Chapter 170: Two Rewards
After venting her anger, she gradually calmed down and asked the system: [Why, in this version of fate, did Yan Zhengqing leave so easily?]
The system replied: [Mainly because in the reality you experienced, when Yan Zhengqing was splashed with water, you and Jiang Chuchu intervened. Although he left at the time, he had already accumulated resentment.]
[Because of that resentment, when he appeared the second time, he didn’t want to let it go so easily, which is why Jiang Chuchu couldn’t scare him off.]
[On the other hand, for various reasons, the students of Class Three learned the truth and stood on Xie Xiangxue’s side, criticizing Yan Zhengqing.]
[Those criticisms further intensified his emotions. To maintain his dignity, he became even more unwilling to back down.]
Gu Qinghuan pondered: [So it seems that sometimes, the changes I bring to fate can also have negative effects.]
The system immediately responded: [I don’t think that’s a negative effect. The changes you brought allowed Xie Xiangxue to gain support. At most, it only made the situation more complicated, but the outcome is far better than the most desperate version of her fate.]
How could the host use a word like “negative” on herself? The system had never seen anyone whose actions produced more positive impact.
After explaining, the system continued to the next node.
[Second key node: New Year’s Gala]
Although “Walking with the Light” did not exist in this version of fate, Mingde still held a New Year’s Gala.
In the months since school began, Xie Xiangxue had endured quite a bit of gossip because of Yan Zhengqing.
She eventually figured out who Lin Xiaoxue was. Although she still couldn’t understand her thinking, she resolved to stay away from both Yan Zhengqing and Lin Xiaoxue.
Thanks to her excellent English, she still served as the class’s English representative and gradually made some friends.
When Yan Zhengqing’s lackeys slandered her, her friends would speak up for her. She wasn’t completely isolated.
Meanwhile, Yan Zhengqing and Lin Xiaoxue behaved like a bickering couple—arguing, reconciling, breaking apart, and coming back together—yet never explicitly saying things like “I like you” or “we’re together.”
However, because things had never been clearly explained, Xie Xiangxue’s existence made Lin Xiaoxue feel even more insecure. Whenever she saw Xie Xiangxue, she would say things like, “Is she prettier than me?” or “You two seem more compatible.”
To comfort Lin Xiaoxue, Yan Zhengqing naturally had to prove he didn’t like Xie Xiangxue at all. He would call her ugly, say her abilities were inferior to Lin Xiaoxue’s, and claim he had no interest in her.
At the New Year’s Gala, after learning that Xie Xiangxue would perform a solo dance—and remembering that one of the guests was a dancer who had collaborated with the Yan family—he came up with a plan.
So, in front of everyone, during what should have been a brief post-performance interview, that dancer spent a full three minutes harshly criticizing Xie Xiangxue, reducing her performance to nothing.
Even though many in the audience thought her performance was excellent, they didn’t dare speak up under the weight of the dancer’s “authority.”
After the gala, the incident quickly spread online. Although many dance students disagreed with the dancer, Xie Xiangxue herself had little influence, and her voice barely made a ripple.
Even her dance teacher was affected and tactfully suggested she leave the studio, as her presence might harm future enrollment.
Xie Xiangxue couldn’t understand why such a disaster had fallen upon her. With that dancer’s words, her dream of studying dance abroad became completely impossible.
She drifted through her days in a daze until she accidentally overheard a conversation between Lin Xiaoxue and Yan Zhengqing, only to learn that everything she had suffered was merely a whim of Yan Zhengqing trying to please Lin Xiaoxue.
She couldn’t believe it.
Her carefully planned life, all her hard work—trampled so casually.
In a moment of impulse, she rushed up to confront them, only to be impatiently shoved aside by Yan Zhengqing, who pushed her right toward the edge of a drainage opening.
Her foot slipped into a crack. Losing her balance, she fell heavily, her ankle breaking instantly.
She fainted from the pain. Yan Zhengqing, however, thought she was pretending and left with Lin Xiaoxue.
By the time a passing student finally took her to the hospital, she had missed the optimal treatment window. Even after recovery, she would suffer severe pain from time to time and could no longer dance as before.
Her dream was completely destroyed.
This time, even deep breaths didn’t help. Gu Qinghuan exploded in anger inside the system space:
[That lunatic! That crazy woman! They’re insane! The Yan family collapsing is still too light a punishment for him!]
She couldn’t bear to continue watching and directly asked: [What happens afterward? Just tell me—I don’t want to see it anymore.]
The system checked its database and summarized concisely:
[By senior year, Lin Xiaoxue, with the help of Yan Zhengqing and the dancer, secured a spot to study abroad. While she was away, Yan Zhengqing, bored, remembered Xie Xiangxue and treated her as a substitute.]
[At that time, Xie Xiangxue had just begun to recover mentally and planned to enter university to pursue a dance-related career. However, due to Yan Zhengqing’s interference, she couldn’t properly take the college entrance exam.]
[Her family’s business was also crushed under pressure from the Yan family. For her family’s sake, she eventually submitted to Yan Zhengqing and was confined in the Yan family villa, allowed to see her family only once a month.]
[She developed severe depression. When Lin Xiaoxue returned, Yan Zhengqing ruthlessly discarded her. On her way out, she was hit by a car and fell off a cliff, dying on the spot.]
Hearing it only made her angrier.
Right now, Gu Qinghuan just wanted to go back to reality, find Yan Zhengqing, say nothing, and slap him dozens of times with a ping-pong paddle.
After Xie Xiangxue’s settlement was complete, the space grew brighter again.
The system asked: [For this personal reward, do you still want to use it like last time—to show the current Xie Xiangxue’s fate to the version of her with the most desperate ending?]
Gu Qinghuan calmed herself and thought for a long while, then slowly shook her head:
[Can I keep it for now? Let me see Bao Qingsong’s settlement first.]
The system readily agreed: [Of course. This is your personal reward—you can claim it whenever you like.]
[Now beginning Bao Qingsong’s settlement.]
Just as the system’s earlier data indicated, for Bao Qingsong, the most critical point in his fate was the death of his sister, Bao Rujian.
Bao Qingsong was a posthumous child. His father, also a police officer, had been killed by a suspect during an arrest. After joining the force, Bao Rujian inherited their father’s badge number.
Their mother had raised the siblings to be upright people. After Bao Rujian’s death, she suffered a brain hemorrhage from grief and passed away as well, leaving Bao Qingsong alone in the world.
Through various means, he discovered that Jinding was the mastermind behind everything. However, the evidence he could gather on the surface was far too limited.
So he decided to undergo plastic surgery, infiltrate Jinding under a new identity, collect evidence with his own hands, and then hand it over to the authorities.
Unfortunately, at the final moment, he was discovered and killed in a staged car accident.
After finishing Bao Qingsong’s settlement, the space brightened once again, and Gu Qinghuan’s figure gradually reappeared.
Still somewhat translucent, she frowned tightly for a long time before speaking:
[I need to think about how to use these two rewards. Can I leave for today?]
[Of course. Get some good rest, host.] The system gently sent her out of the space.
Her consciousness returned to reality.
But unlike last time, after witnessing the most desperate fates of Xie Xiangxue and Bao Qingsong, Gu Qinghuan couldn’t feel happy at all.
Her heart still felt heavy.
In the end, she could only grab a pillow in frustration and cover her head with it.
She needed to think carefully—how to use these two rewards, so that Xie Xiangxue and Bao Qingsong, who faced such tragic endings, could be freed from their suffering before death.
