Chapter 1: Two Little Radishes

“Hush, brother, don’t wake the bad aunt…”

At that moment, Su Xingwan heard a faint rustling behind her. She wanted to pretend she hadn’t heard, but their voices were just too loud. What they thought were quiet movements sounded like a barrage of tiny noises in her ears.

Su Xingwan turned over, deliberately mumbling something.

Instantly, the two little ones fell silent.

But before long, rustling noises came from behind her again.

Little Su Hua whispered, “…Brother, do you think the bad aunt was woken up by us?”

“…Probably not? She’s been sleeping for ages, hasn’t woken up at all.”

“The bad aunt seems lazier lately, she doesn’t care about us anymore.”

“That’s best, let’s ignore her. It’d be perfect if she never gets up again.”

“But if she doesn’t get up, no one will cook for me…”

Listening to their plotting, Su Xingwan was speechless. Children were children: even when gossiping behind her back, they didn’t bother to sneak farther away.

Again, a flurry of rustling sounds came from behind, and Su Xingwan finally lost her patience. She sat up abruptly.

Two pairs of wide eyes stared at her, instantly alert.

Su Xingwan saw that in the moment she sat up, both children quickly hid their hands behind their backs.

Little Su Hua’s cheeks were puffed out, with crumbs—likely from biscuits—at the corner of her mouth.

Su Xingwan rose and walked over. “What are you hiding?”

“…Nothing, nothing at all.”

Both children hid their little hands behind their backs, guilt written across their faces. As Su Xingwan approached, they retreated step by step until cornered against the wall.

Seeing they weren’t being honest, Su Xingwan grabbed the back of her niece’s collar and lifted her up.

Only then did she notice how pitifully thin this little one was—so small, hardly any flesh on her bones. In the depths of winter, her clothing was so flimsy that Su Xingwan paused for a moment.

Seeing his sister caught by the bad aunt, Little Su Luo rushed over and pounded on Su Xingwan’s leg, muttering, “I’ll beat you, bad auntie! Let go of my sister!”

Su Xingwan ignored the feeble, ticklish assault behind her.

She quickly snatched the little hand Su Hua was hiding behind her back.

When she opened it, she found a handful of crumbled biscuit pieces.

Su Xingwan paused. “Where did you get these biscuits?”

Her gaze fell to a discarded biscuit wrapper on the floor. She picked it up and examined it carefully.

Only then did she see the expiration date had long passed.

Startled, she quickly tried to scoop out the biscuit still in Su Hua’s mouth.

“Spit it out!” Su Xingwan’s voice was urgent.

She thought, Oh my goodness, such a small child eating expired food—what if it makes her sick?

But to Little Su Luo, the bad aunt’s rough actions looked like abuse.

He knelt, hugging the bad aunt’s leg, tears streaming down his cheeks.

“Auntie, it’s my fault! I stole your biscuits, it’s not my sister’s fault!”

After a flurry of desperate actions, Su Xingwan finally managed to get the biscuit pieces out of Su Hua’s mouth.

She breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, a disaster had been averted.

She knew all too well: if anything happened to these little ones, her own fate would be grim.

Indeed, she had transmigrated into a novel—a classic story where the female lead flees with her children, and Su Xingwan herself had become the villainous aunt, a character barely described in the book.

The heroine died young, entrusting her newborn triplets to her only relatives: their grandmother and her younger sister, along with a generous sum of money.

At first, with their grandmother around, the triplets managed to scrape by. A year later, after the grandmother passed, the younger sister abandoned her responsibilities.

Not only did she neglect them, she abused the poor children: often denying them food and clothes, beating and scolding them constantly.

Eventually, the triplets’ brilliant uncle came to visit. Seeing his brother’s children abused beyond recognition, his fury led him to send the villainous aunt to an asylum. Every day, she was shocked with medical devices, or beaten by guards on schedule. In no time, she ended up with broken limbs and blinded eyes.

Soon after, she died miserably inside, her body left unclaimed…

Recalling the plot, Su Xingwan shivered at the thought of that cold, ruthless uncle who tormented the villainous aunt with inhumane methods, both body and soul.

She absolutely refused such a fate!

At that moment, Little Su Hua’s eyes brimmed with tears, reddened and swollen.

The next instant, she burst into loud wails.

“I want mommy… I want mommy…”

Hearing the little one’s cries, Su Xingwan was suddenly at a loss.

What now? What should she do? She had never been in a relationship, let alone cared for a child.

Hearing the bad aunt’s inner voice, Little Su Hua’s crying abruptly stopped.

Her big eyes shimmered with confusion.

Su Xingwan felt relieved when the crying ceased.

Thank goodness, she didn’t have to comfort her.

She crouched down, looking into Su Hua’s eyes, patiently explaining, “Auntie wasn’t trying to bully you when she took the biscuit from your mouth. The biscuit was expired—it couldn’t be eaten.”

Beside her, Little Su Luo was momentarily stunned.

Little Su Hua tilted her head. “What does expired mean?”

Su Xingwan replied, “It means the food isn’t safe to eat anymore.”

Little Su Hua asked timidly, “Why can’t we eat it?…It still smells good.”

Su Xingwan said, “Even if it smells good, you can’t eat it. If you do, you’ll get a tummy ache.”

“…Oh.” Hearing she’d get a tummy ache from eating the biscuit, Su Hua understood instantly.

But it was strange—the aunt seemed different today.

No, she’d been different for several days now. She hadn’t heard the aunt curse her and her brother in her mind lately.

Su Xingwan stood up, ruffling the tuft of hair on Su Hua’s head. The little one was startled by the unexpected gentleness.

**

After settling the two children, Su Xingwan’s phone rang.

She answered, and immediately a torrent of furious scolding erupted from the other end: “Su Xingwan! I told you to stay with Young Master Ye these past few days—where have you been?”

“Who’s Young Master Ye?” Su Xingwan was still a little confused.

“Don’t play dumb with me, Su Xingwan! You swore you’d win him over these days, and now I hear you’ve vanished! The slot for that variety show went to Zhang Qiaoqiao instead.”

Su Xingwan: …

“You’re unbelievable! You failed your task, pretended to be dead, didn’t even call me once. With that attitude, do you still want a contract with Moonlight Entertainment?”