THD Chapter 24

It's good to be rich.

In her previous life, the original owner had been raised by an elderly woman who made a living collecting recyclables. Thanks to the country's nine years of compulsory education and the kindness of neighbors who occasionally lent a helping hand, she managed to complete high school despite countless hardships.

Under such immense pressure, the original owner performed exceptionally well. From childhood through adolescence, she consistently ranked among the top students in the elite class.

Some people would say with barely concealed jealousy that she was nothing more than a bookworm who only knew how to study, and that once she reached high school, where knowledge required more flexibility and creativity, she would inevitably fall behind.

The original owner never had the time or energy to care about such gossip.

She only knew one thing.

If she ranked first in her grade, the school would award her a scholarship of three thousand yuan.

Three thousand yuan was a significant amount of money. Her grandmother would be overjoyed to see it.

There were also occasional rewards from the school, such as notebooks, stationery, and books, which meant she wouldn't have to spend extra money on supplies.

While her classmates were asking their parents for spending money, she was able to bring money home instead.

That was the deepest and most secret source of pride in her teenage heart.

Unfortunately, that pride was far more fragile than she realized.

After entering high school, she gradually discovered that something inside her seemed blocked, as if a stone hidden within her had all its openings clogged with mud and sand.

She was terrible at expressing herself and equally bad at understanding others. At times, she felt like an alien stranded among her classmates.

This problem did not only affect her social life.

It also appeared in her studies.

For reasons she could not understand, she suddenly became incapable of learning foreign languages.

During listening exercises, it felt as though heavy stones were lodged in her ears. The recordings played, but the sounds never seemed to reach her.

When teachers explained lessons in class, she often felt as though an invisible weight pressed down on her mind. No matter how carefully she listened, she could not grasp what they were trying to say.

Her foreign language grades had never been poor before. Otherwise, she would never have earned admission to the city's best high school as the top scorer from her entire middle school.

The problem was that the primary and junior high schools she had attended had relatively weak teaching standards. Listening comprehension received little emphasis, the material was simple, and teachers often focused on exam-oriented memorization techniques rather than genuine language ability.

Within that small educational environment, no one noticed her weaknesses.

But once she entered a prestigious high school filled with outstanding students from across the city, those weaknesses were exposed almost immediately.

The comments she had once dismissed as ridiculous began to return and haunt her like ghosts.

"Too rigid."

"Only good at memorizing."

"She'll fall behind in high school."

What had once sounded absurd now felt like a verdict.

The original owner cried over this more times than she could count.

The tears brought her nothing.

Instead, she received another judgment.

"Poor students simply have weak mental resilience."

She had to exert every ounce of effort just to maintain her place in the elite class. Otherwise, people might begin asking even harsher questions.

"How did she even get in here?"

But she was exhausted.

The harder she tried to learn, the less she understood.

The more desperately she wanted good grades, the worse her results became.

By the time the college entrance examination arrived, she threw everything she had into it. She wanted to prove herself with her results.

In the end, her score fell just short of admission to a top-tier university.

Objectively speaking, the result was not terrible.

Yet the original owner still cried for a very long time.

Even after entering X University through the Ye family's donations and influence, she felt no happiness whatsoever.

Years of setbacks and disappointments had worn away the last of her confidence.

Eventually, she accepted what seemed to be the truth.

She was ordinary.

She was mediocre.

The original owner may have accepted that conclusion.

Ye Xiqing never did.

Ye Xiqing had always believed she was extraordinary.

So, after the original owner interfered with her emotions for the thousand and first time, Ye Xiqing finally couldn't hold back anymore and looked up to question her, "System, did you assign me a body with a split personality?"

"Hehe." After endless setbacks, the system finally found the strength to get back up. A pair of mechanical eyes darted around, a meaningful smile playing on them. "Host, you've finally figured it out?"

Ye Xiqing withdrew her attention and looked at it seriously. There really was a hidden plot.

The system chuckled maliciously. "Don't be nervous. You're just merging with the original owner."

The live broadcast hosted by 7418 is an immersive quick-travel game where selected participants become characters in a small world, experience the rich and colorful life of that character, and are displayed on screen to attract viewers and generate profit. Because of the theme, the roles chosen are all female protagonists.

In order to create a more immersive experience, the presence of the participants is gradually reduced to prevent the audience from being pulled out of the story. At the same time, it also prevents participants from obtaining advantageous innate resources based on their own conditions.

For example, if the character being portrayed is unremarkable, but the participant is a stunning beauty, and the participant does not have to do anything to gain an innate advantage, then how could they sell their Beauty Pill trial cards?

In Ye Xiqing's first world, as a novice world protector, her complete personal data was preserved. In the worlds that followed, she would become increasingly integrated with the characters she portrayed, and this world happened to be one of emotional integration.

When she arrived in the next world, she would no longer even retain the name "Ye Xiqing." She would appear entirely as the body, intelligence, and emotions of the character she portrayed.

The system looked at her with schadenfreude. "Host, newbie protection isn't permanent. You can't just stand around watching and fooling around forever."

"You used to treat mission worlds like games and had a lot of fun, right? The price of that fun is that if you mess up a world, it will punish you."

Ye Xiqing rubbed her temples, her expression unchanged.

This little system was quite cunning.

She had originally thought she could easily take first place in the city examinations and astonish everyone, but she had not expected the original owner's emotions to already be affecting her state of mind.

Ye Xiqing looked at the system. "Is it really just emotions that have been integrated? I feel like these emotions are already controlling my physiological functions."

Faced with Ye Xiqing's question, the system replied without hesitation and with righteous indignation, "Of course it is! Emotions are generated by the activity of the human brain. Don't you know how amazing the brain is?"

"The host was too arrogant before, always thinking she was different from the original owner."

"In fact, if you were given the conditions that the original owner had, there would be many things that you simply couldn't do."

Ye Xiqing: ...

She glanced coldly at the system before looking away, trying to suppress her emotions with reason. However, when she looked at the English exam paper, she still felt short of breath, as though her body had betrayed her consciousness overnight.

In her original world, Ye Xiqing had always possessed an excellent sense for languages. She never needed to memorize grammar rules and could arrive at the correct answers purely through intuition. But after arriving in the original owner's body, even reading comprehension, her strongest area, became incomprehensible.

Foreign language was a core subject worth 150 points, and Ye Xiqing had no intention of letting it drag down her score.

After a moment's thought, she tossed down her pen and hurried downstairs.

The moment she entered Ji Yuxiu's room, without caring who else was present, she blurted out, "Mom, I want a car."

Ji Yuxiu: ...

Ye Xueli: ...

Because of the mix-up, both daughters had missed their eighteenth birthday ceremonies, which left Ji Yuxiu feeling deeply guilty. Worried that celebrating together might create conflict between them, she decided to prepare a separate gift for each daughter.

She had bought two necklaces of identical style and value.

Taking advantage of the fact that no one else was around, Ji Yuxiu quickly pulled Ye Xueli into the room and fastened the million-yuan diamond necklace around her neck. Smiling gently, she said, "Li'er, this is your mother's coming-of-age gift."

Over the past few days, Ye Xueli had gradually realized that she was no longer the biological daughter who could ask her mother for anything without hesitation. The moment she saw the necklace, tears immediately welled up in her eyes.

She wrapped her arms around Ji Yuxiu's neck and cried bitterly, pouring out all her grievances.

Ji Yuxiu gently patted her back in comfort.

At that heartwarming moment, Ye Xiqing suddenly appeared. Ji Yuxiu instantly felt as though she had been caught red-handed.

Feeling awkward, she quickly invited Ye Xiqing inside.

In truth, she had not deliberately favored one daughter over the other. She had simply happened to give the necklace to the first person she saw.

But what was she supposed to do now?

Fortunately, Ye Xiqing did not notice the detail and got straight to the point.

"Mom, I want a car."

Ji Yuxiu breathed a sigh of relief, then suddenly realized something. "A car? What do you need a car for?"

Ji Yuxiu: ...

This was not about money. In fact, Eldest Young Master Ye, Second Young Master Ye, and Third Young Master Ye would all receive the first car of their lives at their coming-of-age ceremonies. But Ye Xiqing was a girl. Driving was inherently dangerous, not to mention whether she even needed a car. Why buy one when there was already a family driver at home who could take her anywhere with a single call?

After listening to Ji Yuxiu's reasoning, Ye Xiqing completely failed to understand her mother's good intentions. Her expression remained unchanged as she said, "But Mom, I'm already an adult. I have my own private schedule. I don't want to share the route of every trip with the family driver."

That explanation sounded even more alarming. Naturally, Ji Yuxiu became even more unwilling to agree. However, no matter what she said, she could not change Ye Xiqing's mind. After all, her daughter's stubbornness had been obvious from the very beginning. Ji Yuxiu had never been good at arguing. She was only good at giving in. In the end, she had no choice but to agree.

Of course, she had no intention of buying the inexpensive car Ye Xiqing had suggested. Instead, she repeatedly instructed Wang Ma, "Make sure you buy the one with the highest safety rating!"

On that point, Ye Xiqing and Ji Yuxiu happened to share the same opinion, so she offered no objection. Instead, her gaze landed on Ye Xueli's neck.

"I don't think I've seen that necklace before. Is it new?"

The moment she asked, panic flashed across Ye Xueli's face.

Ji Yuxiu, however, was still somewhat annoyed by Ye Xiqing's rebellious attitude. Looking up at her, she said, "What's wrong? Is it not allowed? I originally wanted to give it to you, but since you already asked for a car, there was no way."

Before she could finish venting her dissatisfaction, Ye Xiqing had already walked over without invitation. She picked up a box from the dressing table, tilted her head slightly, and asked, "Is this the one that was meant for me?"

Just as Ji Yuxiu was about to fold her arms and let out a dismissive snort, Ye Xiqing suddenly bent down and kissed her hair.

"Thank you, Mom. I'll treasure it."

Ji Yuxiu: ...

Ye Xueli: ...

Wang Ma: ...

System: ...

Hey! You just got back! Aren't you being a little too forward?

Ji Yuxiu's face instantly turned bright red. She stared blankly at Ye Xiqing's straightforward display of affection, almost wondering whether she was dreaming. Her children had long since grown up, and she rarely experienced such intimate interactions anymore. This was completely unexpected.

Covering the spot where her daughter had kissed her, she felt her heart pounding wildly. Yet she felt no discomfort at all. The only thing she could do was scold her daughter in an obviously spoiled tone.

"What are you doing? That's completely inappropriate!"

The upward lilt at the end of her sentence was impossible to suppress.

Ye Xiqing straightened up calmly, the gift box still in her hands. A confident smile appeared on her face, as though everything was proceeding exactly according to plan.

Meanwhile, the heart beating frantically in her chest was subjected to a stern interrogation by its owner.

Why are you so nervous over something this simple?

Heart: ...

Actually... this is exactly the sort of thing people should be nervous about!

Ye Xiqing: No, they shouldn't. If you're nervous, then you should examine yourself and figure out where the problem lies.

System: ...

Is that really how it works?

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