The Plan to Save the Villainess Supporting Actress [Quick Transmigration] - Chapter 31.1

July. Midsummer.

Zhu Ran stood below the practice building, her mind still a bit foggy from just leaving the air conditioning. The cold, minty scent of tobacco from Xu Silan seemed to still linger at the tip of her nose.

Her heart was a mess of emotions.

Originally, she thought she would not care about the past; having people appear in her life and love her was enough. However, when these past events were laid bare online, piece by piece, when she saw people in the comments feeling indignant on her behalf, and when she saw Xu Silan, Director Jiang, and others comforting and encouraging her, she realized she actually did feel wronged.

A gentle breeze blew, scattering the heat against her skin. Zhu Ran tilted her head up slightly. On this summer night, the sky was clear and the twinkling stars were visible to the naked eye. Everything had cleared up.

She suppressed the sourness in her eyes and could not help but laugh.

“Whew.”

Zhu Ran raised her hand to pat her cheeks and smiled, whispering to herself, “Alright, time to go back. Do not keep her waiting too long.”

She would go back to Nan Zhi’s side.

Streetlamps flickered on one by one, lighting up the short path the two of them had walked hand in hand countless times.

[Warning: Detected Shen Jiaying’s Blackening Value has reached 100 percent!] [Warning: Detected Shen Jiaying’s behavior is abnormal!] [Warning: Detected Shen Jiaying is approaching Zhu Ran!]

Nan Zhi bolted upright.

【Where is she!】

“Nan Zhi?” Tang Keyue looked up in surprise. “You have not finished telling us. Is Shen Jiaying really doing something to Zhu? Nan Zhi!”

Before she could finish, Nan Zhi had already sprinted out the door. Tang Keyue, Xue Zhi, and the others looked at each other, utterly bewildered.

“Hey, have any of you seen Shen Jiaying?”

Seeing their dormitory door open, a girl poked her head in and asked quietly.

“No, are you looking for her?”

“Yeah, she borrowed a fruit knife from me earlier, saying she wanted to cut a watermelon. It has been over ten minutes and she has not returned it.” The girl nodded, then looked toward Nan Zhi’s retreating figure in confusion. “What is wrong with her? Why is she running so fast?”

Jian Zhiyao suddenly stood up, startling everyone else.

“Hey, why are you?”

“Shen Jiaying! The knife!” Jian Zhiyao suddenly shuddered. “Zhu Ran was called away by the teachers. She is the only one in the practice building!”

The second public performance had just ended. Neither the rankings nor the final group assignments had begun yet. Aside from the staff, Zhu Ran was the only trainee in the entire practice building.

Xia Lan’s lips trembled as a chill crept into her heart. “No, it could not be, right? There are so many staff members around.”

The girl from the neighboring dormitory added weakly, “Um, if something actually happens, does that make me the one who provided the weapon?”

Kong Anni grabbed her violin case. Reaching the door, she turned back to look at them.

“What are you standing there for! Grab some tools! Nan Zhi went there empty handed!”

In an instant, the girls grabbed whatever handy tools they could find. The girl from next door even hauled a bag of apples to throw.

On the other side, Nan Zhi was nearly driven mad by the flashing red warnings in her mind. She ran so hard she lost all sensation in her legs. She thought to herself that she must be just a bit faster.

The system’s “Little Fluffball” urgently pulled up the floor plan, showing two red dots representing Shen Jiaying and Zhu Ran closing in on each other.

They were too close.

Nan Zhi braced herself against the stair railing and jumped directly from one flight to the next. Only one corner remained before Zhu Ran would run into Shen Jiaying.

Suddenly, all the light screens in her mind went dark. The faint glow that usually surrounded the Little Fluffball dimmed significantly. Nan Zhi knew this was a sign that the system’s energy was depleted. This was the Fluffball’s first time executing a mission in a “small world.” She had completed too few tasks in the beginning, leading to insufficient points and weak system energy.

【Sorry, Host. If this were your previous exclusive system】

Stop talking nonsense!

Nan Zhi bit her lip. Only one set of stairs was left. Her body felt beyond her control, acting on pure momentum.

Through the glass doors, the sound activated lights suddenly flared on. Zhu Ran was standing a dozen paces away. As the lights came on, she looked up in shock, just in time to see Nan Zhi leap down from the final five steps.

“Watch out!”

Unfortunately, they were too far apart. Her voice could not reach beyond the glass doors. Sure enough, Nan Zhi clutched her ankle in pain and rolled to the ground.

Zhu Ran rushed toward the dormitory entrance. Inside the doors, Nan Zhi actually stood up, ignoring the agony.

“Nan Zhi!”

“Go to hell!”

A gray figure suddenly lunged from behind the bushes, brandishing the fruit knife. It was Shen Jiaying.

Simultaneously, Nan Zhi dragged her sprained leg and shoved open the glass door. “Shen Jiaying! If you do this, you are truly finished!”

Shen Jiaying grabbed Zhu Ran, plunged a syringe hard into Zhu Ran’s arm, and then pressed the fruit knife against her throat. The blade rested tightly against her slender, elegant neck.

Whatever was in the syringe caused Zhu Ran’s body to go limp. She slumped to a half kneeling position on the ground.

Shen Jiaying’s face was twisted into a terrifying smile. “I am already finished!”

Despite the intense dizziness, Zhu Ran could feel that the hand restraining her was shaking violently. Its owner had clearly descended into madness.

“The moment you all went online to slander me, I was finished!”

Nan Zhi endured the pain. The mental version of herself frantically hammered the emergency backup button, but there was no response. If she had even a sliver of energy, she could have perfectly neutralized Shen Jiaying without hurting Zhu Ran at all.

The cold glint of the blade made Nan Zhi’s eyes ache. “Listen to me, I can reset this world and let everything start over. You still have a chance!”

Reset?

Both Zhu Ran and Shen Jiaying froze. Nan Zhi bit her lip, forcing herself not to look into Zhu Ran’s eyes.

“You know I am not from this world. If I forcibly leave, everything will return to the starting point, back to the moment I first appeared.”

Zhu Ran felt a buzzing in her head. Her voice trembled uncontrollably as she asked, “What? What are you talking about?”

Shen Jiaying suddenly burst into laughter.

“Look! She approached you with an ulterior motive from the very beginning. She has been lying to you! Hahaha! The truly hypocritical one is Nan Zhi! Not me!”

She laughed hysterically, yet the knife remained glued to Zhu Ran’s neck. Zhu Ran pursed her lips, a mist of tears forming in her eyes. Nan Zhi was panicking. She wanted to explain, but she forced herself to hold back. She could not provoke Shen Jiaying further.

From Nan Zhi’s perspective, she could see Zhu Ran’s lips trembling, seemingly repeating a single phrase over and over. Nan Zhi suddenly grew calm.

Zhu Ran was crying. Was she disappointed in her?

Footsteps echoed from behind. A moment later, gasps of horror erupted from their companions as they arrived. Shen Jiaying looked coldly at the group, her lips curling in a mocking sneer.

“Get lost, all of you! I, Shen Jiaying, will not have a bunch of cannon fodder like you watching me like a joke!”

Tang Keyue looked confused. “What is she talking about?”

“Cannon fodder?” Xia Lan pointed at herself in disbelief. “She is ranked 55th, and I am 19th. Who is the cannon fodder? Me?”

“You are lying!” Shen Jiaying roared. “I am the female lead! I was 15th in the first ranking and in the top three for the second! In the finals, I am the one who debuts as the Center! I will collaborate with Gao Hongzhe, fall in love with Ji You, and go international! I will win Best Actress! I am the peak of this world!”

Jian Zhiyao rolled her eyes and whispered to the others, “She is truly gone insane.”

“Who did she say? Ji You? Is he not the hot favorite for Best Actor this year? She is dating Ji You? Seriously?”

“Please, Ji You’s agency is a famous monk temple. He cannot date until he is 35!”

The whispers drifted into Shen Jiaying’s ears. It was constant mocking, as if calling her delusional. No one knew that if Nan Zhi had not appeared, all of this would have been true.

In the original timeline, Zhu Ran would have been cyber bullied after the show and committed suicide. Tang Keyue would have been eliminated in the first round. Xia Lan and Jian Zhiyao would not have made the debut lineup. Mu Siqiong, Yu Yulin, and even the initial Center, Huang Yiqian, were merely foils for her.

After debuting in the limited group, everyone would have envied and excluded her. Then, after rumors of team bullying surfaced, everyone would have publicly apologized to her while they were blacklisted. Meanwhile, she would have met Ji You, the national actor and future international film king, and they would have fallen in love.

All of this would have happened if only Nan Zhi had not appeared.

Shen Jiaying smirked, looking at them like they were clowns. Did she not still have a chance?

She looked at Nan Zhi. “You said it yourself, you will leave this world. I have decided. Right now, I want to watch you disappear with my own eyes.”

Inside Nan Zhi’s mind, the blue button still gave no response. Nan Zhi closed her eyes and looked at Zhu Ran. Her small hand shifted and hovered over the red button.

If she pressed this, she would be forced out of the world. In her current physical state, she could not take Zhu Ran back from Shen Jiaying unharmed.

Clouds drifted over the moonlight. Under the dim streetlights, the girl’s face was deathly pale. She knelt weakly, forced to hold her head up as tears slid from the corners of her eyes and dripped away.

Nan Zhi’s eyes were red. She opened her mouth to speak.

“I will count to three! If you do not disappear, I will kill Zhu Ran!”

“Three!”

Tang Keyue panicked. “Disappear? How? Nan Zhi, what are you guys talking about?”

“Two!”

“Nan Zhi!”

“One!”

The blade pressed against the throat. Nan Zhi took one last lingering look at Zhu Ran and pressed the red button.

“Nan”

The rest of the words could no longer be spoken. The girl before them turned translucent, eventually dissolving into a haze and vanishing into the air. Only a faint whisper remained, disappearing with the wind.

In that final glance, Nan Zhi finally saw what Zhu Ran had been saying. She closed her eyes and smiled softly.

Nan Zhi had said, “Zhu Ran, do not cry.” Zhu Ran had said, “Nan Zhi, do not go.”

In front of the surveillance monitors, Director Jiang remained silent for half a minute. He pressed his hand to his forehead, suppressing his emotions and trying to keep his voice from sounding too furious.

“So, how exactly do you want us to explain this teleportation to the public?”

The young girl blinked innocently at the monitor. “That should not count as teleporting, right?”

Director Jiang’s eyes widened. He poked the screen emphatically. “That does not count? That distance is at least six or seven steps! How many seconds did you take? Three seconds to get behind Shen Jiaying? And during those three seconds, you were not even there!”

He tilted his head, scanning the girl in front of him. “Tell me, can common sense explain this? Huh!”

The girl shook her head obediently.

Director Jiang’s face crumpled. He asked suspiciously, “How did you make yourself transparent?”

The monitor reflected the girl’s face, the very same Nan Zhi who had disappeared.

“Uh, I do not know if you have heard of refraction of light?” Nan Zhi smiled sweetly. “Or was it reflection?”

“Do you want me to give you a phone so you can search for a better excuse?” Director Jiang rolled his eyes, tired of her antics.

The door opened, and Xu Silan walked in, clicking her high heels and holding a cigarette.

“Oh, Teacher Xu!” Director Jiang perked up. “How is it? Are those two okay?”

Xu Silan sank into a small sofa and exhaled a thin cloud of smoke. “Zhu Ran is fine. I arranged for a few girls to stay with her.”

Director Jiang let out a sigh of relief, then asked nervously, “And the other one? Is Shen Jiaying okay?”

According to the footage, Nan Zhi had practically snapped Shen Jiaying’s wrist and kicked her two meters away. Afterward, the other girls had swarmed her with their tools. By the time help arrived, Shen Jiaying was a mess. One would almost think she was the victim.

Zhu Ran, on the other hand, had simply fallen asleep because of a small dose of sedative. Other than some scrapes on her knees and a slight nick on her neck, she was fine.

Bi Junyu followed them in, looking helplessly at his junior. He waved his hand. “They are all fine, do not worry. Shen Jiaying is pretty badly hurt, but it is not life threatening. The police have already escorted her to the hospital.”

“My goodness!” Director Jiang collapsed into his chair.

Xu Silan added casually, “Congratulations, Director Jiang. Not only will the ratings explode, but you will also make the social news section. Think of it as expanding your business.”

“My dear lady, please do not joke right now.” Director Jiang was in agony. “Look at this footage. How am I supposed to hand this over to the police?”

The culprit, Nan Zhi, gave them another innocent smile. At that moment, her and the system’s energy were so low that the teleportation had used up everything. There was nothing left to scramble the cameras.

Xu Silan put out her cigarette. “Director Jiang, is this your first day in this industry?”

Director Jiang blinked.

“Is not a director’s job to show the audience what they want to see? Irrelevant behind the scenes footage does not need to be in the final cut, right?”

“You want me to only give the police half the footage?”

Xu Silan shrugged. “This building is old. The elevators break down all the time. It is perfectly normal for a camera to glitch occasionally, is it not?”

“Are elevators and cameras the same thing?” Director Jiang had a massive headache.

Xu Silan chuckled. “Then give the full video to the police. Just be prepared. Trainee A assaults someone with a knife, Trainee B is being psychologically controlled by her foster family, Trainee C can use magic, and Trainees D through Z engaged in a fight. When they recap the biggest entertainment scandals of the year, your masterpiece will definitely be there.”

Director Jiang gritted his teeth. “This is a crime.”

“Is it?” Xu Silan replied nonchalantly before looking at Nan Zhi. “Magical Xiao Nan, what are you still doing here? Go to the infirmary.” She pointed at Nan Zhi’s ankle, which was swollen.

Nan Zhi had gone to the infirmary initially, but Director Jiang had panicked after seeing the footage and called her over immediately. This delay had prevented her from getting treated.

Director Jiang finally noticed the injury and apologized. “Oh dear! Why did you not get that fixed first? My fault, my fault. Go on, someone help the girl over there. Be careful!”

Once the limping figure left, Director Jiang looked seriously at Xu Silan and Bi Junyu. “Old Bi, about this”

“Do not look at me. I would not dare provoke an angry Miss Xu.” Bi Junyu raised his hands in surrender.

Director Jiang rolled his eyes. “Useless!” He sighed and looked at Xu Silan pleadingly. “Teacher Xu, this matter”

“The Xu family will handle the fallout. Happy?”

Director Jiang finally beamed. He began editing the video with surgical precision. “You really went all out for these girls.”

“I am just making sure some people get what they deserve.” Xu Silan leaned against the wall. “Nan Zhi’s little secret has nothing to do with Shen Jiaying’s case. Releasing the full video would only distract the public.”

That was true. Director Jiang nodded. “But even if we edit the video, there were so many girls there. If they talk, will it not be the same?”

The lighter clicked twice in Xu Silan’s hand. “They will not talk.”

In the infirmary, Nan Zhi’s foot was wrapped in thick gauze with an ice pack. By Zhu Ran’s bed, Kong Anni sat upright clutching her guitar, though her head kept nodding off. Tang Keyue was sprawled over the edge of the bed, resting.

When Nan Zhi finished her treatment, she ran into Mu Siqiong and Yu Yulin, who were coming to change shifts. Even though Shen Jiaying had been taken away, they were not at ease and had badgered Dr. Hao into letting them stay.

Dr. Hao, who had finally managed to catch a nap, sighed. “I told you, she just had some sedatives. She will be fine once she wakes up.”

Nan Zhi glared at him. “Dr. Hao, how can you say that? You let sedatives get stolen! You are way too lazy!”

Dr. Hao was silenced by their stares. He felt truly wronged. He did not even know they had that stuff in the infirmary.

The two girls helped Nan Zhi hop over to the bedside, then woke up Kong Anni and Tang Keyue, telling them to go back to the dormitories to sleep. Dr. Hao suggested, “Do not bother. These beds are empty. Just pick one and sleep here.”

Kong Anni rubbed her eyes. “Are the sheets clean?”

Dr. Hao gave no response.

Support The Plan to Save the Villainess Supporting Actress [Quick Transmigration]