Chapter 206
"Why..." Su Wanqing slumped to the floor, her nails digging deep into her palms. "Why does it have to be me?"
She lifted her gaze to the mirror, staring at her flawless reflection. Her makeup was still impeccable, the teardrop mole at the corner of her eye shimmering under the light like a sinister jewel.
"System, is this what you called a happy ending?" Her voice trembled.
A cold, mechanical tone echoed in her mind: [Host has completed all tasks and obtained the protagonist's halo. However, supporting characters must follow the original story's conclusion.]
Outside, festive firecrackers crackled in celebration. Today was the male lead and female lead's wedding—the entire city was rejoicing.
Su Wanqing suddenly laughed. Slowly, she rose to her feet and walked to the vanity, picking up the ruby-encrusted hairpin.
"I refuse to accept this fate."
With a swift motion, she plunged the hairpin into her chest. Crimson blood instantly stained her pristine white qipao.
[Warning! Host's actions violate system regulations!]
"To hell with your rules." Blood trickled from the corner of Su Wanqing's lips. "I'd rather die than play the doomed supporting role."
As her consciousness faded, she thought she heard the system blaring a shrill alarm.
"Next life..." She collapsed into the pool of blood, her vision dimming. "I'll be the protagonist of my own story..."
Beyond the window, the faint strains of a wedding march drifted in. A single petal, carried by the wind, fluttered through the window and settled on her eyelid—like a tear that would never dry.
"Emily, all these years you haven't returned to the city... do you still resent us?" Margaret Johnson's voice trembled with emotion.
Emily lowered her gaze. In her memories, the argument before being sent to the countryside remained vivid. She suddenly realized that the turning point in her fate might have been hidden in that abrupt "voluntary registration."
"Mom, I didn't volunteer to go," she said softly.
Margaret's head snapped up. "What?"
"Someone signed me up." Emily tapped the table lightly with her fingertips. "Think about it—who benefited after I left?"
Margaret's face paled. After her eldest grandson was born, the family had struggled financially. Shortly after her youngest daughter was sent away, her second son had been persuaded to become a live-in son-in-law.
"She pretended to be virtuous, but behind the scenes..." Emily left the sentence unfinished.
Footsteps approached from outside. David Stone came running in with a block of tofu. "Grandma, Grandpa says he's coming soon!"
Margaret forced a smile. "Good boy."
Once the children had left again, Margaret clenched the hem of her shirt. "Why didn't you say anything at the time?"
Emily gave a bitter smile. "Would it have made any difference? The quota was already set." She rolled up her sleeve, revealing faint scars on her arm. "When I first arrived, I didn't know how to work. These scars are reminders."
"No warm clothes in winter, fainting from heatstroke in the fields during summer. Not earning enough work points to eat, starving until I had to dig for wild vegetables." Her voice was barely audible. "Then one night, someone sneaked into the educated youth dormitory..."
Margaret began to tremble.
"I had no choice but to marry." Emily met her mother's gaze directly. "Because the door back to the city had already been locked from the outside."
The room fell into an eerie silence. Amid the aroma of meat cooking from the kitchen, Margaret's tears splashed onto her knees.
"Mom, tell me..." Emily asked quietly, "is the person who locked that door living well now?"
Margaret stood up abruptly. She remembered her daughter-in-law's unusual enthusiasm before Emily's departure, the rumors about the workshop director's impending retirement, and...
"Emily," Margaret said, her voice shaking. "Come home with me."