Chapter 1 - Guilt and regret.
Zhong Youyou covered her head with the quilt, the darkness underneath was illuminated by the light from the phone. She stared at the string of numbers in complete shock, swallowed a mouthful of saliva and counted again.
One, ten, hundred, thousand, ten thousand, hundred thousand, million... ten million.
90 million!!
Did she go crazy? Was she hallucinating or dreaming? This amount of money was something she would never be able to obtain even if she partook in physics competitions for an entire lifetime! She put her hand over her heart that was about to jump out from her chest from the excitement, took a deep breath, poked her finger on the phone screen, and counted again, one-by-one... one million, ten million, ninety million! It did not disappear!
She wanted to silently scream!
It seemed that the huge sum of money that the Zhong family paid to the supporting female lead as compensation has not been squandered away!
God knows how incredible it was that Zhong Youyou had just transmigrated into this book an hour ago. After all, she had just finished reading the novel 《Switched at Birth》 and she transmigrated into the supporting female lead with the same name and surname.
Speaking of this book, Zhong Youyou still wanted to rant. There would always be this kind of dog-blood novel in the world. You spit blood while reading it, but you still crave for it. You couldn’t stop until you masochistically stayed up all night to read it.
dog blood - melodramatic
This novel went like this.
The original story plot was generic and bad, but it was exciting. About ten years ago, both the housekeeper Meng Qian and the wealthy Mrs. Zhong gave birth to their daughters on the same day, and they happened to be admitted to the same VIP ward and corridor of the same hospital.
This housekeeper, Meng Qian, was drenched with sweat and was impoverished her whole life. After seeing the Zhong family, she knew what kind of life the rich lived. It was the kind of life she didn’t dare imagine! Mrs. Zhong has ten slender delicate fingers. When eating a bunch of grapes, there was even a servant who would peel them and present them on a porcelain plate. As for her, there were black and yellow stains in the grooves of her nails that couldn’t be washed off and countless calluses on her palms!
After witnessing such a rousing sight, she had the idea of swapping the two children. She had already been suffering for most of her life, was she going to let her daughter continue to suffer along with her?
So, from here on, the identity and fate of supporting female lead Zhong Youyou and Heroine Meng Shixuan were completely reversed.
Meng Shixuan had turned from a sparrow into a phoenix, she had loving and kind grandparents, loving parents who indulged her every whim, and a younger brother, who from a young age, was known to be protective of her.
She learned piano, danced ballet, participated in various international competitions, and various cultural performances. And just like the sparkling pearls inlaid in the sky, there was no one that didn’t envy her. This then cultivated her delicate and kind-hearted disposition, a character who wouldn’t even step on ants.
Meanwhile, Zhong Youyou followed the housekeeper Meng Qian, hiding from the drunkard father’s debts like a beggar.
A few years after she was born, she hadn't been able to comb her hair even once, was covered head-to-toe in filth, and had dirt gathered under her nails. It wasn't until the nine-year compulsory education that she was sent to school by the neighbour from next door that the situation improved slightly. At the age of thirteen, she had menstruation and no one taught her to use sanitary napkins. It was not until she was found out by a female teacher at the age of fourteen, who bought her sanitary napkins out of pity.
Of course, Zhong Youyou was only a supporting female lead after all. The original text just casually mentioned all of this. This miserable and tragic backstory was only written to foreshadow Zhong Youyou's later extreme, paranoid, morbid, and vicious personality.
And Zhong Youyou, who has the same name and surname, had a face filled with question marks when she read till here. What the hell is this?! If you get tormented like this and did not become blackened and morbid, then wouldn’t you be the reincarnation of the Virgin Mary? If anyone switched with her, they would also become blackened.
blackened - basically, turn over to the dark side (which I hear has cookies)
There was also a scene in the original text that mocked and showed the difference between Meng Shixuan and Zhong Youyou. The first time they met, Meng Shixuan invited her to have steak. Meng Shixuan was elegant and refined, but Zhong Youyou had never been to such a high-end restaurant before, so how could she have experience eating steak? As a result, she didn’t know how to hold her knife and fork properly, and the steak slipped to the ground, making her the butt of a big joke.
Later, when Zhong Youyou was found and returned to the Zhong family, this distinction between them became even wider.
Zhong Youyou thought that her biological parents who finally found her with great difficulty would love her very much, but she didn't expect them to be so disaffectionate towards her. Regardless whether it was Father Zhong, Mother Zhong, or younger brother Zhong, they would still protect Meng Shixuan. She was an outsider who couldn’t fit in.
Dolls? Not allowed to touch them because they belonged to Meng Shixuan. Pretty clothes? Not allowed to wear because they belonged to Meng Shixuan.
"Your room in the house hasn’t been cleaned up for the time being. Live in the guest room first. Can you take off your shoes and wipe the dirt off your pants before you come in? Can you not make noise when you eat?"
"What? You like Shi Zhitang too? Although it is true that there was a marriage arrangement between the Shi family and the Zhong family since childhood, Meng Shixuan is still currently the Zhong family’s daughter. Besides, Shi Zhitang and her have been together since they were young and have deep feelings for each other, so couldn’t you be more sensible and give him to your older sister? It’s not like he likes you anyway.”
It was precisely because of this that she started to become jealous and hated Meng Shixuan, and did a series of things that a vicious supporting female lead would do. She ruthlessly pushed Meng Shixuan to the ground and deliberately broke Meng Shixuan's favorite cup. But by acting like this, she pushed the Zhong family farther and farther away, causing the Zhong family and fiance Shi Zhitang to love the poor delicate Meng Shixuan even more!
The majority of the text was written from the perspective of the Heroine and the average reader would imagine themselves in the place of the heroine. They would think that this supporting female character was an extremely annoying and horrible attention-seeker, like couldn’t she go to hell sooner?
She didn’t know whether it was because Zhong Youyou and her had the same name and surname, but she could feel the extreme desolation in her heart and quickly became infuriated:
This family doesn't care about you, so you don't need to care about them either. How freeing is it to be rich and beautiful and to live only for yourself? Why do you insist on wasting your time on them?
In order to attract the attention of the family, in order to get even a little bit of affection, you even went as far as to gradually become a degenerate, taking drugs while dancing, staying out all night, putting on heavy and gaudy makeup, and becoming a Shāmǎtè. The more you are like this, the more the Zhong family would feel like you could not be shown to the public with them and is inferior to Meng Shixuan in all aspects, and so the more they will shun you!
Shāmǎtè - Chinese subculture of young urban immigrants, usually of low education, with exaggerated hairstyles, heavy make-up, flamboyant costumes, piercings, etc. Fun fact: It’s a loan word from “smart” because it sounds just like it when you read it out. Iirc, it’s Japanese equivalent is visual kei.
Zhong Youyou simply hated iron for not becoming steel! After reading through 90% of the novel and seeing that Father Zhong made a will to leave all the inheritance to Meng Shixuan and Zhong Xiyou, and that Zhong Youyou would have nothing, she really wanted to vomit blood!
hated iron for not becoming steel - resentful towards somebody for failing to meet expectations and impatient to see improvement
She really didn't want to read it anymore. What sorry end awaited the supporting female lead who opposed the Heroine? Needless to say, she would definitely be abused! So she just hurriedly turned to the ending...…
Sure enough, after the supporting female lead squandered away all her fortune and property, she wandered about, destitute like a stray dog. Then in the end, she was given alms by the virtuous and beautiful Female Lead...…
“……”
Zhong Youyou was absolutely speechless. She just wanted to kill Meng Qian, that old woman who caused all this trouble in the first place. While cursing out this novel, she sent this novel URL to her best friend! If you were abused by this kind of dog-blood novel, don't drag me in to suffer along, okay?!
Zhong Youyou read the novel all night and she was so exhausted that her body didn’t feel like it belonged to her. When she finally put it down, it was already five o'clock in the morning. She was so tired and her consciousness was hazy, then she fell into a deep sleep.
She never expected that when she woke up, she became the supporting female lead in this book…
She transmigrated just like that! If it weren't for her remembering that the supporting female lead hadn’t squandered away the 90 million she had within hands, she would’ve nearly rammed her head into the door, attempting to see whether or not she could transmigrate back. After all, who would want to be such a bitter and vicious supporting female lead who wasn’t loved by her parents!
*
The Zhong family was very rich. It is a level of wealth that ordinary people couldn't imagine. The villa alone in the city center alone probably cost more than 90 million. And the 90 million in Zhong Youyou's hand was given to her by Father Zhong out of guilt when she was brought back to the Zhong family.
At this time, the original owner still has not sunk too low and still secretly felt sensitive and inferior, so the money has not been touched.
But Zhong Youyou knew that in half a year, the money would be used by the original owner for an abortion, drinking, gambling, and drugs, finally leaving her with nothing to her name. Many things happened within these six months. The conflict between her and the Heroine would escalate and she would even try to disrupt the engagement of the Heroine and her fiancé Shi Zhitang. As a result, she would thoroughly anger Father Zhong and Mother Zhong, and get kicked out of the Zhong residence, moving out alone to live.
After moving out, she was violated by a robber, which made her sink into the abyss and she never got up again, and this made the Zhong family hate her even more. Obviously she was the biological child, but she was completely useless and ruined the reputation of the Zhong family! She also began to hate the Zhong family and began to do evil.
The engagement ceremony half a year later can be regarded as the official opening of the tragic fate of the supporting female lead.
And now…
Zhong Youyou had just visited the toilet. She was wearing a loose hospital gown, her right hand is wrapped with gauze, and her left hand has traces of a cannula, revealing fragile purple-green blood vessels. She was also all skin and bones, looking rather malnourished.
And the thing that didn't match this was her face. It was covered in heavy make-up, like a hostess in a nightclub, which looked terrible. Her hair was also dyed with various colours that were offensively conspicuous.
But it was still okay, she did not completely become depraved yet.
*
The current point in the timeline should be the third year of high school. The original owner was very rebellious because she was not given any attention at home, and just played with a group of gangsters. A few days ago, Meng Shixuan saw the group of gangsters waiting for the original owner at the entrance of the school, so she stepped forward to persuade the original owner to study hard and not mix with a group of shady people.
As a result, those gangsters - who didn’t give a damn whether you were some girl beloved by the Heavens - just gave Meng Shixuan a shove. Meng Shixuan was too weak. She fell and sprained her hand. Her younger brother Zhong Xiyou, who rushed over in a hurry, anxiously helped her up and sent her to the hospital.
Before leaving, Zhong Xiyou glared at Zhong Youyou, his eyes filled with anger and disgust.
That one glance, cut Zhong Youyou's heart. After she went back home, Mother Zhong began to needle at her with disgust written on her face. Father Zhong often smoothed things over, but didn’t seem to care for her, and her brother Zhong Xiyou never showed an obvious like or dislike.
She still thought that within these three years, Zhong Xiyou would somewhat acknowledge her as his elder sister.
But she didn't expect that Meng Shixuan’s one fall would return this small mutual friendship back to what it originally was.
Although Meng Shixuan was fine, Mother Zhong looked at Meng Shixuan's red arm when she returned home and felt terribly distressed. She slapped Zhong Youyou harshly and locked her in her room not allowing her to eat in order to reflect.
In the end, she was their biological daughter. Father Zhong and Mother Zhong wouldn’t really beat her, but the servants in the villa were used to reading people’s expressions. Knowing that she was dispensable in this family, they didn't treat her like a person and deliberately gave her leftovers to eat.
The original owner had an obstinate temper like a bull and immediately threw down the bowl. When Mother Zhong hurried over, she picked up a piece of broken porcelain and cut her right arm. "Isn't it just a small injury to the arm? I will pay it back to her! Is this enough?" She thought that by hurting herself, she would be able to make her biological parents pay a bit more attention to her. Truly naive and ridiculous.
Mother Zhong's mother was indeed frightened, but when she was taken to the hospital, there was no distress in her eyes, only boredom and impatience.
In the past few days of lying on the hospital bed, the servants brought in three meals a day, but none of the Zhong family had visited. It was only Meng Shixuan who had come in once, looked at her with a gaze, dark with unclear intentions, and said something like "couldn’t we try to get along well?” and other such platitudes.
After recalling all of this, Zhong Youyou was furious for the original owner, and at the same time complained about the original owner's stupidity.
With so much money, why cherish some fiancé, some scumbag father, scummy mother and that sleazebag of a brother? What are you doing fighting with the Heroine?
She carefully put the card away and her head emerged from the quilt, still wanting to scream silently. This is 90 million! She was an orphan in her previous life and has always been working part time while studying. She managed to survive the hard days before graduating from college by relying on knowledge competitions related to anything physics and winning scholarships.
She has never seen so much money in her life!
With 90 million, it means that you could add-on an extra set of beef to beef noodle soup, and add two more eggs to dough stick pancakes! Just thinking about it, made her so happy that she wanted to roll around in bed!
*
Just as she was thinking about it with anticipation, the door of the room was suddenly pushed open. The action of pushing open the door was quite hurried and tense, but very light, so light as if afraid of waking her.
The person who trotted in was a seventeen-year-old boy with handsome eyes and who looked very similar in appearance to Zhong Youyou. At this time, his always cold and impatient handsome face was actually stained with worry and anxiety. He strode to the side of the bed, but did not dare to come closer. He stood far away, pinching the corner of his clothes, like a child who made a mistake, afraid of being driven out.
Zhong Youyou didn't expect any of the Zhong family members to come visit at all, so she hurriedly closed her eyes in fright. Fortunately, she moved fast enough.
She couldn’t help but spit in her heart, What are you coming here for? To speak sarcastically to me again?
She felt him constantly staring at her, his persistent and piercing eyes making her scalp go numb.
Zhong Xiyou stared at his older sister on the hospital bed, never blinking even once. Gradually, the rim of his eyes turned red. He never expected that he would be born again. On the day Father Zhong made his will, the Zhong family of four, plus one Zhong Youyou, rode the car on the highway. When the truck hit, Zhong Xiyou only felt his stomach rolling as the car tumbled, wanting to vomit.
Pain came soon after, his forehead was stained with blood.
In that blurry vision, he saw that the biological sister he hated the most desperately rushed to rescue them, dragging him and his parents out of the car and to the side of the road with great difficulty, and her exhausted body finally succumbed. Her body was covered with blood and fire, as she died in that car accident…...
The family escaped, but she died in the explosion.
At the same time, Zhong Xiyou also saw Meng Shixuan, who was the least injured among them and sat in the passenger seat, the weak sister who he had protected since childhood, also open the door, but ran away in fear. He had always known that her courage was small, but at that moment, his heart grew cold.
Zhong Youyou saved them, but how did her family treat her? Indifference, disgust, impatience, weariness. Whenever Zhong Xiyou thought about what he had done, he felt extremely guilty and sad. Especially when he looked at her weak and pale face now...…
Second elder sister has always been very thin. She was all skin and bones when she first entered the house. She had been lying in bed these past few days and the servant must have not served her food properly because she was even more pitifully thin. The quilt was thin, faintly revealing blood still oozing out of the gauze on her right hand, which showed how deeply she cut that day.
Zhong Xiyou suddenly felt as if his heart was stabbed several times all over. It was hard to tell where it hurt.
Because he remembered, he gave his second elder sister a fierce glare when he took Meng Shixuan away from the school gate that day. It's not that he didn't see the look in his second sister's eyes at the time. There was panic, helplessness and hurt, as if she wanted to grab her last life-saving straw but was back-stabbed instead.
But he ignored her.
That wasn’t the only time he ignored her. That time as well when she fell to her lowest-point, went to the hospital to have an abortion, and looked at him with desperate eyes. After that, he ignored her many other times.