After transmigrating into the book, I helped my mother reconcile with her divorced husband.

Ji Wanwan's eyes widened as she looked at Lu Jinyao with disbelief. Her daughter was actually trying to kill her.

"you--"

“Mother, why be surprised? Jinyao was taught by you.” Lu Jinyao twisted the hairpin forcefully. “Mother should be willing to pave the way for Jinyao with her life, right?”

He suddenly pulled out the hairpin, and blood splattered all over Lu Jinyao's face.

Behind her, her maid, Wei Linglan, looked at her with a terrified expression. Hearing the commotion, Lu Jinyao stood up and wiped the blood from the hairpin with her sleeve: "Linglan, do you remember what your godfather told you?"

Unable to answer, Wei Linglan nodded, clutching her throat.

"Don't worry, I'll find someone to treat your throat, and I'll make the person who hurt you pay a heavy price."

Lu Jinyao took a step forward, while Wei Linglan took two steps back. A young lady who had murdered her own mother—she was afraid, her eyes involuntarily drawn to the hairpin in Lu Jinyao's hand.

Lu Jinyao smiled, pretending nothing had happened, placed the cleaned hairpin in the middle of her hair bun, and then used her fingertips to wipe away the blood from her face little by little.

"Are you afraid of me? Afraid that I'll treat you like my mother?" Lu Jinyao's eyes narrowed. "You're not my mother, why would I kill you? Would you betray me and report me to the authorities?"

Wei Linglan shook her head and pointed to her throat.

"Are you saying that you've become mute and can't go to the government to sue me?" Lu Jinyao's eyes were filled with laughter, but the laughter didn't reach her eyes: "I said I would ask a doctor to see you."

Wei Linglan waved her hand, her fear deepening. For some reason, she found all the young ladies of the Lu family terrifying.

That Lu Zhiyuan exudes a sinister aura, while this Lu Jinyao has a crazy streak.

Overwhelmed with fear, she tried to leave, but as soon as she turned around, she felt a sharp stab to her lower back. The pain spread from her back, and when she touched it, it was covered in blood.

“Wei Linglan, you have disappointed me greatly.” Lu Jinyao held the hairpin, the tip of which was stained with blood, the blood of Wei Linglan. “If you hadn’t panicked, hadn’t been afraid, and had stood behind me without hesitation, I would never have hurt you. You are just a maid, and I have no reason to use your life to pave the way for me. Unfortunately, you panicked too much, and you will betray me as soon as you leave this door.”

Wei Linglan shook her head, and was stabbed in the abdomen again.

She was just a maid in the Wei household. If Lu Jinyao hadn't entered the household, she would have spent her whole life working with brooms. Before nightfall, she didn't know that Lu Jinyao's surname was Lu, nor did she know that she was related to the Lu family of the Marquis of Pingnan. She only knew that she had entered the Wei household in the middle of the night and that the next morning the master had told her that she was the adopted daughter of the Wei family.

The master was sixty-four years old when a ten-year-old adopted daughter suddenly appeared, causing a great deal of discussion among the people in the mansion.

Some say she was the illegitimate daughter raised by the master outside the household, and because her birth mother was of low status and it was inconvenient to show her to others, she was brought into the mansion as an adopted daughter. Others say she looked very similar to Wei Yanran in her youth, and that Master Wei adopted her as his daughter because he remembered his own. Whatever the truth, she was the only young lady in the Wei family.

Having risen from a lowly sweeping maid to become the young lady's personal attendant, Wei Linglan seemed to gain confidence, looking down on everyone with an air of superiority. In her eyes, the Wei family was a prestigious clan, and Master Wei was someone even the emperor dared not easily offend. As the only young lady of the Wei family, Lu Jinyao was naturally of unparalleled nobility, and she, as the young lady's only maid, was naturally different as well.

It was precisely because of this confidence that she dared to target Lu Zhiyuan so recklessly, with Lu Jinyao's indulgence.

This honor came quickly and went quickly; he was to die in just two days.

Driven by her will to survive, Wei Linglan launched a counterattack, attempting to snatch the hairpin from Lu Jinyao's hand and kill her. Lu Jinyao saw through her intention and stabbed Wei Linglan repeatedly with the hairpin, causing her to break out in a cold sweat from the pain.

Having finally managed to snatch the hairpin, he was caught off guard when Lu Jinyao grabbed his wound.

"You think you can kill me?"

Lu Jinyao snorted coldly and pressed her wrist bone down with her knee, grinding it forcefully. Wei Linglan convulsed in pain, her limbs involuntarily curling up, completely powerless to resist Lu Jinyao. She lay there, resignedly closing her eyes. After retrieving the hairpin, Lu Jinyao didn't hesitate and directly stabbed it towards Wei Linglan's heart. The speed and ruthlessness of her action even impressed Lu Zhiyuan, the assassin.

In the shadows, Liu Ying gasped several times. "Miss, has Lu Jinyao gone mad? How could she be so cruel to her own maid?"

“She is the daughter of the Prince of Yong’an,” Lu Zhiyuan said softly. “She resembles whoever’s child she is.”

"Then, Miss, won't you be like the Marquis, needing to find two sons-in-law in the future?" Liu Ying stammered.

“More than two!” Lu Zhiyuan tapped Liu Ying on the head: “There are so many handsome men, how could your young lady give up a whole forest for two sons-in-law? Go, send someone to report to the authorities that a case of illness has occurred in the Marquis’s mansion.”

"Aren't you going to save her?" Liu Ying glanced at Wei Linglan, who was no longer moving.

Lu Jinyao squatted on the ground, first cutting herself with a hairpin, then wiping the hairpin clean and stuffing it into Wei Linglan's hand. After thinking for a moment and feeling it was inappropriate, she took the hairpin to the front of the dungeon and looked at her dying mother.

Ji Wanwan leaned against the cell door, moonlight streaming into her eyes, causing her eyelashes to flutter slightly. She recalled the scene in her dream, how she dragged Lu Zhiyuan into the dungeon. Days of rain had filled the dungeon with water, and rats were struggling in the water. Was she even more desperate then than she was now?

The elderly often say that evil will be punished, and her daughter was her punishment.

"Jin'er—"

"Mother, there's no need for regret. Your daughter will grant you everything you desire." Lu Jinyao placed the hairpin into her hand. "Mother died protecting her daughter!"

Ji Wanwan couldn't understand what she was saying; her hearing and eyesight were deteriorating. Lu Zhiyuan arrived at the dungeon under the moonlight. Due to excessive blood loss, Ji Wanwan's face was eerily pale.

"System, are you still there?"

“Dear host, I have always been here.”

"Will Ji Wanwan die? She's the female lead in the book; she shouldn't die so easily."

"Ji Wanwan is no longer the female lead in the book; she, like the host, is a supporting character in this world," the system said. "Due to the host's intervention, the original plot has changed, and there are no longer any male or female leads in this world. The plot will adjust itself based on the characters' choices, and new plots will appear, just like the strange insects and the epidemic currently unfolding outside the city. The host can become a new protagonist through hard work."

"I just want to get out of this damn plot, I don't want to be the protagonist!" Lu Zhiyuan had a headache: "Is there any hope for Ji Wanwan?"

"Does the host want to save her? Saving her might trigger a new plot," the system said. "Her daughter and Captain Ma are on their way here. The host has three seconds to make a choice!"

"I want Ji Wanwan to live!" Lu Zhiyuan said, "Lu Jinyao wants to use Ji Wanwan's death to pave the way for her future, but I insist that Ji Wanwan live and become her stumbling block."