Chapter 2

Su Ran lowered her head, remaining silent, looking the picture of tragic misery.

Su Miao narrowed her eyes. Spotting her father about to step in with words of comfort, she immediately beat him to the mark, stepping forward to pull Su Ran toward the dining table.

“Cousin Ran, you need to eat something!”

Wen Jiu gave Su Hang a discreet nudge, signaling him to keep his mouth shut.

Su Hang swallowed his words. Fine. If he wasn’t allowed to speak, he wouldn’t. Saying the wrong thing would only get him scolded anyway.

In truth, Su Ran couldn’t swallow a single bite. Her father’s imprisonment meant her family’s income was completely cut off. The gap between her household and Su Miao’s had always been wide, but now it was a cavernous divide. She had lost everything overnight.

She looked up at Su Miao, a burn of quiet envy flaring in her eyes.

If only Su Hang had been willing to pull some strings and rescue her father, she wouldn’t be in this pathetic state.

But Su Hang had refused! He insisted that her father had to pay for taking a life.

Never mind that it had happened years ago, and financial compensation had already been settled…

Her bitter thoughts were abruptly shattered by Su Miao’s voice.

“Cousin Ran, why aren’t you eating?”

Su Miao was staring at her with wide, guileless eyes, looking like a girl who had never known a day of hardship in her life.

Su Ran turned her head away, ignoring her, but her posture screamed: I am in mourning, leave me alone.

Su Miao didn’t mind the cold shoulder at all. Inside, she was practically singing. The more miserable Su Ran felt, the better Su Miao’s mood became.

Heck, even the breakfast tasted better. She felt like she could eat Su Ran’s portion on top of her own.

Su Hang and Wen Jiu walked over to the table and saw their daughter happily digging into her meal, while Su Ran sat there with rimmed red eyes, on the verge of tears. Meanwhile, Su Miao was earnestly debating the chef’s spice choices with the housekeeper.

Wen Jiu couldn’t help but feel that her daughter was inadvertently driving Su Ran to tears.

Su Hang leaned in and whispered to Su Miao, “Be a little more tactful…”

Su Miao firmly rejected the idea. “I will not! If we walk on eggshells, it’ll just look like we’re pitying her. Cousin Ran has always been so proud, she doesn’t want anyone’s pity! Making a big deal out of it will only make her feel embarrassed. You and Mom should just act normal too.”

Su Hang blinked, completely stumped. I… can’t even argue with that. It almost sounds logical? But why does it still feel so wrong?

Regardless, breakfast ended up being excruciating for Su Ran, and delightfully satisfying for Su Miao.

Since fate had given her a second chance at life, she was going to guard her parents fiercely this time. Su Ran wouldn’t get away with playing them like fools ever again.

After the meal, Su Hang tried to offer a few supportive words to his niece.

Su Ran looked up at him pitifully. “Uncle, I’m feeling really tired. I’d like to rest.”

Su Hang nodded sympathetically. “Of course. Go get some rest.” He looked toward Su Miao.

Su Miao immediately stepped up. “Cousin Ran, I had the staff prepare the guest room for you. Don’t be shy, just treat this like your own home while you’re staying over.”

Su Ran froze, looking at Su Miao in utter disbelief as she was led toward the guest room.

She surveyed the guest room, her voice laced with wounded disbelief. “Miao Miao… Whenever I stayed over in the past, we always shared your bed. Now you’re putting me in the guest room… Is it because my father is in prison that you look down on me now?”

Su Miao instantly adopted a look of deeply hurt innocence. Oh, you want to play the fragile victim card? Two can play at that game.

“Cousin Ran, how could you think that of me? Even before your dad went to prison, our families weren’t in the same social class, and I never looked down on you then!”

Su Ran felt like a second dagger had been rammed straight into her chest. Her mouth opened to snap back, but Su Miao’s next move completely derailed her.

Su Miao burst into quiet, trembling sobs.

She looked entirely heartbroken.

Su Ran’s jaw dropped.

From down the hall, Wen Jiu’s anxious voice sounded instantly. “Miao Miao? Sweetheart, why are you crying?!”

Wiping her tears, Su Miao ran straight into Wen Jiu’s arms and repeated Su Ran’s words verbatim, down to the exact tone.

Wen Jiu’s face darkened immediately as she shot a sharp look at Su Ran.

She understood that Su Ran was going through a tough time and might be overly sensitive, but throwing accusations like that at her daughter left a thoroughly bitter taste in her mouth.

“Miao Miao, go upstairs and rest,” Wen Jiu said gently.

“Okay,” Su Miao sniffled, turning around and heading up the stairs.

Sometimes, you didn’t need a grand confrontation to win a fight. You just needed to plant a seed of distaste in the right minds.

Wen Jiu forced a polite, cool smile toward Su Ran. “Ran, you should get some rest too.”

As far as Wen Jiu was concerned, their family had done everything within humanly reasonable bounds for Su Ran’s branch of the family. They helped where they could, but when it came to breaking the law, there was nothing to be done except let justice take its course.

The victim was innocent, and the perpetrator had to face consequences.

Back in her bedroom, Su Miao retrieved her phone and pulled up her contact list, scrolling until her eyes landed on a specific name: Feng Bai.

She stared at the digits. The number was burned into her memory. In her past life, she had pined for Feng Bai for years, yet she had never found the courage to confess her feelings.

Looking back, she should have been far more aggressive. How else was he supposed to know she liked him?

Thinking about her past timid self made Su Miao grind her teeth. She wished she could drag her younger self out of time and give her a good shake.

How could I have been so foolishly gullible with Su Ran?

Aside from her sheer hatred for Su Ran and Fu Xizhou, she loathed her own past stupidity most of all.

Back in high school, Feng Bai had been the ultimate golden boy—effortlessly brilliant, refined, polite, and handsome as a picture. His family background had been decent too, and the girls chasing him could have lined up around the entire campus.

Until his senior year.

Tragedy struck his family, forcing him to miss over a month of school. When he finally returned, his entire aura had shifted. He was still as striking as moonlight, but he had grown quiet, distant, and guarded.

Su Miao had just started her freshman year back then. She had caught glimpses of him around school and quietly tucked him away in her heart, a bright, unreachable moon.

Later, when she discovered he was taking on tutoring jobs to earn money, she realized he was struggling financially.

Looking back, Su Miao considered it a stroke of luck that she had maintained a shred of composure back then. Instead of insulting his pride by offering him money directly, she had hired him as her personal tutor.

Feng Bai had tutored her for about two months before stopping a month ahead of the college entrance exams in June. Su Miao hadn’t wanted to distract him from his crucial exams.

During that time, she had subtly probed his views on romance, only to receive an answer that left her crushed.

Feng Bai had said coldly: “A student’s primary job is to study. Romance is for adults.”

And she, a mere high school freshman, was far from being an adult. So she had buried her feelings, studying relentlessly every day in hopes of getting into the same university as him.

By the time she reached her sophomore year of college, she was finally an adult.

Armed with newfound confidence, she had been ready to confess her love, only for Su Ran to douse her in ice water.

Su Ran had cornered her with a solemn expression: “Miao Miao, you and Feng Bai live in two completely different worlds right now. He’s a senior trying to launch a startup with nothing to his name, while you have everything handed to you on a silver platter. If you confess to him now, what will people say? They’ll say he’s using you! They’ll say he just wants an easy ride through life by hooking up with a rich girl. You’d destroy his self-respect and ruin everything he’s worked so hard for. Is that really what you want?”