When the Male Lead Finds Out I’m the Transmigrator Trying to Win Him Over - Chapter 21

“A new chance?” Yun Ruo waited for her train at the high-speed rail station. She planned to go traveling for a while. Money wasn’t much, and since summer vacation was peak season, flying wasn’t an option.

[Yes, another chance to save your life,] the main system said. This was its compensation.

[You only have one month left in your original world. It cannot be changed. If you had completed the conquest mission and chosen to return to your original world, you could have continued living.]

“But I was blinded by love, insisting on staying by Meng Tingmo’s side.” Yun Ruo finished the system’s sentence herself. That choice had led her to use the reward meant for her real body on Yun Jia’s sister’s body instead. In the end, Yun Jia’s sister survived, while her own real body would die in the original world.

[Correct. If you don’t want to die, you can only continue living in Yun Jia’s sister’s body.]

[But you know—that’s not really you.]

Yes, it wasn’t her.

Yun Ruo stood up and walked to the window. Outside, the sky was an endless blue; behind her, travelers bustled past in their multitudes. This city, where she had lived for nineteen years, her birthplace and hometown, was her true resting place.

The three years of marriage with Meng Tingmo had been too blissful—illusory, like a bubble in a dream, ready to burst at the lightest touch.

[Do you want to continue living in another world’s body?]

[If you want, I can send you back.]

“I don’t want to.” Yun Ruo didn’t hesitate. Everything she had gained over eight years—she didn’t want it anymore. What didn’t belong to her could never be kept, and what was forced would eventually be returned.

[Then… there is a second option.]

[Are you willing to complete one more conquest mission? If you succeed, you can return, save your own body, and truly live for yourself once.]

Yun Ruo was stunned. Another mission?

He Xitong recharged Yun Ruo’s phone account before leaving home. She did this every month; otherwise, Yun Ruo’s number would have long been canceled.

She knew Yun Jia called Yun Ruo almost every day. Useless persistence, she thought. Too late now.

But those words applied to herself as well. Too late.

She had stayed angry with Yun Ruo for a month, and in the end, all she got in return was Yun Ruo’s permanent absence.

Driving to the hospital, He Xitong reached the top floor. After dealing with the bodyguards outside, she pushed the door open and entered.

Yun Ruo lay quietly on the bed, machines monitoring her life signs. Caregivers massaged her daily. Everything was fine—except Yun Ruo never woke up.

The safest place was often the most dangerous. Yun Ruo was hidden right under everyone’s noses, yet no one realized it.

He Xitong sat by the bed. She had been the one to place Yun Ruo here.

That night three years ago, when Yun Ruo gave birth, too much had happened. It was a difficult labor. Meng Tingmo hadn’t made it back in time. At that critical moment, a supernatural being calling itself Conquest System No. 85792 appeared to her, saying Yun Ruo was in grave danger and it had to take her away. If she still considered Yun Ruo a friend, then she should take care of this body.

Only then did she understand—half of the dreams she had been having were true.

Yun Ruo really did come from another world, and she really was bound to a system—not a money-hoarding system, but a conquest system. Her mission wasn’t to gather wealth but to win Meng Tingmo’s love.

[Yun Ruo never used any tricks on anyone, not even Meng Tingmo. Every reward she ever received, she spent on you all.]

[She healed Yun Jia from a severe cold before her college entrance exam, helped you through a life-threatening crisis, saved Meng Tingmo’s critical project… She never once made a wish for herself.]

[To save you, she spent five rewards in one go. She was always sincere. You were the one who lacked faith in her.]

[You were far too easily provoked.]

He Xitong covered her face and wept silently. She had failed Yun Ruo. She never truly wanted to break off their friendship, but her pride was too strong. She always waited for Yun Ruo to coax her first.

If only she had realized sooner—hadn’t tried to test her with a wrongly sent message—Yun Ruo wouldn’t have ended up like this.

Where had Yun Ruo’s soul gone? Could it still come back? And if it did… could she forgive her?

Yun Ruo spent an entire month happily.

She tossed aside the system’s words, spending her days traveling exactly as she had planned. For once, without worrying about money or time, she discovered how interesting the world truly was—so many things she had never tried.

Before, she had been trapped in her own tiny circle. She had seen the sunrise at five in the morning—not to watch the dawn, but to go to work. She had witnessed the glittering nightlife of the upper class—not as a guest, but as a waitress serving drinks.

“Being alive is wonderful.” Yun Ruo said this as she lay inside a tent atop a mountain, watching meteor showers with a group of strangers, all of them laughing and taking photos together. For this one month, she had truly been happy.

The system murmured: [Meng Tingmo once did these things with you.]

“But this body never did.” Yun Ruo rested her hands behind her head. “And you said this is the real me.”

It was Yun Jia’s elder sister who admired flowers and moonlight, Yun Ruo who was Meng Tingmo’s wife—not this rootless, penniless girl.

The system conceded she was right. If Yun Ruo enjoyed it, then so be it. It was about to persuade her to accept the mission to earn another chance at life when the cry of a baby drifted nearby.

A couple cradled their child, soothing him gently. The mother kissed the baby’s tiny hand, while the father embraced both of them, smiling brightly, making his wife laugh.

The system fell silent.

For two months now, it and Yun Ruo had deliberately ignored one fact: her child.

Yun Ruo believed her baby had died—but he hadn’t. He was born not breathing, but quickly resuscitated.

The system had never told her.

It didn’t want the child to become a burden. If Yun Ruo accepted another mission, it should be to save herself, not to see her child.

[Do you miss him?]

Yun Ruo’s gaze lingered on the infant in the woman’s arms. The baby had stopped crying, cooing softly. She couldn’t understand the sounds, but they pierced her heart.

“My child… I’ve never even seen him once.”

“I don’t even know if it’s a boy or a girl.”

[It’s a boy.]

A boy? Yun Ruo turned away. What did he look like? Was he like her, or like Meng Tingmo? What kind of temperament would he have? He—

“He hasn’t truly seen this world yet, just like me.”

Four years after Yun Ruo’s disappearance.

Jiang Yufei was nervous—something she hadn’t felt in years—only because she was about to meet Meng Feihan.

The system bound to her had already left. It had gone offline not long after Yun Ruo’s childbirth, vanishing inexplicably.

Perhaps it was for the best. Yet she didn’t know how to explain the truth to Meng Tingmo. Supernatural beings couldn’t be spoken of; every time she tried, the words choked in her throat.

And yet, when discussing “dreams” with others, there were no such restrictions.

The one bound to the money-hoarding system wasn’t Yun Ruo—it was her. That system had told her the Jiang family would soon collapse, but the more wealth she amassed, the stronger her family would become. Approaching a rich man, gaining his love, inheriting his fortune—all of it had been ideas planted by the money-hoarding system.

A crooked system like that could never be proper. But at the time, she didn’t care. She only wanted Yun Ruo to pay.

After Yun Ruo vanished and the system shut down, she finally began to wonder: Had Yun Ruo really won Meng Tingmo’s love through the help of some conquest system? What if the money-hoarding system had deceived her? If Yun Ruo had never cheated, then everything she had done…

Wasn’t it cruelty? Malice? Persecuting someone truly good?

Day and night, Jiang Yufei lived in regret.

Even if she had been deceived by the system, the harm she inflicted was real. She didn’t dare face Meng Tingmo, Yun Jia, or He Xitong—let alone Meng Feihan.

Because she had robbed Meng Feihan of a mother.

The Jiang family had indeed fallen overnight, just as the system foretold. They weren’t destitute, but far from the splendor of before. Seeing anyone from their old circle was now impossible.

For four years she endured. Finally, she could no longer resist the urge to glimpse Meng Feihan.

Through old contacts, Jiang Yufei managed to attend a society banquet. She came quietly, attracting no attention, and found Meng Feihan in the garden.

He was sitting all alone.

She approached, asking why he wasn’t playing with the other children. His clear eyes fixed on her, and after a moment, he answered: because he had no mother.

“They say I don’t have a mother.”

“Everyone else does. But I don’t.”

Jiang Yufei bit her lip, the question she most dreaded.

“You do.”

“Then where is she? What does she look like?”

“She…” Jiang Yufei faltered. She didn’t know where Yun Ruo was—perhaps back in her original world, perhaps starting anew somewhere else, or maybe… gone forever.

She couldn’t tell him that.

Instead, she said, “Your mother was very beautiful. She was gentle and kind. She loved you deeply—you were the child she longed for.”

Meng Feihan seemed to accept it.

After the banquet, back at the Meng household, he followed Meng Tingmo and asked for the first time: “Daddy, when will Mommy come back to see me?”

Meng Tingmo froze.

“Why are you suddenly asking that?”

“I miss her.”

For a long moment, Meng Tingmo was silent.

He had no answer.

For four years, he had deceived himself. In the first year of Yun Ruo’s disappearance, he told himself he couldn’t forget because her influence hadn’t worn off yet.

In the second year, he repeated the excuse—she must be doing it on purpose, refusing to let him go. He insisted he couldn’t love Yun Ruo—only hate her. He banned any discussion of Yun Ruo in the household and forbade anyone from showing Meng Feihan her photos. He alone could raise his son.

The third year, he still hadn’t forgotten. By day, he drowned himself in work. By night, every time he closed his eyes, her smiling face appeared. Yun Ruo was terrifying, he thought—three years gone, and still she haunted him. She would torment him forever.

But Yun Jia had laughed bitterly until tears fell.

“Five years it took to win his love—do you really think a system made that happen? I’d prefer it if that were true.”

“You should spend your whole life unable to forget her, suffering her torment day and night. You’ve known her eleven years. Six years ago you couldn’t tell if it was love. Even now, you still can’t.”

The words struck Meng Tingmo like thunder.

Could he truly not tell?

Or did he just refuse to admit it?

By the fourth year of Yun Ruo’s disappearance, he no longer stopped people around Meng Feihan from mentioning her.

But he still could not bring Yun Ruo back to him.

“It was Daddy’s fault,” he told his son.

“Daddy did something that hurt her deeply. She doesn’t want to see Daddy again.”

Meng Feihan stared at him for a long while. Finally, he touched the corner of his father’s eye.

“You look very sad too.”

The day for school arrived.

Yun Ruo had been admitted to a top university in the neighboring city. It was easy enough to get there—just take the high-speed rail, then transfer to the subway.

According to the system, the moment she reached the school gates, she would be struck by a passing vehicle and killed instantly.

“What a miserable way to die.” On the subway, pulling her suitcase, Yun Ruo joked with the system.

She was penniless now. The system couldn’t understand why she still wanted to go to school when she couldn’t even afford tuition.

But Yun Ruo looked around. Everywhere, students dragged their luggage—some quietly listening to music, some chatting excitedly about their summer vacations, and some freshmen, nervous yet full of anticipation.

She just wanted to experience a little more of this world.

Every extra second she stayed alive added another thread of attachment.

“Er’er, I’ll take the mission.” She suddenly said.

[?]

[Why the sudden change of heart?]

Yun Ruo lowered her head and smiled. Perhaps it was because she couldn’t let go yet. She hadn’t truly seen this world. She didn’t want to die.

Eight years of love—she had let go of it in just three months.

From now on, she would live only for herself.

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