"Sister-in-law, look at my girl's appearance, we should at least add another ten thousand yuan, right?" an old woman's voice sounded in her ear.
"Aunt, speak softer, what if they think we're selling children..." the younger woman said somewhat awkwardly.
"Oh, just don't worry about it, how am I selling a child? This is for Yan Yan's betrothal gifts! Besides, Xiao Bao is about to be born, and you're not working now, where won't money be needed?" The old woman's voice grew louder.
"Sister Zhang, we agreed on this price early on, it's not good to change it now!" This was another unfamiliar middle-aged woman's voice.
Xiao Wenqiang's consciousness slowly returned, and she heard the conversation above. Her head felt a little dizzy, her eyelids were heavy, and there was a cacophony of voices around her.
After a while, she heard the sounds of doors closing with a "hiss" and "bang," and then her whole body began to shake again. Xiao Wenqiang struggled to open a crack and look around. As expected, she was on a moving, old minibus.
It seemed the system, calling itself the "Soul Administration," number 86365, had not lied to her. She hadn't completely dissipated but had been reborn in another way.
...
With the prevalence of online novel culture, the protagonists' auras were exceptionally strong. This led to very tragic fates for some supporting characters, whose souls generated immense resentment, beginning to interfere with the normal operation of the "Soul Administration." To resolve this issue, systems like 86365 were created to specifically serve supporting characters.
Xiao Wenqiang had been an actress in her previous life, and the shortest-lived Best Actress in history. After graduating from a professional acting school, she worked as an extra for years, rejecting countless advances, and relying on her talent and hard work, she finally ascended to the throne of Best Actress. Little did she expect that disaster would strike as she was giving her acceptance speech. The giant screen behind her suddenly tilted forward, and Xiao Wenqiang, standing directly in front of it, was killed on the spot.
Before her soul could dissipate, 86365 captured her unusually strong soul, believing such a soul could withstand the turbulent winds of the spacetime tunnel. Thus, it offered her the opportunity to become a system tasker.
Their mission was to travel through various novel worlds, fulfilling the wishes of deceased supporting character clients and eliminating their resentment. For each completed mission, depending on the client's satisfaction, the system would receive a different amount of soul power. Afterward, the system would reward or deduct points for Xiao Wenqiang based on client satisfaction, which could then be exchanged for many things.
If the client was very satisfied, she would get 20,000 points.
If the client was satisfied, she would get 10,000 points.
If the client was neutral, she would only get 5,000 points.
If the client was dissatisfied, she would be deducted 5,000 points.
Systems also had KPI assessments, and Xiao Wenqiang had encountered an extremely ambitious system that aspired to be number one among supporting character systems. Therefore, without much ado, it kicked her into the task world.
[Do you wish to immediately receive the original host's memories?] Before Xiao Wenqiang's thoughts had fully emerged from her recollection, 86365 began to urge her.
"Alright, begin receiving." Before her voice even finished, the memories belonging to this original host surged into her mind.
The original host in the novel was an extra named Zhu Qingyan. Although her life hadn't been affluent, she was very driven and had successfully gotten into the city's key high school this year. However, at this time, her mother, Liu Feiyun, was five months pregnant and had secretly visited a small clinic, confirming it was a boy.
Before her brother was even born, the original host's father, Zhu Wenhe, and grandmother, Zhang Ju, had already begun to favor males over females. Since high school was not compulsory education and required separate tuition fees, they didn't want her to attend. Simultaneously, Zhang Ju had colluded with human traffickers to sell the original host to a mute old man in a remote mountain village as his wife.
The mute old man was not only old and ugly but also possessed certain perverse special habits. On the night of buying the original host, he used various methods and tools, tormenting her for over five hours. By the time the sky was faintly lit and the sun began to rise, the original host could no longer open her eyes to see this beautiful world.
After the original host died, she learned that she was merely an extra in an online novel titled "The Perfect Life of the False Daughter." Her existence was solely to shape the heroine Mao Wenjing's tragic background and increase her pitiable capital. From beginning to end, Zhu Qingyan never met her biological parents, and her portrayal was limited to a few brief sentences in memories. Thus, her resentment exploded.
[Zhu Qingyan's wish: To leave this disgusting family, continue her studies to enrich herself; to return to her biological parents; to be the protagonist of her own life.]
After receiving all the information, Xiao Wenqiang completely opened her eyes and sat up from her previous drowsy state. Looking out the window, she saw vast farmlands. The minibus was still bumping along an uneven gravel road, which explained why the original host had gotten carsick.
Seeing her wake up, the conversations around them abruptly stopped. The original host's mother, Liu Feiyun, cast a concerned look at her: "Yan Yan, you're awake? Do you feel any better? Just hold on a little longer, we're almost there."
Xiao Wenqiang heard the other's cheap concern and inwardly curled her lip disdainfully. She hadn't forgotten how Liu Feiyun had left decisively after finding out the original host wasn't her biological child.
However, looking at the sharp-tongued grandmother Zhang Ju, and the seemingly honest but inwardly scheming human trafficker intermediary Aunt Zhang, she could only pin her hopes on Liu Feiyun, who currently seemed to have some affection for the original host.
"Mom, my stomach hurts so much, I need to go to the bathroom," Xiao Wenqiang immediately utilized her skills as an actress, clutching her stomach and acting spoiled towards Liu Feiyun.
"You girl are always making a fuss. You were sleeping soundly when we stopped in town, where am I supposed to find a toilet now?" Zhang Ju started to shout upon hearing this.
"Grandma, I have a stomachache and can't hold it. If I wait any longer, I'll soil myself." Xiao Wenqiang hunched her body further, holding her breath, her face turning red.
"Aunt, perhaps the driver can stop for a moment? We can find a place nearby for her to relieve herself. We can't really let Yan Yan soil herself." Liu Feiyun, seeing her daughter like this, anxiously pleaded with her mother-in-law.
"Oh, Sister Zhang, if she soils herself, it will affect her... appearance. Let's let the girl relieve herself by the roadside. I'll go talk to the driver." Aunt Zhang pronounced the word "appearance" very softly, but Xiao Wenqiang still caught it. This Aunt Zhang, outwardly claiming to be a relative of Zhang Ju, was in reality just a human trafficker with the same surname.
Aunt Zhang hurried forward to explain the situation to the driver. Although he looked displeased, he also didn't want anyone to soil his vehicle. In the end, he reluctantly pulled over, opened the door, and grumbled incessantly, "Hurry up! We're all in a hurry!"
Refusing Liu Feiyun's offer to accompany her off the bus, Xiao Wenqiang, under the annoyed gazes of the other passengers, grabbed some tissues and darted out. While pretending to run back to find a place, she said, "I'll go check behind those bushes up ahead."
As she had looked around earlier, Xiao Wenqiang had surveyed the basic terrain. When she first entered this body, the bus was stopped, likely at a transfer station. Then, receiving the original host's memories, which seemed like a long life story, had actually happened in an instant. Therefore, estimating the time elapsed until the stop, the bus had traveled for no more than four minutes. With the running speed of a martial arts heroine she'd played before, Xiao Wenqiang wished she could fly with a wire.
Initially, Zhang Ju and the others didn't think anything was out of the ordinary. But they watched as the girl ran further and further, her speed increasing. The human trafficker Aunt Zhang, with her professional intuition, was the first to react. She quickly jumped off the bus, chasing after her and shouting, "Girl, that's enough, don't run too far."
After waiting for a while with no response, and seeing that the girl had completely disappeared from sight, Zhang Ju and Liu Feiyun finally realized something was wrong and hurried off the bus to go back. After chasing for a considerable distance, they finally confirmed it – the girl had actually run away!