Su Ruanruan looked displeased.

“Miss, you could clearly testify for me. Why make things so complicated?”

“Do I owe you something? Am I obligated to help you?”

Lin Yao rolled her eyes and crossed her arms. Her presence was even more imposing than Su Ruanruan’s, and at a glance she looked like someone not to be messed with.

Su Ruanruan was the type who bullied the weak and feared the strong. She wanted to argue further, but the railway security officer forcibly escorted her away.

The middle-aged man was even more eager than she was to leave—clearly hoping to squeeze compensation money out of her.

Once they were gone, the air in the carriage finally seemed to flow again.

Passengers found their seats, and the previously crowded compartment quickly returned to normal without causing any dangerous jostling or trampling.

Lin Yao pulled Yuan Bao into her arms and opened her military canteen, feeding him a sip of warm water.

“Yuan Bao, are you sleepy? Want to take a nap?”

“No, Mom. It’s my first time riding a train! There are so many people!”

Everything about the train fascinated Yuan Bao. One moment he was curiously observing the passengers, the next he was gazing out the window at the fields and mountains rushing backward.

Seeing that he was full of energy, Lin Yao didn’t restrain him.

Instead, she closed her eyes and entered her spiritual spring space with her consciousness. There, she planted all the grain and vegetable seeds she had brought from the village across every patch of fertile black soil.

She didn’t know how much time had passed.

Then Su Ruanruan returned.

The innocent, bright look she had worn when she first boarded was gone. Her face was now clouded with frustration, clearly indicating she had suffered a loss during the private settlement of the dispute.

When she saw Lin Yao resting with her eyes closed and Yuan Bao happily entertaining himself, her irritation grew even stronger.

Then Yuan Bao accidentally kicked her foot.

She jerked her leg back and suppressed her anger.

“Miss, your son just kicked my foot.”

Hearing her voice, Lin Yao opened her eyes and looked at Yuan Bao.

“Mom, I accidentally bumped into Auntie.”

“Stand up and apologize to Auntie.”

Lin Yao rubbed his head.

Yuan Bao was a good child. Although Su Ruanruan’s gaze made him uncomfortable, he still obediently apologized.

“Auntie, I’m sorry. I accidentally bumped into you. I won’t do it again.”

Upon hearing his name, Su Ruanruan’s expression changed slightly.

“Yuan Bao? Do you happen to have an older brother named Le Bao?”

The moment Le Bao’s name was mentioned, every alarm bell in Lin Yao’s mind went off.

She immediately focused on Su Ruanruan, catching the surprise and confusion in her eyes.

It looked as though she knew both children.

“Yes. I have another son named Le Bao. Miss, what’s your name? How do you know my children?”

Lin Yao probed casually.

Su Ruanruan looked even more shocked.

Even without paying special attention, Lin Yao noticed it.

“You… hello. My name is Su Ruanruan. You can just call me Ruanruan.”

She forced out a smile.

“I was only guessing. What a coincidence that your children really have those names.”

Su Ruanruan…

Lin Yao instantly realized who she was.

This was actually the female protagonist who would eventually marry Qin Shishen and become Le Bao’s stepmother.

Lin Yao knew from the novel that Su Ruanruan was a transmigrator.

She had read a novel called Married for Two Years Without Returning Home: The Military Compound’s Beloved Wife and then somehow transmigrated into that very story.

According to the novel, after arriving in the book world, Su Ruanruan wanted to earn money and loved children. She therefore became the nanny hired by the story’s great villain, Qin Shishen, to care for Le Bao, who had developed psychological issues after being abused by his previous nanny.

At first, she feared Qin Shishen would harm her.

But as she cared for Le Bao and spent more time with Qin Shishen, the two gradually developed feelings for each other.

Then, after Lin Yao—the original wife—died, Qin Shishen became single, and the two naturally married.

The novel portrayed their relationship as warm and healing.

Su Ruanruan became the light in the hearts of both the adult and child villains.

And after saving them, she naturally went on to confront and defeat the novel’s original heroine, Song Lianlian—a reborn protagonist.

In short, if Lin Yao hadn’t been the tragic original wife destined to die early, both Su Ruanruan’s and Song Lianlian’s stories would have seemed quite happy.

Unfortunately…

Lin Yao happened to be the cannon-fodder villainess whose sole purpose was to highlight Su Ruanruan’s kindness.

Naturally, she had no good ending.

“Hello. I’m Lin Yao.”

Lin Yao calmly introduced herself.

She was very curious whether Su Ruanruan knew of her existence as the villain’s original wife.

Su Ruanruan’s pupils contracted.

Though she concealed it quickly, Lin Yao still noticed.

So the novel Su Ruanruan had read really had mentioned this cannon-fodder character.

That made Lin Yao wonder:

Now that she hadn’t died, would Su Ruanruan still fall in love with Qin Shishen?

After all, if Lin Yao remained alive, Su Ruanruan would become a homewrecker.

In this era, becoming a third party in someone else’s marriage required considerable courage.

Whether in a workplace or a village, once exposed, the consequences ranged from social disgrace to losing one’s secure government job.

“Y-you… hello.”

Su Ruanruan studied Lin Yao several times, her heart filled with shock.

Wasn’t Yuan Bao supposed to have drowned by now because of his vicious mother’s negligence?

And wasn’t his mother about to become a murderer responsible for a shocking nationwide poisoning case involving a packet of rat poison that wiped out an entire family?

Yet Yuan Bao was alive.

And Lin Yao had already left the village.

Where is she going?

“Comrade Lin Yao, are you taking your child on a long journey?”

Su Ruanruan asked.

“I’m heading to City A to visit relatives. I wonder if we’re traveling in the same direction.”

Lin Yao could tell she was fishing for information.

Smiling slightly, she deliberately replied,

“I’m taking Yuan Bao to find my husband. He’s a high-ranking officer in the army. Life in the countryside is too hard, so I’m going to enjoy a better life.”

Su Ruanruan was momentarily speechless at how unapologetically she said it.

Suspicion filled her eyes.

“Comrade Lin Yao, the country is encouraging women to hold up half the sky. Isn’t it inappropriate to live off a man like that?”

“A parasite?”

Lin Yao raised an eyebrow.

“I spend my husband’s money while taking care of our children and running the household. Isn’t that perfectly normal?”

She deliberately acted like a shallow, stereotypical opportunist.

The contempt in Su Ruanruan’s eyes was impossible to hide.

As expected, the villain’s original wife really is a vulgar, narrow-minded country woman.

No wonder she could abandon one son and keep hold of the other only to extort money from Qin Shishen.

She’s completely selfish and only cares about herself.

Although Su Ruanruan couldn’t understand why Lin Yao was still alive, she genuinely sympathized with Qin Shishen and Le Bao.

Compared to the novel’s male lead, she had always found the villain Qin Shishen more attractive.

He was wealthy, powerful, mature, and steady—the ideal guiding partner.

Yet because he had been betrayed by his vicious wife and could never obtain the love he wanted from Song Lian, his psychology gradually twisted, making him increasingly obsessive.

Eventually, he committed crimes and died in prison.

Wasn’t a good life enough?

The villain had money, status, and a comfortable life.

If it were her, she would never have harmed Qin Shishen or Le Bao.

Those were blessings she could never even have dreamed of before transmigrating.

“Hehe, Comrade Lin Yao, you’re right.”

Su Ruanruan forced a fake smile and humored her.

From the looks of it, even though the plot had changed somewhat and the villainous original wife hadn’t died, her rotten nature remained the same.

Su Ruanruan resolved to find a way to warn Qin Shishen and Le Bao.

No matter what, she couldn’t allow them to continue being bullied by Lin Yao.