Starting with a Breakup: Why Is the True Heiress My Possessive Ex? - Chapter 3

Xu Nian stared blankly at the newly generated simulation results.

For a long moment, she couldn’t find a single word to say.

Ever since obtaining this simulator, she felt as though her brain had stopped functioning properly.

Limbs are such inconvenient things.

The line echoed repeatedly in her mind.

Xu Nian’s eye twitched.

“If limbs are inconvenient, does that mean my brain is inconvenient too?”

She rubbed her temples.

“Should I take that out and wash it as well?”

The absurd thought made her shudder.

Then her expression stiffened.

She knew it.

She absolutely knew it.

Ever since discovering Su Qingya’s identity, she had imagined countless terrible possibilities.

But even in her wildest nightmares, she hadn’t expected things to escalate this far.

Break her wings?

What kind of terrifying logic was that?

Wasn’t that basically turning her into a decorative ornament that could never leave?

Xu Nian felt her scalp go numb.

“What kind of person even comes up with something like that?!”

A chill rose from deep within her chest and spread throughout her body.

Her hands turned cold.

Her feet felt frozen.

Even the room seemed several degrees colder than before.

For the first time since obtaining the simulator, Xu Nian genuinely felt afraid.

Very afraid.

The phone slipped from Xu Nian’s trembling fingers.

Thud!

The expensive device crashed onto the wooden floor with a loud bang.

Fortunately, modern smartphones were surprisingly durable. Aside from giving Xu Nian a scare, it seemed completely unharmed.

“Niannian? Niannian?”

Su Qingya’s voice came through the speaker.

Startled back to reality, Xu Nian hurriedly bent down, grabbed the phone, and pressed it against her ear.

“H-Hello…”

“What’s wrong?”

“N-Nothing.”

There was a brief pause.

Then Su Qingya spoke again.

“…Are you crying?”

Xu Nian froze.

Only then did she realize her voice had become shaky without her noticing.

“I accidentally kicked the corner of a table.”

The excuse came out almost instinctively.

A trace of concern immediately appeared in Su Qingya’s voice.

“You kicked a table?”

“Y-Yeah.”

“How careless.”

Her tone softened noticeably.

“Are you hurt? Your skin bruises so easily. Let me guess—you’ve already got a nasty mark on your leg.”

“N-No, it’s not that bad.”

“Really?”

“Mhm.”

Another moment of silence followed.

Then Su Qingya spoke gently.

“Then come over.”

Xu Nian’s heart skipped a beat.

“I’ll take a look at it for you.”

The concern in her voice sounded completely genuine.

Warm.

Tender.

Exactly the same as always.

Yet for some reason, those gentle words only made Xu Nian feel colder.

The simulation’s predictions flashed through her mind one after another.

The dark room.

The unsettling smile.

The possessive whispers.

The promise that she would never be allowed to leave.

Xu Nian swallowed nervously.

Every word Su Qingya spoke seemed to echo inside her head, mixing with the scenes she had just witnessed.

How was she supposed to face her now?

How was she supposed to look at the same girl she once considered harmless and adorable after seeing those horrifying futures?

For the first time since obtaining the simulator, Xu Nian felt completely lost.

And the worst part was that Su Qingya still sounded exactly like the girl she had fallen in love with.

Xu Nian didn’t know.

The Su Qingya she remembered was gentle, obedient, and unbelievably easy to tease.

No matter how much Xu Nian bullied her playfully, the girl would simply endure it in silence. She was stubborn when it mattered, yet she always looked at Xu Nian with warm, trusting eyes.

How could that same person become someone capable of such terrifying things?

The simulator’s text had been brief, almost casual.

But Xu Nian’s imagination had already filled in the blanks.

The dark room.

The endless loneliness.

The unsettling devotion.

Every possibility felt more frightening than the last.

“This can’t be real…”

Xu Nian muttered to herself.

The simulation had to be wrong.

It had to be.

But what if it wasn’t?

After all, this was a system.

A cheat granted to a transmigrator.

Could something like that really make mistakes?

Xu Nian didn’t know.

She truly didn’t know.

The uncertainty was the worst part.

On the other end of the call, Su Qingya seemed to notice her prolonged silence.

The concern in her voice gradually turned into anxiety.

“Xu Nian? Say something.”

Xu Nian bit her lip.

Then, almost without thinking, she blurted out:

“I was wrong.”

Her voice trembled slightly.

“I was really wrong. I won’t break up with you anymore. So… please don’t hurt me, okay?”

Silence.

A few seconds later, Su Qingya spoke again, sounding completely bewildered.

“…Why would you say something like that?”

Her tone was soft, almost helpless.

“When would I ever hurt you?”

Another pause.

“Did someone tell you something strange?”

Xu Nian swallowed nervously.

“Then… why do you want me to come over?”

The answer arrived immediately.

“I made dinner.”

Su Qingya sounded genuinely confused.

“I wanted to treat you to a meal.”

She paused briefly before adding:

“And you said you hurt your leg. I wanted to check whether you’re okay.”

“…”

Xu Nian didn’t know what to say.

The concern sounded sincere.

Completely sincere.

Yet the images from the simulation continued replaying in her mind.

Without another word, she ended the call.

The room fell silent.

Her thoughts were a complete mess.

With a frustrated groan, Xu Nian threw herself onto the bed and buried her face beneath the blanket.

Her tail drooped limply behind her.

If she couldn’t see reality, maybe reality couldn’t see her either.

Unfortunately, hiding beneath a blanket did nothing to solve her problems.

After lying there for several minutes, Xu Nian finally sat up.

She rubbed her head vigorously, turning her carefully maintained silver hair into a chaotic mess.

Then she crawled out from under the blanket once more.

Running away from reality clearly wasn’t going to work.

Xu Nian finally understood.

Running away wouldn’t solve anything.

Avoiding the problem would only delay it.

If she wanted to survive, she needed to face it head-on.

She slapped her cheeks lightly.

“Come on, Xu Nian!”

The silver-haired girl sat upright on the bed.

“You can’t give up this easily. This isn’t like you at all!”

Hadn’t she survived transmigration?

Hadn’t she obtained a cheat ability?

Hadn’t she already changed the future twice?

The battle wasn’t over yet.

As long as she still had the simulator, she still had a chance.

A small setback like this wasn’t enough to defeat her.

“No matter what happens, I refuse to become a victim in some ridiculous story.”

The determination gradually returned to her eyes.

Meanwhile, the simulator remained open before her, patiently waiting for her to select a reward.

Xu Nian stared at the interface for a long time.

However, she wasn’t actually thinking about the rewards.

Instead, she picked up her phone and opened her chat with Su Qingya.

After a moment’s hesitation, she typed:

[I’m heading over now.]

[And I have a surprise for you later.]

[Don’t get too excited, little fish~]

The reply arrived almost instantly.

[?]

Xu Nian ignored it.

Some things were better left unexplained for now.

Returning her attention to the simulator, she reviewed the available rewards once more.

There wasn’t much of a decision to make.

One option was a useful cloth bag.

The other two…

Xu Nian’s expression darkened.

One involved a mysterious object she had absolutely no desire to investigate.

The other was somehow related to the horrifying future she had just witnessed.

No sane person would choose either of them.

Without hesitation, she selected the first option.

[Undetectable Cloth Bag]

[Reward distribution in progress…]

The moment she confirmed her choice, a faint ripple appeared in the air before her.

A cloth bag slowly materialized out of thin air.

Xu Nian blinked.

Then blinked again.

The bag floated quietly in front of her.

Tentatively, she extended her hand.

To her surprise, the cloth bag immediately drifted toward her as if it recognized its owner.

It even rubbed lightly against her palm.

Xu Nian’s eyes widened.

“…Not bad.”

A smile finally appeared on her face.

“It’s actually kind of cute.”

For the first time since receiving the simulator, she felt as though she had gained something genuinely useful.

Maybe this strange cheat wasn’t completely unreliable after all.

At first, Xu Nian assumed the reward was nothing more than an invisible bag.

What she hadn’t expected was that it could float on its own.

That was far more convenient.

As for the rewards from the second simulation…

She had no intention of choosing them anytime soon.

None of them looked remotely useful.

One was terrifying.

The other two were somehow even worse.

For now, the cloth bag was more than enough.

To test its effects, Xu Nian casually grabbed a pen and walked out of her room with the floating bag following closely beside her.

She stopped a passing maid.

“Can you come here for a moment?”

The maid bowed politely.

“Yes, Miss?”

Xu Nian raised her hand.

“What do you see me holding?”

The maid looked carefully before answering.

“A pen, Miss.”

Xu Nian blinked.

“That’s all?”

“Yes.”

The maid looked confused.

Xu Nian’s eyes immediately lit up.

It worked.

The bag was completely invisible to other people.

Not bad.

Not bad at all.

Her gaze drifted toward the window.

Bright sunlight poured down from the sky, illuminating the city beyond.

The towering buildings and bustling streets looked strangely familiar.

So similar to her previous world.

And yet completely different.

After all, this wasn’t Earth.

This was a fantasy world where humans and demons coexisted.

Perhaps the most obvious proof of that was Xu Nian herself.

Despite having fox ears and a fluffy tail, nobody looked at her strangely when she walked through the streets.

Fox demons were common here.

Her mother was one.

Her father was human.

Normally, that combination should have produced a half-demon child.

Yet this world’s biology seemed to operate on completely different rules.

Instead of mixed bloodlines, children inherited either their father’s race or their mother’s race entirely.

A perfect fifty-fifty chance.

As if fate simply flipped a coin.

And somehow…

Fox demons laid eggs.

Eggs!

Xu Nian still couldn’t accept that part.

The entire setting existed solely to create the classic “switched at birth” storyline.

Because of a hospital mix-up involving two eggs, she had become the fake heiress while the real heiress was raised elsewhere.

The more she thought about it, the more ridiculous it sounded.

“Do these people not understand biology?”

Xu Nian complained internally.

“How do you accidentally swap eggs?”

“Were there no labels?”

“No markings?”

“No identification?”

“What kind of hospital is this?”

After all these years, she still couldn’t make peace with the logic.

Unfortunately, the world refused to answer her questions.

Just then, a familiar voice interrupted her thoughts.

“Xu Nian.”

Xu Nian immediately stiffened.

Standing ahead of her was a beautiful fox-eared woman.

Her mother.

“Are you planning to go out again?”

Her mother’s eyes narrowed slightly.

“Your sister is coming home today.”

“You need to stay here.”

“Everyone in this family owes her far too much.”

She paused before adding:

“And try to behave yourself when she arrives.”

Xu Nian instantly put on her most obedient expression.

“I understand, Mom.”

The sincerity in her voice seemed to satisfy her mother.

The fox woman smiled gently.

However, Xu Nian’s heart sank.

Not good.

Very not good.

According to the simulator, her mother had simply happened to discover her.

Now she realized the truth.

This woman had been waiting here specifically to stop her.

Like one of those invisible walls in a video game.

No matter what route the player chose, the story event would trigger.

And she knew that because she had already tested it several times.

Every attempt ended with her mother appearing directly in her path.

This time had been no different.

Just as Xu Nian was wondering how the second simulation had avoided this outcome, her mother’s phone suddenly rang.

A moment later, the woman’s expression changed.

“What?”

“You’re not coming back today?”

The smile vanished from her face.

Although years of refinement prevented her from showing obvious disappointment, the change in her mood was unmistakable.

After listening for a while, she finally ended the call.

“So you want to postpone your return for a few more days because you’re meeting someone important…”

She sighed softly.

Then, accompanied by several servants, she turned and walked back into the mansion.

Xu Nian stood frozen.

Then her eyes widened.

The message.

It had to be because of the message she sent Su Qingya.

The butterfly effect had changed the future.

The true heiress wasn’t returning today anymore.

Which meant—

Xu Nian slowly looked toward the open gate.

Then a grin spread across her face.

The obstacle was gone.

The path was clear.

Nobody could stop her now.

“Hehehe…”

A dangerous smile appeared on her lips.

“Operation Escape officially begins.”