Chapter 4: Bullying My Student? Get Out!

"Filming? Hah." Lian Youyou regarded Qu Wuyan, who was anxiously rummaging through her handbag for a compact mirror, checking her reflection from every angle, and let out a scornful laugh. "With people as depraved and heartless as you two, you actually have the nerve to act for others to see. You might lack talent on screen, but your performance in real life is truly outstanding!"

If not for her—Lian Meng—how could Qu Wuyan have amounted to anything? A plain-looking bit part actress, if Lian Meng hadn’t been so naïve and easily deceived, believing in her feigned sincerity and putting in a few good words to the director, letting her play a maid in her own scenes for a handful of extra shots, when would she ever have gotten her official start?

It was her own fault for failing to see through her, thinking Qu Wuyan only wanted to make something of herself in show business, never imagining she wanted not just a reputation, but even her very life.

"Lian Youyou, you’re getting more insolent by the day! Watch how I clean house today!" Fan Chi rolled up his sleeves, threatening to strike Lian Youyou. Lian Meng shrank back in fright, but before Fan Chi’s fist could fall, Professor Lu Ming caught his wrist in a firm grip.

"It seems the emotions of you two guardians are rather unstable. I suggest you leave for now," Lu Ming said coldly, lifting his gaze. "Whatever your relation to her, I will not allow my student to be bullied—not even by her parents."

His voice was not loud, yet it carried an unassailable authority.

Qu Wuyan bristled, about to retort, but Fan Chi pulled her back. Though this Lu Ming was only a professor, it had taken no small effort to get Lian Youyou sent to this school and thus out of their hair; if she got expelled, it would only be more trouble for them.

With that, the two who had come to make a scene turned on their heels and strode away, wanting nothing more to do with Lian Youyou.

Once the troublesome couple had been sent off, Lu Ming paid Lian Meng’s medical fees, repeatedly checked with the doctor to confirm that aside from a few scrapes, she had suffered no other injuries, and then took her from the hospital.

While Lu Ming was at the payment counter, Lian Meng stood transfixed before a large LCD screen in the hospital lobby.

The time displayed in the lower right corner read 2020. Yet she had died in the late nineties.

So this was an era more than twenty years in the future. No wonder Fan Chi and Qu Wuyan seemed so much older.

She looked around at the clothing of the people nearby—so many styles, such varied designs, utterly unlike the fashions of her own day.

Her gaze shifted to the payment counter, where Lu Ming stood in line. Everyone was fiddling with small, rectangular devices—presumably mobile phones. They were so much thinner than what she’d once used, and seemingly lacked number keys. Were these truly phones, or some new invention? And no one paid with cash: a simple gesture with these buttonless phones was all it took to complete a transaction.

It seemed the changes in the past twenty years had been so swift, she could scarcely take them in.

"Lian Youyou, let’s go. I’ll take you back to school." Lu Ming approached her, having finished the payment.

He led her toward the parking lot. With his height and long legs, Lian Meng had to half jog to keep up.

Alas, this body was rather short—barely above one-sixty centimeters. If this really was her daughter’s body, then her daughter must have inherited her height from Fan Chi, who was only one-seventy-four himself.

But now she had taken over her daughter Youyou’s body. So where had Youyou herself gone?