After Transmigrating As The Mother Of The Pitiful Female Supporting Character in a Campus Novel - Chapter 55

After showering, Xia Shibai sat in the room with Xia Yaozhou. Glancing out of the corner of her eye at the camera not far away, she pulled a small slip of paper from her trouser pocket and handed it to the child, lowering her voice: “Do you remember what Mama told you while we were bathing?”

Xia Yaozhou nodded. She patted the money in her own pocket and said seriously, “I know, I’ve remembered it. If I see Big Sister, I must tell her about this immediately.”

Xia Yaozhou wrapped her arms around Xia Shibai’s neck, nuzzling her gently. “I wonder if Auntie’s stab wound has healed yet.”

As she spoke, her voice took on a hint of distress. “I don’t know when I’ll see Big Sister and Auntie again. What if we can’t make it in time? And… and I don’t know if Big Sister can save Auntie. If she can’t, will there be a problem?”

Perhaps the weight of this task being thrust upon her was causing the child immense pressure; after all, it concerned someone’s life.

Xia Shibai, for some reason, had a strange premonition—that it would be today.

She patted Xia Yaozhou’s back and comforted her softly, “It’s okay. You just tell Big Sister. We do our part and leave the rest to fate. If we make every effort and the result still isn’t what we wished for, then we have nothing to complain about.”

“Remember, if there’s a problem you can’t solve, you must call an adult.” Xia Shibai knew Big Yaozhou’s character too well; she feared the teenager might decide to attempt a rescue alone after hearing the news. If that happened, it would be a miracle if things didn’t turn into a disaster.

Xia Shibai sighed. To prevent Big Yaozhou from acting alone without notifying anyone, she wrote a phone number on another piece of paper, stuffed it into the child’s other pocket, and instructed: “Keep this paper yourself. If there’s trouble, call this number and tell her everything you know.”

Xia Yaozhou looked up slightly. “Will she help me?”

“I don’t know.” Xia Shibai frowned slightly, rubbing the child’s cheeks to ease her mind. “Why are you frowning and looking so gloomy? If she doesn’t help, she doesn’t help. Just be careful in everything, and don’t let yourselves fall into danger.”

“Okay, I will.”

Xia Yaozhou refused to let go, dragging Xia Shibai to bed to sleep with her. However, the weather was muggy. Xia Shibai felt that this seemingly clear night would turn into a rainstorm by the latter half of the night. There were a bunch of animals in the yard, and she couldn’t leave them out in the rain alone.

The large hole in the living room ceiling was an even bigger problem. If she didn’t want the whole house flooded by midnight, she had to find a way to “pre-treat” that hole.

Qin Zhijin, with wet hair, carried Gu Mingyi out of the bathroom to dry her hair. She saw Xia Shibai spreading a large white cloth across a vast section of the living room floor, surrounding it with furniture to create a pen. Xia Shibai hauled the chicks and rabbits in one by one. After ensuring they couldn’t escape, she picked up Doudou, who was sleeping under the corridor, and tossed her into the bedroom.

Upon entering the bedroom, Doudou hesitated. Her little nose twitched as she sniffed around. Once she confirmed the room was full of familiar scents, she began wagging her tail and rolling on the floor. She tried to approach the bed to act cute but was stopped by Qin Zhijin.

Even with her vaccinations, a dirty puppy could not be allowed near the bed.

“What’s wrong? Didn’t you say Doudou should sleep outside?” Qin Zhijin looked at the puppy’s mud-stained fur. Her hand holding the hair dryer paused; she felt the urge to rummage through her suitcase for an old T-shirt to dampen and wipe the puppy’s dirty fur clean.

As Qin Zhijin was thinking this, Xia Shibai had already put the thought into action. Wetting a corner of some spare clothing, she nimbly caught Doudou as the puppy tried to flee, wiping her “little daughter” from head to tail, not sparing the blackened little paws. Once she was sure the dog was clean, she switched the hair dryer to the cool setting to dry the damp fur.

Though she was still a slightly scruffy dog, she looked much more comfortable.

Xia Shibai set Doudou on the floor. The unrestricted puppy ran like the wind, barked twice at the “evil” hair dryer, then found a small corner to hide in and lick her fur, her desire to jump on the bed largely extinguished.

“It’s too muggy now; I expect a heavy rainstorm tonight,” Xia Shibai said. “I hope I’m overthinking it. I’m going to see what can be done about that big hole outside.”

“I’ll go with you.”

Qin Zhijin also felt the heat. Before leaving, she warned the two children not to lure Doudou onto the bed, then followed Xia Shibai out in her slippers.

In the end, after circling the house, the only thing they could find to catch the water was the large wooden bathing tub from the bathroom.

“There’s no other way. If it really rains hard in the middle of the night, we’ll probably be woken up anyway. We’ll just pour the water out when the tub gets full,” Qin Zhijin said, looking up at the massive hole in the ceiling. She felt it was inevitable.

“True…”

Xia Shibai sighed. The moment she closed the door, she felt an inexplicable sense of unease. This anxiety seemed to spread, continuing even after she turned off the lights and closed her eyes in bed.

Even though the surroundings were quiet enough to hear the occasional chirping of the chicks in the living room and the insects outside, it did nothing to ease the restlessness in her heart.

In a daze, she finally drifted into a deep sleep.

The weather had turned cold, and winter had set in. Big Yaozhou was tightly bundled in a long black down jacket, with only four fingers peeking out—two carrying bags full of convenience store food, and two holding a hot cheese sausage. She walked slowly along the path of the residential complex.

For some reason, the “President Xia” who had returned a few days ago had scolded her until she was “covered in dog blood” at the hospital. Then, she had covered Qin Zhijin’s medical expenses and reportedly donated a large sum of money to the biomedical research institute where Qin Zhijin worked, calling it an “investment.”

But Big Yaozhou wasn’t stupid. In the end, it was just that President Xia happened to need breakthroughs and progress in that field, using the opportunity of “wiping her daughter’s ass” for the mess she caused to offer an olive branch.

The next day, the cold President Xia even had people replace the entire home security system, and the property manager received a ruthless letter of complaint.

Big Yaozhou’s tongue was slightly scalded by the oozing cheese. She hissed, pressing her teeth against her tongue, as President Xia’s almost emotionless words echoed in her mind: “If you can do the job, do it; if not, get out. You pay thousands in property management fees every month, and for such a shameful incident to happen—it would be only right to make your entire company pack their bags and leave.”

“If you still can’t settle down, you won’t be going to school next semester. You’ll study at home with a tutor for every subject. Your total score isn’t even 300 anyway; going to school is a waste of time.”

Big Yaozhou was beyond speechless, wishing she could punch the woman twice—especially that cold, haughty expression that constantly made one feel mocked.

Even Qin Zhijin, lying in the hospital bed after only meeting President Xia once, agreed: “It’s exactly as you said—she’s like a robot with no feelings.”

Even her apologies were so stiff that if she dubbed a Toy Story robot, people would ask if it was an AI-generated voice.

The “conscience-stricken” President Xia, however, didn’t know what Big Yaozhou and Qin Zhijin were saying about her behind her back. Once her tasks were done, she hired two bodyguards to follow Big Yaozhou from a distance and ordered the property manager to check every blind spot in the complex and install cameras everywhere. Only then did she turn back to go to work.

Big Yaozhou passed the trash can near her door and tossed the skewer inside.

Thinking carefully, it really had been a long time since she had seen Xia Shibai—and a long time since she’d seen that little squirt who had transmigrated from some other space-time.

“Welcome home—”

The mechanical voice interrupted Big Yaozhou’s belated thoughts. As she pushed the door to enter, she found something behind it. It wouldn’t budge easily; something was stuck.

Just as she was about to stick her head in through her puffy down jacket to look, a fair, tender little hand gripped the door. Moments later, a little girl with messy hair and wearing pajamas peeked out from behind the door.

She looked as if she had just woken up, her eyes squinting slightly and her mouth pouting as she looked dissatisfied at the person who had woken her.

“Why are you just getting back? You have no idea how long, long, long I’ve been waiting for you at home!” Xia Yaozhou had woken up to find she had “transmigrated” to her home again, just like the previous times. She had run from upstairs to downstairs, excitedly searching for Big Yaozhou, calling her name several times. Finding no one, she had collapsed on the sofa, wrapped herself in a small blanket, and fallen asleep.

Getting cold in her half-dreaming state, Xia Yaozhou had wrapped herself in the blanket and moved to the door, wanting to be the first to know when Big Yaozhou returned. Consequently, she had curled up in the small corner behind the door, her head leaning against the icy wooden door, and fell asleep.

Her head hurt from being bumped by the wooden door just now, so she had groggily untangled herself from the blanket to peek at the person opening the door.

Big Yaozhou was startled. Seeing the child dressed so thinly, she hurriedly made Xia Yaozhou step back. “Hurry back to the sofa with your blanket. It’s too cold outside; you’ll catch a cold if the wind blows on you.”

Xia Yaozhou obediently hugged her blanket and rolled onto the leather sofa barefoot. She rolled around several times comfortably before showing the top half of her face from the soft blanket and asking, “How is Auntie Qin’s injury? Is it better?”

“What have you been doing lately? Are you busy?”

“I’ll tell you! I’ve learned so, so many things lately! I even went to some village with Mama to play. That village has so many little animals! I made many animal friends, and now we even have a puppy at home. Her name is Doudou! Super cute!”

The child’s desire to share was extremely strong. While Big Yaozhou turned on the central air conditioning, took off her cold down jacket, and set the steaming food on the table, she also found a children’s toothbrush and rinse cup she didn’t remember buying. She even had plush kitten slippers ready by the sofa.

Big Yaozhou listened quietly. Once the chill had left her body, she reached out to pick up the babbling child and took her to the bathroom to wash her face and brush her teeth. After everything was done, the two sat cross-legged in front of the coffee table to eat—just like the last two times—and finally had the time to continue the conversation from before.