The restroom at Evening Star Cafe
A woman with retro, ear-length curls took a lipstick out of her handbag, twirled the crimson lipstick with her hand adorned with a huge pink diamond ring, and leaned close to the mirror to carefully outline her lips.
She pursed her lipstick, admiring her retro yet elegant reflection in the mirror, and smiled with satisfaction.
Suddenly, the smile froze on the woman's face, the arrogance in her eyes gradually faded, and a deep sense of confusion began to fill her pupils.
Du Xiaoru stared blankly at the woman in the mirror. It was her, yet it didn't seem like her, or rather, she had never seen herself dressed like this before.
The deafening roar in her ears hadn't faded yet, and her memory was still stuck at the scene of the oven explosion in the hotel's Western restaurant kitchen. But the pain she had imagined didn't come. Instead, she found herself in a strange place, becoming someone who looked exactly like her.
Is it time travel?
Du Xiaoruo is 26 years old. At such a young age, she has become the chief pastry chef at the Earl Hotel. In addition to her talent, her hard work day after day is also a testament to her talent. Her reputation as the chief "workaholic" is already well-known.
She was very busy and had hardly read any novels. She only learned about time travel from her good friend who wrote novels.
At the time, Du Xiaoruo found it unbelievable and ridiculed anyone who would believe in such a scientifically baseless fallacy as "time travel".
Unexpectedly, the slap in the face came late but surely; it seemed she really had time-traveled.
Many unfamiliar memories flooded into Du Xiaoruo's mind. These memories surged in like a rising tide, only to be suddenly interrupted and shattered in her brain.
Based on fragmented memories, Du Xiaoruo guessed that she had transmigrated into a book, specifically into one written by her good friend Chen Ding.
To retaliate against Du Xiaoruo for mocking "time travel," author Chen Ding created a female supporting character with the same name as Du Xiaoruo in the book and forced Du Xiaoruo to memorize the plot, confidently stating that it would be useful in future time travel.
Du Xiaoruo naturally ignored Chen Ding. Memorizing the plot? She didn't have time for that.
But unable to resist Chen Ding's constant nagging, Du Xiaoruo actually remembered several key characters and some melodramatic plot points from the novel.
At the time, neither Chen Ding nor Du Xiaoruo expected that this would actually come true, as Du Xiaoruo transmigrated into the body of the female supporting character with the same name.
The pink diamond-adorned finger remained at her lips, a bizarre sight that made Du Xiaoruo panic. Her grip faltered, and the lipstick slid down her lip, leaving a crimson trail on her fair cheek, like a gaping wound.
The sound of a toilet flushing came from the cubicle behind me, and a woman wearing a short skirt came out.
She swayed her slender waist as she walked to the sink next to Du Xiaoruo. When she bent down to wash her hands, a glimpse of her ample bosom could be seen through her deep V-neck dress.
The woman noticed Du Xiaoruo's gaze. Without making a sound, she straightened her chest, slightly raised her smoky-eyed eyes, and looked at Du Xiaoruo in the mirror.
"Hey, why did you put lipstick on your face?" The woman casually grabbed two tissues from the tissue holder and handed them to me. "Hurry up and wipe it off, it looks creepy."
Du Xiaoruo took the tissue and mechanically wiped the excess lipstick off her face.
"I'm going out now, hurry up, there's a second round later." The woman walked out of the bathroom, her slender waist swaying as she walked out of her super high heels.
Her memories of the original owner were like a clump of paste; she had to carefully sift through it to find the memories she wanted.
The woman who just greeted him was Mrs. Huang from Zhongyu Construction. This afternoon was a high-society afternoon tea party, or more accurately, a party for stepmothers of wealthy families. All five women present were women who had married into wealthy families and become stepmothers.
Why is it a gathering of stepmothers? Because the legal wife disdains to associate with them.
Of course, the body that Du Xiaoruo transmigrated into was no exception. Her current identity was the wife of Qiao An, the heir of the Jinse Group, and she also had a 9-year-old stepson.
Moreover, today's gathering of wealthy stepmothers was more accurately described as a gathering of wealthy stepsons venting their frustrations.
Everyone gets together every week to vent their frustrations about their stepson, releasing the pent-up energy from the week before returning to their seemingly glamorous lives in the wealthy family.
In this situation, in order not to leave any evidence, everyone has to complain about their stepson. The harsher the complaints, the more the sisters will treat you as one of their own.
Du Xiaoruo habitually slid her thumbnail back and forth on the pad of her index finger, a gesture that indicated she was in a state of extreme anxiety.
As someone who is inherently socially awkward, Du Xiaoruo rarely criticizes others, let alone criticizes them in public.
She was disgusted by the roast session, but if she didn't participate, she would have to tell others that she couldn't participate and find a reason not to participate. She felt that things were getting out of control.
The thumb traced shallow lines on the index finger.
"Dear Ms. Du Xiaoruo, your friend is asking if you forgot to bring tissues. If not, please come to table number 3 as soon as possible. Your friend is waiting for you."
Suddenly, the speakers above the bathroom started playing. Du Xiaoruo raised her eyelids and glanced at them, her anxiety intensifying.
The wealthy women's gatherings are all private events. Once they step into this space, they shed their usual glamorous facades and can be vulgar, unrestrained, and carefree, simply letting loose.
So when Du Xiaoruo didn't return for half a day, they simply used a voice broadcast to call her back. It was a simple, direct, and somewhat humiliating way of joking, which was their usual tactic.
The loudspeaker overhead kept blaring, as if it wouldn't stop until Du Xiao went outside.
Du Xiaoruo listened to it over and over again, her heart pounding with fear.
Du Xiaoruo splashed some cool water on her face a few times, then patted the water droplets dry with a tissue. The original owner's cosmetics adhered very well, and even after all this fuss, the makeup didn't come off.
After clearing her head a little, she picked up a small lambskin handbag from the washstand and went outside.
The hall was filled with smoke.
To avoid leaving the smell of cigarettes on their fingers, wealthy women would use tweezers to hold the cigarettes while smoking.
Seeing Du Xiaoruo come out, Mrs. Huang, whom she had just met in the restroom, raised her slender white hand and waved, "Damn it, I thought you fell into the toilet."
Du Xiaoruo walked over and sat down in an empty seat in the corner.
Mrs. Huang placed a small pair of tweezers in front of her, loosely held a cigarette between her index fingers, turned around, and smiled exaggeratedly at the others.
"Hey, didn't I just mention that their class was having some stupid activity about showing respect to parents?"
"Yes." The young woman sitting opposite them took a drag of her cigarette, exhaled a smoke ring, and then smiled. "What happened next?"
"Later, my little idiot came back and put one of my silk pajamas in water to wash. Hey, it was a limited edition from C brand, you know you can't wash it, right? Damn it, it turned into a pile of poop after washing."
At this point, everyone burst into laughter.
Mrs. Huang rested her cigarette on the rim of the crystal ashtray and continued her loud complaints.
"Do you think this teacher is out of his mind? Why would a child from such a family need to wash his own clothes? As long as the family doesn't go bankrupt, he will never have to touch dirty clothes in his life. I was almost driven to my death by this stupid idea."
"Don't you think so? Kids can be silly too."
They chatted back and forth like they were playing tennis, with someone always able to respond to each other's words. Laughter and banter echoed in the elegantly decorated coffee shop.
Du Xiaoruo felt like a fish out of water; her throat was dry, she had difficulty breathing, and the noise and bustle of others had nothing to do with her. All she wanted to do was escape as quickly as possible.
"Hey, Mrs. Qiao, don't stay silent. Everyone else has spoken, it's your turn." Mrs. Huang nudged her.
Du Xiaoruo instantly felt her whole body stiffen, her fingers went numb as if her blood had frozen, and a layer of dense sweat appeared on her smooth forehead.
"Exactly." The woman opposite me, a cigarette dangling from her mouth, mumbled, "You don't even smoke? What's wrong with you today?"
Du Xiaoruo opened her mouth, but no sound came out. Among the clamoring women, she was like an out-of-place clown, and a huge sense of frustration overwhelmed her.
"Hey, are you feeling unwell?" Mrs. Huang was the first to notice that something was wrong with Du Xiaoruo. "You look terrible."
Du Xiaoruo suddenly stood up, grabbed her handbag, lowered her head, and hurriedly walked out of the coffee shop.
Some faint sounds came from behind.
"What's wrong with her?"
"nerve!"
"Is she crazy? Don't invite her next time you organize a gathering, she's a spoilsport."
Du Xiaoruo walked out of the coffee shop. The sun was very bright outside, so bright that she couldn't open her eyes. She found a pink Porsche in the parking lot and got in.
As she started the car and gripped the steering wheel, Du Xiaoruo suddenly realized that she had no destination in mind.
She pulled out that lump of mush from her mind and looked at it.
The original owner and Qiao An's marriage was a marriage of convenience, with a term of one year. Only the original owner and Qiao An knew about this.
The original owner of this body was a complete scatterbrain. To this day, she still doesn't know the real reason why Qiao An agreed to the marriage of convenience. It was just because the marriage of convenience would cost 20 million a year, and she could enjoy a year of life as a wealthy lady without having to have marital relations, so she agreed without hesitation.
Du Xiaoruo didn't know why Qiao An had to agree to a marriage of convenience with the original owner of the body from an ordinary family, because this part of the story wasn't written in the original book. All she knew was that Qiao An was a seemingly playboy but actually cunning villain who eventually went to jail for business fraud.
The original owner now lives in the Qiao family's manor, where the entire Qiao family lives. Although the place is very large, it houses dozens of people, so it's inevitable to encounter people whenever you go home.
The original owner's family was even worse. They were of average means, her parents favored sons over daughters, and her brother was a debt collector who only wanted money from her. She didn't want to go back to that kind of family.
Speaking of debt collectors, Du Xiaoruo quickly searched her memory and found a piece of information about the 20 million.
As expected, all the money ended up in the pocket of the original owner's brother. Although she had no worries about food, clothing and daily necessities in the Qiao family, she was still a penniless person.
No, there's still a million yuan in online loans, and most of the loan money went into the original owner's brother's pocket. The original owner used a small portion to buy some trinkets he liked, and that money has long been spent.
Du Xiaoruo slumped onto the steering wheel, sighed in frustration, and looked out at the scorching sunlight, feeling that she might as well be fried in an oven.
After spending two hours in the car, Du Xiaoruo finally convinced herself that being alive was a blessing, and she would just have to take things one step at a time.
She drove back to the Qiao family's manor and, using the original owner's memories, drove to a two-story detached villa. The butler saw her car return and quickly came to greet her.
As soon as the car came to a stop, the butler opened the back door.
Seeing that the car was empty, the butler was slightly taken aback. He took two steps back and stood respectfully by the car door, asking,
"Madam, where is Xiao Le?"
Xiao Le?
Du Xiaoruo quickly searched her memory: Qiao Lele, 9 years old, the original owner's stepson.
Because there was a "roast session" for her stepsons today, the original owner didn't bring a driver when she went out. She first took her stepsons to their training class, and planned to pick them up after the roast session ended.
However, Du Xiaoruo, who had just transmigrated, did not receive this information in time, so she drove home by herself.
Two hours have passed since Qiao Lele's training class ended. Where is he now? Why hasn't he even called home?
In an instant, countless thoughts flashed through Du Xiaoruo's mind, such as a kidnapping case involving a wealthy family.
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
