Gu Jiaojiao: "…"
'Should I tell this kind lady that I was actually thrown out of bed by that little punk?'
While she was still considering it, a young woman's fiery voice burst in from the doorway.
"Gu Jiaojiao, did you fall because you were trying to run away? Your Sheng Family is full of heartless people.
Forcing a sickly weakling like you onto my brother… My brother is paralyzed from the waist down, how could he possibly have hooked up with you?
It was obviously a trap set by your Sheng Family! Is there any justice left in this world?"
Gu Jiaojiao followed the voice and saw a girl in a red top and yellow shorts.
It was a classic "scrambled eggs with tomato" getup that had a very dated look.
"Chun Ni, is that any way to talk about your sister-in-law's family? Hurry up and get a basin of hot water for your sister-in-law to wash her face."
"Ma, how can you call the Sheng Family her family? The moment their biological daughter, Sheng Xinglian, came back...
...this sickly weakling Gu Jiaojiao became an outsider. She's been in a coma for two days and two nights. Who from the Sheng Family has come to see her?"
Gu Jiaojiao: "…"
Usually silver-tongued, she now felt at a complete loss for words, unsure how to retort against this seemingly arrogant girl.
"Chun Ni, hurry and get the hot water. And tell your dad to bring over a bowl of hot congee."
"What does she need hot congee for? She's getting several bottles of glucose pumped into her every day. It's draining our family's savings…"
The girl grumbled under her breath as she walked away.
"Jiaojiao, don't mind her. Chun Ni doesn't mean any harm. She's just angry about how the people in the compound treated you the other day."
Su's mother gently combed through Gu Jiaojiao's tangled hair with her rough hands.
Listening to the Su mother and daughter, Gu Jiaojiao went from complete confusion to gradual understanding.
At the same time, the memories that didn't belong to her were becoming clearer in her mind.
The original owner of this body had been forced to marry a disabled man from the compound. She was already resentful, and on her wedding day, she was subjected to the gossip and pointing fingers of many of the local women.
Some of the young wives, who had always been jealous of her, were especially shameless, gossiping openly right in front of her.
"Who would have thought? The eldest daughter of the Sheng Family, once the envy of everyone in Qing City, turned out to be a fake heiress who'd usurped the real one's place."
"Not only has she been knocked off her pedestal, but she even viciously schemed against the real heiress, Sheng Xinglian."
"The ungrateful wretch not only failed, but by a twist of fate, she ended up married to the paraplegic Su Shuochi. It's true karma."
"Talk about a plan backfiring. If you ask me, a fake heiress deserves nothing more than a coarse country bumpkin for a husband—and a paraplegic one at that, hahaha…"
"…"
The original owner had sworn she wouldn't go through with the wedding ceremony with her disabled husband, but her second and third brothers—who had doted on her for eighteen years—forced her to do it.
Seething with indignation, the original Gu Jiaojiao didn't dare to talk back to the malicious gossipers, nor did she dare to resist her two brothers, who shared no blood with her.
Instead, she unleashed all her viciousness on the Su Family, publicly cursing them out during the wedding ceremony.
This turned the Su family, who were originally from the countryside, into the laughingstock of the entire compound.
'And just now, Su's mother was still so gentle and kind to her?!'
Gu Jiaojiao was so embarrassed she felt her toes could have carved out a three-bedroom apartment on the spot.
'The original owner was actually in a coma for two days and two nights. No wonder I feel so weak, like I could drop dead at any moment!'
It was only then that Gu Jiaojiao fully understood. She hadn't just transmigrated into the body of someone also named Gu Jiaojiao.
She had transmigrated into a heart-wrenching rebirth romance novel set in a past era.
Gu Jiaojiao wanted to facepalm but lacked the strength. She could only let out a long, faint sigh. 'What kind of mess is this…'
In every rebirth novel, there's always that one unreasonable cannon fodder character whom everyone despises, wrinkling their brows in disgust at the mere mention of their name.
Unfortunately, she was now that despised cannon fodder.
The fake heiress, pampered by the Sheng Family for eighteen years, lived a wretched life and died a miserable death after being exposed as not being their biological daughter.
In the book, after the real heiress returned, the Sheng Family didn't kick out the fake one. Instead, they raised them both.
When the original Gu Jiaojiao learned she was the fake heiress, she was terrified of losing her childhood sweetheart, Song Zijin, who had a marriage pact with the Sheng family's daughter.
So she viciously plotted to force the real heiress and the disabled Su Shuochi into an irreversible situation.
Unfortunately, her malicious scheme was seen through by the reborn female lead, who decided to beat her at her own game.
She turned the tables, setting up the original Gu Jiaojiao with the injured and paraplegic Su Shuochi.
Unable to defend herself, the original Gu Jiaojiao had no choice but to marry the disabled supporting character. Readers found this incredibly satisfying.
The ungrateful, villainous supporting female character deserved to be married off to a cripple and live out the rest of her long, miserable life.
No one questioned the author's decision to make them an "official couple," and five-star reviews flooded in.
Only Gu Jiaojiao herself, upon seeing the tragic supporting character who shared her name,
had timidly asked in the comments section, 'How could a supporting female character who grew up pampered in a wealthy family possibly be strong enough to move the disabled male supporting character?'
A few kind readers had replied, 'Just enjoy the drama, don't worry about the details.'
Because the plot was just that satisfying. The male lead thought his childhood sweetheart, the fake heiress, was utterly vicious for trying to frame the real one.
After the original Gu Jiaojiao married the cripple, the male lead began to desperately pursue the female lead. He admired the real heiress's talent.
He loved her vibrant energy even more, so he went around telling everyone that his marriage pact had always been with the real heiress.
But the female lead kept running away, saying he was her "sister's" childhood sweetheart and should be with her.
With one running and the other desperately chasing, the leads of this angsty romance soon got together in sweet bliss.
They even had a son and a daughter, living a life so happy it would make an Immortal envious. It truly was an incredibly sweet and doting love story.
Now, however, Gu Jiaojiao had become the number one cannon fodder in this fictional world, and her mood was anything but beautiful.
What a headache.
Especially since the author had spent tens of thousands of words focusing on the original Gu Jiaojiao and her cannon fodder husband.
Su Shuochi wasn't the son of some wealthy, prestigious family. He was a country bumpkin with muddy legs who had earned his place in the compound through his own abilities.
Before Su Shuochi was injured, his parents and two younger sisters were all farmers back in the countryside.
After his injury, his older sister had already married someone in their village, so his parents brought his younger sister to the compound to take care of him.
After his accident, the "organization" arranged jobs for his parents, and he received a monthly stipend and a disability pension.
Even with him being paraplegic, the Su family wouldn't have lived a hard life.
But Su Shuochi, who had never planned on getting married, was taken advantage of by "Gu Jiaojiao," who became his legitimate wife.
In order to help him keep this wife, the Su Family handed over all their money and valuables to the original Gu Jiaojiao, bit by bit.
They gave her complete control over their finances, but the original Gu Jiaojiao was just plain stupid.
She felt she had wronged the real Sheng heiress by usurping her eighteen years of wealthy living.
Full of pride and overestimating her own abilities, she tried to compensate the female lead by taking the Su family's money and treasures and brazenly giving them to Sheng Xinglian to curry favor.
The original Gu Jiaojiao was just that much of a drama queen, managing to anger Mr. Su and Su's mother to their literal deaths through her own actions.
After their parents died, the two Su sisters also cut off all ties with the couple.
With no one left to control her, she became even more shameless, giving her husband's life-saving money and valuables to Sheng Xinglian.