Huaijin felt a surge of warmth. These children weren’t "wasted" anymore. They were being guided, step by messy, glittery step, toward a future where they wouldn’t have to break to be seen.

As she sat on the rug, Huaijin’s mind occasionally drifted away from the dollhouse. She thought about the Amusement Park.

She thought about the "Little Brother" she had met there, the boy with the sharp eyes and the quiet strength.

’I wonder if he’d like the picnic?’ she mused. ’He seemed like he needed a good lava muffin. And some mud. Especially some mud.’

There was something about that boy that felt... different. He didn’t fit into the "Main Story" as far as she could remember, which made him the perfect friend for her.

He was a variable she didn’t know, a wild card in her carefully calculated life. She found herself hoping their paths would cross again, perhaps when the "Gilded Cage" wasn’t quite so restrictive.

However, while things at home and at the Manor were becoming a beautiful, chaotic dream, School was becoming a localized nightmare.

The problem had a name, a perfect haircut, and a very irritating habit of "being everywhere."

Song Jue.

The Male Lead of the original story was, quite frankly, getting on Huaijin’s last nerve. Ever since the "Muffin Incident" at the picnic, his interest in her had shifted from "curiosity" to "obsessive investigation." 𝚏𝗿𝗲𝐞𝚠𝕖𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝕖𝚕.𝚌𝗼𝗺

In the original timeline, Song Jue was supposed to be the "Cold Prince" who eventually fell for the "Sunlight" of the main female lead, Liang Lingzhi.

But because Huaijin was busy rewriting the world, the "Cold Prince" had turned into a "Persistent Nosey-Parker."

It started at the school library. Huaijin would be tucked into a corner, trying to read a textbook on advanced chemistry (hidden inside a "Bambi" book cover), and suddenly, a shadow would fall over her.

"What are you reading, Huaijin?" Song Jue would ask, his voice full of that overbearing "protagonist" charm. "You always look so serious. Like you’re planning a war."

"I’m looking at the pictures of the forest, Song Jue," Huaijin would lie, her voice dripping with artificial sweetness. "Forests are very big and have many trees."

"You’re a weird kid," he’d say, leaning in too close. "You don’t act like the others. You didn’t even cry when you tripped at the picnic. Why?"

Huaijin wanted to scream, ’because I’m a grown woman, you brat! And I didn’t trip, it was a tactical strike!’

Then there was the playground. Whenever Huaijin was trying to have a private conversation with Yuanying, usually about "Villainess Deterrence Tactics" disguised as doll-talk, Song Jue would appear like an uninvited ghost.

"Is she bothering you again, Yuanying?" Song Jue would ask, stepping between them like a knight defending a castle. "I saw you two whispering. Huaijin, stop filling her head with your ’theories.’"

"We were talking about lip gloss, Song Jue!" Yuanying snapped once, actually defending Huaijin. "Go away and play soccer or something!"

But he wouldn’t. He would stay, watching Huaijin with eyes that were far too observant for a child. He was trying to figure her out. He sensed the "anomaly" in the world, and he was convinced she was the source.

Huaijin sat at her small school desk, stabbing her eraser with a pencil.

’Why can’t he just follow the plot?’ she fumed. ’Go find your sweetheart, Liang Lingzhi or something! Go around pretending to be your typical cold male lead and brooding in a hallway somewhere! Why are you bothering a six-year-old "extra" who just wants to eat snacks and save her family?’

She was barely keeping Yuanying on the right path, managing her father’s career from the shadows, and fighting off the "Snake Woman" Xu Meilin through Luo Ming.

She was busy! She didn’t have time to be the object of a pre-pubescent "Male Lead’s" obsession.

’Kids have privacy too!’ she thought, looking at Song Jue, who was currently staring at her from across the classroom. ’Just because I’m small doesn’t mean you can just stick your nose into my business!’

If he kept it up, she was going to have to do more than just drop muffin crumbs on his shirt. She was an executive, after all.

If a "Male Lead" was interfering with her corporate restructuring of the Chi family, she would just have to force a merger, one that involved a very large mud puddle and a total loss of "Cool Protagonist" points.

Huaijin let out a long, dramatic sigh that sounded far too weary for a child. The "Main Story" was a persistent weed, but she was a very patient gardener.

’One way or another, Song Jue,’ she thought, locking eyes with him for a brief, icy second before returning to her "Bambi" book. ’I am going to make you leave me alone, even if I have to rewrite every single Chapter of this stupid book.’

***

The sky above the Chi Elite Elementary Academy was the color of a chilled marshmallow, pale, soft, and promising a heavy dusting of snow by nightfall.

The air held a sharp, crystalline bite that nipped at the noses of the children pouring out of the heavy oak doors, but for Chi Huaijin, the cold was merely the seasoning on a very delicious day.

Classes were officially over. The final bell had rung with a triumphant clang-clang-clang, signaling the end of the semester’s most grueling obstacle: Winter Exams.

Huaijin stood on the stone steps, her breath blooming in little white clouds. She was eight years old now, a bit taller than the "round ball" she had been two years ago, but her signature pigtails remained.

As she shook her head in excitement, those pigtails danced in the air like two hyperactive squirrels, mimicking the fluttering joy in her chest.

Finally! she thought, adjusting the straps of her backpack, which was still far too large for her, making her look like a turtle in a designer shell. Exams are done.

"No more pretending I don’t know the answer to "If Timmy has five apples..." No more hiding my chestnuts under the table to eat in the middle of class! It’s officially time for Winter Break!"

As she hopped down the steps, her yellow boots crunching on the frost, Huaijin couldn’t help but look back at the past twenty-four months.

They had been, in her professional executive opinion, the most successful "Turnaround Project" in history.

Two years ago, she was a lonely "extra" in a story that wanted to kill her. Now? She was the secret heartbeat of the Chi family’s younger generation.

Winning over Grandpa Chi had been her masterstroke. Over the past two years, the Chairman had gone from seeing her as a "curiosity" to seeing her as his "Little Advisor."

They had a weekly tea session, no parents allowed, where Huaijin would talk about "childish things" that somehow always ended up being sharp insights into human nature or business ethics.

Of course, this hadn’t made her popular with the "Other Elders." Uncle Yuantian and the aunts still looked at her like she was a virus in their perfect system.

They whispered about how Yuanfeng’s "wild daughter" was bewitching the Chairman. But every time they tried to snap at her, they were met with Grandpa Chi’s icy glare.

He had made it clear: Huaijin was his favorite, and anyone who touched her was essentially poking a sleeping lion.

And then there was Yuanfeng. Her daddy was still the "messy genius" of the family. He was still "scouted" by the family elders, meaning they constantly tried to lure him back into corporate life, but he stayed firm.

With Huaijin’s subtle "management," Yuanfeng’s research had flourished. He was happy, he was respected, and most importantly, he was present.

He didn’t have to look for a missing wife or a dying daughter anymore; he just had to make sure Huaijin had enough lemon tarts and science kits.

The biggest change, the one that made Huaijin’s heart do a little somersault of pride, was the transformation of Yuanying and Song.

In her past life, these two were her tormentors. In this life? They were her "Special Task Force."

Yuanying had grown into a graceful, albeit still bossy, ten-year-old. The "Villainess" path had been completely bulldozed. Instead of being jealous of other girls, Yuanying had become Huaijin’s self-appointed manager.

"Huaijin!" a voice called out from a sleek black car waiting at the curb.

Yuanying leaned out the window, her hair perfectly coiffed, wearing a coat that looked like it belonged on a Parisian runway.