Ch 111 (Extra 11): After My Mother Returned to the Rich Family

[Softening Up CP (7)]

The sky was a brilliant blue, with clouds as white as snow.

A passenger plane took off from Beijing Airport and climbed into the sky.

South City and Beijing, one in the south and one in the north, were about two hours and fifty minutes apart by air. The first-class cabin was full, and Ruan Cha and Fu Chen were seated in the first row.

After pulling a couple of all-nighters preparing for the upcoming launch of the VR game at Three Whales Company, both of them had fallen asleep with their eyes closed.

[Classmate Ruan Cha, I’ve detected that Classmate Fu Chen is asleep, though it’s very light. A slightly louder noise might wake him up.]

The soft electronic voice of the system sounded in Ruan Cha’s ear.

The next moment, Ruan Cha opened her eyes sharply, not a trace of sleepiness in her clear dark gaze.

She turned her head slightly to look at Fu Chen. He had a thin blanket over him; his long lashes cast faint shadows under his eyes. The sharpness of his features had matured since high school, but there was an unusual hint of exhaustion between his brows.

There was only one week left before Lunar New Year. After finishing the final preparations for Planet Manager’s Handbook, they packed up and flew home to South City.

[Classmate Ruan Cha, aren’t you going to sleep?]

The system had been specifically instructed by Ruan Cha before boarding: notify her the moment Fu Chen fell asleep. The system had been confused about the purpose at first.

Wait—!!!

The sticky rice ball-shaped system, perched on Ruan Cha’s lap, suddenly jumped up, its whole body squished out of shape in shock.

[Classmate Ruan Cha, don’t tell me… you’re planning to do something naughty to Classmate Fu Chen while he sleeps?!]

Ruan Cha: “…”

1128, be honest. What kind of novels have you been sneaking around reading online? I already thought it was suspicious when I caught you staying up late to read Jin Ping Mei!

Ruan Cha shook her head and couldn’t be bothered to argue with the system about its nonsense. “1128, aren’t you supposed to be sensitive to human emotions? Haven’t you noticed something odd about Fu Chen’s mood lately?”

[Odd? I haven’t noticed any abnormality in Classmate Fu Chen, except he’s a bit clingier to you than before.]

Originally, the system hadn’t thought much of Fu Chen, its attention solely focused on Ruan Cha. But after fully merging with the antivirus program, the system could no longer treat Fu Chen as an outsider.

After all, without Fu Chen’s help in the previous life, the system would have been destroyed. There would have been no chance to change this timeline and correct its past mistake by defeating Ren Qingqing and Yu Zheng.

Now, having accepted Fu Chen as an important person, the system naturally monitored his mental and physical condition. According to its readings, Fu Chen was perfectly healthy.

But Ruan Cha gazed at Fu Chen’s sleeping face, a thoughtful, unreadable look in her eyes. “He’s too clingy… I think he’s feeling anxious.”

Back when her roommates had teased her about how clingy Fu Chen had become, Ruan Cha had brushed it off as a joke. After all, they did spend a lot of time together.

But slowly, she realized something was off. Fu Chen’s behavior had subtly changed from when they first started dating.

It wasn’t the suffocating kind of possessiveness that demanded to know where she was at all times or made her feel trapped. Quite the opposite—Fu Chen had always made her feel relaxed and respected.

Yet no matter how calm and gentle he seemed on the surface, Ruan Cha could still sense the faintest trace of unease behind his every move.

It was as if… Fu Chen was terrified that she might suddenly vanish from his life.

Ruan Cha gently smoothed out the slight crease between his brows and whispered softly, “Fu Chen…”

[Classmate Ruan Cha, I’ve thought of something.] The sticky rice ball system rolled anxiously across the tray table. [In the other timeline, Classmate Ruan Cha had her accident in the second year after returning to the Liang family. Based on the current timeline, you’ve also been with them for two years.]

Indeed, with Ruan Cha’s academic acceleration, she had only spent one year in high school and one year in college so far—two years in total.

[In theory, two versions of the same person in parallel timelines can have weak emotional resonance.]

[If there’s a Dreamweave Card, like you used before, it can send intentional visions between timelines. If not, then at a specific moment, someone may have a subconscious premonition.]

According to the system’s big data calculations, some people in future timelines even developed precognitive abilities due to past experiences across parallel timelines.

Because the time flows weren’t synchronized, some individuals could somehow perceive echoes from what had happened to them in another timeline.

When he met his wife again in the afterlife, he would have something to tell her.

As these thoughts circled in Elder Liang’s mind, he unconsciously tightened his grip on Ruan Cha’s hand.

In their social circle, there were no secrets. Even though the matter with Yu Zheng had been tightly covered up, some people had still caught wind of it. A few even complained that their families had been “dragged down” by Ruan Cha, blaming her for Yu Zheng’s targeting of her.

But Elder Liang didn’t see it that way. No one should be forced to reflect on themselves after being harmed. Ruan Cha had been innocent from beginning to end. Yu Zheng’s actions were simply him finding excuses for his selfish fear of death.

And even if they had never encountered Yu Zheng, they might have still run into a Chen Zheng or a Wang Zheng in the future.

Besides, it hadn’t only been Yu Zheng. There had also been the Song family hiding in the background. Since Song Yun had once used Yu Zheng to manipulate the second son against their family, what was to stop him from using someone else next time?

For the family to be safe and happy together now was already something to be grateful for.

After taking the family photo, they had only just gotten halfway through their reunion dinner when the housekeeper brought out three steaming plates of dumplings.

“In these three plates of dumplings, ten of them have peanuts inside. Everyone, try your luck!”

It was said that biting into a dumpling with a coin on New Year’s would bring you good fortune all year long. In some regions, the tradition was to eat them on the morning of the first day of the new year, but in more traditional South City families, it was customary to eat them on New Year’s Eve.

The Liang family typically made dumplings but never used coins. This year, it had been Ruan Cha who suggested it in the afternoon.

Elder Liang had thought it over and decided that coins might be unsanitary, and there was no time left to exchange new ones at the bank. Instead, he asked the housekeeper to prepare ten dumplings with peanuts inside to symbolize perfection and completeness.

[Classmate Ruan Cha, I’ve detected which dumplings have peanuts. The ones on the left plate—]

“Shh.” Ruan Cha quickly cut the system off when she saw the family already starting to pick from the plates. She grabbed her chopsticks too. “Peanuts symbolize fortune. The ones you detect belong to you. I must find one myself.”

As she spoke, she had already picked up a dumpling. The moment she took a bite, her eyes lit up.

Savoring it carefully, a smile spread across her face. She held up the half-eaten dumpling proudly for everyone to see.

“Grandpa, Mom, Dad—the first lucky one in the family is here!”

Elder Liang laughed so hard his eyes turned into slits. “Looks like Cha Cha is going to have good luck all year long.”

Seeing this, Ruan Zhengfei eagerly rubbed his hands together. “Jiao Jiao, we can’t fall behind. Let’s go! We’ll eat vegetables later. First, let’s hunt down the peanuts.”

“We can’t let Cha Cha carry all the family’s fortune on her own.”

The rest of the family exchanged glances and joined the frenzy. The normally refined family, who were sticklers for etiquette at meals, uncharacteristically began scrambling to grab dumplings from the plates.

After finding her second peanut-filled dumpling, Ruan Cha stopped competing and instead took out her phone to record a short video to send to Liang Cunjin.

“We’re eating dumplings. Second Brother, remember to have some tonight too! I’ll quietly tell you—I found two with peanuts just now. Out of kindness, I’ll generously share one with you since you’re working hard out there to provide for the family!”

She sent the message and didn’t worry about a reply right away. After all, they could see him on TV. Liang Cunjin had just finished his performance and was sitting down to watch the Spring Festival Gala. There was no way he’d dare play with his phone on live broadcast in front of the cameras.

The system saw the WeChat message Ruan Cha had just sent and asked curiously, [Classmate Ruan Cha, why didn’t you give one of your two peanut dumplings to Classmate Fu Chen?]

At the long table, the three plates of dumplings had already been completely eaten by the seven remaining people. Out of the ten peanut dumplings, Ruan Cha had eaten two, Elder Liang and Wei Jiao each had two, Tang Hua and Liang Zongqi had one each.

Strictly speaking, Yan Ruocan had also found two, but when she spotted the peanut in the second dumpling, she immediately gave it to Liang Cunjin, who still hadn’t gotten one.

The system had assumed Ruan Cha would do the same and share one with Fu Chen. It didn’t expect her to give one to Liang Cunjin instead.

“Fu Chen, huh…” Ruan Cha took a bowl of sweet pear soup from the housekeeper, drank a few spoonfuls of the sweet liquid, and answered in her mind, “Fu Chen and I share our luck. Passing things back and forth would just make us seem distant. I think Fu Chen would prefer to share one peanut dumpling together rather than splitting them.”

[…]

The system, which had almost turned into a permanent lemon tree, sighed in frustration.

Without Liang Cunjin, the family chatted for another hour or two in the living room, then called it a night. They didn’t even bother to finish the Spring Festival Gala. One by one they headed upstairs—none of them young enough to stay up all night anymore.

Back in her room, after washing up, Ruan Cha lay on her bed and started a video call with Fu Chen.

“Yeah, two peanuts, I gave one to Second Brother. Poor guy has to work away from home during New Year’s,” Ruan Cha explained as she also got a reply from Liang Cunjin. His message was full of teasing praise, saying she was so thoughtful and promised to bring her a big New Year’s gift when he came back.

On the video, Fu Chen had just come out of the shower. His black hair was damp and clung to his collar. He didn’t want to use a hair dryer and interrupt their call, so he casually rubbed at his hair with a towel as they talked.

Though the lingering unease in his heart had finally faded, Fu Chen still felt he could never get enough of looking at Ruan Cha. Whether day or night, seeing her never got old.

Thinking back on those peaceful three days they spent together in the town, Fu Chen felt incredibly lucky.

Hearing about the peanut dumpling, he smiled and mock-sighed, “But we didn’t prepare any peanut dumplings here. Last year I had your lucky red envelope. This year…”

“My peanut dumplings are half yours!” Ruan Cha cut in before he could finish, smiling brightly as she lay on the bed. “We’re engaged now. We can’t be so formal. We share our good fortune.”

Just as she finished speaking, the video frame suddenly shifted. As she caught sight of the view outside Fu Chen’s window, she remembered something. Before leaving the town on the 29th, Fu Chen had mentioned he and Father Fu wouldn’t be spending New Year’s Eve at the old family house.

Outside, the night sky was dark and nearly starless. But in the next second, a vibrant firework exploded, filling the screen with dazzling colors.

Then came the second burst. The third.

Ruan Cha stared at the fireworks, thinking Fu Chen had simply wanted to let her watch the show. But as the fireworks gathered into shapes, two bright red hearts appeared side by side in the sky.

“Cha Cha.”

Fu Chen’s voice came through the video call—clear and gentle, each word cutting through even the occasional loud booms of fireworks.

“For last year’s New Year’s Eve and this year’s firework display, I’ve had something I wanted to tell you.” He paused, adjusted the camera so he was fully in view.

Ruan Cha, clutching her phone tightly, had a vague guess of what he was about to say.

On screen, Fu Chen’s dark, luminous eyes softened with warmth. His voice came gently across the distance, falling directly into her ears as fireworks continued to light up the night sky behind him.

And under the brilliance of the fireworks, Ruan Cha clearly heard Fu Chen speak three heartfelt words:

“I love you.”