I led the girl inside.
Her biological father sat in a wheelchair, his face full of menace. Kỷ Vũ Lạc trembled behind me.
When I told them I wanted to adopt her, her stepmother looked delighted. She clearly hadn’t wanted to raise her husband’s child from another marriage.
But her biological father did some calculating:
“Raise that girl and you could sell her for tens of millions. You expect to take her for free?”
The System hissed, “You bastard! Why don’t you just die already!”
I gritted my teeth. “Twenty million. Sign the papers now!”
As we left, her stepmother spat, “That little brat’s got it so good!”
Kỷ Vũ Lạc tugged at my sleeve, her voice barely a whisper:
“Auntie… I’m not worth twenty million…”
I copied the look I’d given her the first time we met and put my hands on my hips:
“Who said I was giving you away for free? Once you graduate from college, you’ll have to pay me back double!”
The girl laughed, tears still clinging to her lashes.
The two of us slowly disappeared down the narrow alley.
A new chapter in Kỷ Vũ Lạc’s life officially began.
9.
Cố Cẩm Hoài and Hà Tiêu Tiêu came every Friday for offal hot pot, and over time they became Kỷ Vũ Lạc’s close friends. Free of her family burden, the girl’s grades improved by leaps and bounds, and she grew much more outgoing. I still sold offal hot pot outside the school gates every day, dutifully playing my part as an NPC.
After elementary school, the three children promised to attend the same middle school. The System sighed. “I have to admit, they seem to be doing pretty well now, but kids’ feelings are simple.”
“If Kỷ Vũ Lạc finds out how Cố Cẩm Hoài feels about Hà Tiêu Tiêu, will she still think of you as a friend?”
Once she started middle school, the academic pressure increased, so I stopped having Vũ Lạc help me at the stall. She needed to focus on her studies, and besides… the drawer under the cart was too cramped to fit her anymore.
One day after school, Vũ Lạc came home looking downcast. I made her favorite corn and pork rib soup, but she only ate a few bites.
“Mom, if you liked a boy… and he was your best friend, would you tell him?”
I understood right away that she meant Cố Cẩm Hoài. Ever since he started middle school, he’d shot up, his features growing sharper and less boyish. Cẩm Hoài had also joined the basketball team, and girls followed him everywhere. It was only natural that Vũ Lạc liked him.
I asked her, “Would you rather the person you like be happy, or have them return your feelings?”
Vũ Lạc twirled a lock of her long hair. “I… I want him to like me back. But I don’t think he does. He just sees me as a friend.”
As I prepped the ingredients, I told her:
“You’re only thirteen. How many people have you even met? He’s the person closest to you, so it makes sense you’d like him. But listen, you’ve got a long life ahead of you. You’ll meet plenty of people better than him.”
“Besides, love isn’t the only kind of relationship in the world. You and I aren’t related by blood, but we’re closer than family.”
Kỷ Vũ Lạc nodded, seeming only half convinced.
She’d gone on the field trip full of excitement, but the moment she got home, she buried her face in her pillow and sobbed.
“Cố Cẩm Hoài… he likes Hà Tiêu Tiêu… my best friend…” Her voice was hoarse from crying. “I’m so sad… Why am I not as good as Tiêu Tiêu at anything? My family isn’t as well-off, and I’m not as pretty…”
“I knew it was probably going to happen, but hearing it from him still hurts so much, Mom.”
10.
The System suddenly jumped in. “Coming up is the villainess’s first attempt to sabotage the female lead: she’ll put a laxative in her water, causing her to fail her exam…”
“See? I told you not to be so nice to her. You keep imagining you can save people, and now all that effort’s gone to waste!”
I stubbornly argued back in my head:
“Have I ever told you? As an NPC, I get lonely.”
“I’m there in every book, but I’m not allowed to have a story of my own. Because I’m just an NPC, everything I do has to serve the romance between the male and female leads.”
“You think I’m trying to save Vũ Lạc? The truth is, I see myself in her. Her terrible family situation isn’t her fault; it’s what the author wrote for her. But the book doesn’t just make her suffer—it pins all the blame on her, too. It’s unfair to her!”
“Maybe the ending won’t change, and Vũ Lạc will still become a villainess. But if I can see even one thing in her that proves fate CAN be changed—that’s enough!”
The System was quiet for a moment, then sighed. “Suit yourself.”
Vũ Lạc shut herself in her room. I pressed my ear to the door and could still hear her soft sobs.
At ten that night, when I got home after packing up the stall, the meal I’d left on the table had been eaten, and the dishes were washed spotless.
The desk lamp in her room was still on, and Vũ Lạc was bent over her homework. Her eyes were swollen like two sponges.
I wiped her face with a cold towel. “Have you thought it through?”
She pouted. “I’m okay… I’m not saying Tiêu Tiêu isn’t great, but I’m not bad either. Otherwise, she wouldn’t have become friends with me.”
“And Cẩm Hoài liking her… that’s his choice. Like you said, there are more than three billion men in the world. Why hang yourself over just one tree?”
“When I go to college and can earn my own money, I’ll travel all over the world! I’ll see so many beautiful places and meet so many people!”
11.
Two years passed in a flash, and the plot continued. This was only the prequel; the male and female leads’ love story wouldn’t really begin until they went to college.
Looking at the new wrinkles at the corners of my eyes in the mirror, I muttered:
“Always in the right place, always the right amount… How boring.”
Vũ Lạc was ambitious and got into a magnet high school, ranking in the top ten of her entire grade. I didn’t know if it was the script’s doing, but she still went to the same school as the male and female leads.
Early Saturday morning, someone knocked at the door. It was Cố Cẩm Hoài and Hà Tiêu Tiêu; Vũ Lạc had told me they were coming the day before.
“Hello, Auntie! I came to visit!” Tiêu Tiêu greeted me with a bright smile.
She grew prettier every year. Of all the female leads I’d ever met, she was one of the most beautiful.
Cẩm Hoài brought fruit and pastries, too.
I took the fruit to the kitchen to prepare a platter, and Kỷ Vũ Lạc came running out of her room. “Come look at the balcony! You can see the dandelions I’ve been growing!”
Those flowers were Vũ Lạc’s treasures. Every day when she came home, they were the first thing she went to see. Long planters lined the wall, packed with tiny flowers—yellow centers and white petals—blooming alongside the old green glass of the house.
Voices chattered on the balcony:
Hà Tiêu Tiêu asked, “I’ve only ever seen these flowers growing wild in fields. Why go to all the trouble of growing wild sunflowers, Lạc Lạc?”
“That’s exactly why I like them! They’re tough little things. They can put down roots anywhere!”
Cố Cẩm Hoài laughed. “That suits you—easygoing and carefree… and a little dense, too!”
“Who’s dense? Tiêu Tiêu would never say that about me!”
In the spring semester of their junior year, a transfer student joined their class and clung to Cẩm Hoài every day. Hà Tiêu Tiêu was upset, but had no one to confide in, so she turned to Vũ Lạc.
At dinner, Vũ Lạc chewed with her cheeks puffed out. “Cẩm Hoài already turned her down when she asked to go together, but she still keeps chasing after him—and she’s got the nerve to be rude to Tiêu Tiêu!”
“If she keeps this up, don’t blame me for being harsh!”
I called out to the System. “What’s going on?”
The System dodged the question. “All right, fine! I admit you successfully changed Kỷ Vũ Lạc! But the plot has to keep going, so the higher-ups sent a replacement villainess.”
In their senior year, Cẩm Hoài and Tiêu Tiêu were constantly harassed by the new girl. As class president, she was supposed to help her classmates, and she used that as an excuse to cling to Cẩm Hoài. Tiêu Tiêu grew despondent.
With no other choice, Vũ Lạc invited Tiêu Tiêu over to study. With the “top student” Vũ Lạc tutoring them, all three of them ended up getting pretty good exam scores.
After the exams, the three of them were discussing which colleges to choose when they heard sobbing from downstairs:
“Cố Cẩm Hoài! If you don’t apply to the same school as me, I’ll throw myself headfirst onto the ground!”
I curled my lip. This NPC’s tactics were so cliché.
Vũ Lạc flew into a rage. “How devious can she get? You two keep talking. I’m going down to deal with her!”
Downstairs, Vũ Lạc bluntly asked, “Why do you keep making things miserable for other people? Do you have some kind of mission?”
The girl fell silent. It turned out she really did have a mission from the System.
Vũ Lạc spoke sternly. “There are plenty of good men out there! The more you cling to someone, the more they’ll look down on you! Besides, you transferred here just a year ago and caught up with the honors class. You’re really smart! Don’t waste your abilities on something so pointless!”
The girl muttered, “But I’m the villainess. This is all I know how to do…”
Vũ Lạc’s voice suddenly softened. “You probably won’t believe me, but fate kept leading me down a path filled with hatred, jealousy, and resentment. But I knew that wasn’t the life I wanted. I changed, so I believe you can, too.”
12.
The System suddenly shouted in my ear, “Look at this! The readers are going wild!”
“What started as a bland romance has become a sensation thanks to this realistic plot!”
Comments appeared:
[“I thought this was going to be another cheesy romance, but it turned out to be so profound!”]
[“Every character is lovable, even the offal hot pot vendor!”]
The System announced, “The higher-ups have decided to remove the characters’ constraints and let them develop freely.”
Whether the girl was persuaded or received new orders, she gave up. Vũ Lạc got into Nanjing University, while Cẩm Hoài and Tiêu Tiêu went to the same school.
When I asked why she hadn’t chosen a school in the same city, she smiled. “Mom, I have my own path. And I can feel it… the invisible thread binding the three of us has snapped.”
In college, Vũ Lạc became a travel blogger. By her junior year, she was supporting herself. After graduation, instead of looking for a job, she went surfing in Portugal, skiing in Hokkaido, studying tennis in Serbia, and researching art history in Italy.
Her travel videos took the internet by storm. In her memoir, she wrote:
“I realized that there are countless kinds of people in the world, each living in their own way. Only by setting out on my own could I truly make this world mine.”
I often received videos Vũ Lạc sent me. Meanwhile, the wrinkles on my face gradually disappeared—a sign that I was about to leave.
Final words.
Vũ Lạc had asked me many times for my real name. Sadly, I’d forgotten the name I’d had in the real world. I was just one NPC among countless background characters, repeating the same tasks to make a living.
That was until I met that skinny little girl with eyes hungry for life. Giving her a lunchbox that day was the first time I’d disobeyed the System.
In the letter I left behind, I wrote:
“My dear daughter, this world was a book to begin with. But the love I have for you is real. Remember, somewhere out there, your mother is always watching over you.”
Before I left, I secretly took the photo of Vũ Lạc tucked in the cart’s compartment while she did her homework. The System frowned. “NPCs aren’t supposed to take anything with them… Ah, never mind. I’ll let it slide this time!”
[THE END]