Chapter 2: Running Into Someone Familiar

Whether it was Su Ran herself, or "Su Ran" the original owner, neither one of them were familiar with this son. Nonetheless, now that Su Ran had taken over the body and knowing what was going to happen in the future, she couldn't possibly pretend she didn't know anything and let a perfectly fine young man of the country turn to the dark side.

Without Su Ran being there, the story arc of "witnessing the mother dying from insults" would not take place, but the banquet was still going to happen. If it wasn't the death of "Su Ran", there would be other "highlights" performed by other workers. What if witnessing that still laid a seed in Su Han's heart that would pave the path of him becoming a twisted individual?

Su Ran wanted to take her son away before the start of the "special event".

Granted, according to the inertia of the novel, there was a chance that the villain boss of the book would still turn dark for whatever reasons in the next 10 years….

Back to the current time, the taxi driver was surprised by Su Ran's words.

The girl looked about the same age as his own daughter, but she already has a child? And, judging from her words, the kid was not that young either.

He thought to himself that perhaps this girl was some tutor or nanny for some wealthy family.

The more he thought about it, the more he thought that must be pretty close to the truth. As such, he didn't say much more to Su Ran for the rest of their way there.

"Miss, we are here. This is as far as I can go. I will have to let you out here," said the taxi driver as he parked outside the main gate of Dongshan Court.

"Okay, that works."

After she got out of the car, Su Ran started walking toward the booth by the entrance gate.

"This is private property. Can I help you?"

Naturally, she was stopped by the security guard.

"I'm going home." Su Ran purposefully put on a very unhappy look as she talked.

Then, before the security guard could say anything else, Su Ran typed in a series of numbers on the screen next to her.

[BEEP --- Welcome home.]

And the gate opened on its own.

What else could the security guard possibly say?

He wasn't blind. He saw the code that she had entered belonged to one of the very important residents there. And, it was the code that only the residents themselves would know, not even their close friends or families.

He thought she looked somewhat familiar. Was she a resident here that had some mishap tonight?

Ahem. As a professional security guard, he would not pry into the resident's personal lives.

***

On the other hand, Su Ran had already arrived at the center mansion part following the original owner's memory.

Almost sixty percent of the wealthy live in Dongshan Court, including the Su's. This was where "Su Ran" grew up since she was a little child. Naturally, she couldn't be more familiar with this place.

The first two years after the original owner was banished from the Su's, she'd still return from time to time to beg for forgiveness. Except she was never let in.

If the original owner hadn't disappeared for almost ten years and the security guards hadn't gone through a few batches, she probably wouldn't even be able to get through the gate.

Luckily, Su Ran only had the original owner's memories, not her feelings.

Looking at one of the tallest mansions in the center area, Su Ran turned away emotionlessly before heading toward another one on the left-hand side.

The Gu's, whether it was then or now, was still a place that Su Ran wanted to avoid.

Thinking about her instant son, who was already inside, Su Ran scratched her head with a headache coming on. She lowered her head and picked up her speed marching forward. Naturally, she did not notice the look coming from inside of a car behind her.

When she arrived at the Gu's front door, Su Ran was stopped by the Gu's servants.

"I'm here to work. I'm with Hong-jie," said Su Ran as she lowered her head.

Hong-jie was pretty well known in the pimp circle within City Bei. As soon as the servant heard the name "Hong-jie", they immediately knew what kind of profession she was in.

"Just leave your purse here by the door. Followed me in from the backdoor."

"Okay."

The only items in Su Ran's purse was a cheap lipstick and a cellphone that was worth 1,000 yuan. It made no difference to her whether she has them with her or not.

After she had dropped off her purse, she followed the servant and entered into the Gu's house from the back.

She didn't stay and wait for the servant's "arrangement". After the servant walked away, Su Ran quickly walked to the front room.

It seemed like the banquet had just started.

There were a lot of guests today. Many of them the original owner had known in the past. They were spoiled rich kids ten years ago, and now they were animals wearing human clothes ten years later. Hong-jie and her gang were entertaining among the guests. In addition to them, there were also some stars and students from acting schools mixed in.

Su Ran was able to quickly locate Su Han amidst all the young people.

The 13~14-year-old child was the shortest one when standing in the crowd, but his handsome face made him stand out. Even though he was not yet an adult, one could tell that he would become a very handsome man in the future.

Su Han's eyes and the shape of his nose greatly resemble that of the original owner. As for the other features, it probably resembled one of the men in the incident back in the days?

The original "Su Ran" was only 15 ~ 16 years old when she was banished by her family. She spent the remaining money left to her by her parents before they passed away to hire some people and wanted to deal the last blow to the female lead, who was at the time helping the male lead in negotiating a business deal at a hotel. In the end, everything backfired onto her.

Ergo, Su Han, was the byproduct of the original Su Ran's own evil plan on her way out. As for his obstinate and unyielding aura, and his calmness and coldness that could give others the chill, she had no idea who that came from.

Not some bad guys, I hope….

Su Ran grumbled to herself as she walked in the direction of Su Han.

In a banquet like this, with the exception of some young people there were tricked there, nobody else was all that innocent. When Su Ran showed up in the most commonly-seen outfit anywhere else, she ended up standing out more.

Many had already noticed her as she was making her way over.

As much as she didn't intend to attract so much attention, there were certain benefits when she showed up looking like that there.

Ever since she was banished by her family, "Su Ran" was short of having thick makeup applied even when she was in bed. It wasn't just out of professional necessity. A lot of it was the original owner's personal reasons – she wanted to think that she was able to cover up the scar on her face and she also didn't want anyone recognizing her.

Now that she had showed up here without any makeup on, not even Hong-jie and her gang, who had just saw her a few hours ago, recognized her.

And not just Hong-jie and her gang. Not even the original owner's instant son recognized her.

When he heard the whispering from those in his group, Su Han had also looked up in the direction of SU Ran.

And just like his buddies had said, she was, indeed, a very pretty "older sister".

Except that, the first thing that Su Han had noticed wasn't her pretty face, but the feeling that she stirred up.

For some unknown reasons, Su Han felt that the person seemed very familiar to him. It made him wanted to go over and talk to her. But considering that he didn't really know her, that would just be too abrupt.

"Look, even our Han-ge agrees, right?" The buddies huddled around again.

"You know who our Han-ge is? He was once the prettiest boy in our school! But hey, that girl is really very pretty. Goddess-grade for sure!"

"Should I go ask her for her number?"

"I don't think that will be a good idea. She doesn't look like a casual woman. Maybe she's someone's daughter?"

"That's even better, no? Then I will be able to marry a WRP and reach the apex of my life. Besides, isn't that what Huo-ge said before we came? That we are here to have fun and meet some new friends!"

"Okay, make sense."

"Hey, look. Is big sister walking toward us right now?"

"No way…. Way!"

"Oh crap. Did she fall for my handsome face?!"

"In your dreams! You couldn't have said she was attracted to Han-ge?"

"Oh yeah, maybe…"

"Dang, Han-ge, when did you meet big sister behind our back?"

"You thought too much," said Su Han coldly as he noticed the woman standing right in front of him after he turned back around.

"Su Han."

"!" A flash of surprise crossed Su Han's eyes. He looked up at Su Ran, who was standing in front of him, and asked, "Do I know you?"

Aye, the son didn't recognize his own mother. Was that failure in humanity or morality?

But, this might be a blessing in disguise. If Su Han really recognized her, with their current relationship, it might be even more difficult to take him out of here.

Just when Su Ran was silently counting her blessings and was about to make up some reason and take her instant son away from her, she was interrupted by a man who was exuding a strong smell of alcohol.

"Tsk tsk. Did you come with Xiao Hongmei or Zhou Rou? Are we going with the good woman style today? That's pretty creative," said the man in a flippant tone as he walked in front of Su Ran. He reached out his hand and was about to wrap it around Su Ran and have her drink with him.

The strong smell of alcohol almost made Su Ran puke. She quickly dodged his grubby little paw as she turned and looked at him.

The one look made her froze in place.

Was she unfortunate or was she unfortunate?

Her original intention was a quick trip to get her son to go back home with her. She didn't expect to run into some the original owner knew from a long time ago, and he was the host of this banquet on top of that.

Gu Jiahao, the former Gu's young master, the current Gu's housemaster.

He was four years older than the original "Su Ran" and both of them grew up at the Dongshan Court.

Childhood sweetheart? No ill feelings overnight?

There was no such thing.

The Su's might not be as huge as the Song's, the male lead's family, or the Yi's, the male lead's mother's side, but they were still a sizeable family in City Bei. Relatively speaking, a family who relied on becoming wealthy from restaurant business like the Gu's didn't measure up to them.

From the original owner's perspective, only a man like Song Zeyu, the male lead would be good enough for her.

As for Gu Jiahuo, in the original owner's eyes, not only was his family a few tiers lower than hers, he was also an ignorant fool. He wasn't even good enough to be her servant.

Back in the days, Gu Jiahuo was also one of the original owner's suitors. Was he really into her? Not necessarily. He merely pursued her because he found she prettier than most actresses that he had been with which prompted his evil idea. In addition, it couldn't hurt to marry a family that was higher in status than his, such as the Su's.

In the end, needless to say, he didn't get very far with his plan. Instead, what he got in return was being thoroughly insulted by the original owner.

Alas, even the Yellow River changed its path every thirty or so years, life could be full of drama.

When "Su Ran" was still the Young Miss of the Su's, she was stuck up and spoiled and looked down on everybody around her. She barely had any friends. Later on, when she was pursuing the male lead and setting up the female lead, she had made even more enemies.

After "Su Ran" was banished from her family and slipped so far as to becoming a bargirl, many had rejoiced at the news. And many who have had unpleasant exchanges with Miss Su lined up to spend money to insult her.

And this Gu Jiahao was one of her "regulars".

As time went on, either because these individuals started their careers and gotten married and became more mature, or that they felt that "insulting Su Ran" had became a routine and no longer entertaining, less and less people sought her out and picked on her.

From her memories, the last time she saw this Gu Jiahao was almost five to six years ago.

Looking at the man who was shriveling up at age 30, all Su Ran wanted to say was: bad people aged fast.

"Su Ran", the villainess female supporting character in the original novel might be braindead, but her eyesight was perfect. This Gu Jiahao was a bad person through and through.

In the extra chapter, "Su Ran" died at this banquet. Whether that has anything to do with Gu Jiahao, she didn't know, but right now, she just wanted to turn over this page uneventfully and not be recognized by him.

Unfortunately, that would just be too good to be true.

After staring at this rude bargirl for a while, Gu Jiahao's eyes widened all of a sudden, and he snickered devilishly.

"HAR HAR HAR. And I was just wondering about who was this impolite wh*re. Is this not our Young Miss Su Ran? Oh, I mean, the once Young Miss Su Ran.

"What? Did you think I have forgotten about you after just a few years?" Seeing a flash of surprise in her eyes, he continued to mock her, "I will never forget the pretty face of Young Miss Su Ran.

"Too bad you're scarred" said Gu Jiahao as he stared at the scar on her forehead.

Come to think about it, he was one of them who helped make it happen.

"Well, well, well. You hadn't changed much over all these years. Wait, that couldn't be true. I gathered business had been slow for you? It's been a few years, you are no spring chick anymore…"

Gu Jiahao was not holding back at all in insulting Su Ran, but the way he looked at her was filled with greed.

His deep hatred for her was only part of the reason that he recognized her; the other part was because now that she had no makeup on, she looked exactly the same as that once stuck up Young Miss Su Ran.

Back in the days, he had been crazy over that face. He didn't think the same face was still very attractive to him even after so many years.

Perhaps even more so than it was before.

For some reason that he couldn't put his fingers on, the Su Ran in front of him gave him an odd feeling.

She didn't have the weathered look after all these years in the red-light district. She had on the cheapest of all clothes, yet she still managed to look elegant.

Time seemed to have no effect on her at all except for looking more mature. Plus, the Su Ran right now didn't have the same cunning and twisted look that she once had back in the nightclub. What she exuded was calmness and a nonchalant indifference.

If he wasn't so certain that this was for sure Su Ran, and if he didn't know that this wench's life was the lowest of all over the years, he would think that Su Ran was never banished from her family. Instead, he might have assumed she had married into the Song's and had been a rich man's wife the last few years.

He stopped going to pick on "Su Ran" because the thrill was gone, but now…

Gu Jiahao licked his lips as he stared at Su Ran as though he was about to forcefully pull her into his arm at any minute.

Fuyu's Ramblings: I think because Su Ran is someone that has already achieved success in her life before her transmigration, she has unshakeable self-confidence and justified surety in herself, so she doesn't care if a store clerk, Gu Jiahao, or anyone else looks down on her. She won't easily be intimidated by anyone. It would be like a lioness being scared of an ant.