“Have a pleasant trip!” Cheng Zimin walked Mu Yue all the way to the entrance of the boarding lounge, wearing his usual smile. He had thought of many things to say—perhaps asking in a pitiful tone whether she would let him go with her, or jokingly asking if he still had time to book a ticket. He hadn’t just thought about it for a day, either. In the end, he only dared to say this one sentence.
“Mm.” Mu Yue replied, as expected not saying anything about taking him along.
Cheng Zimin was a little disappointed, though he didn’t let it show. His smile grew a little wider as he took a small gift box from his bag. “This is for you. The flight to Country B is a long one. You can use it to pass the time if you get bored.”
“What is it?” Mu Yue took the box. It was wrapped, and its size didn’t give away what was inside. It had a little weight to it in her hand.
“A toy.” He rummaged through his bag again and pulled out a packet of candy. “And if you feel uncomfortable sitting for so long, you can try these. They work especially well for me.”
Mu Yue accepted those too, then looked at him expectantly. “Anything else?”
Cheng Zimin actually rummaged through his bag again and took out a pile of little things he thought were useful. Mu Yue had been wondering about it on the way there. Cheng Zimin had never been in the habit of carrying a bag, and it was summer, so why had he brought one today? Still, the gesture had certainly pleased her.
So she accepted everything Cheng Zimin had prepared for her. When he gazed at her expectantly, ready to watch her leave, she took her bag from Heidi, pulled out a box, and handed it to him.
“A gift.”
“What is it?” Cheng Zimin took it and was about to open it right away, but before doing so, he asked, “Can I open it now?”
“Of course.” Mu Yue nodded and handed everything she had received from Cheng Zimin to Heidi—the bodyguard character card.
When Cheng Zimin opened the gift box, he deliberately closed one eye. Both his pose and expression were filled with youthful charm, and Mu Yue was one hundred percent certain that he had practiced it. The contrast with the gentle image he showed in front of outsiders was quite striking—and very pleasing to the eye.
That kid certainly had plenty of tricks.
For instance, when he opened the gift box, the surprise and astonishment on his face, the happiness shining in his eyes, and the smile he could barely suppress were all perfectly executed.
“You bought this?” Cheng Zimin was genuinely delighted. Without thinking, he asked, “What about the other one?”
“I have it.” Mu Yue glanced at her bag, indicating that the other item was inside.
Cheng Zimin happily put it on. It was a men’s wristwatch, part of a matching couple’s set. The day he had accompanied Mu Yue to the shopping mall, she had told him beforehand that she wanted to do the buying herself and that he shouldn’t rush to pay. She wouldn’t think he was generous; she would only feel that he had ruined the experience.
Of course, Cheng Zimin obediently listened. So while the sales assistant introduced Mu Yue to various products, he merely watched and didn’t buy anything.
What he had been looking at was a pair of youthful couple’s watches.
Mu Yue had never verbally acknowledged their relationship. Cheng Zimin couldn’t be sure how she felt and didn’t dare test the waters, so he had only looked at them. He hadn’t expected that she had noticed them too and had bought the matching watches without his knowledge.
Cheng Zimin wasn’t pretending. He was truly happy. This wasn’t merely a wristwatch—it also meant that their relationship had taken a definite step forward.
“All right, I’m leaving.” Mu Yue waved at him, entered the passageway, and walked toward the boarding lounge.
Cheng Zimin waved back. As soon as Mu Yue disappeared from view, he immediately took out his phone and snapped several pictures of his wrist. He admired them himself first, then opened a social media app, uploaded the photos, and added a caption:
[I really don’t understand what there is to show off about. I’ve always thought getting a watch from your girlfriend was a perfectly ordinary thing. I don’t understand why anyone would deliberately post about it to brag. For example, I definitely wouldn’t tell you that on XX/XX/20XX, my girlfriend gave me a couple’s watch from Brand X...]
Within two minutes of posting it, he received a whole batch of reaction images from people gnashing their teeth and saying, “Congratulations, I suppose.”
-
Mu Yue arrived at the VIP lounge. The staff here asked her courteously whether she needed anything. There was fruit, cake, snacks, meals, and drinks. Her flight would not begin boarding for another forty minutes or so, and she could even get a spa treatment or hand care.
Mu Yue took a quick look around and wasn’t particularly interested. She ordered a serving of lightly sweetened ice cream and prepared to spend some time scrolling through her phone.
Not long afterward, another person arrived—a young woman holding a camera, her face openly displaying the look of someone seeing the world for the first time. As soon as she entered, she grabbed a staff member and asked whether she could film there. The staff member told her that she could, as long as she didn’t disturb anyone else.
The young woman repeatedly said, “Okay,” adjusted the camera, and then bent her previously straight back. She shoved the lens right up to her own face, trying not to accidentally capture anyone else. She sneaked over to the self-service counter to film the food, took a few items, and sat down in a corner. While eating, she leaned toward the camera and whispered to it.
She looked so furtive that Mu Yue couldn’t help laughing.
“She’s not embarrassed at all.” A middle-aged woman seated beside Mu Yue let out a contemptuous scoff.
Another woman, speaking in a deliberately sweet voice, said softly, “Oh, Mother, she’s probably visiting the VIP lounge for the first time. She’s just curious. We should be understanding.”
The middle-aged woman scoffed again. “If she can’t afford it, why bother flying first class?”
That was an incredibly ignorant thing to say. First class was more expensive than economy, but it wasn’t as if ordinary people absolutely couldn’t afford it. It was simply a matter of whether they were willing to spend the money. Regardless of their financial situation, once people had come here, they deserved the same service. They had all paid for it, after all—what gave her the right to look down on anyone?
Besides, even if she looked down on someone, she should keep it to herself. Running her mouth wouldn’t make her seem noble. It would only make others think she had no manners.
Several people nearby glanced in the direction of the conversation.
The woman with the sweet voice let out another little “Oh.” “Mother, don’t say that. Sister hasn’t flown first class either. If she hears you, she might think you’re talking about her.”
“That’s true. Xiaorou, when your sister arrives later, remind her to be careful. She mustn’t do something embarrassing like that woman over there.” This time, it was the middle-aged man from their group who spoke. His voice was much louder, causing the young woman eating in the corner to look up.
Xiaorou replied sweetly. Then, as if bringing it up casually, she said, “I wonder why Sister didn’t travel with us. What if she misses her flight?”
“Hmph! I think she’s just making trouble for no reason!”
“She’s been getting more and more unruly lately. She’s like a firecracker every day. Xiaorou is so obedient, and yet she hit her two days ago! She has no sense of propriety at all. She’s completely out of control!”
"Big sister didn't do it on purpose... And her gaokao score was so great, but I..."
"Alright, alright, sweetie, don't be sad. When she gets here soon, Mom will talk to her. She can't think just because she did well on the exam that her eyes are stuck up in the sky!"
"She really is being thoughtless, making the whole family wait for her right now."
The voices of the Fang family grew louder and louder. The noise made people who were trying to rest furrow their brows repeatedly, and it successfully drew the attention of most people in the waiting area. Some were there for the gossip, some looked utterly pained by the racket, and others just found it plain annoying.
Mu Yue was one of those who got fed up. "This is an airport terminal for people waiting for their flights. If you don't want to wait, you can just sprout wings and fly away right now."
"Hahaha..."
"Pfft! Cough cough cough!!"
Quite a few people snickered under their breath, and a girl sitting in the corner eating something choked on her food outright.
"You! How dare you talk like that?" The woman immediately shot up from her seat, took off her sunglasses and glared over at Mu Yue. "Such a young little girl, how can you be so rude?"
Mu Yue lifted her head, didn't stand up, and shot back lazily, "I'm just stating the obvious, why are you getting so worked up? Were you being polite when you were badmouthing other people for no reason? Was being loud and saying nasty things that ruined everyone else's mood around here polite? This isn't your living room at home."
"Hey! You little..." The woman pointed at Mu Yue, clearly about to say more, before she was stopped by Fang Surou.
Fang Surou looked Mu Yue up and down, then leaned over to whisper something in her mother's ear. The woman's expression shifted, and after a moment she smoothed down her hair and put on a graceful smile again. "I'm sorry, we lost our tempers a little earlier. We'll keep our voices down."
The terminal grew quiet again.
Mu Yue tossed her finished ice cream cup into the trash can, too lazy to pay them any more mind. When she pulled her hand back, the jade bracelet on her wrist caught the light sharply.
It was made of fine white mutton-fat jade, a brand new bracelet, not the one she'd bought earlier at the cultural goods shop. A few days ago, bored out of her mind, she'd browsed an auction house and gone there to bid on it. The starting price was 800,000 yuan, and in the end Mu Yue got it for 3 million.
The jade had an incredibly high whiteness, rich oiliness, a waxy texture, and was so fine and spotless you couldn't find one for direct sale on the regular market. Mu Yue had her trusted cat appraiser confirm it was top-tier, so the bid was more than worth it. What's more, even if she had lost out a little, it didn't matter. The money was spent, and she got the corresponding points and experience points anyway.
Today Mu Yue was wearing an apricot-colored dress that paired perfectly with the bracelet. Her whole look had that gentle vibe, not the warm, approachable kind of gentle, but the distant, poised grace of a privileged young lady—gentle on the surface, but with a quiet, unshakable pride underneath. Anyone who looked at her would never think that was just a carefully curated persona. The confidence she radiated was so obvious no one could mistake her for coming from an ordinary family.
Not to mention she had a female bodyguard by her side, who had been watching the whole situation like a hawk ever since the woman stood up.
The Fang family was the kind of so-called "rich clan" that would freely point fingers and judge ordinary people, but after being called out by Mu Yue, they had to think twice about what kind of losses they'd take if they picked a direct fight.
Mu Yue was so young, yet she was wearing something that expensive. She must hold a very high status in her family—Fang Surou and her mother had been at that very auction too, and they'd had their eyes on that exact bracelet, but they couldn't bring themselves to buy it because the price was too steep. Three million yuan wasn't chump change, not like in those over-the-top TV dramas or short videos where people could casually drop that kind of money on a piece of jewelry with no practical function.
Fang Surou had been the one who recognized the bracelet just now. She was just wondering which wealthy family's young lady this was, why she'd never seen her around H City before? Was she a tourist visiting from out of town?
The whole family didn't say another word, just kept exchanging looks. Eventually their eyes all landed on their second son, the message in their gaze clear as day. Fang Suyi frowned at first, but after looking Mu Yue over carefully, his brows relaxed a little, and he put on a forced expression that said "I get it now."
Mu Yue didn't have the time of day to waste on a bunch of idiots. She was scrolling through her phone, and stumbled across a clip from that talent show her classmates used to talk about back in school. Summer vacation had started, and the show was already airing.
The clip was kind of fun. The singing and dancing performances were nothing special, but the drama was absolutely wild, so Mu Yue just bought a membership and started binging the whole show.
Roughly twenty minutes later, there was new movement on the Fang family's side. Fang Baiwei had arrived—the true heiress.
Mu Yue paused her video to look over at the female lead. She hadn't realized earlier that Fang Surou was the false heiress when she'd heard her speak, since her voice had sounded different from what Mu Yue had heard back at the spa. But that familiar scheming tone, paired with the rest of the family's conversation, had let Mu Yue guess the truth.
Now that the female lead was here, she couldn't help but be a little curious.
The true heiress had that striking, cool and stunning kind of beauty. No surprises there, the whole family immediately started laying into her the second she showed up, while the false heiress stepped in to mediate, speaking up for her. In just a few short minutes, the true heiress sneered no less than five times. After the whole family ranted on and on for ages, she finally said, "Done? If you're done, shut your mouths. You're not embarrassed, but I am. Being related to you lot is the worst luck I've ever had in my life."
She'd turned the whole "you're embarrassing us" speech the family had planned right back on them.
The whole family was so stunned by her words they froze, stammering "you you you" over and over, or spouting "this is insubordination, completely out of line." Paired with the stares and expressions of the other people in the waiting area, the whole scene was absurdly comical.
When they finally snapped back to their senses, the Fang family realized they were the ones making a total fool of themselves, and their faces turned black with fury. Of course they didn't think it was their own fault. They shot sharp, angry glares at Fang Baiwei one after another, but she ignored all of them, found herself a seat, put on her headphones, and shut the whole family out.
Mu Yue didn't go back to the show. Instead she pulled up the full novel about the true and false heiresses. The original story had this exact scene too. The whole family was heading to Country B this time, supposedly to cheer Fang Surou up.
Fang Surou had originally conspired with her best friend to make sure the female lead couldn't take the gaokao, but the female lead was reborn from her past life, and the one who ended up with her admission ticket cut to pieces was Fang Surou herself. Her best friend got penalized for being part of the scheme too, and the two of them fell out completely. The girl who got punished grew to hate the false heiress, after all, she'd done all that dirty work for Fang Surou, but Fang Surou had washed her hands of the whole mess and acted like she had nothing to do with it.
Fang Surou was forced to retake her final year of high school. She failed to sabotage the female lead, and lost a close ally in the process, so she was absolutely miserable. The whole family decided to cheer her up by going on a trip to Country B together.
The female lead hadn't planned on coming at first, but Country B was the very place where she was tortured to death in her previous life. She was going there to get her revenge, to lock that deranged monster up where he belonged with the rest of the freaks. And she wasn't going to let the false heiress get away scot-free either.
Mu Yue finished reading that section of the plot, and honestly, she went back to the novel's homepage, stared at the "revenge fantasy" tag on the cover, and found herself very confused.
The female lead is reborn and returns, but she doesn't get rid of that whole family of scumbags right away. Instead, she gets repeatedly questioned by random passersby, constantly compared to the false heiress, and has to endure round after round of taunts before she finally gets to the face-slapping process. That false heiress keeps jumping around causing trouble all the way to the very end of the story, as if the novel couldn't go on at all without her.
When it comes to the revenge plots, the female lead does succeed in the end, but the process is far from easy. It's full of hardships, and she even risks her life multiple times, narrowly escaping death by a hair's breadth. What's even more infuriating is that halfway through the story, the female lead gets tricked by the scumbag ex. The excuse given is that she never learned to be wary in her past life, so it makes perfect sense that she falls for the same tricks again in this new life.
Makes perfect sense my foot!
The more Mu Yue read, the more frustrated she grew. The female lead already had a terrible time in her past life, but even getting her revenge in this new life is such a struggle. She gets deceived, hurt, and almost loses her sight—she's tortured both emotionally and physically throughout. How is this supposed to be a "rebirth revenge fun story"? It's clearly just a story that tortures the protagonist under the guise of being a satisfying, fast-paced read.
She should have seen this coming from the very start.
Most rebirth stories pick up right when the female lead opens her eyes to her new life, but this novel drags out the entire miserable experience of her past life first. It goes into excruciating detail, describing every inhumane torment the female lead suffered, every bit of pain she went through, and then does the exact same thing after she is reborn. What's the point of all that? Is it supposed to show how tough and resilient the female lead is?
All Mu Yue could see was just how miserable and agonizing the female lead's life was.
She was so riled up by the novel that her face was dark with displeasure. When the boarding announcement finally came, Mu Yue still wore a cold, stern expression as she headed off with her bodyguards.
Chu Xiaoshi had been hesitating and twisting her hands for ages, too nervous to approach Mu Yue when she saw how bad her mood was. But now that Mu Yue was about to walk out of sight, she finally plucked up all her courage to step forward and call out to her, "Big sister, thank you so much for what you did earlier. Also—you're so pretty!"
This was the girl who had been sitting in the corner filming a mukbang video of herself eating. The second she finished speaking, an awkward little smile tugged at her lips. "I'm so sorry to bother you. I hope you have a wonderful trip!"
"Thank you." Just as the girl was about to scurry away, Mu Yue held back all the leftover frustration from reading the bad novel and gave her a gentle smile.
Chu Xiaoshi's face instantly flushed bright red, and she waved her hands frantically. "No no no, I'm the one who should be thanking you!" She still remembered clearly how saved she felt when this beautiful big sister stepped up to defend her when that rude old woman was calling her embarrassing in public. If Mu Yue hadn't been a girl who even looked younger than her, Chu Xiaoshi would have fallen for her right then and there.
And honestly, even the fact that Mu Yue was a girl didn't stop her from feeling a huge crush. She had no idea if she would ever get the chance to see her again. Chu Xiaoshi really wanted to ask for her social media, but she knew it would be way too presumptuous, so she didn't work up the nerve to say it.
After their little exchange, Mu Yue kept walking. She'd barely taken a few steps before the rest of the Fang family caught up to her.
They were all on the exact same flight, using the same VIP priority lane, so of course they ended up boarding the plane together. Now that there were no other strangers around, the Fang family kept glancing over at their second son again and again.
But the first one to make a move wasn't Fang Suyi—it was Fang Surou.
"Hi there! I wanted to say sorry for disturbing you earlier. Your outfit is absolutely stunning, that dress you're wearing—could I ask what brand it's from?" Fang Surou's voice was sweet and sugary, and she had an innocent, cute look about her. When she put in the effort to be nice to people, it was easy to make others let their guard down.
But Mu Yue wasn't like most people. She glanced at the harmless, smiling Fang Surou, and suddenly found a perfect outlet for all her pent-up frustration. "You know what? I've seen you before."
"Ah, really?" Fang Surou lit up with delighted surprise. The rest of the Fang family also puffed up with pride, thinking their daughter was so well-known in social circles that this obviously privileged young lady would recognize her.
Mu Yue stopped in her tracks, turning to face her and the entire Fang family. "Yeah. I saw you at XX Bathing Center, where I overheard you making plans with another girl to cut up your elder sister's exam admission ticket."
Every single member of the Fang family froze up on the spot. Fang Surou's face went rigid too, but she still tried to save the situation. "You... you must have mistaken me for someone else, right?"
"Mistaken you? Fang Surou, isn't that your name?" Mu Yue smiled, her eyes cold and sharp. "So do me a favor, all of you, stay the hell away from me. I have zero interest in people like you who would deliberately ruin someone else's future, or in families that raise kids who do exactly that."
Mu Yue dropped her smile right after she finished speaking, but before she turned to leave, she glanced back at Fang Baiwei. "If you're stuck in a puddle of muck, you don't have to stay there rotting. A rotten environment stops you from growing. You have your whole future ahead of you—you can choose to climb out on your own, and find a place with sunlight."
Fang Baiwei was stunned. She hadn't received a single kind word from anyone in so long that her lips twitched and trembled for ages. By the time she finally mouthed a "thank you", Mu Yue was already walking away.
She stared at Mu Yue's back, lost in thought, turning those words over in her head. Climb out on my own to find a place with sunlight? Was that a hint that she should leave the Fang family? Could she even do that?
Fang Surou's sobbing pulled her back to her senses. She watched as every single member of the family rushed to comfort the crying Fang Surou, as if they had all collectively forgotten what Mu Yue had just said. Then they started blaming her, the actual victim, saying that as the elder sister, it was absolutely unacceptable that she didn't say a single word to defend her poor little sister after the whole family had been publicly humiliated like that.
Unacceptable? Hah. Who was the one being completely unreasonable here?
When Mu Yue got on the plane, she headed straight for the double-suite cabin she had booked, which was much more spacious and private. No one could bother her there, and the Fang family couldn't get to her.
Once the plane was in the air, she opened up the little toy Cheng Zimin had given her to pass the time, and then watched some movies that were being played above the clouds. The toy was a building set that could be assembled into ten different shapes, and every time you successfully put one together, it played a different little victory tune. She had already heard two of them so far. It was a little challenging, but surprisingly fun. She had also used a few other little trinkets Cheng Zimin had given her, and the one that left the biggest impression was that special candy—super sour on the outside, but sweet on the inside. The contrast was so intense, and it came in so many different flavors that she couldn't stop eating it even when her teeth started feeling soft from all the sourness.
The flight was long, and once she got sleepy, Mu Yue just curled up and took a nap.
When she landed in Country B, her good health meant she didn't feel any jet lag or discomfort, but her trip wasn't all that fun. The main issue was the food—she kept picking terrible dishes that were not to her taste, one after another.
This time around, she didn't bring her assistant Qianqian along with her, and she really felt how inconvenient it was to not have someone around who could handle things for her. If she'd had someone who could plan all the itineraries and food spots ahead of time so she wouldn't have to worry about a single thing, the trip would have been so much easier, and she wouldn't have stumbled into so many bad dining spots.
Completely losing the mood to go sightseeing in Country B, Mu Yue spent almost all her time cooped up in her hotel room. When the day came to board the cruise ship, she headed to the port extra early.
And then—who else did she run into but the entire Fang family.
The Fang family hadn't originally planned to come to this port city, let alone book tickets on this cruise. But Fang Surou's fiancé had flown all the way over to see her. When he heard how upset she was after her run-in with Mu Yue, he bought cruise tickets for every single member of the Fang family to cheer her up—all except Fang Baiwei.
Once again, they had left the true heiress all alone, abandoned in a foreign country far from home.
The people from the Fang family spotted Mu Yue too. A malicious glint flashed across Fang Surou's eyes, and she leaned over to whisper a few words to her second brother. Following her words, Fang Suyi's gaze cut through the crowd and landed right on Mu Yue.
Mu Yue was already fuming, and these two idiots were so obviously gearing up to stir up trouble, as if they thought she was too blind to notice.
She did the exact same thing Fang Surou had just done, pulling Heidi over to whisper a few plans of her own.
Two minutes later, every single member of the Fang family had been kicked straight into the sea, all of them neatly together — not even that so-called fiance of theirs was left out.
They screamed, they wailed, and they kept yelling that Mu Yue was the one who ordered the attack. But when the officers who came to investigate saw Mu Yue take the exclusive super VIP card from a cruise ship staff member, along with the grand, formal welcome ceremony held for her, they apologized sympathetically and said, "Dear honored guests from out of town, the people who attacked you were a group of hooligans. They've already fled without a trace, and there's nothing we can do about it."
