Chapter 2: Sister's Most Loyal Servant

Gao Qinghe had a groggy, fitful sleep.

When she woke up, the IV drip had finished, and the nurse had already removed the stand.

"Sis, you're awake!"

Gao Qingmiao had been keeping a close eye on his eldest sister. Seeing her wake up, he hurriedly opened the bruise-reducing ointment he had just retrieved from the pharmacy and began applying it for her.

The lump on her forehead was no longer as terrifying as it had looked when they arrived at the hospital that morning; it had subsided quite a bit.

The cool, refreshing ointment was spread over the area, and after a moment, it began to take effect, producing waves of stinging heat.

In her previous life, Gao Qinghe had lived a life of luxury for decades. As she aged, she became exceptionally attentive to her own body. She hadn't even caught a common cold in years, yet here she was, sporting a painful, throbbing lump on her forehead.

Although the terrible mood she felt upon returning to the age of twenty had already settled, she still couldn't help but want to crack her own skull open to kill that damn system.

Having already witnessed how terrifying this "bad woman" Gao Qinghe could be, the system spoke in a blustering but timid whisper

【Look, this is the consequence of not listening. You are just too wicked; otherwise, I wouldn't have had to trigger the punishment mechanism. Now you know what I'm capable of, right?】

Gao Qinghe closed her eyes. *La la la, I can't hear you, you turtle chanting scriptures.*

The system puffed up in anger: Bad woman!

"Sis, an apple. I peeled it for you."

Gao Qingmiao handed the peeled apple to his sister. Seeing her squinting and looking him up and down, he self-consciously brushed his permed, yellow-dyed bangs, smiling cautiously.

"It was Xiaohu and the others who insisted I get it permed with them. They teamed up to open a barbershop and insisted on using their own people as test subjects. I really had no choice..."

Gao Qingmiao guiltily explained the origin of his yellow curly hair, indicating that he had been forced into it and that it was absolutely not out of his own curiosity.

He was her younger brother, who had grown up trailing behind her, the most loyal "servant" to his big sister.

Gao Qinghe could tell what kind of mischief he was up to just by the way he passed gas. Could she not see through this hole-ridden excuse?

She didn't expose him, though; she just wanted to look at this silly brother of hers carefully, one more time.

Because she hadn't seen him in thirty-five years.

In her past life, her brother was beaten to death before he had even turned twenty-two.

By the time she and Jiang Baohai received the news and rushed back, he had already been buried; she hadn't even been able to see him one last time.

Back then, Jiang Baohai had arranged for his brother-in-law to work as a foreman at an old coal mine in the county.

A young man full of vigor, surrounded by a bunch of troublemaking "fox friends" from the streets.

Once he had a little power in his hands, he got carried away and started acting like a tyrant.

At the time, Zhou Zhenghua had just been transferred from the town to the county, in charge of private enterprises, and he had gotten into a bit of a conflict with the mine.

That day, she had just suffered a miscarriage out of anger over Zhou Zhenghua and his wife, and the doctor said she would never be able to have children again.

Gao Qingmiao, that fool, had gone behind her back and led a group of people to storm Zhou Zhenghua’s doorstep.

Hao Huaping called the police, and in the ensuing brawl, Gao Qingmiao was beaten to death.

In later generations, young people might think such an event could never happen.

But that was the early nineties—a time when crimes were frequent and the times were chaotic, requiring strict laws.

For behavior like Gao Qingmiao’s—gathering a crowd to threaten and assault a public official—the impact was so severe that being executed on the spot wouldn't have been considered excessive.

Her family, fearing she wouldn't recover well from her miscarriage, waited several days before telling her.

Thinking of that day now, Gao Qinghe’s heart tightened with agonizing pain, making it hard to breathe.

In her past life, she blamed the friends around Miaomiao, blamed Jiang Baohai for putting him in the mine, blamed her parents, and blamed her younger sister. She blamed everyone around her.

It was as if only by doing so could she avoid blaming herself.

Blaming herself for being an incompetent big sister!

Looking at this living, breathing, silly brother in front of her, Gao Qinghe—who was always described by Jiang Baohai as cold-hearted—felt a single tear slide from the corner of her eye.

But she only let that one tear fall before immediately raising her hand to wipe it away.

She suddenly realized that returning to forty years ago wasn't entirely a bad thing.

The wealth and status were gone.

But she was only twenty now, and everything that happened later hadn't occurred yet.

Her parents were healthy, her brother was full of life, and her younger sister was still studying hard at school.

And the grievances between her and Zhou Zhenghua and Hao Huaping had only just begun to sprout.

Everything could still be changed.

To hell with the "bad woman" foil!

To hell with the "good woman" system!

Even if Zhou Zhenghua was the male lead in the book, did she, Gao Qinghe, have to fight for him?

What kind of good person was Zhou Zhenghua anyway?

Childhood sweethearts, four years of waiting, an indecisive mama's boy who betrayed their love and betrayed her, only to marry someone new while still keeping her on a string.

He wanted everything—greedy and insatiable.

To use the words of the younger generation, such a scumbag deserved to die!

Before, she had no choice; the entanglement had already begun, and her unwillingness was like a vine growing wildly, strangling her heart.

She had wanted Zhou Zhenghua’s family to fall apart and for him to be lonely and miserable until his old age.

She had wanted him to be stripped of his position as mayor.

Because he didn't deserve it!

But now that she was back at twenty, she could completely sever this toxic relationship in time.

She didn't have to be tortured by unwillingness anymore; her life could be completely free of the male and female leads.

She didn't care if they lived or died!

The system panicked: 【Host, this is wrong. If you can't win the male lead's favor and become the female lead, your tragic fate will be the same as in your past life.】

Gao Qinghe sneered in her heart: "I can't live a good life on my own? I have to rely on the so-called favor of a piece of trash?"

"Didn't I earn my life as the wife of the richest man in my past life through my own ability?"

The system froze. That... seemed to be true.

Wait, no!

【That was because of your rich husband.】

Gao Qinghe: "So what? I relied on my husband, not someone else's."

The system reminded her insidiously: 【He isn't your husband yet.】

It was 1989; the host hadn't even met Jiang Baohai yet. Heh heh~

Gao Qinghe: "That's even better. I'll marry him early."

System: 【Are you sure he'll agree?】

Gao Qinghe: "He'll agree whether he wants to or not. I have plenty of ways to make him!"

The system scoffed: 【Then you're still relying on someone else.】

Gao Qinghe: "Zhou Zhenghua relied on women to climb the ladder and become mayor, and he still gets to be the male lead. Why can't I? Having the ability to rely on someone else is a skill in itself!"

System: 【You aren't a good woman like this.】

Gao Qinghe was perfectly self-consistent: "I am a bad woman."

The system was dumbfounded, unable to refute.

"Shut up."

Gao Qinghe was impatient to waste any more breath on a system that wasn't even human.

She warned it sinisterly: "If you say one more word, I'll run downstairs right now and throw myself in front of a car!"

The system was moved to tears of frustration again.

Gao Qinghe is a big bully!

Gao Qinghe curled her lips in a wicked smile. A tiny system like this was nothing to fear.

After "crunch, crunch" finishing the sweet and sour crisp apple, her brother brought over some hot water.

Because of the habits she had formed later in life, Gao Qinghe subconsciously said, "Thank you."

Gao Qingmiao chuckled foolishly: "You're welcome, we're family, and you're my sister..."

Wait, his sister?

When had his sister ever been polite enough to say thank you to him?

Usually, when he worked himself to the bone to bring back something good from the mountains as a snack for her, it was lucky if she didn't pick it apart and give him a flick on the forehead.

Besides, ever since his big sister woke up from fainting, she had been crying and laughing by turns; something was clearly wrong.

And now she was actually saying thank you to him? It was terrifying!

Gao Qingmiao’s heart skipped a beat, and he rushed out of the ward.

"Doctor! Doctor! Come quickly, my sister's brain seems to be acting up!"

Gao Qinghe sipped the hot water slowly, small mouthfuls at a time, feeling speechless but not stopping him.

It would be a good chance to get another scan and see exactly where that damn system was hiding.

System: Mommy, I want to go home! Someone is bullying the system here, wuwuwu...

(End of chapter)