Chapter 5 — The Campus Queen's Destiny Swap System

I remember it clearly... The day she demanded the Hua family come to pick her up from the orphanage, she deliberately chose her own birthday. She called it the dawn of a brand-new life. And for me? That was the exact day my absolute nightmare began. I was branded with an ugly face, slandered as an impostor, and turned into the laughingstock of high society. I endured relentless bullying and beatings from my peers, ate cold, leftover scraps, and performed grueling chores three times heavier than anyone else. Even Director Auntie A, the person who had once loved me the most, was bought off by her, standing idly by to watch me get crushed without lifting a finger to help. Before I could even finish elementary school, I was thrown out onto the streets, wandering around to do menial labor, trapped in cheap, off-the-books jobs. I lived in a dilapidated attic, so dark and suffocating that I could barely breathe—and more than once, I came dangerously close to dying in that wretched place.

The first slap—arrived far too late.

I raised my hand, and another resounding crack echoed through the air.

"Slap!"

"Hua Tingting—no, I should properly call you Chu Tingting now. Ten years ago at the orphanage, everything you did to me... have you truly forgotten every last bit of it?"

She looked as though she had been struck by lightning, her entire body trembling violently, her eyes glazed over and swimming with stark panic and profound shock. I grabbed her by the chin, forcing her head upward, and broke into a chilling, spine-chilling smile.

"Back then, it was using these exact same despicable tricks that you stole ten years of my life."

"Now, everything has finally returned to where it rightfully belongs."

I tilted my head, my voice as light as a breeze yet as sharp as a blade: "How does it feel to be unmasked right in the middle of a crowd... are you enjoying yourself?"

This... was merely the opening ceremony for my true revenge.

Everything completely flipped. My genuine background was publicly announced to the world, and along with it, all the endless suffering I had endured was laid bare before the public eye. The Hua family—having once adopted an orphan out of pure kindness only to be bitten back by a vicious ingrate—won the deepest, most widespread sympathy from public opinion. Across the internet, netizens hurled furious abuses at Chu Tingting (Hua Tingting's real name) without holding back:

【What the hell, she is utterly shameless! Clinging to the Hua family wasn't enough, she actually wanted to climb up and become a chaebol's daughter? Does she even have a mirror to look at herself?】

【I am crying tears of laughter. She even had the thick skin to claim the Hua family thought she was pretty and smart? Looking at that mug, she probably cries every time she looks in the mirror. I asked her former classmates, she almost hit rock bottom on every single exam yet she still had the nerve to praise herself!】

【I feel so bad for the Hua family. If they want, they can adopt me instead, I promise I will never betray them.】

【Wei Wei is the truly pitiful one. Turns out she was the real victim all along, spending ten years living in the shadows before finally being able to return to her biological parents, sob, sob, sob.】

【I've seen plenty of thick-skinned people in my life, but never one quite this brazen. If I ever run into that Chu Tingting, I'll beat her to death on the spot!】

【What a textbook case of going mad with the desire for wealth. I heard the Hua family's business hasn't been going well lately, which is probably why she pulled this stunt. But even when times were tough, the Hua family still gave her the absolute best. Such a massive disappointment.】

Capitalizing on this massive wave of attention, the Hua family launched a corporate livestream e-commerce channel, completely resolving their company's public relations crisis.

As for Chu Tingting... She stared at all of it in utter silence, unable to utter a single word. Because right at the moment the DNA test results were officially made public, she had still dared to insult Chi Yan right to his face—and the consequence of that was swift: Young Master Chi gave a cold, absolute command, ordering her limbs to be broken before she was tossed out of the banquet hall like trash.

And that wasn't even the end of it.

Chi Yan, in his infinite "mercy," bestowed upon her one final parting gift—namely, helping her track down her true biological parents.

Her father: a chronic alcoholic. Her mother: a severe drug addict. She had been born in the restroom of a vocational school before being dumped off at the orphanage. And the most ironic twist of all—Chu Tingting's current face was a spitting image of her biological father.

When the father and daughter met for the first time, both of their eyes were filled with mutual hatred and disgust.

"What bad luck! The moment you were born, I should've just strangled you to death. You caused me misery for all these years, and now you've dragged me into this freakish mess!"

Her mother stood nearby, chiming in with a chilling, heartless voice: "Since she's crippled anyway, the Chi family gave us eighty thousand, so let's just sell her off cheaply. It shouldn't get in the way of us having another kid."

The man spat out a mouthful of cigarette smoke and nodded. "Do as you say. Sell her far away, and tell the buyers to act fast and just kill her to save us the trouble. Anyway, with her half-dead condition, she wouldn't have lasted long anyway. Hurry up. I need the cash."

Chu Tingting—who had once dreamt of being a wealthy heiress living a life of supreme luxury and privilege... had now plunged straight to the dirtiest, most foul depths of destiny. Stripped of her face, stripped of her status, stripped of her future.

And that... was merely the very first installment of the price she had to pay.

Just like that, Chu Tingting was sold off to a lonely, middle-aged bachelor in a remote, isolated village, officially beginning a life of absolute hell.

The life of Chu Tingting was truly tragic; with parents like those, her very birth was the starting point of total ruin. But just like the name Director Auntie A had given her—Tingting, meaning clear skies—she had once possessed days of bright, warm sunshine that belonged entirely to her. If only she had known how to use a system to seize her destiny through proper means, perhaps things would not have ended up this way. Unfortunately, life does not deal in "what ifs." Those who plot to harm others must ultimately pay the price for their own malicious karma.

When we learned about these developments, we were currently residing inside the Chi family's sprawling luxury estate. I sat directly across from Chi Yan, having just finished a round of cards with him.

"This game, you lost." I looked at him, my gaze carrying a deep, hidden meaning: "As the winner, my condition is—before I am fully capable of standing on my own two feet, I want to stay here. I have no desire to return to the Hua family just yet."

Right now, my adoptive parents and brother were flooding my phone with endless messages, desperately begging me to come back.

In truth, Chi Yan and Zhu Wei Wei had crossed paths a very long time ago. Back then, when Chi Yan was still a young boy, he had accompanied his parents to an orphanage for charity work. While sneaking off to play in the backyard gardens, he lost his way. In his panic trying to find a way out, he bumped into a little girl holding a frog by its legs.

That little girl looked just like an exquisite porcelain doll, with large, round eyes and sweet dimples framing her lips that made it impossible to look away. She wasn't scared in the least; holding the frog in one hand, she used the other to guide him safely back to his parents before vanishing like a flash of lightning into the flower beds by the lake.

At that time, all he had managed to shout after her retreating figure was: "My name is Chi Yan, I live in Sea City, you have to come find me to play!"

Perhaps she hadn't heard him. Because throughout that entire holiday, he waited and waited, but no one ever came looking for him. Afterward, he had wanted to track that little girl down, but his father stopped him: "Don't let a momentary impulse disrupt someone else's peaceful life."

And then... countless years drifted by.

Chi Yan had crossed paths with countless stunning beauties, basking in the adoring gazes of innumerable admirers. Yet deep within his heart—there always remained the lingering shadow of a girl with clear, bright eyes and a smile as radiant as the morning sun.

When he finally laid eyes on Zhu Wei Wei again, even though her appearance had transformed... the moment he looked into those eyes—he recognized her instantly.

At that exact fraction of a second, Chi Yan had only a single thought running through his mind: "This is the destiny arranged for us by the heavens."

If so... he would have to hold onto her tightly, never letting go.

[THE END]