After Being Bent by Reader

Xu Chuanchuan's heart raced when she entered the elevator. Half of the reason was that she had run too fast, and the other half was because she had been frightened by her meeting with Murong Shi.

That's strange. Why is Murong Shi still here at this time?

When the wind blew her contract out of the office, Xu Chuanchuan had already spotted Murong Shi's car at the building entrance. She only failed to recognize it immediately because she was in a hurry. Fortunately, she hadn't signed her name on the contract. It was also fortunate that Murong Shi didn't pick up the contract.

However, Xu Chuanchuan still couldn't help but wonder in skepticism, What if she saw the paper's contents? Will she suspect me?

Xu Chuanchuan's mind had been a complete blank just now, so she had answered whatever Murong Shi asked her. She had even acknowledged that the paper was hers. If Murong Shi had tricked her…

No way, no way. Why would she trick me? And even if she did see it… There's no reason for me to be afraid. Also, there's no way someone like Murong Shi would read web novels.

The sound of a "ding" snapped Xu Chuanchuan out of her thoughts, and she exited the elevator feeling fortunate.

The wind outside still billowed, but it wasn't as raging as before. Although Xu Chuanchuan thought to tidy up her messed-up hair, when she opened the door to her office and saw the mess on the floor, she abandoned the thought and crouched down to pick up the fallen items.

When Xu Chuanchuan moved close to the window, she stealthily took a peek and noticed Murong Shi's car driving out of the company compound slowly.

Afterward, Xu Chuanchuan abused the company printer to print another copy of her contract. After signing the printed contract, she then stored it in a folder in haste.

…

Inside the car, Murong Shi remained in a trance until she saw a person's silhouette some distance ahead of the car.

This person was pushing a trash can, and she was none other than the cleaning lady who picked up the A4 paper that had fallen out of the sky.

Murong Shi did not urge the cleaning lady to move out of the way. Instead, a security guard had perceptively stepped forward and helped the lady push the trash can aside. When the car continued moving forward, Murong Shi glanced at the cleaning lady, coincidentally meeting the latter's gaze.

The cleaning lady did not recognize Murong Shi, but she still gave Murong Shi an honest smile.

Linda gradually accelerated, the car making a bend and entering the traffic.

Murong Shi pursed her lips as if in thought.

In reality, Murong Shi had hidden a fact from Xu Chuanchuan before. While the cleaning lady had indeed picked up that paper, the paper just so happened to have landed on the hood of Murong Shi's car before being picked up.

Meanwhile, when the cleaning lady picked up the paper and noticed that it was a contract, she couldn't be certain if it was just scrap paper. And when she realized that someone was in the car, she gathered her courage, tapped on the car's window, and asked, "Miss, can you help me take a look at what this means?"

When Murong Shi saw the familiar words "I Love Malatang," a look of interest appeared on her originally expressionless face. She then smiled faintly at the cleaning lady and said, "I'm sorry, but I don't quite understand it, either."

In the end, the cleaning lady treated the paper as garbage and took it away.

If Murong Shi hadn't read a few web novels out of boredom before, she wouldn't have paid that paper any attention. However, as luck would have it, she recognized the pen name written on the contract. She had even sent this author a Deep-water Torpedo out of anger.

However, the contract did not contain the name of the novel she sent the Deep-water Torpedo to, so Murong Shi couldn't be sure if this author was the same person. And just when Murong Shi was ruminating over the matter, Xu Chuanchuan appeared.

Perhaps it was instinct, but when Murong Shi saw Xu Chuanchuan's panicked expression, she began having suspicions. Unexpectedly, after she deceived the other party with a white lie, Xu Chuanchuan admitted that the paper was hers. What did this mean?

Although Murong Shi had her doubts, she wasn't so bored as to waste her time verifying her conjecture.

Linda got out of the car halfway through the trip, and Murong Shi drove the car home by herself.

…

Murong Mingshu was in her early 50s. However, as she did not put much attention into taking care of herself, she had a skinny body and looked like a bag of bones. Currently, she wore a plain skirt made out of cotton and linen, which made her look light and flimsy.

Because of her thinness, her nasolabial folds and crow's feet were visible. However, despite how unhealthy her physical body looked, her complexion appeared surprisingly good. Judging by her facial features, she must've been a great beauty when she was young.

When Murong Shi walked through the door and saw her mother setting up the table by herself, she hurried over and tried to help.

When Murong Mingshu heard Murong Shi's footsteps, she sent her daughter a glance and said, "I'm done here already. Go wash your hands and get ready for dinner."

Hearing her mother's insistence, Murong Shi gave up her thoughts and made her way to the bathroom. When she came out, she saw Murong Mingshu serving her a bowl of soup.

Murong Mingshu gently and steadily handed the bowl to Murong Shi and said, "I bought a black-bone chicken from a farmer today. He raised it himself, so the meat is a lot more fresh in taste. Give it a try."

"Thank you, mom."

Murong Shi did not rush to drink the soup. Instead, she looked at the kind smile on Murong Mingshu's face and thought to ask "Why hasn't dad come home yet?", but held back from doing so in the end.

"It's not hot, so try it quickly."

Only now did Murong Shi begin drinking the soup. She drank it slowly, savoring it carefully. She then revealed a satisfied smile and said, "It's good."

Feeling pleased, Murong Mingshu said, "If you like it, I'll ask him for more next time."

Murong Shi paused for a moment at her mother's words. She then said, "Let Aunty do this kind of thing in the future."

Ignoring her daughter's advice, Murong Mingshu said, "I don't have anything better to do, anyway. Why should I rely on others when I have my own hands and feet? By the way, stop having Linda accompany me whenever I go for my prayers. She's a young girl. It's very embarrassing for her to accompany an old woman to such a place."

After taking another sip of the soup, Murong Shi said casually, "I'll go with you next time."

Although Murong Mingshu's face blossomed at her daughter's words, her mouth said, "You don't have that kind of patience, so don't force yourself. I'll have Aunty accompany me in the future."

"Okay."

After finishing dinner, Murong Shi accompanied Murong Mingshu for a stroll in the community. And after returning home, they watched TV together.

At one point, Murong Mingshu suddenly said, "Little Shi, I don't like Shaohua. He isn't suited for you."

In response, Murong Shi looked at her mother with a partial smile and asked, "Who do you think is right for me, then?"

Murong Mingshu hesitated for a moment before saying, "Don't push yourself if you don't like him. No matter how stubborn your father is, he won't force you to be together with someone you don't like."

After pondering for a moment, Murong Shi said, "Mom, I know what I'm doing. You should focus on living your own life and stop worrying about others, alright?"

"You... It's not a good thing for girls to be too assertive. You'll live a tiring life."

Playfully, Murong Shi responded, "If the day comes I cultivate to your level, I'll worship Buddha as well."

"Hah... I can't win against you."

"Stop talking about this topic, then." Returning her attention to the TV, Murong Shi frowned and said, "Aren't these actors a little too poor at acting? How can you even watch this show?"

Afraid that her daughter would change the channel, Murong Mingshu snatched the remote control away and said, "Yan'er recommended it to me. She says this film is a novel adaptation. Although the actors are bad, the plot is quite good."

Murong Yan was a novel enthusiast. If not for her, Murong Shi wouldn't have started reading web novels at all.

...

Late in the evening, Murong Shi took a bath and laid on her soft, comfy bed, her mind still wide awake.

Looking at her phone, she noticed a striking green icon on the screen. The icon belonged to the jjwxc application she downloaded to read novels before. Murong Shi lightly tapped on the icon and entered the words "I Love Malatang" in the search bar without hesitation.

Murong Shi narrowed her eyes when the search results came out.

She saw two book titles that matched the two titles she saw on that A4 paper from before.

Could Xu Chuanchuan be the author?

Driven by curiosity, Murong Shi tapped on the novel she donated the Deep-water Torpedo to before and began reading it.

This was a troublesome problem.

Murong Shi opened the familiar top-up page and sent a screenshot of the payment code[1] to Linda.

Linda was a conscientious assistant. Despite it being late at night, she still helped Murong Shi with her problem.

Roughly a dozen seconds later, Murong Shi received a system prompt notifying her that her top-up was successful.

Murong Shi: "Is 100 a lot?"

Linda: "Are you sure it's 100??? Did you type an extra zero just now? That's 1,000 yuan!!! [image]"

The picture Linda sent was a screenshot of her Alipay's payment history. When Murong Shi saw the three zeros in front of the decimal point, her lips twitched subconsciously.

Her finger had indeed slipped, and she ended up typing an extra zero.

Seeing as she couldn't refund the money, Murong Shi decided she would use the extra money to toss a few Deep-water Torpedoes in the future.

As Murong Shi resumed her reading, she found that the author named I Love Malatang had relatively good writing, and her words were quite easy to understand. The book's content, however...

In Murong Shi's opinion, the author was probably someone without relationship experiences. The author described love innocently and romantically, and some plots thoroughly deviated from reality. Yet, for some reason, the other readers of the book would always comment "sweet, sweet, sweet" whenever such unrealistic situations occurred.

Murong Shi wasn't particularly fond of sweet and innocent love, so she couldn't empathize with the other readers. Inwardly, she thought to herself, Could my mentality be growing old?

The book was short, so Murong Shi quickly reached the ending. Simultaneously, she also discovered an amazing fact.

Perhaps Xu Chuanchuan was the author of this novel.

Back problems...

Xu Chuanchuan seemingly had back problems as well.

Suddenly, Murong Shi's mood changed subtly.

TL Notes:

[1]payment code: It's a QR code for people wishing to pay via an e-wallet.