After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 2

The driver kept a close eye on Xia Shibai’s expression throughout the journey, his heart racing at the instructions she had just given him. He kept his head down and his thoughts to himself. People like him were just ordinary workers; when the boss gave an order, he followed it. As for Xia Shibai telling him to contact a doctor and a lawyer, he treated it as a confidential matter to be forgotten as soon as it was done.

In the backseat, Xia Shibai was consumed with anxiety. The book had never explicitly stated the exact dates on which Auntie Lin abused little Yaozhou.

However, Xia Shibai’s eyelid had been twitching incessantly, and her heart refused to settle. Aunt and niece shared a bond; even if they weren’t biological mother and daughter, they were currently the closest blood relatives. Her inner turmoil was written all over her face as she urged the driver to go faster.

The Xia residence was located in the “High Mountain District.” True to its name, it was remote but beautiful. The children living in the surrounding area were all from wealthy or influential families. The original owner had left Xia Yaozhou here thinking that since everyone nearby was respectable, no one would pay much attention to a child.

Little did she know, the “bullies” in the neighborhood had targeted Xia Yaozhou, subjecting her to group bullying, exclusion, and discrimination. As a result, having grown up in the old house in the High Mountain District, Xia Yaozhou didn’t have a single friend she could talk to.

“Can you please hurry?” Xia Shibai was in pain all over. The thought of Xia Yaozhou being alone with Auntie Lin made her chest and head feel tight, as if she were being strangled by an invisible rope.

“I’m going as fast as I can, President Xia. Any faster and we’ll have an accident.” The driver’s forehead was drenched in sweat, his palms slick. The Xia family and the Lansui Group relied entirely on President Xia; if something happened to her, their lives would fall apart. He didn’t want to be the one responsible for that.

Fortunately, the roads were clear. By pushing the speed limit, the driver managed to reach the house before the family doctor and the lawyer.

Inopportunely, the previously clear night sky was suddenly overtaken by a violent gale. The wind howled so fiercely that the swans in the community’s artificial lake shrieked in distress, sounding desolate and terrifying in the vast villa district.

In an instant, rain began to pour down in buckets, lashing against the car windows like hailstones. Xia Shibai’s heart sank further.

She had spent a fortune “throwing landmines” (donations) at this book, leaving flowers and comments every day and nourishing it with “nutrient solution.” Her ID was Sweet Congee’s Real Mom. Who could have known that after all her effort “raising” this daughter, the girl would go mad, miss out on the extra chapters, and she herself would die of overwork and transmigrate into the story?

At least she had grown up in an orphanage in her past life and didn’t have many relatives. Her only regret was that her hard-earned year-end bonus and worker’s comp would probably be swallowed up by those greedy “streetlamp-hangers” (capitalists).

It was infuriating!

The rain only added to Xia Shibai’s irritability. The stuffiness she felt during the drive dissipated slightly upon arrival, but her anger toward Auntie Lin and her anger toward capitalists merged into one. Xia Shibai cracked her knuckles and hissed through gritted teeth, “Uncle Wu, grab something to use as a weapon and follow me in.”

In the Xia residence, night lights and hallway lights were supposed to be left on. After all, they were wealthy.

But having lived there for so long, Auntie Lin treated the place as her own. To save on electricity and water, she kept the house pitch black all night. From the outside, it looked abandoned.

The lights in the living room were off now, but not because Auntie Lin was asleep. Instead, she was enjoying a trashy TV drama about mother-in-law conflicts on a high-definition projector. The table was covered in imported snacks that Xia Shibai had ordered from abroad for Xia Yaozhou. From chocolates to handmade candies, everything was there.

If Auntie Lin thought something tasted good, she would pack it up for her daughter-in-law to take home to her grandson. If she didn’t like it, she left it for Xia Yaozhou. Since no one ever came home and Xia Shibai didn’t care about the child, Auntie Lin had become increasingly bold, treating the Xia residence like her private property.

A massive flash of lightning illuminated the living room. Startled, Auntie Lin choked on a piece of chocolate. The high-concentration dark chocolate left her throat feeling dry and bitter. She tossed the large bar into the trash with a look of disgust. “What kind of nasty crap is this? I wouldn’t even feed this to a dog.”

The thunder was followed by the frantic drumming of rain. Auntie Lin squinted, irritably put on her slippers, and headed upstairs. “I wonder if that brat is asleep. With this wind and rain, if she didn’t close the window, I’ll have to wash her damn bedsheets tomorrow.”

“If that little bastard who wasn’t even wanted by her own mother dares to cause me trouble, I’ll kill her,” Auntie Lin muttered, her anger rising. She swung her hand through the air as if hitting someone. She said this, but in reality, she didn’t dare hit Xia Yaozhou’s face. Usually, her “lessons” were reserved for places covered by clothing.

The more she imagined Xia Yaozhou making a mess in the room and increasing her workload, the angrier she got. Profanities poured out of her mouth, and her footsteps on the stairs grew heavier.

Thud. Thud. Thud.

The sound terrified Xia Yaozhou. Wrapped in a quilt, she hid inside a small wardrobe, her tiny body trembling violently. “There’s a monster… on rainy days, the monster comes…” she whispered. “Xiao Qiu said… have to wait… wait for the superhero to fight the monster…”

Her voice was as small as her frame. Wrapped in a thin blanket, wearing tattered pajamas and with her hair a tangled mess, she looked nothing like a child from a wealthy family. Calling her a little beggar on the street would be an insult to beggars.

Hearing the footsteps approach and Auntie Lin’s loud cursing, the child in the wardrobe shook uncontrollably. She pressed her hands tightly over her mouth, terrified that the slightest sound would draw the woman’s attention.

The bedroom was dark. The high-quality wardrobe smelled of mothballs, making Xia Yaozhou’s eyes sting. Between physiological irritation and psychological terror, tears filled her eyes.

She didn’t know why Auntie Lin treated her this way. She didn’t understand what Xiao Qiu meant when he said Auntie Lin was a bad person and that she should tell an adult to punish her. For as long as she could remember, she had lived with Auntie Lin.

Auntie Lin called her a “money-losing brat” who was “born but not raised.” She told her that her mother didn’t want her and had abandoned her here, and sometimes she withheld food and water. Auntie Lin would point at boys like Xiao Qiu and Xiao Yi and say, “This good food and drink should be given to boys. If they eat their fill and grow strong, our country has hope. A useless girl like you should be starved from birth, otherwise you’ll start thinking you can be the master of your own life.”

Auntie Lin would sneer at her. “Just like your mother. Acting like some ‘strong career woman,’ yet she can’t even hold onto a man’s heart after having a brat like you.”

Xia Yaozhou didn’t understand these things, nor did she know why Auntie Lin harbored such deep malice toward her. All the treats in the house were given to Xiao Qiu and Xiao Pang; she couldn’t even get a drop of milk. Sometimes, while chatting and laughing with other nannies, Auntie Lin would smile while pinching the flesh on Yaozhou’s back, forcing her to take out candies Auntie Lin had previously stuffed in her pocket to share with the boys.

“If you don’t share your food, how can they play with you?”

Little Yaozhou’s back would ache terribly, and tears would stream down her face, but she would still reach into her pocket and timidly offer the candy. “Can… can I play with you?”

Even as a small child, she understood: if she didn’t play with them, Auntie Lin wouldn’t cook for her when they got home and would punish her instead. “A shameful thing like you… I don’t know what use you were born for. It’s embarrassing to take you out. You’ll go hungry tonight.”

If she didn’t please the little boys Auntie Lin liked, her only reward was endless hunger.

The rain outside was deafening, mixed with the rustling of leaves. But even the darkness of the wardrobe couldn’t block out Auntie Lin’s terrifying, death-knell voice.

“Xia Yaozhou?”

“Where is that dead brat?”

“Stupid girl! You didn’t even close the window before bed. You’re going to clean those soaked sheets yourself tomorrow morning!”

Yaozhou’s tears had almost run dry. She covered her mouth with all her might. She knew the superhero Xiao Qiu talked about wouldn’t appear. Tonight, like every other night, she would have to survive the storm alone.

The superhero didn’t hear her prayers, but the “monster” did.

A sliver of light pierced the darkness of the wardrobe, falling on her frail body. In her dark, grape-like eyes, she saw the reflection of Auntie Lin’s distorted, hideous face.

“Do you have any idea how much dust is in this wardrobe? Who’s going to wash the dirty quilt? You idiot!”

Auntie Lin angrily yanked Xia Yaozhou out. There was a loud thud—the force was so great that the back of Yaozhou’s head slammed against the edge of the wardrobe door.

The sharp sound didn’t stop Auntie Lin’s violence. Instead, it caused the cry Yaozhou had been holding back to explode like the thunder outside.

“MOMMY!”

“I don’t want you! I want my mommy!”

“You’re a bad guy! Mommy, save me!”

Downstairs, the door lock required a combination of iris, fingerprint, and passcode. However, the fingerprint scanner wouldn’t work in the rain, neither would the iris scan, and Xia Shibai had long since forgotten the passcode.

She was so angry she wanted to kick the door down. If she hadn’t been wobbling in high heels, she might have grabbed a nearby fire extinguisher to smash the lock.

Old Wu, being sharp-eyed, quickly stopped her. “I’ll call security and property management, it’ll be fast! President Xia, just wait a second!”

The villa district security patrolled on motorcycles. They arrived immediately upon receiving Old Wu’s call. They were shocked to see Xia Shibai; the Xia family hadn’t been here in a long time.

Although someone lived in the house, when that middle-aged woman first arrived, she said she was a nanny. Later, she claimed to be a relative of the Xia family. She was always with a scrawny little girl. The property management had tried to contact Xia Shibai several times but could never reach her. Seeing the woman coming and going as she pleased, they assumed she was just a poor distant relative—after all, the other owners were all wealthy.

If she were truly a kidnapper or a thief, it seemed impossible that Xia Shibai wouldn’t have heard about it or that the neighbors wouldn’t have said anything.

Xia Shibai’s head was pounding, she was soaked by the rain, and the wind made her temper flare. “What are you staring for? Open the door!”

The management staff froze. Just as he was about to use the master card to open the door, the group heard a piercing scream from upstairs.

It was a child, crying for her mother and for help, interspersed with angry shouting.

“You money-losing brat, what are you crying for?! You idiot! That bitch of a mother of yours abandoned you long ago. Even if you cry yourself to death tonight, no one is coming!”

Xia Shibai’s face turned as dark as the night. She hissed, “Open it. Now. Can’t you hear someone is being murdered up there?”

“Yes! Right away, Miss Xia!”

Old Wu was a clever man. Hearing the shouting from upstairs, he immediately turned on his phone’s camera.

Beep—

“Welcome home.”

Xia Shibai kicked off her high heels, grabbed a golf club from the stand by the door, and took the stairs three at a time. Her headache and stomach pain vanished in an instant.

Xia Shibai had only one thought, gritting her teeth: Dammit, that is my precious daughter whom I spent real money on for her 100,000-word debut!

“You’re the one who’s dead! Your whole family is dead!”

Clutching the golf club, Xia Shibai stared at Auntie Lin’s panicked, bewildered face. She glanced at the heart-wrenchingly sobbing Xia Yaozhou and, without a word, swung the club directly at the hand Auntie Lin was using to grip the girl.

She used 100% of her strength. Not a bit less.

A scream like a slaughtered pig echoed through the room, followed by the sharp whistle of the golf club cutting through the air.

The property management staff stood paralyzed at the door, too scared to intervene for a long time. Only while Xia Shibai was unilaterally pummeling Auntie Lin did they manage to pick up the weeping, pitiful Xia Yaozhou to comfort her.

As for Old Wu, he had originally turned on his camera to record Auntie Lin’s crimes against the child. Instead, he witnessed President Xia’s heroic, battle-hardened posture as she fought with a hatred for evil.

Old Wu silently put his phone away. He even glanced at the hallway security camera, then quietly went to the control room to cut the power.

Power outage during a thunderstorm… perfectly normal.