Ch 58: After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

System 1128 followed the existing connection and discreetly infiltrated the area where Virus X resided. It happened to catch Ren Qingqing gazing at a beautiful girl standing ahead of her in line.

Recalling Ruan Cha’s words from the night before, System 1128 fell silent.

Ruan Cha had said, “When someone starts stealing, they’re likely to keep doing it, no matter the degree.”

In Ruan Cha’s view, Ren Qingqing’s prior decisions to sever ties with both her and Xu Nan were not entirely her own. The underlying reasons lay in her fear of further backlash and the unavoidable changes brought by the modified system.

But if there were a way to steal without facing backlash, would Ren Qingqing resist the temptation?

Ruan Cha: “No.”
System: “Maybe she could?”

System 1128 gazed at its former host, Ren Qingqing, and for a moment, felt a very human sense of distress. It seemed it still had a lot to learn about the human world. No wonder the developer once called it a failure.

Compared to other AI on the same planet, it really was a failure.

Neither Ren Qingqing nor Virus X noticed System 1128’s presence. They were busy waiting in line for a reality show aimed at cultivating trainees. Out of a hundred participants, six would be selected to form a group.

In the novel, Ren Qingqing had leveraged her title as the top scorer in the college entrance exams to stand out in a high-IQ puzzle-solving show. Later, she gained entry into a highly anticipated rookie class through an idol drama, eventually earning the Best Actress crown with Xu Shen’s help. She became renowned as both a top student with high intelligence and a skilled actress.

Now, however, Ren Qingqing hadn’t even graduated high school. Her academic performance barely ranked in the top twenty, and without the advantage of her top scorer title, she had no chance of joining the high-IQ show.

Virus X had instead arranged for her to participate in Starry Trainee, a program with a long-term mission: make it to the top six in the final competition.

Ren Qingqing’s eyes sparkled, as if she could already see herself becoming a breakout star. “X, you said I can temporarily borrow someone’s skills, and even if I fail the task, there will be no backlash. You’re not lying to me, right?”

Although Ren Qingqing didn’t understand why the system she had always referred to as “System” suddenly insisted on being called X, she had to admit that X was a hundred times better than her original learning system.

Not only was its voice alluring, but the cheats it provided were irresistible.

Ren Qingqing couldn’t help feeling regretful about breaking ties with Xu Nan, which had cost her the opportunity to quickly earn intelligence points. But X had given her an even bigger surprise.

[I’m not lying to you.]

X’s voice was as pleasant as ever, so much so that Ren Qingqing often forgot she was speaking to a system.

[There is one clarification: when you temporarily acquire someone’s skills, they will lose those skills for two hours. Of course, temporarily losing doesn’t mean permanently losing—those skills will eventually return to them.]

Ren Qingqing felt no guilt after hearing this. She wasn’t stealing, just borrowing for a short time. In fact, learning that the other person would temporarily lose their skills for twice as long made her feel a hint of glee.

Earlier, during a break in practice, Ren Qingqing had overheard the girl ahead of her singing. Her tone, vocal range, and technique were leagues above Ren Qingqing’s own, especially her breathtaking dolphin notes. If she could temporarily acquire the girl’s singing skills, securing a spot in the top ten of the preliminaries wouldn’t just be possible—it would be likely.

“I want to use the temporary borrowing privilege.”

[I’m more than happy to assist you.]

System 1128 observed the entire process from the sidelines. Sneakily, it launched a small attack while Virus X was working, but as soon as its timid and self-preserving instincts kicked in, it didn’t wait to see the outcome and quickly fled.

When Ruan Cha and Xu Nan returned from the cafeteria, they immediately noticed the System sprawled out on the table like a sticky rice cake. Ruan Cha couldn’t help but wonder if the person who developed the System had an obsession with glutinous rice.

Upon seeing Ruan Cha, the System promptly transformed into its sticky rice dumpling form and respectfully rolled over. [Classmate Ruan Cha, you’re back! Did you enjoy your lunch? If there’s anything you need, I’d be delighted to assist~]

Ruan Cha, about to sit down, froze slightly at the sound of the System’s voice. “…Speak normally. If you keep acting, I’ll smack you out with a dictionary.”

[…]

The System hesitated, recalling how Virus X had treated its former host. To its surprise, the host had looked quite happy.

[I’ve already implanted a small attack program. If Ren Qingqing tries to borrow skills from others, the program will activate.]

While speaking, the System avoided referring to Ren Qingqing as its “former host” to avoid reminding Ruan Cha that it had once been bound to her.

Ruan Cha wasn’t satisfied. The System was the type to react only after someone else acted first. “Can’t you make her get struck by lightning a few more times?”

[…Lightning strikes are part of built-in antivirus programs. I can’t control that. Besides, with only 20 energy points, I can’t initiate direct attacks. That would require over 1,000 energy points.]

Ruan Cha nodded thoughtfully. “So, it’s like reading 100 books and passing 100 related tests. Since I’ve already finished previewing everything for the second semester of sophomore year, we’ll start tonight.”

It wasn’t that Ruan Cha wasn’t in a hurry to accumulate energy to deal with Yu Zheng. The issue was the System’s upper and lower limits: the daily number of tests had to stay between 0 and 10. No matter how fast she studied, she could only complete ten tests a day—and nonstop studying around the clock simply wasn’t feasible.

That said, Ruan Cha appreciated the System’s test design. Not only could she accumulate energy, but she could also assess her mastery of textbook content. After a few months of this, by the time the winter break ended, she’d feel even more confident about the advancement exam.

Thinking of how she’d once watched a livestream of Ren Qingqing running 60 laps, Ruan Cha turned to the System. “Can’t you livestream Ren Qingqing’s current situation?”

The System shrank from a medium-sized sticky rice dumpling into a tiny glutinous rice ball. [Scared… Scared Virus X will notice. I don’t dare to livestream.]

Ruan Cha raised an eyebrow. “You’re just too timid. You probably didn’t even think of setting up a livestream.”

[…qaq]

Ruan Cha wasn’t too concerned about whether she could watch a livestream or not. However, that afternoon, she stumbled upon Ren Qingqing in a short video shared by Huang Jiajia.

[Huang Jiajia: Hahaha, Ren Qingqing dropped out to become a trainee, and her performance was so “outstanding” it made the trending searches!]

[Huang Jiajia: It didn’t trend at first, but your brother must’ve accidentally liked it. Even though he unliked it quickly, it still got noticed by netizens, haha!!!]

Ruan Cha received the video while her class was at the bowling alley for gym class. The first two groups were competing up front, while Ruan Cha and Xu Nan sat on the back bench whispering.

Curious after reading Huang Jiajia’s series of “hahas,” Ruan Cha tapped on the video.

The next moment, an ear-piercing, high-pitched, wildly off-key dolphin sound burst out of her phone, abrupt, arrogant, and completely out of control!

“Ah—ah—ah ah ah!”

The entire bowling alley—and every student in the training room—shuddered simultaneously, as if haunted by Sadako from The Ring. A chilling wave of panic and disgust shot straight to their heads!

It was the kind of revulsion that makes you want to vomit—like biting into a mushroom and finding a worm inside.

“Who’s torturing my ears? My ears are unclean now!”

“Who screamed like that? Was that some kind of hybrid dolphin call?”

“You actually think that’s a dolphin call? That’s a death knell. I’m worried if we keep listening, we’ll start bleeding from every orifice.”

Ji Feiyang, startled out of his wits, trembled so hard he dropped his bowling ball, nearly smashing his foot. He jumped up, eyes darting around the room. “Who played that? Fess up!”

Seeing the chaos, Fu Chen calmly stepped forward, subtly positioning himself to block the view of Ruan Cha and Xu Nan, who were seated on the bench behind him.

Meanwhile, Ruan Cha quickly lowered the volume on her phone and stuffed it into her school uniform pocket, narrowly avoiding detection by the frantic Ji Feiyang and the other students—except for one person.

Ruan Cha turned and locked eyes with Xu Nan, who was staring at her in astonishment.

To be fair, even Ruan Cha hadn’t expected Ren Qingqing’s voice to be so painfully grating. In the video, the three judges had gone through three distinct facial expressions:

Blank → Horrified → Violated.

Only Ren Qingqing remained entirely immersed in her unique dolphin call, singing with such intensity it was as if she had completely blocked out the world.

If Ren Qingqing somehow managed to take first place among the hundred trainees with that dolphin call, Ruan Cha had every reason to suspect the judges’ hearing was irreparably damaged.

“Nan Nan.”

“I get it.” Xu Nan pulled out her own phone and opened a link in the noisy room. “Starry Trainee just finished a live broadcast. I was watching it during a break. We should probably use headphones to be safe.”

Ruan Cha glanced at Xu Nan’s video page and noticed the Weibo feed. After a moment, it dawned on her—oh, so Xu Nan had been watching the replay from her second cousin’s account. And sure enough, one of the three judges in the video was Liang Cunjin, sitting right in the center.

“So, Ren Qingqing dropped out to become a trainee,” Xu Nan said, handing one earbud to Ruan Cha. “I think her performance would’ve been better without the dolphin call. Adding it feels… jarring.”

Ruan Cha patted Xu Nan’s head. “You’re so kind.”

To be honest, “jarring” didn’t even begin to cover it. Ren Qingqing’s dolphin call wasn’t just jarring—it was like a nuclear bomb going off in a field of blooming flowers symbolizing the nation’s future.

After witnessing Ren Qingqing’s so-called dolphin call, Ruan Cha started to understand the System 1128’s energy-based counterattack.

Whenever Ren Qingqing borrowed someone else’s skills, that person’s greatest strength would temporarily become their weakest point. It was obvious that Ren Qingqing, seeing her competitor’s impressive dolphin call during practice, had decided to steal it to give her own performance a boost.

However, due to the System’s reverse attack, the awe-inspiring dolphin call transformed into something horrifying—something so grating it couldn’t even be called a dolphin call anymore. Honestly, calling it “dolphin” might be an insult to dolphins.

As for the difference between the two dolphin sounds, Ren Qingqing remained blissfully unaware. In the video, her expression radiated pure enjoyment, fully convinced she had delivered an extraordinary and rare dolphin note.

While Ruan Cha and Xu Nan killed time during gym class watching the video, a wave of laughter swept across Weibo. Half the commenters had stumbled upon the clip thanks to Liang Cunjin’s accidental like.

No one could believe that someone could be so supremely confident and engrossed, oblivious to the judges’ increasingly strained expressions.

---

That evening, after finishing one of her assessments, Ruan Cha pointed to her laptop screen. “1128, here’s the audio I just recorded. There are 10 points in the energy pool. Use it all. We’re not out to hurt Ren Qingqing, just give her something to enjoy—loop this audio as her dorm’s infinite background music once she moves in.”

[…]

What a waste!

“How many energy points does one loop cost?”

Although System 1128 secretly complained about Ruan Cha’s extravagance, it truthfully reported the numbers. [It costs 3 points per loop. With 10 points, it can loop three times.]

Ren Qingqing had managed to secure one of the 100 trainee spots, but because of her ear-piercing dolphin sound, she barely squeaked by in 99th place, far from completing the idol system’s top-30 task.

Luckily for her, the idol system only imposed time limits and didn’t penalize points for failure. Otherwise, Ren Qingqing’s points would have long been wiped out.

Because she failed her task, Virus X gained no energy. Worse, it suffered a brief period of weakness due to widespread backlash from netizens.

After all, if someone with a screechy high-pitched voice like Ren Qingqing could take the 99th spot, why were other contestants’ picks eliminated?

No one believed there wasn’t some behind-the-scenes manipulation.

---

Ruan Cha mulled over the situation. “Fine, loop it three times in her ears tonight. For any future tasks, as long as we have energy in the pool, keep looping.”

[???]

---

Thursday night.

The other five trainees in the dormitory stared in bewilderment as Ren Qingqing sprang from her bed, clutching her ears and screaming, “Who’s making that awful sound? Who’s laughing?! Stop it! Stop screaming! Aaaaah!”

The five others looked at each other with faces of utter despair: ???

What the hell? Who’s screaming like a banshee?

Their gazes turned toward someone coming from the neighboring dorm room, then back to Ren Qingqing, who was clutching her ears, shouting hysterically. Silently, they covered their faces.

How on earth had Ren Qingqing managed to make it into the top 100 trainees?