"Hurry up! Your pigtails are lopsided! How can you walk around looking so... so disorganised? It reflects poorly on my reputation as your stylist!"

Huaijin giggled, running toward the car. In the past, those words would have been a jab. Now, they were just Yuanying’s way of saying, I care about you, so get in the warm car.

Over the last two years, Yuanying had shared every doll, every makeup kit, and every secret with Huaijin. She had learned that being loved by her cousin was much more fun than being feared by her classmates.

And then there was Chi Song.

The eldest grandson was now twelve, standing tall and broad-shouldered. The "Robot" had been replaced by a boy who was still serious, yes, but no longer cold.

He was currently sitting in the car next to Yuanying, a thick textbook in his lap, but his eyes were fixed on the school doors until he saw Huaijin.

As she scrambled into the back seat between them, Song didn’t say anything. He just reached over and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear.

"Did you finish the math section?" he asked, his voice a calm, deep rumble.

"I crushed it, Brother Song!" Huaijin declared, throwing her arms up. "I think the numbers were scared of me!"

Song gave a rare, genuine smile, the kind that would have sent his father, Chi Yuantian, into a state of shock. "Good. If you’re top of the class again, Grandpa says we can go to the Northern Mountains for the snow festival."

Huaijin’s eyes widened. "Snow festival? With the giant ice slides and the hot cocoa vats?"

"And the fireworks," Song added.

Huaijin felt a wave of peace so thick she could almost taste it. This was the family she had dreamed of. A brother who protected her, a sister who styled her, even when she didn’t want it, and a life that didn’t feel like a ticking time bomb. 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Of course, no life is perfect. Especially not when the Main Plot keeps trying to poke its nose where it doesn’t belong.

As the car pulled away from the school, Huaijin saw a familiar figure standing under the school’s clock tower.

Song Jue.

Over the last two years, the Male Lead had become a persistent shadow. He was ten now, and according to every girl in the third and fourth grades, he was "the most handsome prince in the world."

To Huaijin, he was just "The Pest."

Song Jue had developed a strange, irritating habit of watching her. He didn’t follow the original plot of falling for the female lead, Liang Lingzhi. No, he spent all his time trying to "figure out" Huaijin.

’Why does he have to be so nosy?’ Huaijin thought, pressing her face against the cold window glass.

In school, he’d "accidentally" sit at her lunch table. He’d "accidentally" be in the same library aisle. He’d "accidentally" walk the same way to the gate.

He treated her like a puzzle he couldn’t solve, and his intense, brooding stares were starting to get embarrassing.

’Kids should have privacy!’ she fumed. ’I am trying to guide Yuanying away from her ’Mean Girl’ fate, and this guy is hovering over me like a suspicious cloud! Go find a hobby, Song Jue! Go build a robot or something!’

Even today, after the exams, he had tried to hand her a "Study Guide" he had written. She had looked at it, realized it was all stuff she had known since her previous life’s college days, and given him a "pity smile" before handing it back.

The look of frustration on his face was the only thing that made her exams even better.

"Huaijin? You’re staring into space again," Yuanying said, poking her shoulder. "Are you thinking about what to wear for the snow festival? I was thinking of matching white furs. We could look like two little polar bears!"

"Polar bears!" Huaijin cheered. "And we can make a snow-castle! A big one with a moat made of ice!"

"I’ll handle the structural integrity," Song piped up, looking up from his book. "If we’re building a castle, it needs to be able to withstand a snowball siege from the cousins."

Huaijin looked at them, really looked at them. Two years ago, Song wouldn’t have known what a "snowball siege" was, and Yuanying would have been too worried about her coat to touch a snowflake.

She had done it. She had changed them.

The "Main Story" was still out there, lurking in the future, but it felt smaller now. Less scary. How could a "Plot" stand a chance against a girl with pigtails, a protective "Robot" brother, a "Tsundere" sister, and a Grandpa who owned half the city?

As the car turned into the long, snow-dusted driveway of the Manor, Huaijin saw the warm yellow lights glowing in the windows.

She saw the "Rattler" parked out front, which meant Daddy was already there, probably arguing with the butler about the best way to roast a turkey.

Luo Ming would be there too, with a secret stash of winter-exclusive peppermint chocolates that he would only give to her.

Huaijin unbuckled her seatbelt before the car even fully stopped.

"Peaceful life," she whispered to herself, a mischievous glint in her eyes. "But also... a very, very busy one."

She had exams to forget, snowmen to build, a Snake Woman to keep an eye on, and a Male Lead to continue ignoring.

She hopped out of the car, her pigtails dancing one last time as she ran toward the front door. The winter air was cold, but inside the Chi family home, for the first time in two lifetimes, it was finally, truly warm.

.

.

.

The winter wind rattled the windowpanes of the modest apartment, but inside, the air was thick with the scent of simmering cocoa and the frantic energy of an eight-year-old preparing for an expedition.

Huaijin was currently "packing", which mostly involved her moving piles of sweaters from the bed to her suitcase, then back to the bed because she decided the pink ones "clashed with the snow."

Watching her from the small wooden kitchen table, Yuanfeng sat with a lukewarm cup of tea and a heart that was currently undergoing a complex chemical reaction: part liquid gold, part green-eyed monster.

To the rest of the world, and even to the lower-level members of the Chi family, Yuanfeng was the "failed" son.

He was the "poor little scholar" who lived in a cramped flat, drove a car that sounded like a tractor having a panic attack, and spent his days obsessing over physics equations.

But as Yuanfeng adjusted his glasses, his eyes flickered toward a hidden laptop screen beneath a stack of Huaijin’s drawings.

A single notification blinked: [CHRONOS CORP: Quarterly Net Profit Targets Exceeded by 412%.]

The Chronos Corporation was the ghost of the business world. In just two years, it had surged from a startup to a global titan, dominating the high-tech agricultural and green energy markets.

Every major conglomerate in the country, including the main Chi Group, had tried to plant spies within its ranks. They had tried hacking, bribery, and honey-traps to find out who the "Main Figure" was.

They found nothing.

Yuanfeng had designed the company’s security architecture like a black hole; information went in, but nothing ever came out.

He was the invisible hand, the shadow monarch who could buy a mountain with a single click of his mouse.

And why? Why did a man who loved the quiet of a laboratory build a global empire?

He looked at Huaijin, who was currently trying to fit a giant stuffed dragon into her backpack.

For her, he thought. Because a "Poor Scholar" can give her a happy childhood, but a "Shadow Emperor" can give her a world where no one can ever touch her again.

The profit from the latest Chronos harvest meant that her "Future Fund" was now large enough to buy a small country. It was the only thing that fueled his determination. Every cent earned was another brick in the fortress he was building around her.

As soon as he heard Huaijin’s boots thumping toward the kitchen, Yuanfeng slammed the laptop shut and threw a tea towel over it. He instantly slumped his shoulders, adopting his "tired academic" posture.

"Papa! Papa! Look!" Huaijin skidded into the kitchen, holding up a pair of bright red mittens. "Song said the snow on the North Mountain is so deep you can bury a whole car in it! Can we bury The Rattler? Please?"