Chapter 19: Real Script or Fake?
Ding! [Host has obtained one Inferior Eye of Reincarnation. It has been used.]
The system’s notification echoed faintly in the air — but unfortunately, Ning Xiyue had already lost consciousness and didn’t hear a single word.
When she regained awareness again, she realized her consciousness was no longer inside her body. Instead, she was inside a vast, empty, blindingly white space — completely bare and glaringly bright.
She called out tentatively:
“Little Turtle? You there? System? No. 3333?”
“Comrade Ji?”
No response.
“What the heck is going on? What was that little glowing orb? And where even am I now?”
Standing in this strange new space, Ning Xiyue’s head was full of question marks. Since when did opening a gift become risky? And what kind of weird sign-in reward was this supposed to be?
Still, she wasn’t too worried. Sign-in rewards were always beneficial to the host, never harmful. And since the system was soul-bound to her, it wouldn’t try to hurt her anyway.
But what was she supposed to do now? Ning Xiyue looked around the empty white space carefully, then eventually gave up with a sigh. The place wasn’t even 30 square meters — nothing but endless white.
“Forget it. I’m tired. I’ll just take a nap first.”
As she drifted into a deep sleep, the space began to change. Scenes started to appear on the surrounding walls — and at the same time, Ning Xiyue began to dream.
In the dream, she was reading a novel — the very same one where Ning Xiaoxiao was the heroine. But this time, the book cover had changed. Excited, Ning Xiyue clicked to open it, ready to read the story thoroughly from the start.
Except… this wasn’t the same book anymore.
The title had changed. The content was completely different. And the heroine wasn’t Ning Xiaoxiao — it was Chen Yechu, the “vicious supporting character” she had met on the train.
Chen Yechu was a reborn woman. In her previous life, when she was middle-aged, she discovered that the husband she’d staked her future on had cheated on her — with her best friend, who had never truly cared for her and whose “help” had always been calculated.
Then, by accident, Chen Yechu was reborn — back to age 17, before anything had begun.
And that “scumbag husband” from her past life? It was none other than Xia Zhipeng, the man who’d greeted Ning Xiyue in the dining car earlier that day. The cheating best friend? Ning Xiaoxiao.
After rebirth, Chen Yechu cut ties with both the scumbag and the fake friend without hesitation. Armed with two lifetimes of memories, she focused on building her career and correcting the regrets of her past — and along the way, she gained love and friendship as well.
Naturally, as a reborn protagonist, Chen Yechu had a golden finger too: an online shop account on “SomeBao” linked to her bank card — with a balance of 500,000 yuan. She could use it to shop online, and while she’d need to recharge it with money from this era once the balance ran out, 500,000 was more than enough to get her through the hardest years.
Her male lead was Yu Zhiyu, the educated youth assigned to the countryside with her. Liu Yao even played the role of half a matchmaker for them.
The more Ning Xiyue read, the more fascinated she became — until the pages stopped turning. And then a sentence appeared on the screen:
[Eye of Reincarnation: Usage complete.]
Damn it!
That was it? Barely a thousand words of outline? What kind of joke was this?!
Fuming, Ning Xiyue was abruptly kicked out of the dream.
The first thing she did upon waking was interrogate the system.
“System, what was that glowing orb? And what was going on just now? And that dream — was any of it real?”
Ding! [The glowing orb was the Inferior Eye of Reincarnation you drew. What you experienced just now was the usage process. The content you saw in the dream is the foundational narrative of this world. This world is derived from that story and can serve as a reference to help you better integrate.]
Ning Xiyue was stunned.
“What? Are you saying the world I transmigrated into is that book? Then what about the version I read before — the one with Ning Xiaoxiao as the heroine?”
The villainess became the protagonist?
“That’s because the version you read was a pirated and heavily edited knockoff. Parts of it were altered maliciously. Some of the content was true, and some was false — you’ll need to judge for yourself. But in the original, the heroine has always been Chen Yechu.”
So she’d been relying on a half-true, half-fake script this whole time… Fortunately, at least that lucky stone had been real — and some of the plot points still held up.
System No. 3333 puffed up its turtle body and spoke solemnly:
“Host, please support original works. We take piracy very seriously.”
Ning Xiyue felt a pang of guilt. Back then, she’d had no money and had joined a novel-sharing group, downloading TXT files people uploaded whenever she ran out of books to read.
Piracy corrupts people. She swore she’d never read pirated novels again — only originals from now on.
No wonder that version had seemed so off — the plot was disjointed, the chapters chaotic, and the later storylines nonsensical. She’d ended up skimming through it and abandoning it halfway.
She was even starting to suspect that the “pirate” author had named the character Ning Xiaoxiao after themselves and rewritten parts of the story for self-indulgence.
But there was still one question bothering her:
“Why was I only able to see an outline — barely a thousand words — and nothing more?”
“Host, your reward was the Inferior Eye of Reincarnation. Emphasis on inferior. ‘Inferior’ as in ‘low-quality.’ You should be grateful you even got an outline. That’s already incredibly lucky.”
Ning Xiyue, not feeling grateful at all: “……”
“The real world that branched out from the novel can’t be summarized in just a few lines. The plot is for reference only and has no practical use. Everything depends on you — your exploration, your growth. Work hard, Host! Together we’ll conquer the world and reach the peak!”
Force-fed a bowl of motivational chicken soup by the system, Ning Xiyue felt like she couldn’t stomach another drop. She was much better suited to living quietly as a rich, carefree beauty — world conquest was not in her plan.
“Got it, got it. I’ll try,” she said perfunctorily.
After cutting off the conversation with the system, Ning Xiyue sipped some sugar water and sat down to sort through the outline she’d seen and the observations she’d made on the train.
No wonder Chen Yechu’s behavior had felt inexplicable. The moment she suspected Chen was a reborn person, she’d triggered a hidden clue. Turns out, Chen was the actual heroine of the story.
The thought immediately lifted Ning Xiyue’s spirits.
Didn’t this mean Ning Xiaoxiao wasn’t the heroine — that she didn’t have any protagonist halo — and was just an ordinary native with no special opportunities and even some karmic grudge with the real heroine? Wasn’t she doomed then?
Whichever way she looked at it, Ning Xiaoxiao seemed pitiful. If she managed to behave herself, maybe the heroine would ignore her. But if she caused trouble… things would get ugly.
And if Ning Xiaoxiao came looking for her trouble, well — Ning Xiyue’s brick had already “seen blood.”
But with Ning Xiaoxiao’s constant delicate, fragile “little white flower” act, she hardly seemed like the type who’d live quietly.
Suddenly, Ning Xiyue found herself excited for the upcoming countryside assignment. Once they arrived, it was bound to be entertaining — free drama, free gossip, and front-row seats to real-life conflicts. What could be better?
Wherever there are people, there’s a jianghu (social battleground).
Would Ning Xiaoxiao be able to outplay the veterans? Ning Xiyue couldn’t wait to find out.
“Looks like things won’t be boring from now on!”
