People who eat melon are in 70 - Chapter 54

Jiang Yutao raised her eyebrows.

“Little wife?” She was curious to see just how “little” this wife could be!

In the short three months since her transmigration, she had already encountered three female protagonists. Aside from the first one, Gu Nianwei, the other two were increasingly hard to describe. Jiang Yutao hoped that this fourth female lead might at least offer some relief to the female protagonists.

She walked past the students playing on the playground and returned to the office. Pouring herself a glass of water, she also poured some for Gu Nianwei. Then, she sat at her desk, briefly explaining the situation in the class to Gu Nianwei. Glancing out the window, she saw Principal Huang holding an iron rod, walking to a large tree by the west wing, and knocking on it three times.

Class had begun.

The students on the playground quickly jogged back to the classroom. Gu Nianwei grabbed her cup of water and books, heading off as well.

In the office, only Jiang Yutao and Shen Jiahui remained. Shen Jiahui was a good teacher but lacked teaching experience. She was currently reviewing the teaching plan left by the previous teacher.

Jiang Yutao pretended to look at the teaching plan as well, but in reality, she opened her system bag and began reading the book ‘Seventy’s Little Wife’.

The cover was soft pink, featuring a beautiful little figure in a white dress with flowing long hair. Not far from her stood a man in a green military uniform, his gaze focused on her.

From just the cover, with its handsome man and beautiful woman, it was quite pleasing to the eye.

But after opening the book and reading the first two chapters, it became uncomfortable.

The story described Lin Manrou, a middle school teacher in Zaoxiang Commune. At eighteen, through her family’s arrangement, she married Gu Hanchen, a soldier from the town. The day after their wedding, Gu Hanchen was urgently called back to the army. Before leaving, he handed over all his savings to Lin Manrou and continued to send her his allowance every month.

Suddenly transformed into a married woman, with her husband constantly away from home for long periods, Lin Manrou found herself feeling lonely and unfulfilled. Though he sent letters, none of them contained any sweet words, and over time, she began to feel increasingly dissatisfied. Just then, a new male teacher, Gong Xubo, arrived at the school. He was a young intellectual from Hunan Province, not very good at teaching, but romantic and charming, capable of reciting poetry and engaging in conversation.

One was a lonely young wife, and the other had intentions of flirting. The two quickly grew close. Gong Xubo had no money, but Lin Manrou had plenty, so every weekend, she would take him to the county town to spend. With money, free time, and a young man at her side, Lin Manrou was living a happy life.

Despite everything, she never contacted Gu Hanchen. In her mind, he was simply an ATM.

Later, Gong Xubo took the college entrance exam and went back to the city. Lin Manrou followed him there. In university, they acted as classmates but were very close. To their classmates, they seemed like a couple. However, their happiness didn’t last long. Soon, Gu Hanchen came to the university to visit her, and the truth about her affair with Gong Xubo was revealed.

Gong Xubo was arrested for destroying a military marriage. While Lin Manrou wasn’t directly affected, Gu Hanchen divorced her, and she was also expelled from the school.

Unable to return to her hometown after not completing her studies, she wandered from place to place. To survive, she took on many jobs, from being a company secretary to later working as a hostess in a red-light district. She did whatever paid quickly, and during her best years, she even had relationships with several wealthy bosses.

Later, she fell seriously ill and collapsed on the ground. By chance, Gu Hanchen’s car passed by, and he took her to the hospital, covering her medical expenses.

At that time, Gu Hanchen had already become a national general, wealthy, powerful, and with a wife and children. Lin Manrou suddenly felt regretful. She thought back to how good Gu Hanchen had been to her. Though his affection was not abundant, he had never mistreated her, unlike Gong Xubo, who only knew how to sweet-talk and never gave anything in return. Sometimes, she even had to give him money for his expenses.

After a sudden death, Lin Manrou returned to the time when she had just married Gu Hanchen. This time, she completely changed, taking decisive action against Gong Xubo, ruining him and causing his downfall. She then showered Gu Hanchen with affection and always thought of him first. Gu Hanchen felt her deep emotions and treated her exceptionally well.

The Gu family, seeing this change, also treated her with great care. In the end, Lin Manrou became the cherished little wife of the Gu family. After having children, she was still greatly spoiled. She became Gu Hanchen’s little wife.

When Gu Hanchen achieved success and fame, Lin Manrou became the woman everyone envied.

After reading it, Jiang Yutao couldn’t decide whether to say something offensive or not.

The core of Lin Manrou’s story was very similar to that of Xia Heyu. Both women only realized the good qualities of their ex-husbands or ex-boyfriends after they separated. Then, near the end of their lives, they suddenly regretted their past decisions and decided to live a good life with their former partners.

The only difference was that Su Zhentang had been involved with Xia Heyu before her divorce, while Gu Hanchen was far more pitiable, as he had no idea about anything.

“System, Are the female protagonists’ character designs wholesale? Look at Xia Heyu and Lin Manrou—aren’t they almost identical? If Xia Heyu hadn’t gone to prison, Lin Manrou and Xia Heyu would be like twins, right? There’s no difference. Both of them lived in misery and later remembered their ex-boyfriends/ex-husbands’ good qualities. Eventually, after being reborn, they vowed to live a good life with their ex-husbands!”

System: [Isn’t this the so-called ‘Confession Literature’?]

The “Melon-Eating” system had a lot to say about this: [Host, you can’t blame me for this. These small worlds are mostly based on novels. Nowadays, novels are extremely homogenous, and it’s normal for the female protagonists to have similar character designs. Besides, isn’t it said that a reformed prodigal is priceless? Why is it acceptable for men to reform, but not for women?]

Jiang Yutao felt that the system had a point, but she wasn’t easily swayed: “The premise for a prodigal’s reformation is that the other half knew about their actions all along and was willing to wait. As for Su Zhentang, let’s not even go there; he’s no good.’

“The difference with Gu Hanchen is that he is a complete victim.”

The “Melon-Eating” system fell silent. It wasn’t that it didn’t want to respond, but when it came to arguing, an AI could never outdebate a real human. Sometimes, silence was the best way to handle things.

“Show me the collapse report.”

As soon as Jiang Yutao’s words fell, the “Melon-Eating” system displayed the cause of the small world’s collapse for her to review.

Compared to the previous worlds’ collapses, this one was much gentler.

It turned out that after Gu Hanchen and Lin Manrou were in their forties, he suddenly found a diary Lin Manrou had written shortly after her rebirth, which clearly outlined events from her past life.

Gu Hanchen had lived a life of unwavering integrity. He had fulfilled his duties as a husband to Lin Manrou, loving her, respecting her, and even tolerating her many small flaws.

The one thing he couldn’t accept, however, was his wife’s betrayal. Even if this betrayal never happened in this life, he still couldn’t accept it. For Lin Manrou, her experiences from the previous life were real, and her betrayal of him was undeniable.

Gu Hanchen didn’t do much; he simply laid everything bare for Lin Manrou, and even divorced her. In this world, the main theme was sweet love and pampering a wife, but without Gu Hanchen, none of that existed. To make matters worse, Gu Hanchen, distracted by this issue during a mission, died on the battlefield.

In the world where Gu Hanchen and Lin Manrou lived, Gu Hanchen was the great luck bearer of the small world, tasked with the responsibility of fighting many criminals. When he passed away, with no signs of warning, the small world’s operation collapsed, creating a rift that was then absorbed by the large world where Jiang Yutao resided.

Jiang Yutao didn’t know what to say. She held back, but eventually couldn’t contain herself: “This small world is pretty useless. Without the male lead, the entire world can’t function.”

To be honest, the “Melon-Eating” system also thought this small world was quite useless, but what could it do? It was part of the small world, and it had to stick up for it: [You can’t say that, host. Everyone has their own strengths and weaknesses, just like how our systems are divided into upper, middle, and lower levels. I’m an upper-tier system.]

The “Melon-Eating” system puffed out its chest proudly.

In that moment, Jiang Yutao’s feelings were mixed. If this little idiot of a system could be classified as an upper-tier system, she couldn’t even imagine how silly the middle or lower-tier ones must be.

The system’s grandiose attitude had just been completely brought down a notch.

A class passed quietly. When Gu Nianwei returned, she took a big gulp of water and sat down across from Jiang Yutao. “I realized their foundation was weak, but I didn’t expect it to be this bad.”

Chinese and math are different subjects. After Gu Nianwei went in, she gave the students a few questions to solve to gauge their level, but the results were so disappointing it almost drove her to despair. They couldn’t even understand second-grade problems.

Gu Nianwei immediately felt a heavy weight on her shoulders. She couldn’t just ignore the students’ weak foundations and jump straight into middle school content. It seemed she would have to start with elementary school problems.

Jiang Yutao patted her on the shoulder. “It’s a heavy burden and a long road ahead, Comrade Gu.”

“I don’t care, you’re helping me no matter what,” Gu Nianwei had already decided to rope Jiang Yutao into helping her. She had been struggling so much, as her good friend, how could Jiang Yutao stay out of it?

Jiang Yutao pretended to refuse, joking with Gu Nianwei, just as Lin Manrou entered.

Lin Manrou’s desk was also in this room. Seeing a few more people around, she furrowed her brows, then smiled and said, “Hello, I’m Lin Manrou. I teach Chinese to the second and third classes of junior high.”

Lin Manrou had been reborn for a week. After taking a few days off, she returned to school. However, she had completely forgotten how to teach the points for the second-year junior high curriculum. After all, she hadn’t looked at junior high textbooks for several decades before her rebirth, and now she didn’t have any supplementary materials. As she taught, she was just reciting from the textbook.

Fortunately, students in this era didn’t need to be taught too many things, so she wasn’t overstepping. On her first day of being reborn, she had already written a heartfelt letter to Gu Hanchen, who was in the military. Given his personality, she thought he would be very touched and would probably arrange for her to join him in the military.

Lin Manrou remembered the last time they met in her previous life, when he was in his military uniform, standing tall and straight. Her face unintentionally flushed with warmth.

“Hello, Teacher Lin. I’m Jiang Yutao, and I teach Chinese for Class 1, Grade 7.”

“Hello, Teacher Lin. I’m Gu Nianwei, and I teach math for Class 1, Grade 7.”

Shen Jiahui and Zhen Geping also introduced themselves after them.

Lin Manrou knew Shen Jiahui and Zhen Geping; in her previous life, they were teachers at the school who came in together with Gong Xubo. Since they taught major subjects, Gong Xubo taught minor ones, and he often complained about them in front of her.

However, she had no recollection of Jiang Yutao and Gu Nianwei. Logically, they were both decent-looking, so she shouldn’t have forgotten them.

Lin Manrou couldn’t understand, but soon she stopped thinking about it because it was time for her class, and she felt rather irritated.

As she left the office with her textbook, she ran into Gong Xubo. His eyes lit up when he saw her, and he strode over to her, extending his hand. “Hello, I’m the new teacher Gong Xubo, and I teach geography for Class 1.”

Gong Xubo was actually quite pleased. He hadn’t expected Zaoxiang Middle School to be full of hidden talents, with every female teacher younger and more beautiful than the last. Jiang Yutao and Gu Nianwei were both educated youth, so he didn’t feel particularly drawn to them, as they seemed more worldly.

He didn’t believe it—every teacher at this school was an educated youth!

When Lin Manrou saw Gong Xubo, her expression immediately stiffened. Her gaze turned cold. “Excuse me.”

She pushed past him and walked away. She loathed Gong Xubo to the core. In her previous life, if it hadn’t been for this man’s seduction, she would never have betrayed Gu Hanchen.

This man had ill intentions. In her previous life, he had even sent her best friend to persuade her. If possible, she would have torn this man, who led her down the wrong path, into pieces.

Only then would her resentment finally be eased.