What does “an outing to the suburbs” mean? Is that the camping trip the kids are about to take? And why, after all these years, is my name the only one listed under the villainess’s spot? What about everyone else?
The Encyclopedia didn’t understand how I felt. It just kept urging me to finish the story.
But I’d given up long ago. There was no way I was following the plot. I would never kick the kids out of the house.
The question was, would the hero and heroine fall for each other, the villainess fall for the hero, the villain fall for the heroine, and the second male lead fall for the heroine...? Would any of that actually happen?
But the kids had lived and eaten together for years. It was perfectly normal for them to start liking someone when they hit puberty—I had no objection to that. But if things really turned into a love triangle, followed by deep heartache that hurt their relationships, I absolutely wouldn’t allow it.
I decided I had to find out what they were thinking.
But... who were the hero and heroine? Who were the second female and male leads? And who was the villain?
I stared at the characters’ physical descriptions in the plot.
What was all that about peach-blossom lips and grape-like eyes and whatever else...? What good were those descriptions?
Even after all these years, I still couldn’t match any of the five characters to a real person.
Since I couldn’t figure out who was who, I had no choice but to investigate them one by one.
The first person I looked into was Lâm Diệu Diệu.
She was innocent and pure, without a scheming bone in her body—lively and adorable, the joy of our household.
So, could she be the heroine?
I asked, “Diệu Diệu, are you settling in at school?”
“It’s going great!” Lâm Diệu Diệu said excitedly. “Teacher, my teacher even read my last essay aloud to the whole class. I wrote about you, and all my classmates said they wanted to meet my fairy...”
Me: “...”
I kept fishing for information. “Diệu Diệu, have you noticed anything different about everyone lately?”
“Different?” Lâm Diệu Diệu blinked in confusion for two seconds, then immediately grew indignant. “Oh! Từ Như Đồ, Từ Như Đồ was so unfair, Teacher! He secretly prepared your October gift without telling us! None of us knew anything about it. He’s such a schemer!”
Me: “...”
I really had received a gift from Từ Như Đồ this month, and I’d even posted it on social media.
“And that’s not all! Hà Diệc Dương used a picture of the two of you together as the cover of his presentation slides! It was supposed to be about introducing himself, but he put you in the picture anyway. That’s so unfair! I presented before him, and I only used a picture of myself...”
Me: “...”
I couldn’t get a word in.
I tried to reassure myself. She was still young, and she told me everything. She’d never mentioned liking any boy, so how could she be dating already?
It definitely wasn’t Diệu Diệu.
I moved on to another subject of my investigation: Trang Du.
“Tiểu Ngư,” I said, deciding to be more direct with Trang Du, “have you made many new friends in your class?”
“Sure!” Trang Du immediately chimed in. “A lot of the boys in my class love drawing, so I always sit with them during art...”
Me: “No, I mean, have you made any friends who are girls?”
“Girls?” Trang Du paused, then said indifferently, “There are two. We talk about makeup together.”
Me: “... Makeup?”
“Yeah, I want to do your makeup too.” The boy’s eyes sparkled. “I can buy makeup for you, too!”
“Oh...” I really had no idea how to keep this conversation going, so I asked another question. “Well, do you think any of the girls are pretty? Compared to Diệu Diệu and Tiểu Thước, I mean?”
“I don’t know. To me, everyone looks the same except you.”
Me: “...”
It didn’t seem to be Tiểu Ngư, either.
But wasn’t the hero, the second male lead, or the villain supposed to have started liking the heroine by now?
I tried probing him. “Tiểu Ngư, I want to ask you one last question.”
Trang Du: “Huh? It’s fine, go ahead!”
“If”—I emphasized the word over and over—“just suppose, for example, that you had to choose one girl to play with all the time. Would you pick Tiểu Thước or Diệu Diệu?”
Trang Du went completely blank.
He asked me, “Can’t I choose you?”
Me: “... I mean, between Tiểu Thước and Diệu Diệu...”
The boy said, “Then can Hà Diệc Dương and Từ Như Đồ choose you?”
Me: “Huh? They aren’t part of the question...”
The boy said, “But Diệu Diệu and Tiểu Thước won’t want to play with me forever. They’ll definitely try to take you away from me!”
Me: “What if we suppose they did want to play with you forever?”
The boy said, “Then I wouldn’t want to, either. I can’t beat them. Tiểu Thước is so strong, and Diệu Diệu always gets lucky when she draws cards. I only want to play with you!”
Me: “...”
I gave up completely.
I went to find Hà Diệc Dương next.
Little Lamb could be a bit difficult, but if I asked him something, he wouldn’t hide the truth from me.
I asked Hà Diệc Dương, “Little Lamb, how have you been lately?”
Hà Diệc Dương looked at me in confusion. “Is something wrong, Teacher?”
Me: “... I just want to check in on how you kids are doing.”
“I understand.” The tall teenager gave me a knowing look, then asked nonchalantly, “Whose situation do you want to know about?”
Me: “?”
I had a feeling he’d misunderstood me, but I carefully asked anyway, “Then... Tiểu Thước?”
“Him?” Hà Diệc Dương frowned. “There’s nothing wrong with him, but Diệu Diệu forgot her homework last week.”
I immediately turned serious. “That really happened?”
“Mm,” Hà Diệc Dương said. “His test paper got stuck in his bookshelf, so he didn’t bring it home. That’s why the teacher reprimanded him.”
“I see,” I said, then continued, “What about the others? Is anyone slacking off and not doing their homework?”
“No,” Hà Diệc Dương shook his head. “Don’t worry. Tiểu Thước will remind him from now on.”
“That’s good,” I said, nodding without thinking. “Tiểu Thước is very reliable. What about you? Are you having any trouble with your studies? Do you need extra lessons?”
—Fifteen minutes later.
I stared blankly at Hà Diệc Dương’s retreating figure, feeling confused.
What had I meant to ask him again?
What was it again?
How had it ended up like this?!
As expected, when you’re a parent, you worry most about your kids’ studies...
The other two were Từ Như Đồ and Tống Thước, the smartest of the five children. I was still debating which one to see first when Từ Như Đồ came to find me on his own.
“Auntie,” the tall teenager asked me, “is there something you want to ask us?”
I immediately felt exposed, and a little ashamed that, as an adult, I’d suspected these innocent kids might be dating. How could I have such a guilty thought?
Chiding myself, I said awkwardly, “Actually… you’re all getting older, so I was a little curious whether everyone at school likes you…”
Từ Như Đồ was quiet for two seconds, then hit the nail on the head. “You want to ask if any of us are dating?”
Me: “…”
So he’d seen right through me!
“I’m not, and neither is Trang Du. I don’t think Lâm Diệu Diệu is, either.” Seeing how embarrassed I looked, Từ Như Đồ went on, “I’m not sure about Tống Thước, but Hà Diệc Dương is really popular, and I know he doesn’t like any girls.”
So it seemed none of the kids showed any signs of getting involved romantically.
Từ Như Đồ had always been the most reliable child in my eyes, so I believed him right away and felt utterly relieved, as if a weight had been lifted off my shoulders.
“Are you worried about something?” Từ Như Đồ suddenly asked me.
I froze. A moment later, I smiled faintly. “A little.”
“Can you tell me about it?” The young boy sat beside me, just like the sweet little boy he’d been years ago. “I want to be someone who can help shoulder your burdens, too.”
In other people’s eyes, I had everything I could want: a respectable family, freedom, and hardly a care in the world.
But I always remembered that I was a villain in a novel, someone everyone hated and no one cared about, destined to die alone sometime before I turned thirty.
How I died, why I died, and when I died didn’t seem to matter. I was the villain, after all.
Even my death in the plot was only mentioned in passing.
If I didn’t follow the plot, this world would collapse.
But I couldn’t follow the plot.
It seemed like an unsolvable problem. I wasn’t someone who usually overthought things, but sometimes this fear weighed on my chest until I could hardly breathe.
I thought for a moment, then asked Từ Như Đồ very seriously, “Bunny, do you believe in fate?”
“Fate?” The boy looked at me. “I think it exists.”
“Mm,” I sighed. “What if it’s a bad fate? The kind that’s been decided from the very beginning.”
“That doesn’t mean it can’t be changed,” Từ Như Đồ said. “Auntie, my history teacher says people can triumph over nature. If we work hard to change things, fate won’t be so unfair.”
He was still young, but his words were remarkably wise.
I couldn’t help smiling. Admitting I felt a little better, I patted Từ Như Đồ on the head. “Thank you, Bunny.”
The kid was right.
Whether or not I could change things, I still had to try.