The information overload was staggering. Not only were the on-site staff stunned, but the viewers behind their screens were completely blown away as well.
Bai Youlan's face instantly turned as pale as a sheet of paper. "You're lying!" she shouted in refutation.
With those few sentences Xu Qingqing had uttered, her career was practically finished! Bai Youlan still didn't dare to go online, didn't dare to look at her fans' comments, and couldn't even imagine how low her Luck Points would plummet after this incident.
Bai Youlan was filled with regret now. If only she had known, she wouldn't have used such a method. Who could have guessed that Xu Qingqing would suddenly tear off all pretenses!
Wasn't she always the aloof, high-and-mighty young lady? The one who loved to pick fights with everyone and everything, who disdained explaining herself even when misunderstood?
Why had she been able to hold back today, and even say those things? Bai Youlan felt her head was about to explode, her face pale, her panic visibly written all over her expression.
It never even crossed her mind that if her plan had succeeded, it would be Xu Qingqing facing this very situation.
Facing Bai Youlan's denial, Xu Qingqing's gaze was icy cold. "Whether I'm lying or not, you know the truth."
"As for the other gentleman, Lin Donghan, although he's not present, I must also say this about him. Getting engaged to the person who caused his own aunt's death? A heartless, ungrateful wretch."
Xu Qingqing had initially thought to say Lin Donghan wasn't 'filming', but on second thought, she changed the term.
So Bai Youlan wanted to use the live broadcast to provoke her into losing her temper and step over her to rise to fame, was she?
Well, she would just use this very live broadcast to launch this whole family into the spotlight instead.
From the moment she entered, Xu Qingqing had deliberately pretended not to see the cameras outside the garden, revealing her nasty true temperament, step by step leading both the audience and Bai Youlan to believe she was unaware this was a live program—all for this very moment.
Because words from someone who is 'unaware' sound more genuine and believable.
Rats and cockroaches belong in the sewers. Why are they always thinking about whitewashing themselves? In her past life, her own story ended here. In this life, let Bai Youlan's curtain fall here as well.
Xu Qingqing then looked towards Xu Tianbao, who was hiding to the side. Before she could even speak, the boy burst into loud sobs.
"Don't scold me, don't scold me, don't scold me!" The kid had already fully witnessed Xu Qingqing's power.
Xu Qingqing: "..."
She thought for a moment. For the sake of keeping the Xu Changshan family neatly together, she reluctantly offered a comment: "You, little fatty, should lose some weight."
Who knew how the Xu Changshan family was raising this child? Xu Tianbao was still so young, yet he was seriously overweight. If things continued like this, it would probably affect his health.
Little fatty Xu Tianbao only cried even harder.
How could this person be so immoral!! He had already begged for mercy — why was she still scolding him?!
Having achieved her goal, Xu Qingqing wanted to leave after saying her piece. But Bai Youlan's eyes were red. Now she finally understood—she had been completely outmaneuvered by Xu Qingqing!
The other party's sudden outburst was probably because she had known all along it was a live broadcast. From the moment she saw the cameras when she came in, she began scheming, deliberately staging her family's display of deep affection just now to set up those statements!
"You can't leave!!" Bai Youlan, as if gone mad, went to grab Xu Qingqing. "You can't frame me for things I haven't done!"
If Xu Qingqing left now, everything she said would become established fact! It would be harder than climbing to the sky to explain it later!
As she spoke, a small black object suddenly appeared in Bai Youlan's clasped palms. Just as she was about to press it onto Xu Qingqing's body, the moment it made contact with the other's skin, in full view of everyone, Bai Youlan let out a sharp scream. Her body suddenly went limp and she collapsed.
[Prop malfunction. Unknown external object intrusion detected.]
Blood instantly streamed from Bai Youlan's nose, and two lines of bloody tears quickly flowed from the corners of her eyes. Combined with her deathly pale face, the scene was momentarily terrifying.
Everyone was stunned. Viewers behind their screens were busy speculating about what had happened, while the Xu family shouted and yelled for a doctor.
Xu Qingqing, however, stared in a daze at the words above Bai Youlan's head.
Beautiful Life System binding in progress.
[Luck Points Obtained: 1/100 (Critical)]
[Overall Mission Progress: 0/100]
Mission Reward: Inherit a family fortune worth ten billion and achieve a beautiful life.
What was going on? Why had Bai Youlan's Luck Points and progress suddenly been almost reset to zero, and why was she now injured?
Xu Qingqing was still bewildered, wanting to stay and see what was happening. However, the next second, she watched as the text above Bai Youlan's head flickered, changing from golden characters to blood-dripping red ones, inexplicably sinister and chilling.
Carrier on the verge of shattering.
Xu Qingqing was badly startled. What was a 'carrier'? Could it be referring to Bai Youlan, lying on the ground convulsing and covered in blood?
But even though Bai Youlan had done many wrong things, she was still a living person. Xu Qingqing had always thought Bai Youlan and the system were in a cooperative partnership. Now she discovered the other party didn't even count as a life, merely the cold, impersonal term "carrier".
So what the hell was that system anyway? The more Xu Qingqing thought about it, the more chilled she felt. Without another word, she immediately turned and sprinted out!!
Help! Bai Youlan's system looked like it was about to crash!!
As soon as Xu Qingqing ran off, her assistants, too shocked to do anything else, hurried after their young lady. The two couldn't help but ask, "Miss Xu, why are you running?"
Xu Qingqing ran incredibly fast, not looking back. "I'm afraid she might have a contagious disease."
Obviously! That system was clearly at the end of its rope. If she didn't run now, was she supposed to wait there for it to unleash some ultimate move right there?!
Xu Qingqing's heart was pounding wildly. For the first time, she felt the Xu family garden was so vast, and the path leading to the street was way too long!!
The assistants: "..."
Although they didn't quite understand and found it a bit strange, everyone was also rather flustered at seeing Bai Youlan in that state. They followed closely behind Xu Qingqing and dashed out swiftly.
Meanwhile, Xu Qingqing was unaware that her earlier judgment had been correct. She had accidentally seen the system displayed above Bai Youlan's head, and that inadvertent glance had already revealed her.
The system issued a sharp alarm: [Confirmed: The original female lead can see the system.]
Bai Youlan, blood flowing incessantly, face pale, eyes wide open: "Are you sure?"
So the person who knew the truth was Xu Qingqing! So the one who had been spying on her and the system all along was Xu Qingqing? No wonder her plans had never succeeded!
Her head was splitting with pain. Gritting her teeth, she forced out a question: "My Luck Points? My points/credits? What do you mean, 'the item failed and backfired'?"
She was filled with immense dread. Was her mission going to fail this time? What would happen to her... The mere thought of the consequences of failing the mission made Bai Youlan's body grow colder and colder. Her consciousness was on the verge of collapse.
The system, however, had no time to pay attention to her. Its cold, icy voice was also unusually flustered: [The female lead has learned the truth; a major error has occurred; collecting and reporting data in progress...].
Due to Bai Youlan's accident, the cameras inside and outside had long been turned off. The production team, afraid of taking on risks, was also in a frantic state, busy calling for an ambulance and administering emergency treatment.
By the time the live broadcast suddenly went dark, the audience—fans and non-fans alike—were still reeling from the few words Xu Qingqing had left behind.
What did they just hear? Bai Yaxiu was the best friend of Xu Changshan's first wife? And Bai Youlan actually helped the scumbag Xu Changshan and the homewrecker Bai Yaxiu carry out their affair when she was a child?!
The live stream went black, and everyone flooded to Weibo to start heated discussions.
The incident involving Bai Youlan quickly made the news. After all, she was a celebrity with her own share of controversies and topics, and this happened during a live stream. This explosive insider information was revealed right in front of millions of viewers.
After some searching and deduction, someone soon exclaimed in shock—[How old was Bai Youlan back then? And she already knew to help her mother steal someone else's husband! Didn't she have her own father?]
—[Probably not as rich as Xu Changshan.]
—[No wonder Bai Youlan looked down on and spread rumors about her biological father on the show. So she had already recognized Xu Changshan as her father...]
—[So the other woman and the first wife used to be best friends, tsk tsk. Thinking about it, Xu Qingqing's mother had it so rough, running into such a despicable best friend's family and this scumbag husband.]
—[According to public records, Xu Qingqing was twelve when Xu Changshan's ex-wife passed away. Xu Tianbao is now ten, meaning the illegitimate child existed during the marriage...]
—[Is no one paying attention to what Miss Xu said about Bai Youlan standing guard for her mother's affairs? If that's true, how old was she then?!]
—[This family is utterly rotten!]
—[Don't get too worked up, everyone. What if Xu Qingqing intentionally said those things knowing it was live? What she said might not necessarily be true.]
Someone raised doubts, but few believed it; most thought it impossible.
—[If Xu Qingqing said it on purpose, wouldn't she have said it earlier? That would have exposed and gotten revenge on the scumbag family sooner.]
—[I also think Miss Xu didn't know it was live. When she entered, her presence was so commanding, she even pointed directly at the camera, and her words and actions were very bold. Even for someone from a wealthy family, they'd usually mind their image on a live stream. She obviously thought it was a recorded show, believing these scenes could be edited out later, which is why she was so bold.]
—[Xu Qingqing was probably just too angry today and couldn't hold back from revealing the truth, never expecting it to be a live broadcast. So this matter is likely true.]
Aside from focusing on whether Bai Youlan actually did what Xu Qingqing accused her of, others were more concerned about Bai Youlan suddenly collapsing from illness moments ago.
Some speculated she had a terminal illness, others thought she just had a severe flare-up of anger. Some even maliciously theorized that Xu Qingqing had poisoned her.
However, such claims were quickly screenshotted and sued by the Xu Group for defamation. Besides, no one believed them. Everyone saw clearly on camera that Xu Qingqing never even touched Bai Youlan; it was the other way around, with Bai Youlan grabbing onto her.
Speculations emerged one after another, mixed with many people's comments about the Xu family of three. Yet Bai Youlan, now pale and unconscious in the ICU, remained completely unaware that she had become infamous once again.
But even if she knew, her critically low luck points and her system would leave her with no energy to care about any of this at the moment.
...
Meanwhile, in the car moving further and further away from the Xu family home, Xu Qingqing's wildly beating heart gradually calmed down.
Right then, she suddenly felt a bit uncomfortable. She touched her neck and felt the red cord and the broken pieces of the jade bead.
That jade bead, which Xie Lianqing had sought for her, had shattered.
Xu Qingqing stared blankly, clutching the bead fragments. Everything that had just happened became clearer in her mind—Bai Youlan's luck points had plummeted to one, and even the text above her system had changed color, on the verge of collapse...
Xu Qingqing had initially thought it was because of her own words. But thinking back, she had exposed Bai Youlan's character before, yet it only caused her luck points to drop, not enough to strike a blow against the system behind her.
So, the system being severely damaged just now... was it because of this bead?
Xu Qingqing recalled that during the live stream, even after she revealed the truth, Bai Youlan had still been full of energy, arguing with her, even lunging at her like a madwoman, grabbing her... and then instantly collapsing.
So, was it that Bai Youlan had tried to do something to her at that moment, but suffered a backlash because of the jade bead?
Xu Qingqing sat in the car, pondering for a long time. The car slowly came to a stop, finally arriving at the Xu family ancestral home.
She had just gotten out of the car and was about to go inside to sort through today's events and tell her grandparents. The live stream incident must have caused a huge uproar; without a doubt, everyone now knew about Xu Changshan's family's past. To prevent this from affecting the Xu family's stocks, her aunt needed to take emergency action.
Xu Qingqing's feelings were complicated, her mind divided between the Xu family matters and the Bai Youlan situation, worried about whether that so-called system, in its final desperate moments, might try to retaliate against her.
A car sped over and stopped. A voice came from ahead: "Xu Qingqing?"
Xu Qingqing looked up and suddenly saw Xie Lianqing.
He seemed to have rushed over in a hurry, still wearing a suit, slightly out of breath, his hair a bit disheveled. Only when he saw Xu Qingqing did his tightly furrowed brows relax slightly.
Xie Lianqing's gaze was profound, his eyes dark. Upon seeing Xu Qingqing, he instead stood still and called out to her: "Qingqing?"
"How did you get here?" Xu Qingqing walked over slowly, her expression bewildered.
Xie Lianqing kept watching her with a complex gaze, not blinking.
Hearing Xu Qingqing's question, he slowly lowered his eyes, stepped forward, and embraced her. In an extremely gentle tone, he whispered, "Yes, I'm here."
Afraid this long-awaited reunion might turn into a dream, he held Xu Qingqing tightly in his arms, burying his head in her shoulder, as if comforting either her or himself: "It's okay now. Everything is okay now."
Xie Lianqing had finally regained his memories.
When the jade bead shattered, it was like breaking some kind of shackle. Those fragmented dreams he had been having could finally be seen clearly in his mind.
In that instant, the sealed memories flooded out. Xie Lianqing remembered his previous life, remembered everything Xu Qingqing had gone through.
She was schemed into the entertainment industry and left in disgrace. He and the Xu family tried their best to comfort and console her. Even though she was vilified by many, Xu Qingqing never gave up on life. On the contrary, with the support of her family and lover, she was only briefly discouraged before pulling herself together, even vowing to get revenge on Lin Donghan.
The things Lin Donghan and Bai Youlan did couldn't withstand investigation. With the combined pressure from the Xie and Xu families, the Lin family's assets shrunk by more than half, and Lin Donghan was soon abandoned by his family. Bai Youlan became a typical example of someone blacklisted in the industry, never to appear in public again. Xu Changshan's family was also exiled by the Xu family.
At the same time, Xu Qingqing and Xie Lianqing decided to get married. If nothing unexpected happened, they would have had a fairy-tale ending.
But Xu Qingqing died on the eve of their wedding.
Her death was utterly baffling—a sudden car accident. Xu Qingqing had left home happily in the morning to try on her wedding dress, but by evening, she had become a bloody, mangled corpse.
And Xie Lianqing at that time was still waiting for Xu Qingqing to send him photos of herself in the wedding dress. The devastation he experienced upon receiving the call about her death was unimaginable.
The blow was almost devastating. While consumed by overwhelming grief, Xie Lianqing still had to force himself to investigate the case. However, no matter how many times he and the Xu family looked into it, the final conclusion only pointed to an accident.
In a moment of panic, the driver of the truck had mistakenly stepped on the accelerator instead of the brake. The oncoming vehicle, swerving to avoid the out-of-control truck, collided with Xu Qingqing on the side. It was one of the most common causes in traffic accidents. There was nothing unusual about the driver's accounts, contact lists, or surveillance footage.
Everyone sighed and said Xu Qingqing was simply too unlucky, to have been at that intersection at precisely the wrong moment.
For others, it was just a passing comment about misfortune, a topic of casual conversation before moving on. But for Xu Qingqing's close family, it was an indelible scar.
After Xu Qingqing's body was laid to rest, Xie Lianqing shut himself away, severing all contact and voices from the outside world. He retreated to an estate abroad, drowning in the sorrow of losing his wife.
When Xie Lianqing finally emerged from his grief, he discovered that in just a short month, the situation outside had undergone earth-shattering changes.
Chairman Xu and his wife passed away one after the other. Xu Youyue, exhausted and aged, had no time to process the grief of his niece's death before being consumed by managing the company and dealing with Xu Changshan and his family.
Zhou Chenyu met with an accident, dying in a plane crash.
Back when Xu Qingqing's incident first happened, Zhou Chenyu had suspected it was no accident. Even after they investigated the case several times, Zhou Chenyu remained adamant that it might have been premeditated.
And then he was gone, dying on the road while pursuing the truth.
Having lost his wife, Xie Lianqing then lost his closest friend within a single month. He began searching for the truth anew.
His suspects were two parties: the primary beneficiaries were the Xu Changshan family, who were trying to return to the Xu family, and the Lin family, who were recovering their strength by devouring the Xu family's assets.
The Xu Changshan family were fools, so Xie Lianqing focused his attention on Bai Youlan, who had a prior record. Even though he knew Bai Youlan had no apparent connection to the truck driver or the accident, thinking of the deceased Zhou Chenyu made him unwilling to overlook any lead.
He pretended to be heartbroken and vulnerable, and Bai Youlan, as expected, seized the opportunity to get close to him, using tenderness and affection in an attempt to make him fall for her.
Besides Bai Youlan, Xie Lianqing also identified several other individuals. Most of them had some past grievance or conflicting interests with Xu Qingqing, including the celebrity Gu Ling, whom she had known from her time in the entertainment industry.
Following Bai Youlan's example, others soon began to circle around Xie Lianqing. He never showed his hand, pretending to waver between the starlet Gu Ling and Bai Youlan, feigning ignorance of their various schemes.
Not long after, Gu Ling met with misfortune. And his bodyguard, Ye Zhao, who had also pretended to be close to him, nearly had an accident soon after. If not for Ye Zhao's formidable physical prowess, there would have been almost no chance of survival in that situation.
Moreover, the manner of the incidents involving Gu Ling and Ye Zhao was eerily identical to those of Xu Qingqing and Zhou Chenyu. No matter how they investigated, it was all deemed coincidence and accident.
With so many coincidences, Xie Lianqing could only sneer coldly.
Fortunately, he finally pinpointed his target.
He accepted Bai Youlan's pursuit. Through his interactions with her, he finally understood that the world they lived in was actually a novel.
He was the male lead of this book, the center of this world. Bai Youlan brazenly claimed she was the female lead, but Xie Lianqing knew he could never fall in love with someone like her.
He didn't know the exact truth of this world, but he understood one thing: if he was the male lead, his female lead could only ever be one person, and that was Xu Qingqing.
He didn't know how Bai Youlan had stolen Xu Qingqing's fate, but he decided to kill her and bring Xu Qingqing back.
Killing Bai Youlan was easy, but making the thing hiding behind her disappear was difficult.
He had once heard Bai Youlan mention the term "World Consciousness" inadvertently. He was the center of the world. Connecting this to his role in the book, Xie Lianqing quickly realized he might be very important to the existence of the World Consciousness, and that Bai Youlan and her system seemed to fear it.
What Xie Lianqing didn't understand was, if he was truly so important, why didn't the World Consciousness help save Xu Qingqing?
That was Xu Qingqing.
Was the World Consciousness indifferent, or simply unaware?
How could anyone think the female lead could be changed? Xie Lianqing loved Xu Qingqing not because she was the so-called female lead, but because she was Xu Qingqing.
Before Xu Qingqing's grave, Xie Lianqing personally ended Bai Youlan's life, and then took his own. He didn't know what the World Consciousness truly thought, nor if his gamble would succeed, but he felt that if it didn't work, they might as well all perish together.
At the moment of death, Xie Lianqing saw the thing attached to Bai Youlan. It looked bizarre, its transparent body filled with many somewhat dim golden stars.
Xie Lianqing seized it. With the help of the World Consciousness, he reversed time and changed the outcome, returning everything to the fixed point where Xu Qingqing's fate of death was determined.
Reversing time came at a cost. The World Consciousness fell into a weak, dormant state. Before his memories were erased, Xie Lianqing used the system to implement a small trick.
He personally entered Xu Qingqing's dreams, telling her about the altered book and enabling her to see Bai Youlan's treacherous intentions and the system she possessed.
But he himself only regained all the memories of the past related to the truth today. Before this, he had been unable to learn the truth.
He was late, but fortunately, Xu Qingqing knew how to protect herself. She had always been clever, after all.
Xie Lianqing held Xu Qingqing, smiled, and couldn't help but kiss her.
Only after Xie Lianqing released her did Xu Qingqing react: Wait, they had broken up!!
Why did Xie Lianqing suddenly kiss her?!
She wanted to pull away from his embrace, yet felt a bit reluctant to leave. The thought of getting back together suddenly crossed her mind.
The system was on the verge of shattering, and Bai Youlan's fate was unknown. Logically, she had no more worries. She still liked Xie Lianqing, so now would be the perfect time to reconcile.
But then Xu Qingqing immediately remembered the system's recent abnormality and felt a wave of concern, unsure of what choice to make.
She said, quite conflicted, "We've already broken up." The rebuttal in her tone wasn't strong; it sounded more like a reminder to herself.
Xie Lianqing leaned down, looked into her eyes, and asked with a serious expression, "Did you break up because of the system and Bai Youlan?"
Xu Qingqing, who had just been feeling downcast, was instantly startled. Her mouth fell open, her eyes widened, and she stared at Xie Lianqing in shock.
Good heavens! How did Xie Lianqing know?!
Xu Qingqing tentatively whispered, "Do you know about the system and Bai Youlan?"
She spoke timidly, simultaneously on high alert, worried that like last time, a bolt of thunder might strike from a clear sky, or that Xie Lianqing wouldn't be able to hear her words.
Unexpectedly, Xie Lianqing smiled, as if seeing through her worries. He stroked Xu Qingqing's head and said gently, "Don't be afraid. It's busy trying to escape now and has no time to bother you."
Before regaining his memories, Xie Lianqing never imagined that Xu Qingqing's refusal of his marriage proposal was because of Bai Youlan.
He knew Bai Youlan and the entity behind her had impure motives and intended to harm Xu Qingqing, so he had always kept someone monitoring Bai Youlan's every move, as well as the Lin family's projects.
From Bai Youlan and the spirit creature behind her providing formula materials and wanting to set up a factory to make money, Xie Lianqing assumed their goal was related to wealth.
In his investigations and surveillance, Bai Youlan had recently been staying quietly at home, preparing for her comeback and her role as the young mistress of the Lin family, without making any moves.
Before recovering his memories, even though Xie Lianqing was clever enough to guess part of the truth, he couldn't possibly connect it to this world being a novel.
And no matter how confident Xie Lianqing was, he couldn't conclude that he was the center of the world, the male lead. That Bai Youlan was hindering Xu Qingqing from marrying him to prevent her from becoming the female lead.
Coupled with his agitation over breaking up with Xu Qingqing, for a short time, he didn't link Xu Qingqing's unwillingness to get engaged to their schemes.
Xie Lianqing originally thought Xu Qingqing was unwilling to accept the proposal because she feared marriage. After all, not long after they started dating in middle school, upon learning about her family situation, he had inadvertently heard her say she hated marriage.
Before proposing, Xie Lianqing privately believed that his relationship with Xu Qingqing had warmed up recently and that she had already overcome her fear. It wasn't until the proposal was rejected that he remembered this again.
Feeling defeated, he completely failed to connect his own marriage to Bai Youlan's conspiracy.
"You actually know?!" Xu Qingqing was utterly stunned, standing rooted to the spot, her mouth agape, her expression shocked and bewildered. "When did you find out about these things?"
Xie Lianqing found her expression at this moment both adorable and amusing, yet also somewhat heartbreaking. Because before he regained his memories, Xu Qingqing had to bear the threat of the system and Bai Youlan all alone, unable to tell anyone.
He gazed at Xu Qingqing and asked gently with a smile, "Shall we get back together?"
