After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 33

Xia Yaozhou woke up, ate and drank her fill, and spent a lovely time lounging in bed watching several episodes of Ultraman, yawning as she clung to Xia Shibai’s arm.

In her dream, the Xia Residence was still just as large, but it was empty and desolate.

If she and her other self didn’t speak, it would become completely silent.

Now, however, it was different; someone was lying there with her, everyone watching the same thing and complaining together.

As Xia Yaozhou watched, her hand holding her water bottle gradually relaxed, and before long, she fell back into dreamland.

After confirming that Xia Yaozhou was fine, everyone dispersed to attend to their own business.

Gu Mingyi asked Qin Zhijin to help her carry her books to the foot of the hospital bed; she read while waiting for Xia Yaozhou to wake up again, and if she got tired, she would simply lie down at the end of the bed and pull a small blanket over her stomach.

It was very peaceful.

Qin Zhijin couldn’t say she understood Chen Cun well, but isn’t the base nature of such people that the more you ignore them, the more they rush to act like jerks?

Regarding the news of the class reunion, Qin Zhijin didn’t take the initiative to ask; she thought Chen Cun would hold out until the very last day to tell her the time and location, only to mock her from a high horse.

Unexpectedly, before four days of ignoring him had even passed, Chen Cun sent the invitation; his tone was still unpleasant, but somewhat restrained.

It looked like he had learned a bit of a lesson after being dealt with by Xia Shibai last time.

Qin Zhijin forwarded the message to Xia Shibai and received an immediate reply; with the corners of her mouth curled up in a smile, she leaned relaxedly against the sofa, feeling the hot wind swirling in from the slightly cracked window behind her, dispersing the chill of the air conditioning.

Xia Shibai was confirming with Yao Yao how far the previously settled project had progressed; once everything was finished, she asked Shao Qing to wait a moment in the meeting room.

“Go keep an eye on a few people for me; there are some things I want to understand.”

After hearing the task, Shao Qing’s face was full of question marks. “President Xia, I am a personal assistant, not a famous detective…”

This kind of tracking and finding evidence wasn’t her area of expertise, not to mention that these were events from many years ago.

“If you can’t do it, don’t others have a way? Just take the money and go find them.”

“…” Shao Qing sighed softly and accepted the task. “Fine, I’ll do my best to find them for you.”

“Find them and give them to me within a week.”

“A week?!” A curse was on the tip of Shao Qing’s tongue; she really wanted to scream at the stinky capitalist, but hearing Xia Shibai give a hum with her eyes tightly shut, Shao Qing took a deep breath and acted as if nothing had happened.

“I’ll be as fast as I can. If it doesn’t work, I won’t have a choice. After all, I have to start contacting these things from scratch.”

“Mhm, anyway, as fast as you can.”

Xia Shibai having Shao Qing investigate things from years ago was also because she wanted to have this evidence in her hands before the class reunion.

After all, it was impossible for Qin Zhijin to continue living under these messy slanders. If you endure for a day, they take an inch; if you endure for a year, they can’t wait to add insult to injury and bully you for another year.

Even if Qin Zhijin didn’t care, Xia Shibai still wanted to resolve this matter.

Once all the work was handled, Xia Shibai sat in a secluded corner of the hospital and closed her eyes to soothe her eye fatigue.

Inevitably, the Qin Zhijin from the other world appeared before her eyes.

Would the “her” of that world really take the initiative to solve this matter? Based on Xia Shibai’s current understanding of the woman, the answer was naturally no.

Her heart couldn’t help but sink; the more she thought about it, the angrier she got, and her expression became even more displeased.

No, she still had to find a few more people; the things Shao Qing could find alone were far too few and wouldn’t be enough when the time came.

It was more reliable to find more people and gather more information, to be ready at any moment to use the data and news to whip those people into shape, lest they spend all day with nothing better to do than spread rumors in places others can’t see.

Action followed thought; Xia Shibai began to search for acquaintances she could use within the original owner’s memories.

Before going home, the program crew told Xia Shibai, “We will edit the footage for these pilot clips and send them to you first. If there are any problems, you can tell us directly, and we’ll finalize it after the changes are made.”

After saying this, the crew also told Xia Shibai that they would deliver the items from the campsite to their doorstep.

Since Xia Shibai had just finished her high fever, the driving duty fell to Qin Zhijin. When they returned, luggage was piled at the door, and a staff member wearing a hat was hiding in the shadows watching; seeing them return, the staff waved, handed over the items, and after confirming everything was correct, asked Xia Shibai to take a photo in the group chat for confirmation before leaving.

“Chuan Chuan! Xiao Yi!” Xiao Pang and Xiao Qiu were covered in sweat; one look and you knew they had been playing wildly outside for a long time as they sprinted toward them on their short legs.

“Where did you go? Did you secretly go out to play behind our backs? The gifts Xiao Qiu and I prepared long ago weren’t even given to Xiao Yi.” Yin Weining wiped away the sweat that was about to fall into his eyes and snorted: “When exactly are you going to go to kindergarten with us? Why are Xiao Qiu and I the only ones suffering through such a painful thing?”

As soon as Xia Yaozhou heard about going to school, she hurriedly waved her hand: “No, no! It’s so painful, Xiao Pang can just suffer alone. Zhouzhou doesn’t want to go to school.”

“No school today! My dad recently bought me new toys, I’ll take you to play!” Xiao Pang was also exceptionally good at comforting himself—if he had to go, he’d go, but at least he didn’t have to go today.

Xia Yaozhou was drawn in by the toys, but then she looked indecisively at Gu Mingyi standing beside her, her little head twisting rapidly; finally, she reached out to tug at Gu Mingyi’s hem and leaned into her ear. “Do you want to come with us?”

“Sure.” Gu Mingyi didn’t understand why Xia Yaozhou had to lean so close to say this, but she nodded obediently.

In the next second, Xia Yaozhou didn’t even ask Xia Shibai if she could go play; she simply took Gu Mingyi’s hand of her own accord and followed Xiao Pang and Xiao Qiu, ready to play with the new toys at their house.

Xia Shibai didn’t have that much time to worry about her; she just shouted at their retreating backs that she would pick them up at dinner time and didn’t manage much else.

“Let’s go, I’ll help you carry the things in first.” Xia Shibai rolled up her sleeves and reached out to help carry two pieces of luggage next door.

Qin Zhijin was stunned for a moment, then carried the last bit of things and followed.

By the time everything was done, it was only after four in the afternoon; cooking and eating would still take some time.

Qin Zhijin poured a glass of warm water for Xia Shibai. “What do you want to eat tonight? I’ll make it.”

“Anything is fine, I’m not picky.” Xia Shibai walked out of the house and stood in the yard for a while. Remembering something, she got up and walked toward her own yard.

There was a faint patch of green in the small fenced-off flower bed. Xia Shibai was somewhat happy when she hadn’t gotten close, but when she crouched down and looked closely, she felt something was off.

Qin Zhijin followed behind her. “Hmm? The mint actually grew out?”

Xia Shibai pursed her lips and stared at the green on the ground without speaking.

Seeing her silence, Qin Zhijin also slowly crouched down and examined the green leaves in the soil.

She noticed these green leaves were different from the mint in her memory. “Is this mint a new variety? Why does it look like it’s not the same thing as the mint I know?”

Xia Shibai looked at Qin Zhijin resentfully. She was unwilling in her heart, but she had no choice but to point at the lush weeds growing beside the flower bed. “Is it possible that the thing that grew out… isn’t mint?”

Qin Zhijin looked in the direction she pointed, and after carefully comparing the two plants with different growth states, she nodded and asked: “You should be staying at home these next few days and not going anywhere, right?”

“Why?”

“To find the flower shop lady to come help tidy the garden.” Qin Zhijin took her phone out of her pocket and started looking for the shop owner’s contact info, saying matter-of-factly: “Otherwise, if you fence off a piece of land here to grow weeds, people passing by will probably think we have a problem with our brains.”

“It’s a life too!” Xia Shibai rejected.

“Its life is a life, but my face is also a face.” Qin Zhijin silently gestured at the almost zero distance between the two houses. “We were already close to begin with and visit each other often. If people start seeing our two houses as one, I really can’t afford the shame of ‘fencing a garden to grow grass’.”

Xia Shibai: “…”

The two were at a stalemate for a moment, and finally, Xia Shibai compromised.

“Let the shop owner come as soon as possible to tidy up the garden; I can’t take it anymore.” Xia Shibai couldn’t help but reach out and pull out a few of the weeds that had managed to grow in the soil, clapping her hands indignantly. “She didn’t say growing mint was so hard back then!”

“Is it possible… that there’s no difficulty in growing mint? The fact that we can’t grow it is entirely our own problem?”

“Impossible.” Xia Shibai said with certainty: “Absolutely impossible.”

How could this matter be her problem? She was truly following the farming methods taught by the orphanage director! She could grow things back then, so why not now?

Qin Zhijin quit while she was ahead, silently making an appointment with the shop owner to renovate the garden. There was no need to plant flowers; they would just plant mosquito-repelling plants as originally planned.

Seeing Xia Shibai still pondering by the flower bed which step exactly she had gone wrong on, Qin Zhijin’s eyelids twitched, fearing that Little President Xia might get stubborn and ask her to cancel the appointment so she could try again with the remaining seeds.

“Let’s go, it’s getting late. After we buy groceries at the community supermarket and finish cooking, it’ll be about time to pick those two up from Wei Ning’s house.”

“Fine.” Xia Shibai naturally took the offered exit, wishing in her heart to say goodbye to all farming, yet her mouth remained stubborn. “I really feel like there’s no problem with my planting method. When I have time, I want to try again.”

“Okay…”

Qin Zhijin thought to herself: Give it a rest.

Stop torturing the resilient grass seeds.

Xia Yaozhou was playing with an assembled 4WD racing car at Xiao Pang’s house; the track needed to be built by themselves.

She couldn’t understand the assembly instructions, so she could only act as a manual laborer, but she had a great time nonetheless. Especially when the racing car was placed on the track and zoomed out with a whoosh, crashing through the track they had worked hard to build and showing off its top speed, Xia Yaozhou couldn’t help but feel satisfied in her heart.

While playing happily, Xia Yaozhou stood aside and looked at her companions. The words Big Yaozhou said unexpectedly surfaced in her mind; her little face, which had been full of smiles just a moment ago, was now left only with stagnation and worry.

The car’s remote control made a round through their hands and returned to Xia Yaozhou, but she had little interest.

The noisy sound of the motor vanished from the living room, and it suddenly became quiet. The gazes of the three companions inevitably fell upon Xia Yaozhou, who was clutching the remote.

Zheng Xuan stood aside, easily sensing the aura of sadness from Xia Yaozhou. He approached and patted her shoulder, asking: “Did you think of something unhappy? Do you want to tell us? There are only us kids here; no adults will know, and we won’t tell them.”

“Yeah, we’re good friends, why are you suddenly unhappy? Just say whatever you want. Do you think this racing car isn’t fun?” Xiao Pang looked at Xia Yaozhou and thought for a bit. “If you think it’s not fun, my mom brought back an AI robot a few days ago; it’s acting as a little nanny at my house now.”

“But I don’t think it’s fun; it’s dummy-dummy, not smart at all.”

Even Gu Mingyi fixed her gaze on her, her lips slightly pursed, unable to guess why Xia Yaozhou had suddenly fallen silent.

“Will you leave me?” Xia Yaozhou pondered for a moment, then looked up at the three standing beside her. “When we grow up, will we still be good friends? Will it be just me all alone by then?”

Gu Mingyi was puzzled. “Why ask this question? We are playing together now; when we grow up, if nothing unexpected happens, of course we’ll still be playing together.”

Xiao Qiu nodded in agreement.

However, Xiao Pang rubbed his chin, his eyes rolling in his sockets as he said earnestly: “Of course we’ll be good friends playing together, but there’s a tiny prerequisite before that—Chuan Chuan also has to go to school with us.”

“If Chuan Chuan still doesn’t want to go to school like before and only wants to stay home with Auntie Xia, then we will definitely drift apart.” Seeing everyone’s gaze fall on him, Yin Weining couldn’t help but puff out his chest, using this answer to showcase his intelligence.

“My brother said that if you want to maintain a long-term relationship with someone, you have to catch up with their pace; you can’t become a bun and a chicken leg. Everyone has to be on the same starting line forever to always have things to talk about.”

“Only if Chuan Chuan enters school to study will we always be working hard on the same starting line.”

The corner of Zheng Xuan’s mouth twitched. “It’s can’t become a burden and a drag, what on earth are buns and chicken legs?”

“There’s no difference anyway; everyone understands.”

Xia Yaozhou was somewhat confused and didn’t quite understand the meaning of Xiao Pang’s repeated words, but there was one simple and clear answer: whatever they did, she had to do too.

As long as everyone was doing it, she wouldn’t be left behind.

As for studying…

Xia Yaozhou hurriedly looked at Gu Mingyi and reached out to tug her sleeve. “I want to be in the same class as you. We’ll go study together; that way we won’t drift apart.”

Xia Yaozhou didn’t understand why the grown-up “self” had no impression of Gu Mingyi, but at this stage, Xiao Yi was her most important friend.

The first choice for going to school was naturally for the two of them to go together.

Gu Mingyi didn’t know what had provoked Xia Yaozhou, but she nodded. “Of course, we’ll definitely be in one class. Don’t be afraid.”

Xiao Pang looked on with envy, but if he had to repeat a grade and study for another year…

Then never mind! Effort to graduate quickly from school—that was Xiao Pang’s birthday wish!

He hoped he would grow up quickly so he wouldn’t be restricted by his older brother anymore.

The children began to envision every year in the future, where they could gather together just like now, playing happily and sharing the things they had experienced.

No matter what, Xia Yaozhou hoped everyone wouldn’t leave her behind.

Even if the bonds between the four of them leaned in different directions, as long as they were tied together, one day, they would burst forth with astonishing power. Even if that power came ten or twenty years later, it would still be a good thing.

Until then, they would only be a source of headaches for their parents.

When it was time to sleep at night, Xia Shibai was thinking about how to coax information out of Xia Yaozhou, only to find that the daughter lying in bed ready for sleep had already chattered through a recount of everything she had experienced.

“Mommy, are you listening to what I’m saying?” Xia Yaozhou looked up at Xia Shibai and found she was dazed; dissatisfied, she pinched the jade fish hanging around her neck and raised her hand to pat it twice.

“Hmm? I’m listening.”

Xia Shibai snapped back from her shock. “So what did Big Sister say when you were about to fall asleep?”

“It seemed like she asked if Mommy had any questions she wanted to know, and that I could ask her.”

“Okay.” Xia Shibai sorted out a few clues from Xia Yaozhou’s fragmented words.

First, the Big Yaozhou of that world knew her mother had already passed away, and her relationship with “Xia Shibai” was very bad—bad to an irreconcilable degree.

Second, for so many years, Big Yaozhou had no trustworthy friends or adults by her side; no one led her forward, and she had been exploring and figuring things out on her own.

Xia Shibai projected from herself to the Xia Shibai in the original book and found it hard to control herself from thinking: if she hadn’t come over, Xia Yaozhou would have had to face all this alone, just like Big Yaozhou.

Sensing Xia Shibai’s fear and sadness, the cradled Xia Yaozhou fell silent for a moment and burrowed into her mother’s embrace, sniffing the light scent of shower gel.

Xia Yaozhou recalled the warm feeling of being held by Big Yaozhou last night; she naturally relaxed, feeling an infinite sense of security.

Just like right now.

They were family.

“Next time, if you run into her again, be a little nicer to her,” Xia Shibai said. “By the way, help Mommy ask how she dealt with Auntie Lin, and how she met Auntie Qin.”

Xia Shibai hadn’t fully grasped the rules yet, but it wasn’t hard to guess: when this body was sick and fragile, she would enter Big Yaozhou’s world as a third-person dream perspective.

They had no way to perceive Xia Shibai’s presence in that world; everything that happened was like watching a movie.

Xia Shibai had no way to participate, only to observe.

But Xia Yaozhou was different.

Xia Yaozhou was more like entering Big Yaozhou’s world physically; she could communicate and chat with Big Yaozhou, leaving traces of her existence in that world. She just wasn’t sure what the trigger for Xia Yaozhou to enter was. Last time Xia Yaozhou was also sick, but Xia Shibai didn’t see her when she entered.

“Oh, okay!” Xia Yaozhou nodded, saluting like a character in a cartoon. “Mission guaranteed to be completed.”

“But the TV Big Sister watches is so ugly; a bunch of people arguing on the screen, not as good as Ultraman!”

Xia Yaozhou pursed her lips slightly. “And she’s dummy-dummy; the stories she tells aren’t good either.”

“…” Xia Shibai originally wanted to say something, but finally sighed softly and patted Xia Yaozhou’s back to coax her to sleep.

Isn’t insulting her just insulting yourself? There’s an eleven or twelve-year age gap; it’s normal not to get along.

After coaxing Xia Yaozhou to sleep, Xia Shibai was still pondering the fact that Big Yaozhou and Qin Zhijin knew each other.

She couldn’t figure it out—Big Yaozhou’s life trajectory had completely changed; she didn’t know Xiao Qiu, Xiao Pang, or Xiao Yi, yet she just happened to know Qin Zhijin?

Was it because her arrival changed everything? But…

But what was the occasion for them to get to know each other?

Xia Shibai thought until late into the night. While the little stove beside her slept soundly, she couldn’t sleep no matter what, tossing and turning in bed before decisively getting up.

Since she didn’t know when Xia Yaozhou would cross over again, there were many things she wanted to know. Xia Yaozhou didn’t even have a kindergarten diploma; relying on her as a middleman to relay messages would be a victory if she didn’t get them wrong.

Xia Shibai used the smallest piece of paper to print out her questions, thinking of several ways to preserve it.

Finally, she found she could only put it into a small message bottle, then use a string to tie it tight. She yanked it a few times; there were no signs of it falling off, and it was quite stable.

Xia Shibai carefully tied this string around Xia Yaozhou’s wrist, intending to tell her when she woke up tomorrow that if she met Big Yaozhou again, she should hand over the note in the bottle.

After finishing all this, Xia Shibai felt she could finally get a good night’s sleep today.

But halfway through sleeping, she couldn’t help sitting up again.

Why do people in the 21st century still need to use message bottles to communicate? Can the physics of parallel world concepts hurry up and be researched to settle this? It’s really annoying!

Qin Zhijin felt that Xia Shibai had a mysterious level of caution regarding her class reunion—the kind of caution that made her feel she wasn’t going to a reunion, but to some beauty pageant.

Ideally, she would be an existence that stunned the entire room as soon as she was presented.

“No, there’s no need… I haven’t been in contact with them for many years. Is it necessary to dress up so beautifully to attend?” Qin Zhijin looked at herself in the mirror wearing a qipao. Recalling the words Xia Shibai said to her when she woke up, she felt a slight discomfort, but it was quickly covered up as she reached out to pull the sides of the qipao.

“Of course you have to look good. We’re going there to crash the party; who’s actually going to sit down and eat with them?”

“Crashing a party wearing a qipao?”

Qin Zhijin was silent for a long while.

Are you sure it’s not just because you like it?

Xia Shibai waved her hand dismissively. “I’ll crash the party; you just be responsible for watching from the side. What’s wrong with a qipao? Qipaos are so beautiful—the essence of traditional culture.”

“Speak human.”

“When a young lady beats a dog that’s fallen into water, she must be dressed beautifully too.” Xia Shibai persuaded Qin Zhijin. “Since you’re already here, pick a few more. Anyway, you don’t have to go to work now; if you don’t take a gap year at this time, do you plan to grind until early retirement?”

Qin Zhijin: “…”

The words were harsh, but practical.

Looking at a row of over a dozen qipaos, Qin Zhijin couldn’t help but reach out to stop Xia Shibai’s hand from picking further. “Wait a minute. With this many, even if I change twice a day, I could wear them for a long time.”

“It’s fine, I’m paying.”

“No need…” Qin Zhijin still remembered the “neighborly relationship” Xia Shibai mentioned and gave a narrow-minded, stinging smile. “As neighbors, it would be embarrassing to let you settle the bill. I’ll do it myself.”

Xia Shibai, who had already pulled out her card, watched helplessly as Qin Zhijin settled the payment. She raised her hand to rub her nose and asked: “How about I pay next time?”

“Don’t trouble yourself. A neighborly relationship isn’t enough to come here a second time,” Qin Zhijin said. “After Little President Xia takes me to the banquet to beat the dogs in the water, probably no one will dare invite me to a class reunion again.”

Although Qin Zhijin didn’t know what Xia Shibai was going to do, seeing the postal service coming to deliver mail every day next door, she roughly knew that the people at the reunion were in for it.

“True.” Xia Shibai said regretfully: “A pity.”

A pity that Qin Zhijin’s opportunities to stun everyone in a qipao were reduced by several times.

Seeing Xia Shibai’s regretful face, that sense of discomfort welled up in Qin Zhijin again. She couldn’t help asking: “Why are you so certain I would definitely look good in a qipao? You brought me to buy clothes and ran straight to the qipao shop.”

Qin Zhijin had thought about this seriously for a long time.

She had never worn a qipao; she didn’t understand where Xia Shibai got the confidence to be so certain.

Qin Zhijin stared straight at Xia Shibai, for fear of missing any change in her facial expression.

Even a subtle one wouldn’t do.

She absolutely had to find out today who exactly had worn a qipao before.