"It's getting late. Xiao Yan, stay here tonight. I'll arrange for a driver to take you both back tomorrow," Mother Wen said after dinner.
Bo Yan's lips moved, as though he was about to refuse.
Wen Ning immediately cut in. "Exactly, it's late. Besides, I haven't said I forgive you yet."
Once they returned to that lousy coffin, this bastard would probably go right back to grabbing her throat at the drop of a hat and threatening to "kill you."
She had no idea what was wrong with all these men in novels, grabbing people by the throat at the slightest disagreement.
If her graceful swan neck got strangled a few more times, it would turn into spicy duck neck!
At the Wen Family home, at least in front of her parents, Bo Yan wouldn't do anything to her.
Not only would he not strangle her, he would obey her every word!
She could take the opportunity to fill up her simp progress bar!
Bo Yan needed only a glance to see through all Wen Ning's little schemes.
Of course, that wasn't to say Wen Ning wasn't smart enough. After all, she was an outstanding graduate of one of the country's top universities. Apart from her somewhat exaggerated acting, her IQ and EQ were enough to hold her own against Bo Yan!
It was just that she wasn't facing a normal person, but a monster like Bo Yan, who excelled at analyzing microexpressions.
The microexpression monster gave her a meaningful smile. "Sure. Let's stay the night, then."
The man's beautiful peach-blossom eyes curved, almost as though they had hooks in them. No matter how she looked at him, he seemed up to no good.
Wen Ning narrowed her eyes. Not wight. There's something not wight about this bastard!
"Jing'er, go get two sets of clothes for your brother-in-law," Mother Wen ordered Wen Jing.
Wen Jing answered with an "Oh" and went upstairs, reluctant but obedient.
That left Father and Mother Wen chatting with their daughter and son-in-law.
Mother Wen looked at Wen Ning's wrist. "Ningning, where did you get those Buddhist beads? Didn't you used to dislike wearing beads like that?"
Mother Wen had noticed them a couple of days ago, but it wasn't anything important, so she hadn't asked.
Now that everyone happened to be sitting together chatting, she brought it up.
The question left Wen Ning dazed, and she lowered her head.
Bo Yan also looked at Wen Ning's wrist.
The woman's wrist was fair and slender, with a strand of nine red sandalwood Buddhist beads around it.
Bo Yan knew little about Taoism or Buddhism. He only vaguely knew that the nine beads carried the meaning of past, present, and future.
At the Bo Family's breakfast table that day, he had noticed Jiang Tingwan staring at the Buddhist beads on Wen Ning's left wrist. As though she had encountered something exceptionally rare or extremely difficult for her to accept, Jiang Tingwan had radiated a disoriented, almost deranged air of "shock, bewilderment, and incomprehension."
Bo Yan had even studied Wen Ning's wrist with interest for a while. He hadn't found anything wrong with the beads. They were just an ordinary strand of red sandalwood Buddhist beads.
If he had to name a difference, perhaps... because this woman's wrist was slender and fair, and the beads were large and dark, they looked better on her wrist than on an ordinary person's?
The sudden thought made Bo Yan's brows knit tightly.
He coldly looked away, not understanding what had gotten into him.
Meanwhile, Wen Ning was still in shock!
The beads had actually transmigrated with her!
She had worn them on her wrist since childhood, and they had practically become an inseparable part of her body. She was so used to them that even after all these days since transmigrating, she hadn't noticed anything wrong!
Could these beads be the reason she had transmigrated?
Then if she held them and made a wish tonight, could she transmigrate back after a night's sleep?
Or did she have to wait for a full moon, or a lunar eclipse?!
Countless thoughts flashed through Wen Ning's mind in an instant. She was a little excited, as though she had obtained the password to get home!
Only when Mother Wen called her again did she come back to herself and hurriedly explain, "Oh, oh, I got them when I went to a temple with a friend before. I thought they looked pretty, so I wore them."
Mother Wen took her hand and looked it over, smiling gently. "They are pretty. Especially on our Ningning."
Wen Ning felt a little embarrassed by the compliment, but inwardly, she was still reeling!
She remembered receiving the beads as a gift when she was eight.
She couldn't remember the exact details very clearly.
When she was eight, she had suffered a high fever, and after waking up, she couldn't remember much.
She only remembered her grandmother saying that her parents had been fighting over a divorce at the time. Eight-year-old Wen Ning had run away from home in a fit of anger, and when they found her, she was in a local temple. Before leaving, she had clung to the Buddhist beads on the abbot's wrist and refused to let go. Not knowing whether to laugh or cry, the abbot had given her the beads as a gift. He had also said that she was someone with a karmic connection and wished her a new beginning every day of her future.
At eight, Wen Ning hadn't understood any of that. She had simply thought the beads were pretty and the blessing sounded nice, so she had worn them all these years.
If these beads really had brought her here, and the abbot had wished her a new beginning every day...
Then was this her new beginning?
Being reserve rations for wild boars and a simp for the great villain?
Wen Ning couldn't figure it out. Why on earth had she been made to transmigrate into a book?! Just because she shared the female supporting character's full name?
"Here, your clothes. Wash them before you give them back." Wen Jing tossed the clothes to Bo Yan.
Dragged back to her senses by Wen Jing's obnoxious tone, Wen Ning gave the brat a kick.
Forget it. She wouldn't figure these things out anytime soon. What she needed to do now was forcefully rewrite her and the Wen Family's cannon-fodder script into "staying alive"!
They sat downstairs for another half hour. After Bo Yan finished discussing business with Father Wen, Wen Ning took him back to the bedroom.
As soon as they left, Father Wen said to Mother Wen with satisfaction, "You know, that boy Bo Yan really is quite interesting."
Mother Wen nodded. "Smarter than his eldest brother, and he has courage and vision. Who knows what that old fool Bo Yurong is thinking? He has such an outstanding son, but instead of nurturing him, he insists on nurturing an idiot."
In Father and Mother Wen's eyes, cheating during an engagement with a woman who couldn't compare to their daughter in any way, then getting her pregnant-calling Bo Xubai an idiot was letting him off lightly.
Father Wen sipped his tea with unruffled composure. "What else could it be? Bloodline. That old fool is far more of an old fossil than we are."
Mother Wen rolled her eyes. "An old fossil who cheats? Then he's only an intermittent fossil. Old or young, not a decent one among them!"
Father Wen gave his wife's sharp tongue a thumbs-up, then added, "Looking at it this way, that boy Bo Yan just about measures up to our precious daughter."
Mother Wen teased him. "Oh, so he measures up now? I wonder who it was saying Xiao Yan couldn't be brought into the light and our daughter was getting a raw deal."
Father Wen gave two awkward, fake coughs. "Ahem. Did I say that? I'm getting old. My memory's failing. Anyway, I'm not an old fossil like Bo Yurong. As long as that boy Bo Yan treats my daughter well with all his heart, he's a good son-in-law to me, Wen Haichuan!"
Mother Wen agreed with that.
Power, status, money-the Wen Family lacked none of them. As long as Wen Ning liked him, supporting another son-in-law was no hardship for their family.
Just then, Wen Jing, who had been ignored all this time, hugged Mother Wen's arm with a grin. "What about your son?"
He blinked at her, his face practically saying, "Praise me too, praise me too!"
Mother Wen's mouth hung open for a long time, but she simply couldn't bring herself to say something she didn't believe. Turning her head, she passed the arduous task of praising their son to Father Wen. "Go ask your dad."
Wen Jing turned and hugged his father's arm instead, looking at him expectantly.
Father Wen sighed and asked, "Do you still drool in your sleep?"
Wen Jing immediately shook his head. "Not anymore."
Father Wen patted his shoulder in gratification. "Good. My son's made something of himself. Very good, very good."
With that, he hurriedly pulled his wife upstairs.
Two minutes later, Wen Ning heard her silly dog of a little brother wailing downstairs, "I can't live like this anymore! I'm running away from home!!"
Wen Ning was speechless. "What's that brat up to now?"
The moment she finished speaking, she heard a low chuckle behind her.
Wen Ning turned to see that the man sitting on the edge of the bed hadn't yet suppressed the smile at the corners of his lips.
She froze briefly, her mouth moving faster than her brain. "Bo Yan, you look really good when you smile."
Bo Yan's expression stiffened, and his thin lips instantly pressed into a straight line.
He lowered his head and fiddled with his phone, saying impatiently, "You saw wrong."
Wen Ning held down the corners of her mouth and shrugged. "Fine. I saw wrong."
Then she added, "You shower first."
Bo Yan gave an expressionless grunt of agreement, put down his phone, picked up his change of clothes, and headed to the bathroom.
Only after he entered the bathroom did Wen Ning remember that his wound hadn't healed and couldn't get wet.
She hurriedly found the first-aid kit, dug out a waterproof dressing, and turned to knock on the bathroom door.
But she ran too fast, tripped, and stumbled straight into the bathroom door.
"Fuck!" Wen Ning exclaimed, reaching out in desperation for something to steady herself.
As rotten luck would have it, her hand landed right on the bathroom door handle!
And as rotten luck would have it, Bo Yan hadn't locked the bathroom door!
Click.
The bathroom door was knocked open from outside!
Bo Yan's hand paused on his belt, and he turned-
The next instant, a warm, soft body crashed into his arms.