Chapter 4: She is the Vicious Female Supporting Character

Wang Guizhi held her newly awakened daughter, weeping bitterly. Beside her, Shen Fugui stood anxiously by the kang, but his expression suddenly changed as he looked at Shen Meng's face. He glanced her up and down and saw that his wife's elbow seemed to be poking their daughter's stomach.

"Hey, old woman, stop crying. Are you pressing on the child's chest? Look, our daughter can barely breathe!"

"Ah?"

Wang Guizhi was startled and hurriedly stood up. Seeing Shen Meng's pained expression, she wanted to touch her but didn't dare, her heart aching terribly.

"My poor daughter, why is your life so bitter? You married into this family—where is that mother-in-law who promised to treat you like her own daughter every day? And your sisters-in-law and brothers-in-law—if they treated you like family, would they let you lie in here alone while they eat and drink next door? You're just a simpleton without a mind of your own, played for a fool every day, still taking them for good people. Damn them all! And now you've suffered such a terrible injury—the production team's ox gored you, and they won't even send for a barefoot doctor. I'm going to the commune to raise hell!"

Shen Meng was in agony but didn't dare show it. She knew without thinking that she had transmigrated into this daughter's body. Now the original owner's parents stood by the kang, heartbroken for her, not knowing their real daughter was long gone, and the soul inhabiting this body now came from another world.

"Stop talking. Now's not the time for this, Xiao Mengniang. You stay here and watch our daughter. I'll go find a doctor. If we delay any longer, our girl won't make it."

"Right, right. Old man, hurry up. Money's no object, as long as Xiao Meng is alright."

Shen Fugui nodded repeatedly, casting a worried glance at Shen Meng before turning and running out.

Seeing her husband leave, Wang Guizhi quickly poured some water and brought it to Shen Meng's lips, feeding her a little.

Shen Meng didn't really want to drink—her head throbbed terribly—but the original owner's mother was trembling with worry before her. She forced herself to swallow a mouthful just to set the woman's mind at ease.

The woman was still sobbing. Even though Shen Meng usually had a silver tongue, she couldn't find a single word of comfort now, her head feeling like it would explode.

Suddenly, a massive flood of the original owner's memories surged into her mind.

So she had been reborn into a period novel called "The Delicate Lucky Star Brings Fertility, The Rough Man Pinches Her Waist and Dotes on Her." As the vicious female supporting character in the original book, she not only had beautiful looks but also a heart full of schemes like lotus roots—full of holes and connections. Once she grew sensible, she knew exactly how to curry favor with adults to secure benefits for herself.

With her good looks and a decent reputation outside, the threshold for matchmakers had been worn down three inches. But the original owner had long set her sights on Lu Zhenping, that soldier from Lu Family Village.

The man wasn't married but already had three children. No girl wanted to be a stepmother, but Shen Meng was willing. When they met, she didn't swear oaths about treating the children well. Instead, she smiled at Lu Zhenping and pulled a handful of roasted peanuts from her pocket for him to give to the kids.

No deliberate ingratiation, no disgust—just gentle warmth. Lu Zhenping was won over at once.

After marriage, Lu Zhenping didn't stay home long before returning to the army. At first Shen Meng treated the children decently enough, but as time passed, she grew increasingly irritated. Add in her own pregnancy, and her mother-in-law, sisters-in-law, and sister-in-law all coveted her allowance, flattering and praising her until she lost all critical thinking. Not only did she hand over subsidies left and right, but she also began beating and scolding the children. Even her own youngest child received only a few days of care before she let her life turn into a mess.

Just as her days became chaos, her youngest brother-in-law married—the original book's female lead. She was delicate and pretty, soft-spoken, and coaxed the whole family into happiness.

Her luck was extraordinarily good. Whenever she went up the mountain, she'd find treasures; wild game would fall into traps; a trip to the commune would solve difficult problems; a random person saved from the rural cowshed would turn out to be a future big shot.

She transformed from a village girl earning work points into a county textile factory worker, and eventually a renowned female entrepreneur.

The male lead, blessed by her luck, succeeded at everything and became a real estate tycoon, loving his wife like his life, with the female lead giving birth to triplets.

Everyone close to the protagonists lived harmoniously with modest achievements.

As for the original owner, this vicious female supporting character—well, in Shen Meng's view, she was rather wronged. The female lead borrowed money to build a house; not lending was her fault. The female lead got fabric for the in-laws' clothes; not lending cloth coupons was her fault. The original owner already disliked the female lead, and watching her reputation gradually ruined, she hated it so much her teeth itched. She gradually began to retaliate, but the result was her reputation becoming even more stinking. Once, when village children threw mud at her, she angrily chased them, slipped, and fell into the river and drowned.

Those children were then left to run wild by her mother-in-law, later becoming foils for the lucky female lead's children.

Without discipline, the children became extreme. Combined with frequent childhood abuse, their psyches gradually twisted.

The eldest son became a gloomy, cunning street rat—fighting, petty theft, molesting young wives. His vicious methods finally offended someone who beat him to death.

The second son joined a gang leader in his teens and got thirty years.

The daughter loved vanity and was money-obsessed, believing all her misfortunes came from poverty. She married a man over a decade older and was beaten to death.

The youngest son was bullied by the protagonists' children, locked in a cellar, caught cold, developed a fever, and didn't live past nine.

As for that man who returned from the army and tried his all but failed to raise the children—when the second son was reported and arrested, he was ambushed by the female lead's supporters, struck on the back of the head with a stick, and turned simple-minded. He wandered everywhere holding a piece of the original owner's old clothing, looking for his children, finally freezing to death in the river in deep winter, clutching that garment.

Shen Meng screamed internally. What unforgivable sins had this original owner's family committed to warrant such a family extermination tragedy? No wonder the original owner hated the female lead enough to want to eat her flesh and drink her blood.

The last memory was of the original owner's injury this time—she had awakened self-awareness through rebirth and tried to push the female lead into the river, but a sudden rushing old yellow ox knocked her into a head injury. Such a pity—she'd only been awake two days before she died. Truly pathetic.

(End of Chapter)