Ch 48: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

Since Ruan Cha skipped evening self-study to head home with Ruan Zhengfei, the whole family could enjoy dinner together. The housekeeper, seizing the opportunity, prepared an especially lavish meal.

Dishes like sesame crispy duck, stir-fried shrimp, assorted wild mushrooms, crab shell buns, and fish head tofu soup filled the table. To avoid waste, each dish was served in small but exquisite portions.

At first, everyone was thoroughly enjoying themselves. Old Master Liang laughed so heartily that the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes deepened. But as soon as Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao shared their future plans, the whole table fell silent.

Ruan Cha, forgetting the rib she was about to eat, stared at her parents in disbelief. “Dad, Mom, what did you just say?”

Hearing this, Wei Jiao straightened her posture, trying to appear resolute. “Your dad and I, seeing how hard you’re studying, were deeply inspired. We can’t just stay idle at home anymore. It’s time for us to work hard and find jobs.”

Ruan Cha: “…”

So farming vegetables and collecting rent aren’t respected professions? I’ve been forced to work hard, and now my parents can’t even stay relaxed as salted fish?

Old Master Liang, delighted at their ambition, turned to Wei Jiao and Ruan Zhengfei. “Do you two have a plan? If you need help, just let the family know.”

Liang Zongqi nodded eagerly. “Yes, yes! What are you two planning? Our family dabbles in all sorts of industries. I’m sure we can help.”

If the couple wanted to join one of the companies, they could easily arrange two offices for them.

Ruan Zhengfei replied earnestly, “First, we’ll acquire a company to see how it goes.”

He wanted to learn about company management and perhaps even invest in stocks.

Wei Jiao, equally serious, said, “I’ll start by buying a vineyard to see how it works.”

She wanted to explore grape cultivation and eventually establish her own wine brand.

Everyone else at the table: “???”

Ruan Cha even pulled out her phone to check the calendar. Nope, it was December—still months away from April Fools’ Day.

“Third Aunt, Uncle,” Liang Cunjin addressed them, hesitating as their gazes fixed intently on him. After a long pause, he lowered his voice. “Dear Life is just a show. You don’t have to sacrifice your personal lives for the sake of entertaining the audience. Just do whatever you usually do and don’t worry about the cameras.”

He wasn’t just relying on Director Jin’s professionalism; he felt personally responsible for ensuring that the post-production team wouldn’t cut footage out of context for dramatic effect. He was genuinely worried that his aunt and uncle felt pressured by the cameras and had come up with the company and vineyard plans to appear more industrious.

Ruan Cha shook her head. “Second Brother, they’re not doing it because of the cameras.”

Then, seeing everyone else at the table looking at her for an explanation, Ruan Cha added sincerely, “If they were worried about the cameras, they wouldn’t stop at just one company. They’d probably say ten or twenty.”

The family fell silent again. Then, glancing at the proud expressions on Ruan Zhengfei and Wei Jiao’s faces—practically shouting, That’s our daughter! She knows us so well!—they collectively sighed in exasperation.

Unfazed, Wei Jiao waved her hand. “Dad, Brother, Sister-in-law, you don’t need to worry about us. Zhengfei and I will handle everything. Once the vineyard is ours, I’ll take you all there for a visit.”

She added thoughtfully, “And if we can’t make it to the vineyard, we can always visit our mountain estate. A vineyard probably costs as much as a few hills, right?” Wei Jiao scratched her head, making a mental note to review their savings and calculate whether they could afford one.

Old Master Liang chuckled, unwilling to dampen her enthusiasm. “Alright, we’ll look forward to visiting your vineyard one day.”

With the patriarch’s blessing, everyone else chimed in with good-natured encouragement. Meanwhile, Tang Hua was already considering which of her connections might know someone selling a vineyard. If necessary, she’d even arrange for a discounted sale to help out her little sister-in-law’s family.

The staff in the control room watched the entire scene unfold and remained silent for a long moment.

“Didn’t they say Ruan Cha’s family just came back from a small town?”

“Their hobbies are really expensive though. Tens of thousands worth of figurines, and now they’re talking about buying companies and vineyards?”

A previously quiet staff member glanced at their whispering colleagues, a hint of exasperation on their face. “You really believe that?”

The two questioned individuals looked up, their tone eerie. “Do you have a room full of tens of thousands worth of figurines?”

“…”

Silence. Silence dominated the control room tonight.

Regardless, during this one dinner, the Liang family realized one crucial thing: the idle third son and his wife were truly considering a new path. Even if their plans sounded like a mix of ambition and wishful thinking, their intent to change was real and worth encouraging.

Even after Ruan Cha finished eating and was heading upstairs, she could still hear Old Master Liang and Liang Zongqi taking turns enthusiastically cheering on her parents.

Ruan Cha: “…”

Her parents’ decision was, quite suddenly, making everything feel a bit overwhelming.

Once back in her room, Ruan Cha prepared to open her textbook and start reviewing the second semester’s high school curriculum. However, just as she flipped the book open, the white virtual panel—previously minimized to a tiny glowing dot due to her disdain—suddenly expanded, lines of text appearing on its surface.

[Second-Level Gatekeeping Starting Soon:

In half an hour, the following task will be assigned to Host Ren Qingqing:

Task: Fluently recite the dialogues of the ten selected scenes from Frozen.

Task Reward: Upon successful completion, extract 1 point of Beauty Value and 1 point of Intelligence Value from the associated target Xu Nan, and earn 2 system points.

Failure Consequence: Deduct 1 system point and impose a punishment of running 60 laps (1000 meters each).]

The moment Ruan Cha saw the ten selected scenes, her expression froze. The system was blatantly favoring Ren Qingqing without shame! Across all ten scenes, there were barely twelve new vocabulary words.

Forget high schoolers—even elementary school students could memorize this after a bit of practice.

And without a scoring system in place, there was no way Ren Qingqing would suffer a backlash in the form of deducted Intelligence or Beauty values. But knowing Ren Qingqing’s stubborn, “don’t believe it until you’re faced with the truth” nature, how could she ever learn her lesson without consequences?

Ever since acquiring the white panel, Ruan Cha had naturally gained access to certain bits of information regarding the system. Among them was the source of the A and B tasks, as well as the conditions for upgrading a B task to an A task.

For this reason, Ruan Cha could never understand why Ren Qingqing stubbornly clung to the B tasks, continuously making things worse until her points had dwindled to a mere 3.

Shaking her head, Ruan Cha decided not to waste energy pondering the psychology of someone so unreasonable. Instead, she opened the ten film clips provided by the system and edited a message related to them, planning to send it to Xu Nan in half an hour. Her goal? To trick Xu Nan into reading the dialogues aloud.

Next, Ruan Cha fluently and flawlessly recited the ten selected scenes’ dialogues in English, word for word, without a single mistake.

Before closing the panel, a sudden thought crossed her mind. She hesitated for a moment, then her lips curved into a subtle smile as she spoke once more.

---

Xu Family Villa.

Ren Qingqing sat in her room, her face tense and her heart heavy. The basketball game had ended, and she had hoped to comfort Xu Shen afterward. But not only did Xu Shen reject her efforts, he didn’t even spare her a glance.

Now, downstairs, Xu Shen was hosting a group of friends, their laughter echoing through the house without a care for her presence upstairs.

Ren Qingqing thought back to the unfamiliar look in Xu Shen’s eyes when he glanced her way, and an icy sense of unease spread through her.

[Ding!]

Ren Qingqing shivered violently, covering her ears as her expression became frantic and terrified. “Stop it! Stop it! If you say one more word, I’ll drag you down with me and jump off the building!”

For the first time in months of being partnered with the system, Ren Qingqing felt its voice was like that of a devil—a soul-devouring demon.

[Ding! The task for the host is as follows: Within ten minutes, fluently recite the dialogues of the ten selected scenes from Frozen in both English and… Latin. Task Completion: 1-point beauty value & 1-point intelligence value extraction from associated target Xu Nan, and +2 system points. Task Failure: -1 system point and punishment of running laps (1000 meters each) x 60.]

The system finished assigning the task and paused, stunned.

It actually had Latin in its programming? And now, after the host’s intelligence value had dropped by 3.5 points, a task involving Latin suddenly popped up? Even with her normal intelligence level, completing this would be nearly impossible!

Ren Qingqing stared blankly at the task panel, her hands falling limp as her pale face froze. After a moment, she collapsed to the floor, trembling uncontrollably.

Her emotions were conflicted—part joy and part despair. She was relieved that the task appeared deceptively simple; she could almost recite the English portion without any preparation. But despair hit her like a wave—Latin? LATIN!?

Unable to suppress her frustration, Ren Qingqing stormed to her desk, grabbing books and a pen holder, hurling them wildly around the room as if trying to strike the invisible system she couldn’t see.

Her voice was sharp and high-pitched, laced with obvious panic and bitterness. “Get out! Get out! Leave me alone! Just go away!”

This so-called “golden finger” was nothing more than a curse!

Her shrill cries echoed through the house. Downstairs, Xu Shen and his friends froze, the sound piercing their ears. One blond-haired boy glanced at Xu Shen, whose face had turned dark enough to drip water, and nervously swallowed. “Xu Shen, is Ren Qingqing upstairs?”

“Didn’t you say she was sweet and cute?”

“Ahh—GET OUT!!”

The group exchanged awkward glances, shivering involuntarily. Sweet and cute? She’s clearly gone mad!

Frustrated, Xu Shen threw his game controller aside and ran a hand through his hair. He was already struggling to understand why he had ever liked Ren Qingqing, but now? He was seriously starting to wonder if he’d been cursed. How else could he have fallen for a loud, ill-mannered lunatic?

But before Xu Shen and his friends could head upstairs, they saw a disheveled figure dash down the staircase at lightning speed.

Xu Shen watched as Ren Qingqing, her hair in disarray, bolted toward the door. He frowned and grabbed her wrist, suppressing his annoyance and anger. “What are you doing?”

“I need to run laps! I have to run laps!” Ren Qingqing, compelled by the system, shoved Xu Shen aside with unnatural strength and stormed out of the Xu family villa. Her booming voice echoed through the air, pounding into the ears of those left behind. “I NEED TO RUN LAPS!”

Hearing her own words, Ren Qingqing felt a surge of madness. She wanted to scream for Xu Shen to stop her from embarrassing herself, but every time she opened her mouth, all that came out was, “I NEED TO RUN LAPS!”

Xu Shen, watching as she ran wildly around the villa complex in front of everyone’s shocked stares, felt his face burn with humiliation. He wanted nothing more than to pack her up and throw her out. Never in his life had he been so thoroughly embarrassed.

The others: “…”

So it’s true—she must’ve gone insane after being struck by lightning.

For a moment, the group exchanged complex looks of sympathy and pity, their gazes collectively falling on Xu Shen.

So young, yet so blind.

---

Almost at the same moment Ren Qingqing failed her task, Ruan Cha received the system notification. Not only did she earn 1 point for successfully guarding her level, but she was also treated to a short video clip of Ren Qingqing’s punishment.

Watching Ren Qingqing run laps around the villa complex, her face contorted as she sprinted past onlookers’ stunned gazes, Ruan Cha burst into uncontrollable laughter. She clutched her stomach, nearly gasping for air as tears streamed down her face.

She’d initially felt a bit regretful that Ren Qingqing hadn’t lost beauty or intelligence points. But after watching the video of her public humiliation, Ruan Cha couldn’t muster a shred of sympathy. Laughing so hard that she could hardly breathe, she exclaimed, “Whoever designed this system punishment has absolute talent! It’s perfect—so satisfying!”

In the room next door, where Ruan’s parents were hesitating between “starting fresh tomorrow” or “continuing to slack off,” the sound of Ruan Cha’s laughter reached them.

Both froze in confusion.

The two of them perked up their ears, listening closely. Then, with a shared understanding, they hurriedly climbed out of bed.

“This won’t do! Cha Cha is so stressed from studying that she’s forcing herself to laugh through tears! We can’t let her know we noticed! If we keep slacking off, we’re failures as parents!”

Ruan Zhengfei: “If I don’t work hard, I’m not fit to be a dad!”

Wei Jiao: “If you don’t work hard, you’re not fit to be a dad!”

Ruan Zhengfei cast a long, weary glance at Wei Jiao. “…”