Lin Xu had a car accident.
A large truck ran a red light and collided severely with her sedan, flipping the car. The steel pipes from the truck fell, piercing her body. Before the pain could spread, she lost consciousness.
Then, a flood of images filled her mind, and Lin Xu realized she was in a world that belonged to a novel. Her two sons were villains from the story, and her daughter was just a supporting character, doomed to be a tragic foil.
After her and her husband's deaths, the three children had to rely on each other. But without guidance, the two sons grew more twisted. One became a perverted villain who liked to imprison the novel's heroine and engage in dark, sadistic games. The other, a villain who frequently extracted blood or harvested organs from stand-ins to please his "white moonlight" — the heroine of the story.
Her only daughter, starved for love in her childhood, grew up to be hopelessly infatuated with the male lead, sabotaging the heroine's life and becoming another tragic figure in the narrative.
Because they opposed the novel's male and female leads, it didn't take long before the two villainous sons were caught and spent their lives in prison. The tragic daughter, schemed against by the male lead, took over the family business, only to eventually fall into despair and plummet off a cliff.
"Watch out!"
Lin Xu suddenly sat up, gasping for air, her chest rising and falling violently.
The image of her daughter falling off the cliff lingered in her mind. She pounded her chest, only to realize the deep wound caused by the steel pipe in the accident was gone. Not only that, but all other injuries had disappeared.
She paused, confused, and before she could make sense of it, she heard a loud shout.
"Ji Tingyang, I don't like you. Let me go."
The man's sharp voice contained anger. "I told you, no way! Butler, take her back to her room!"
Lin Xu followed the voice into the room, where she saw a man angrily throwing objects to the floor, shattering cups and plates.
She carefully uttered a name: "Ji Tingyang?"
Ji Tingyang turned, his brow furrowed in displeasure. "Who are you, and how did you get in here?"
His familiar eyes and face made Lin Xu's heart skip a beat. "I am your mother."
"Say that again?" Ji Tingyang's eyes turned icy, his clear voice suppressing fury.
Lin Xu wasn't intimidated. "I said, I am your mother."
A cold, murderous aura emanated from Ji Tingyang as his frosty gaze pierced her like a blade. "How dare you joke about being my mother? You're asking for death!"
His mother had died twenty years ago, and even if she were alive, she would be in her forties or fifties by now. But this woman looked no older than her twenties.
"I'm not joking. I'm serious. When you were five, you still wet the bed. At six, you loved Ultraman. At seven, you drank milk like a child," Lin Xu recounted with precision, as if she knew every detail of his life.
Veins popped on Ji Tingyang's forehead, his teeth grinding in anger. "Did you hire someone to investigate me?"
"No need to investigate. I've already told you, I'm your mother," Lin Xu retorted, frustrated by his stubbornness. He had been so sweet and trusting when he was young, yet now he was so defiant.
Lin Xu thought for a moment and softly added, "You still have a red mole on your bottom. You can at least recognize that, right?"
Ji Tingyang's expression darkened further. He stepped forward, grabbing her wrist so tightly it made her wince in pain. "Is there someone else in this house? Who is it? Speak!"
"How can you be so stubborn? I've told you, I'm Lin Xu, your mother! After the car accident, I woke up here, completely confused, trying to talk to you, but you won't listen," Lin Xu fumed, swatting him on the shoulder while scolding him.
The familiar tone and slap stunned Ji Tingyang for a moment, as memories of a time over twenty years ago when he had ruined his mother's dress resurfaced. When she was angry, she would slap him like this.
Could it really be his mother?
"If you still don't believe me, then let's do a DNA test," Lin Xu suggested, tired of these cryptic exchanges.
Ji Tingyang had originally planned to throw her out of the Ji family, but her face — so like his mother's — and her mannerisms caused him to hesitate.
Finally, he called for a doctor to take her blood for testing, though the results would take until the next day.
"You..." Ji Tingyang glanced at Lin Xu, unsure of what to make of her.
Lin Xu ignored his confusion and asked, "Where are my younger brother and sister? Why haven't I seen them?"
Ji Tingyang furrowed his brow. "You want to know their whereabouts? I'll tell you, they..."
Before he could finish, Lin Xu slapped him again.
Ji Tingyang's anger surged, and he glared at Lin Xu, ready to curse, but upon seeing her familiar face, he held back. Reluctantly, he answered, "They don't come home often. They don't live here."
Once the DNA test results come back, if this woman was lying, he would make her regret it.
Lin Xu's long, willow-like brows furrowed, her expression subtly pained. "Is your relationship with them not good?"
Otherwise, how could the three siblings not live together?
Ji Tingyang paused, falling silent.
Lin Xu wanted to ask more about them, but seeing his sour expression, she swallowed her questions.
"Forget it, I'll ask next time."
"Is my old room still here? Where should I sleep tonight?" Lin Xu looked around, noticing that the house had changed little, most of it still resembling the way it was.
"Sleep in the guest room," Ji Tingyang replied coldly.
Lin Xu's lips parted as if to speak, but when her gaze met his uncompromising eyes, she simply said, "Alright."
Ji Tingyang hadn't lowered his guard, so it was normal for him not to let her stay in the master bedroom.
Lin Xu had taken in so much information today that her head felt dizzy. She told Ji Tingyang she was going upstairs, then made her way to the guest room with ease and fell asleep.
She slept soundly through the night.
Lin Xu awoke the next morning, her surroundings strangely familiar yet unfamiliar. It dawned on her that she had truly been reborn.
She took a while to come to terms with it, then opened the door, ready to find something to eat, only to see Ji Tingyang standing in front of her door.
He was holding an A4 sheet of paper and staring blankly at the contents, disbelief written all over his face.
Lin Xu glanced at the paper, her mind quickly processing. "The results are in?"
Ji Tingyang looked up, his expression complicated.
Seeing his reaction, Lin Xu didn't need to ask to know the result.
She considered whether she should give him a warm, long-awaited motherly hug, but before she could decide, there was a loud crash from the room at the end of the hall.
The housekeeper rushed out in a panic, stopping short when she saw Ji Tingyang in the hallway. After a moment's hesitation, she approached and said, "Young Master, Miss Wen threw all the breakfast away."
Lin Xu's eyelids twitched as she remembered the heroine of the novel, locked away in a small room.