Naturally, Yan Shuyu, who were too busy scrambling away, only knew that nobody seemed to have noticed her on her way out. What she didn’t know was that news had exploded in the security room. The two guards, who were on duty and dozing off behind the security cameras, woke up the instant they caught sight of her fleeing the big boss’s room like a robber. Their gossiping spirit was on full force -- one of them followed her intently in the cameras as the other one rewind the footages from the night before.

At the rate it goes, probably everyone in the security room would find out that she had spent the entire night in the big boss’s room within two hours.

Ignorance could sometimes be bliss. Yan Shuyu at least felt relieved after she had successfully fled the hotel.

She was fairly determined that there was no way in hell she would become the stepmother of the male lead. She wouldn’t even need this job anymore. She was going to pretend that last night had never happened and forget all about it – after Yan Shuyu and recollected herself. She lifted her head up high and left with no regrets.

She had already organized her thoughts when she was in the elevator. Now that she was going to quit her job at the hotel, she would no longer need to familiarize herself with the environment. She walked toward the familiar bus station to wait for her bus.

As she was in the busier area of town, she did not have to wait long for the bus to come. She got on the bus and swiped her card. It was still early in time, so she picked an empty seat and sat down. Looking at how smooth the traffic was, she gathered she’d arrived at her destination in less than ten minutes. The original owner might be poor and manipulative, but she certainly enjoyed comfort as much as Yan Shuyu.

Yan Shuyu must say that she was very impressed by how decisive the original owner was. She decided to retire from the night scene, and as soon as she got her new job, she also moved to a new place, just to start over afresh. She had a bit of money with her at the time, so she rented a middle-of-the-road elegant apartment for the singles. For the sake of convenience, it wasn’t too far from the hotel. The area wasn’t as bustling as where Hotel Dorsett was, but it was still part of the central district. The rent was, of course, horrendous. Even though the original owner had a little cash with her, she only rented a 40 or so square meter apartment. Her kid was still young, so it was still a decent size for the two of them.

Yan Shuyu followed her memory to find her apartment. She opened up the front door, and she saw wooden floor and a bay window with cushions in front of that. She felt better.

Unlike the original owner who were dazzled by the material world gradually, Yan Shuyu was born into that lifestyle. Ever since she was attending grade school, she had always had everything taken care of for her. Even when she was attending college, she wasn’t that much more independent. She attended a local college, so whenever she didn’t take the laundry home on the weekends, her mother would go to her college to help her with laundry and cleaning.

Had she transmigrated a few months earlier, when she had no money and living in poverty, the well-spoiled Yan Shuyu wouldn’t even bother trying to struggle. She would have tried a lot harder to see if there was anyway to go back to her original life. Even though she’d still be pretty poor in the long run, but at least the quality of life wasn’t too bad. Yan Shuyu felt that she could give this a try.

Even though it was a single’s unit, it still had all the necessary facilities. At the entrance way, there was a stove and exhaust. One could change out of their shoes and also cook there.

Yan Shuyu silently changed into her slippers. The bathroom was to the right of the hallway. She took a look inside as she walked past it. There was a washing machine and a small area to hang the laundry. In fact, there were some articles of clothing hanging on there.

Yan Shuyu was even happier now that she found out that she didn’t have to do her laundry by hand. She smiled subconsciously. Her happy mood lastly all the way until she saw the kiddo sitting on the bed.

Yan Shuyu had always known that the original owner has a son, and she was also aware that he was the one who had done all the bad deeds with “her” and finally faced the tragic ending of a cannon fodder. But, she was never the kind of girl who was very motherly. Before she had seen him in the flesh, she did not have too much feeling for this instant son, nor was she mentally prepared to be a mother. Now that she saw the kid in front of her very own eyes, she was dumbfounded and her smile froze on her.

Truth be told, this kid wasn’t half bad with his big, round eyes, a cute and delicate face, messy hair, and he looked so cute when he was sitting there groggily. She had the sudden urge to run up to him and hold him, kiss him, and lift him up in the air.

Of course, she stopped herself from doing that. She had noticed that the kiddo didn’t look that much like his gorgeous-looking mother, or the dead husband in the original owner’s memory. After careful observation, he looked 60-70% like herself.

Well, that was startling, why was the son born to the original owner looked more like this instant mother who came later instead of his own mother?

If Yan Shuyu didn’t have a clear enough mind, she’d almost thought she might have given birth to him

Yet she must say that looking at the boy who looked somewhat like herself, Yan Shuyu, who didn’t have much maternal instinct almost had some awareness of being a mother. She couldn’t help but sit down on the edge of the bed and rubbed the little kiddo on his head.

“Mom,” said the little kiddo groggily before he dived into her arms.

“Ugh….” Yan Shuyu froze again. She was utterly stunned by the enthusiasm from the little kiddo and didn’t know how to respond, or even what to do with her arms and legs.

A soft little thing in her arms as though she was his entire world was definitely a brand-new experience for Yan Shuyu. She felt directly the meaning behind the word “mom”.

Yan Shuyu really wanted to look up and howl at the sky. She was such a young mother, could it get any worse than that? Yet, when she inadvertently touched his soft, little back, she plunged into deep thoughts.

When she was sorting out the story earlier, she had only paid attention to the storyline of the stepmother and not that of her instant son. Now that she had some awareness of being a mother, she started thinking back at the novel again…

The name of the little thing in her arms was Zhang Yuanjia, nickname Yuanbao. He followed his mother and entered the life of wealth at the age of seven. He looked up so much to his stepfather that he voluntarily changed his name to Zhou Yuanjia and became the well-known First Young Master of the Zhou’s. At one point, his reputation exceeded that of the real Young Master and male lead, Zhou Yi.

Coming to think about it, the male lead never cared much about his stepmother. The one he hated the most was his stepbrother, who fought him over just about anything.

The stepmother committed many sinister acts on the male lead’s path to a grown up, vile acts that one could only imagine, but she was no doubt an excellent mother to her own son. Even during the male lead’s recount, he mentioned that his stepmother did not marry his father for love, she married him so his son could have the best education and stand on the top of the world.

Ever since the mother and son had entered their house, they pulled all sorts of stunts to compete with him for his father’s attention. The stepmother always pretended to be tender and submissive in front of other people and that she was madly in love with his father, and even nice to his son because of that.

Her son did an even better job than her. He had always pretended to be a good son and a good brother in front of his father and the father bought into it all and was closer to him than even his own son. Ever since he had graduated college, the father made him a senior manager at the headquarters right away – even though the male lead joined the company before his stepbrother, he joined under a different name and started at the grunt level. The entire company knew of the “Young Master” but nobody knew that the true young master was right among them.

Ever since he was a child, the male lead had lived under the shadow of his stepbrother. Up until he found out that everything that his father did was to hone his character, he had been envious and even jealous at how his father and his stepbrother had gotten along with each other. To the point that even after his stepbrother had brought about his own demise, and he understood why his father acted the way that he did, he still couldn’t get over everything that had happened to him in his childhood. Specifically, even after villain Zhou Yuanjia died completely, the male lead would still dreamt about how his stepbrother was setting him up and his father would side with the stepbrother instead of him. One could tell that it had a lasting effect on the male lead.

Zhou Yuanjia’s presence was more than just to hone the male lead’s character. Even after his death, his negative impact on the male lead could still be seen all over the place. All the way until the male lead had finally met the female lead and his fragile heart was finally softened by the female lead’s warmth and love, before he was able to put everything aside and reconcile with his father.

All in all, Zhou Yuanji was the real villain of the book, along with the most tragic ending. Compared to him, the villainess stepmother’s ending was still not too bad. The male lead had more or less completely forgotten about her ever since she went to jail. With his power, he could easily have someone “take care” of her when she was in jail, but he didn’t do that. Which was to say that if she truly tried to make up for her past behavior, there were still hopes out there for her.

And as the best villain, Zhou Yuanjia died during the climax of the fight over the inheritance. He died in the car that had been altered, the one that him and his mother had prepared for the male lead. In the end, the male lead was able to avoid it, but Zhou Yuanjia died in the car, without even an intact body, much like his own father.

Yan Yushu hugged the small and warm body. Thinking about what would happen in 20 years, she couldn’t help but feel bad for him, which had further solidified her determination that she must deviate from the script.

Judging from the age of the male lead, she’d have to pull all of her tricks to try and seduce Zhou Qinhe for two years before she would be able to officially marry into his wealthy family. And that wasn’t even the happy ending, but a string of nonstop plotting and manipulation. Granted, they would be able to enjoy luxurious and wasteful life for a good 20 years, but there’s a price associated with it. In the end, one of them died in his prime years and the other one was sentenced to life imprisonment – Yan Shuyu didn’t think that was such a great trade.

Truth be told, seeing how handsome the male lead’s father was, along with his great skills and endurance, and that he was so filthy rich, Yan Shuyu had given it some thought to try to apply some first aids. They were the official couple after all, she could easily just follow the script and marry him, start her life over again, and be a well-behaved, good stepmother – she had nothing against the male lead anyway. It’d be more tiring to be plotting and manipulative day in and day out!

From reading the novel, Yan Shuyu knew that the male lead was a nice person deep down inside. As long as she and her instant son didn’t try any crazy ideas, they should be able to get along amicably and, if she would take her shamelessness one step further, she just might be able to enjoy her golden years in this wealthy family.

But now that she had met her instant son, Zhou Yuanjia, and had sorted out his plotline some more. Yan Shuyu made the decisive determination to give up her impractical fantasy.

Comparing to the icy face but overall benevolence male lead, the real issue here was the seemingly refined and gentle but actually ruthless male lead’s father. Dogs that don’t bark will bite. He quietly plotted against everybody. The original owner’s only wish from the very beginning was to give her son the best so he could stand on the top of the world. Her dream was fulfilled the moment she married him. And Zhang Yuanjia, who lost his own father since he was a child, had always truly viewed him as his real father and respected and looked up to him. Yet, the male lead’s father used the weaknesses of the two and slowly grew their appetite, all the way until they had brought about their own death so as to complete the male lead’s training.

Come to think about it, the male lead must have also saw through this point, which was why he couldn’t get over it for the longest time. The father that he had looked up to his entire life was so cold and calculating. Who would be alright with that?

Yan Shuyu had a pretty good idea about this. She was never the brightest, even if she could grow a few more brains she wouldn’t be able to be a match of the male lead’s father. It was no small feat trying to take advantage of a capitalist. If the original owner’s purpose was to get herself a meal ticket, her better bet should be an average rich guy. All she needed was to be well-off, which would also be a lot less drama than that of a wealthy, prominent family. And she would have all the time that she needed to cultivate her own son into a successful person in life.

After all, the novel mentioned that Zhou Yuanjia had once outshone the male lead. Indicating that fact that he was quite talented himself. She just needed to start cultivating him now one small step at a time, and she would be able to bank on him for her happy golden years.

Coming to this conclusion, Yan Shuyu was filled with joy. And she even felt less distressed about having to walk away from the class A male god, and even full of motivation. In order to clearly draw the line between them, she planned to pack up and move to a different city with her instant son. Then it wouldn’t matter how powerful the script was anymore.