Chapter 15

Chapter 15: First Meeting with the Female Lead

After Jiang Jiang finished bandaging Jiang Chao Sheng’s wound, she used “buying medicinal herbs at the Peaceguard Clinic” as an excuse to slip out alone.

Jiang Chao Sheng insisted on going with her, but Jiang Jiang talked him into staying behind. “You, sir, are going to sit in that room and reflect on your mistakes!”

Jiang Jiang wasn’t familiar with the capital. After asking the inn’s waiter, she learned the Cloudcoming Inn wasn’t far from the Peaceguard Clinic at all.

But once she stepped outside, she didn’t head toward the clinic.

She went the other way.

That way led to the Chu residence.

The waiter was basically a living map, and Jiang Jiang had casually asked where the Chu residence was while she had him.

As she walked, she planned.

Villains in novels were always petty. The kind who held grudges like family heirlooms.

In this book-world, the male lead and the female lead both came from powerful noble families, yet somehow stayed spotless—rare gems, the once-in-ten-thousand kind of good people.

Everyone else? Especially the Meng family? Questionable at best. One was crueler than the next, with no bottom line in sight.

If her brother really ended up remembered by the Meng family… then the safest option was to pack up the whole family and run.

And running away took money. Starting over somewhere new took even more.

Sure, maybe they’d get lucky. Maybe no powerful family would bother with them…

Jiang Jiang pictured her brother’s personality and immediately abandoned that fantasy. Even if nobody targeted him this time, what about next time?

With his temperament, trouble practically had his name engraved on it.

So today, she had to scout the area. Tomorrow night, she would stake out the alley behind the Chu residence and see if she could pick up some “lost” silver.

With money in hand, everything got easier.

And if one day her brother got framed and thrown into prison, silver could still pry open doors. Right?

Jiang Chao Sheng would probably make a wounded face. “Can’t you hope for something good for me for once?”

The Chu family was a century-old noble clan. Their estate sat in the busiest part of the capital’s eastern district, on Ruyi Street—a stretch where nearly every household was famous, wealthy, and terrifying to look at too closely.

Each home had a grand gate, guarded by household servants and armed guards. Ordinary commoners didn’t even dare stroll past. Most people detoured out of pure survival instinct.

From far away, Jiang Jiang saw the huge sign in gold letters: Chu Residence.

So this was the Chu family.

She stared at the gate for a long moment, almost instinctively wanting to take a tourist photo and “check in.”

Right. As if.

All she could do was sigh in her heart. This was what “noble household” really meant. The place where the novel’s plot kicked off. The first battlefield map for the transmigrated female lead.

Too bad she was just a random extra. No ticket, no entry.

After lingering at the street corner, Jiang Jiang picked a route and circled around to the back of the Chu residence. The grounds were absurdly large, and the alleys behind it were a tangled maze. Staring at several narrow lanes ahead, Jiang Jiang hesitated—exactly which one was the spot where Chu Yun Yue was supposed to discover Chen Jin Ting?

The novel never said the Chu residence was this big. Or that the back alleys were this many.

What a scam.

Jiang Jiang replayed the plot in her mind, word by word, as if she could squeeze directions out of punctuation. Chu Yun Yue was the Chu family’s legitimate daughter, but because she was slow and muddled, she was bullied constantly. Even maids and old servants dared to push her around.

So… her living quarters had to be remote. Small. Forgotten.

She also often didn’t get enough to eat. There had been an old servant from the Chu family’s past who pitied her and sometimes sneaked food to her through a back door.

Which meant that when Chu Yun Yue got hungry, she would instinctively drift toward that back door, looking for food.

Jiang Jiang felt sorry for her for one second, then complained about the dog-blood plot for another. In this era, servants had their contracts in the master’s hands. They could be sold off, beaten, even killed—and they still dared bully the household’s miss?

Then again, this was a novel world. Logic didn’t pay rent here. Conflict did. Humiliation, revenge, face-slapping, and a satisfying rise—that was the whole point.

That was what readers came for.

Jiang Jiang lifted an eyebrow. Shallow.

Including her. She was absolutely one of them.

Shaking off the mess in her head, she picked the most secluded-looking alley and walked in. After a short distance, she spotted a small back door. The surrounding layout matched what she remembered well enough that she started to believe it.

This had to be it.

While she was staring, she heard movement inside the courtyard. Then the little wooden door began to open—slowly, carefully—from the inside.

Oh no.

There was nowhere to hide. Jiang Jiang’s first instinct was to turn and run, but running would make her look guilty, wouldn’t it?

So she did the only sensible thing.

She lifted her chin, squared her shoulders, and walked forward with perfect calm, passing right by the doorway like she belonged there.

That’s right. Just a passerby. A real passerby.

As she crossed that dangerous moment, she flicked her eyes sideways—and saw a thinly dressed young girl stepping out.

“Sister.” The girl’s voice stopped Jiang Jiang cold. A slender hand trembled as it grabbed Jiang Jiang’s sleeve.

Jiang Jiang paused.

The girl looked about the same age as her, maybe even a little taller. But her eyes were clear and childish, and she clung to Jiang Jiang with timid, desperate hope as she called her “sister.”

“You’re calling me?” Jiang Jiang turned to face her properly.

Even in that thin clothing, the girl’s looks were striking. Jiang Jiang’s mind clicked into place.

This had to be the female lead, Chu Yun Yue.

Not the fully awakened version with modern memories restored—this was the hazy, half-lost, child-minded Chu Yun Yue.

“Sister… I’m hungry.” Chu Yun Yue stared up at her, eyes pleading, fingers tightening on Jiang Jiang’s sleeve.

In the Chu family, Chu Yun Yue had always been a shadow—present, but easy to ignore. If not for the identity of “legitimate eldest daughter of the Chu family,” she might have been tormented to death years ago.

Her mother had died in childbirth. For a few years after, Chu Yun Yue lived decently enough. Then, around age four, the Chu family realized she wasn’t like other children.

She learned slowly. Even at four, she could only speak in simple, broken syllables. By six or seven, the other Chu children could write and draw, while Chu Yun Yue still stumbled along, muddled and childlike.

Over time, the “legitimate eldest daughter” became a joke in everyone’s eyes—a fool, a burden, dead weight.

No mother to shelter her. No father’s affection. Even the clan relatives despised her. That was the world she grew up in.

Now eighteen, Chu Yun Yue still had the mind of a five- or six-year-old. She was kept in a remote little courtyard. As long as she got something to eat, nobody cared whether she lived like a person or a ghost.

And because she was so insignificant, no one watched her too closely. So when she got desperate with hunger, she would sometimes slip out through the back door to look for food.

Jiang Jiang patted her own clothing, searching for anything edible. Finding nothing, she sighed.

“Sister didn’t bring food today,” she said, voice softening despite herself. “How about you wait here? I’ll go buy you a bun.”

“Mm!” Chu Yun Yue nodded hard, then squatted by the wall like a puppy, obedient and expectant.

An old servant used to bring her food. Every time, she would squat right here and wait.

Chu Yun Yue didn’t know that the old woman who fed her had died of illness just days ago.