the broom aside, hands on her hips, and went to drag him into the room.

When he was hauled over, he was still holding a gaming console. Ma Qinglan barked, “Clean this up now! Your girlfriend arrives at noon. Do you expect her to sleep on the floor?”

Ma Qinglan’s voice was incredibly loud. Even in her soulful state, Ai Xiaoyu was dazed by the noise, instinctively shrinking back and covering her ears as she used to.

Usually, if Ma Qinglan saw her at a time like this, she wouldn’t escape a scolding. But her mother didn’t even glance at her. Only then did Ai Xiaoyu realize: she was no longer there.

Ma Qinglan slammed the door shut, and her brother began tidying up with a reluctant mumble.

Ai Xiaoyu began to observe her brother.

If you didn’t look too closely, he was actually quite handsome, tall and thin like a reed, with sharp features that were popular with girls. Otherwise, he wouldn’t have found a girlfriend.

It was just that his temper was too stubborn, his nature too lazy, and he didn’t know how to cherish women.

Of the two siblings, the sister had always been the overachiever. She had been recommended for high school, gotten into a good university, and earned her accounting certificate upon graduation. Though her “996” job was exhausting, it was considered a good career for someone from a small town.

In contrast, her brother suffered from “laziness cancer.” He wanted to drop out and work, but after a few days in a factory, he’d clamor to return to school, only to idle his time away there. After graduation, he couldn’t find a job.

Not finding a job was fine; the family supported him, the house was reserved for him, and money was saved for his bride price. His sister was even supposed to help him find a job in the big city and give him a car.

Unfortunately, the sister was gone, leaving behind only a second-hand car with a smashed door.

Ai Xiaoyu sighed to herself.

Her brother’s annoyance at being interrupted mid-game was written all over his face. He cleaned roughly, sweeping items from the floor and table into trash bags and piling them by the door.

Throughout this, Ai Xiaoyu sat on the bed, leaning against the corner and watching quietly. She watched the place where she had lived for twenty years be ransacked, only to be occupied by a stranger moving in with new furniture.

The girlfriend arrived early and rang the doorbell. Hearing the sound, the brother lazily shuffled out in his slippers, still looking impatient. “Why are you here so early?”

The girlfriend was named Xiao Mian. Her name meant “cotton,” and she looked like a cotton doll, soft, sweet, and easy-going. She wasn’t angry. “I missed you,” she said, “so I came early.”

This line worked; her brother immediately looked satisfied. He took the fruit and gift boxes from her. “Go sit on the sofa for a bit. I’m still tidying the room. You can move in by noon.”

Xiao Mian said, “I’ll help you.”

She followed him into the room and asked curiously, “Who used to live here?”

“My sister,” he replied.

Xiao Mian gave a surprised “Oh.” “You have a sister? I’ve never heard you mention her.”

Her brother frowned and whispered, “She’s been dead for six months.”

Ai Xiaoyu stood in silence.

Xiao Mian felt a bit frightened and took a step back. Her brother quickly added, “Don’t be scared. She didn’t die here. She died in the big city where she worked, far away from here. Car accident. She was very good to me; there won’t be any vengeful spirits or ghosts.”

Ai Xiaoyu, currently wandering as a soul while clutching her bedsheets, felt speechless.

Xiao Mian noticed a photo on the wall. It was a picture of Ai Xiaoyu from high school, wearing her uniform, hair cut into a neat, short style, holding a basketball in her left hand and a trophy in her right, smiling and cheering at the camera.

Xiao Mian remarked, “Your sister looks so cool.”

Looking at her high school self, Ai Xiaoyu felt a bit lost in thought. After joining the basketball club, she had kept her hair short. People often called her cool, and she had even been handed a love letter by a girl.

Yes, the first love letter of her short life, and the only one.

The brother finally noticed the photo. He took the frame down and said, “If you’re scared, I’ll just take it away.”

“No need,” Xiao Mian said. “It’s fine to leave it. This was her room, after all. And I think if your sister was good to you, she would surely protect me too.”

In the end, he didn’t hang it back up because there was a knock at the outer door. Despite there being a doorbell, the person pounded on the door, causing the neighbor’s large yellow dog to bark incessantly.

A dark expression crossed her brother’s face. He tossed the frame onto the table and said to Xiao Mian, “Stay here, I’ll be right back.”

Ai Xiaoyu floated out after him. Ma Qinglan had traded her broom for a mop and stood warily at the door, peering through the peephole.

Her brother gestured a question; Ma Qinglan shook her head.

Ai Xiaoyu knew it was their biological father. They checked the peephole to see if he was drunk. If he wasn’t, he was likely there to see his son and bring a bit of bad luck for New Year’s Day. If he was drunk, it was best not to let him in.

The pounding continued. The dog barked more fiercely. A neighbor seemed to open their door and grumble, but the man outside shouted back, and the neighbor quickly shut their door in silence.

“Open up! I want to see my son!” her father, Ai Shouye, bellowed from outside.

“Bring the alimony, then you can see your son! Your son needs money to get married!” Ma Qinglan shouted back, her eye still pressed to the peephole.

The man began kicking the door. Fists thudded against the wood. Ai Xiaoyu went back to the room to check on Xiao Mian, who had heard everything and was standing frozen in fear, not daring to make a sound.

Ai Xiaoyu had wondered how a family like theirs had found such a sweet and gentle girl; it seemed her brother had hidden a lot from her.

This marriage is probably going to fall through, Ai Xiaoyu thought.

The noise outside eventually faded. Ma Qinglan breathed a sigh of relief. Her brother paced outside his sister’s room, unsure how to go in and explain things to Xiao Mian.

Ultimately, Xiao Mian came out first. She didn’t ask questions, only saying softly, “I… a friend just called me. She has an emergency.”

The brother’s eyes widened in anger, but Ma Qinglan grabbed him, signaling him frantically with her eyes. Xiao Mian hurried out the door, leaving it wide open.

Once she was gone, the brother looked at the half-packed room and began to fly into a rage. Ma Qinglan sank onto the sofa outside, sighing and unable to control him.

As he threw things around the room, his arm struck the photo frame on the table. It hit the floor with a sharp crack, the glass shattering into shards and revealing the slightly yellowed photograph inside.

In the photo, Ai Xiaoyu’s face was split in two by the broken glass. One side caught the light, giving it an eerie, unsettling appearance.

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