The Real Daughter Needs Saving by This Vicious Female Cannon Fodder? - Chapter 10

With her palm open, Gu Xia carefully massaged the bruised purple skin beneath Ning Anran’s collarbone. The strong scent of medicine lingered between them.

Her technique was clumsy, but she applied just the right amount of pressure. Ning Anran only furrowed her brows slightly before suddenly letting out a soft laugh.

“Did you come up with this method just to torture me?”

“Rubbing salt in my wounds?”

Gu Xia wasn’t provoked by Ning Anran’s taunt—she had just heard the system’s prompt.

“Congratulations, host. Female lead’s favorability +5.”

Still so sharp-tongued.

But her heart has softened a little, hasn’t it?

“If you think I’m rubbing salt in your wounds, then so be it.”

“Ning Anran, if a table bumps into you next time, just kick it back.”

“Why hold back? It’s not like the table is a person—kick it however you want.”

“I won’t allow someone I’m taking care of to live so meekly.”

A veiled jab.

Since when did Gu Xia’s emotional intelligence become so high?

Her father, drunk, had beaten her and her mother. Unable to contain her anger, Ning Anran had pushed him.

That perpetually drunken old man, his strength long diminished, had toppled over from her shove and was still lying in the hospital.

This had worsened the already strained relationship between mother and daughter. Now, her mother barely acknowledged her when they met.

But Ning Anran had long stopped caring.

She hated that wretched home.

Her parents’ indifference made her feel like she never belonged there in the first place.

Ning Anran had even wondered if she was adopted.

But after checking her birth certificate, the dates matched—she was undoubtedly their biological daughter.

Because of that act of defiance, she had been beaten again as a child, left bedridden for three days before barely recovering.

The sore skin was now soaked in medicine. Gu Xia kneaded it for about half an hour, until even her fingers smelled of the ointment, before finally letting go.

“Go to sleep.”

“You’ve been busy with graduation stuff these past few days—you must be exhausted.”

Gu Xia, studying at the neighboring art college, naturally didn’t have to endure the same exhaustion and constant running around as Ning Anran.

Her sister had even arranged a position for her—right after graduation, she’d join the company’s design team as its leader.

Hearing her gentle words, Ning Anran shook her head for the first time.

“Let’s sleep together.”

“This bed is two meters wide anyway.”

If Gu Xia really went to the guest room, even if she didn’t make a fuss, others surely would.

Which of the Gu family’s servants didn’t eye her with hostility?

The words sent Gu Xia’s heart racing, her imagination running wild.

Come on, sharing a bed just to chat under the covers—this is the ultimate milestone in deepening a best-friend bond!

Once you’ve reached the level of sleeping in the same bed, what heart-to-heart can’t you have?

Playing with her hair, Gu Xia replied sheepishly, “Alright, if you insist on sleeping together, I can’t exactly refuse.”

“My bed is really comfortable.”

Watching her, Ning Anran inexplicably felt a softness in her chest—though she didn’t smile.

“Go wash your hands. I’ll put away the first-aid kit.”

This bruise wasn’t even as bad as the time a crate had hit her while working part-time. Ning Anran thought back to that month she’d spent laboring at the factory.

As a newcomer, she was saddled with all the dirty and exhausting tasks by the senior staff.

Standing up, Ning Anran deftly packed away the medical kit.

Gu Xia obediently complied, returning to the bathroom to squeeze out some hand soap, meticulously scrubbing her fingers.

The mingling scents were stubborn, difficult to wash off.

She pumped out two more dollops of soap before finally erasing the lingering medicinal smell from her hands.

Lying in bed, Gu Xia could still feel her heart pounding wildly in her chest.

Turning her head, she gazed at Ning Anran’s delicate, makeup-free face, her fingers unconsciously gripping the sheets.

Suddenly, she felt like her unawakened-self had been a complete fool—why had she ever fallen for Cheng Chen, that scrawny, brainless male lead?!

According to the timeline, Ning Anran shouldn’t have liked Cheng Chen at this point either.

Gu Xia recalled that the real reason the male and female leads developed feelings for each other was because of her own meddling, which had brought two people who otherwise would never have crossed paths together.

Gu Xia: “…”

Honestly, not stirring up trouble was the true meaning of life!

With such a vast family fortune and such a wonderful sister, who in their right mind would bother groveling after some clichéd, melodramatic romance novel protagonist?

Her resentment was so overwhelming she felt like she could claw her way out of this novel, brandishing a knife to stab the author to death!

“Staring at me so late—are you planning to stay up all night?”

“Or do you hate me so much you want to strangle me in my sleep?”

Ning Anran had always been a light sleeper. Years of habit had trained her into a fragmented sleep pattern, waking up after just a few minutes.

This aloof, deathly aura—was this really the female lead?

Gu Xia thought that, at least in the novel, she had been a spoiled, willful princess, stubbornly making mistakes all her life and provoking people she shouldn’t have.

But aside from right before her death, she had never really suffered for it.

Ning Anran, on the other hand, had been swapped like a sparrow for a phoenix—a privileged heiress, the true daughter of the family, reduced to a pitiful fate of relying on others and drifting between odd jobs.

“Of course not!”

The question about Ning Anran’s origins rose to her lips, but Gu Xia swallowed it back down.

If she didn’t have solid proof that Ning Anran was the true heiress of Yuanye Group, she wouldn’t even get a chance to meet the chairman before the imposter who had replaced Ning Anran caught wind of it.

In this melodramatic, trope-filled novel, that person’s character setting was far better than hers.

As the current sole heiress of Yuanye Group, her business acumen had clearly been inherited from her alcoholic father—losing every penny she touched.

Fortunately, Yuanye Group’s vast wealth had somehow managed to withstand her reckless spending over the years. No matter how big a mess she made, the chairman was always there to clean up after her.

After being barred from company affairs, she had busied herself scouting for a suitable son-in-law among high society.

Naturally, the male lead, with his clichéd, over-the-top halo, had caught her eye at once—and thus, the real female antagonist made her entrance.

Meanwhile, Gu Xia, the fake cannon fodder, had long since been reduced to ashes, sunk to the bottom of the sea, forgotten by all.

How utterly tacky!!!

This plot was so disgustingly clichéd!

Just thinking about it made Gu Xia gnash her teeth in fury, itching to get up and smash a few walnuts to vent her anger.

No, she had to help the female lead find her biological parents. That spoiled young lady who had stolen someone else’s life for over twenty years needed to realize just how terribly wrong she had been.

Thanks to her parents’ malice, she had enjoyed wealth and luxury that were never rightfully hers.

Yet her parents repaid kindness with enmity, treating the female lead as nothing more than a money-making machine, even refusing to pay for her education.

“If you don’t have it, then go to sleep.”

“You’re looking at me like you want to devour me whole.”

Ning Anran stretched out her slender arm and pulled the blanket up to cover both their shoulders.

“Goodnight.”

Hearing this, Gu Xia’s anger dissipated considerably.

“Goodnight, Ning Anran.”