Chapter 45: The Evil Stepmother of the 1970s 12 New Story Started “Mom…

Chapter 45: The Vicious Stepmother of the 1970s (12) New Story: "Mom..."

Xu Ziyan froze—Fang Lihai was back? Did that mean the wild boar was about to descend the mountain?

She quickly pedaled her bicycle towards the village, grumbling to the system all the way.

"Tell me, has Fang Lihai lost his mind? Any anonymous letter, no matter how flimsy, can call him back? If this were an enemy spy, wouldn't he be dead by now?"

Fang Lihai was discreetly entering the village via a secluded path, hoping to observe his family's situation unnoticed, when he suddenly heard Xu Ziyan's voice. He quickly scanned his surroundings and saw her passing by in the distance, seemingly unaware of his presence.

He instinctively ducked, then heard Xu Ziyan's voice again.

"Where exactly is he? If I don't find him, he'll be killed by that wild boar. You said Xu Xiuyun wants to harm him—how did she manage to lure the boar down at just the right moment? Is that the protagonist's halo at work? And with all the luck stats I've added, do I have a bit of a halo too? Like, maybe I'll just happen to find Fang Lihai?"

001 replied, "Definitely! Host, look how smoothly this mission is going! You've gotten along so well with everyone in the Fang family, young and old. Honestly, even if Fang Lihai dies, it's not a big deal—he's not the protagonist, so it won't affect the plot. As long as you stay steady and continue to rescue the Fang family from their plight, their tragic fate can be averted."

Fang Lihai was shocked. Who was speaking? Xu Ziyan hadn't opened her mouth, so whose was the other voice?

Xu Ziyan entered the village, dismounted her bike, and began looking around as she walked. Fang Lihai started stealthily following her, observing her movements and searching for the source of the voice.

Xu Ziyan sighed regretfully. "I haven't even met Fang Lihai yet. He's my nominal husband, after all. If he just dies like this, wouldn't that be embarrassing for me? Speaking of which, Xu Xiuyun is truly ruthless. Without any personal vendetta, she's willing to harm Fang Lihai just to saddle me with the reputation of a husband-killer and make my life worse than hers. What kind of person does that?

"Could it be that she and Song Dongbo are two of a kind—both willing to resort to any means? Song Dongbo later became incredibly wealthy—did he also use illicit methods? Is he the male lead? If I cut off his path to wealth, would this novel's world collapse?

"Hey, now that I'm writing novels too, do you think the stories I write will become new worlds in the Time-Space Bureau? If so… haha, I'll make sure my protagonists have amazing lives."

Xu Ziyan's rambling thoughts gave Fang Lihai the perfect opportunity to piece everything together. He quickly integrated the fragments of information and reached a conclusion.

Beyond time and space, there existed a place called the Time-Space Bureau, where a novel had shaped their world. Xu Ziyan was originally the villainess, while his family were mere tragic cannon fodder—all stepping stones for Xu Xiuyun and Song Dongbo’s rise.

If the plot deviated too much, the world might collapse. The original villainess had awakened and refused to play her role, so now an agent had taken over as Xu Ziyan. She had already helped his family a great deal, which was why the letters and calls from home spoke so positively of her—they genuinely got along well.

Moreover, if this agent succeeded in her mission, the world would break free from its original plot and continue evolving. The agent could also choose to stay and live out her life here until she was ready to move on to the next world.

Despite how incredible and unbelievable this all sounded, Fang Lihai accepted it quickly. There was simply no other explanation for what he was experiencing. He had briefly considered confronting Xu Ziyan directly, but any thought of mentioning inner voices or agents made him freeze up. This invisible force left no room for doubt—he had to believe it.

As a soldier, Fang Lihai was action-oriented. Now that it was his turn to follow the plot, he wouldn't shirk his responsibility—he couldn't be the reason this world collapsed. So he purposely doubled back onto the path, quickened his pace, and called out to Xu Ziyan, "What are you doing here?"

Xu Ziyan turned to look at him in surprise. "I was about to ask you the same thing! Why did you come back all of a sudden?"

To save time, Fang Lihai handed her the letter directly. "I received an anonymous letter. Even though it seemed absurd, someone going to such lengths means someone has their eyes on the Fang family. I’m safe at the military base, but I was worried you might be in danger, so I came back to check."

Xu Ziyan had an epiphany. "So he's not an idiot who doubted me because of an anonymous letter and refused to believe his parents and nephews. He was actually thinking this way—I underestimated him."

Fang Lihai looked away, his face impassive, though it didn’t betray his discomfort. Right—he *was* an idiot who had returned out of suspicion.

Following the original plot’s location for the wild boar incident, Xu Ziyan led Fang Lihai to the vicinity—though she kept a safe distance from the exact spot.

Sure enough, as they walked, an unusual sound reached their ears. Looking closely, they saw a wild boar coming their way.

Xu Ziyan grabbed Fang Lihai’s arm. "Don’t go! I’ll call the brigade leader to gather people—we’ll handle it together. Don’t go playing the hero. If you get hurt, your parents will be heartbroken."

Fang Lihai nodded. "Don’t worry, I won’t act recklessly."

Xu Ziyan nodded in relief and hurried off on her bicycle to call for help. But as she left, a thought struck her: "Wait, isn’t he being too obedient? Doesn’t he dislike me? Shouldn’t he do the opposite of whatever I say? Why is he being so cooperative?

"And if he just stands there doing nothing, won’t the plot fail to progress?"

001 added, "For the plot to proceed, doesn't he need to be killed by the boar?"

Xu Ziyan said, "Playing dead could work too. The key is to make Xu Xiuyun believe he was killed by the wild boar. But how?"

This time, Xu Ziyan was really stumped. If it were just her, she could act however she wanted, but with someone else involved, she couldn’t exactly puppet them from afar, could she?

But Fang Lihai had a thought. He’d been struggling to figure out how to follow the plot reasonably, and upon hearing Xu Ziyan’s inner thoughts, inspiration struck. He quickly ducked out unnoticed and rushed home to find his parents.

His parents were startled. "Why are you back?" they asked.

Fang Lihai didn’t have time to explain in detail and simply urged them to play along with the act. The two immediately understood—their son had heard Xu Ziyan’s inner thoughts and was now following the plot!

The three moved in perfect sync. Fang Lihai swiftly returned to the wild boar and began fighting it. Knowing the original outcome, he took extra precautions, armed himself, and set up traps. He managed to badly wound the boar. By the time Xu Ziyan arrived with the villagers, he had positioned himself with his back to them, delivering the final blow to the boar before staggering back and collapsing to the ground, lying motionless with his eyes closed.

Fang’s mother let out a wail, "My son!"

The elderly couple threw themselves over Fang Lihai, wailing loudly. Xu Ziyan was shocked. "No way… he’s dead?"

001: "He’s not dead. The plot hasn’t been completed yet."

Xu Ziyan exhaled in relief. As long as he wasn’t dead, it was fine. She glanced at Xu Xiuyun, who was standing at the back of the crowd, and suddenly rushed over, slapped her hard across the face. "You killed my husband! Are you happy now? If you have a problem with me, take it out on me! Why hurt him?"

Xu Xiuyun was stunned, her cheek instantly reddening from the slap. The others were equally shocked. "Xu Ziyan, what are you doing? What does this have to do with Xu Xiuyun?"

Xu Xiuyun immediately burst into tears. "Exactly! Cousin, you can’t pin everything on me…"

Xu Ziyan held up the anonymous letter for everyone to see. "This is the letter that called Fang Lihai back. Who else in the village would twist the truth and slander me like this? Who else has such a deep grudge against me that they’d harm my husband? Who else but Xu Xiuyun? And look at this paper—her house must have the exact same kind!"

Xu Xiuyun blanched and denied it. "It wasn’t me—"

*Slap!*

Fang’s mother, who had somehow rushed over unnoticed, struck Xu Xiuyun hard on the same cheek, leaving her face completely numb.

Fang’s mother had hated her for ages and seized the opportunity to scream, "My son is dead because of you! I saw you go up the mountain today—you’re the one who lured the boar down! Don’t even try to deny it! Look at the mud on your shoes—only the mountain has mud today!"

Xu Xiuyun instinctively looked down at her shoes, while the others backed away in shock. What did this mean? Had Xu Xiuyun deliberately caused someone’s death? Just because of a few petty arguments with Xu Ziyan? Was it worth killing over? How terrifying!

Fang’s mother raged, "You’ve always targeted my daughter-in-law, and now you’ve come for my son! What did our Fang family ever do to you? Give me back my son’s life!"

When no system announcement came, Fang’s mother threw caution to the wind. She lunged at Xu Xiuyun, knocking her to the ground and straddling her, pummeling her wildly. "Give me back my son! You murderous witch! You killed my son—I’ll drag you to hell with me! Pay with your life!"

The village head and others were too stunned by the revelations to intervene immediately, leaving Xu Xiuyun battered, her vision blurring, head spinning. She vaguely saw Fang’s father performing chest compressions on Fang Lihai, Xu Ziyan’s furious face, and Fang’s mother’s uncontrolled assault.

It seemed Fang Lihai really was dead.

She never meant to kill him—she’d only wanted him injured! How had things gone so wrong? Sobbing, she shook her head. "I didn’t… I really didn’t…"

"Congratulations, Host! Two plot points completed: Fang Lihai being killed by the wild boar, and exposing Xu Xiuyun for luring the boar down the mountain. Reward: two skill points. Hidden plot completed: exposing Xu Xiuyun as the anonymous letter writer and severely damaging her reputation. Special reward: five skill points."

Seven points in one go! Xu Ziyan cheered, "Intelligence! Put them all into intelligence! I’ll be a genius! Hahaha!"

Fang Lihai, hearing Xu Ziyan’s unusually lively inner monologue for the first time, almost broke character. He twitched slightly. Fang’s father immediately played along. "He’s awake! He’s awake! Mother, our son’s come back to us!"

The one who’d run for the doctor returned with them in tow. The village head urged the doctor to examine Fang Lihai immediately. With no equipment, what could he do? Based on the villagers’ descriptions, he said, "Battalion Commander Fang must have had the wind knocked out of him or gone into shock from the impact. Fortunately, the CPR was performed in time to revive him. He’ll need plenty of rest and nutrition in the coming days."

Everyone sighed in relief—thank God he pulled through. Xu Ziyan took the opportunity to pull Fang’s mother back, saying gently, "Mom, your health isn’t good. Don’t overexert yourself."

Fang’s mother was panting but inwardly satisfied. She’d wanted to beat Xu Xiuyun for ages—today, she’d finally gotten her chance.

As for Xu Xiuyun, now battered and bruised, she was dumbfounded. Fang Lihai was alive again? So she’d been beaten for nothing? And Fang Lihai was completely unharmed?

"Captain, Xu Xiuyun's house really has this kind of paper." Sixth Aunt, nursing a grudge, immediately called the captain's wife to search Xu Xiuyun's house at the first sign of trouble, and indeed found identical paper.

Xu Xiuyun snapped, "This paper is the most common kind..."

Xu Ziyan took out a pencil from her bag and lightly rubbed over the notebook they had found. Soon, some handwriting appeared. Probably because it was written with the left hand and the pressure wasn’t controlled well, the imprint left on the next page of the anonymous letter was unusually deep. When rubbed, it became very clear—identical to the anonymous letter.

When Xu Xiuyun wrote the letter, she never imagined anyone would discover it, let alone think to destroy the draft paper. Now, the evidence was irrefutable, proving it was indeed her who had lured Fang Lihai back. Moreover, in the letter, she falsely accused Xu Ziyan of mistreating her in-laws and stepson—pure lies, just proving Xu Xiuyun’s spite.

Adding to this, Fang Lihai’s mother claimed to have seen Xu Xiuyun entering the mountains. And just now, when Fang’s mother was beating Xu Xiuyun, she didn’t even fight back. Everything pointed to Xu Xiuyun deliberately trying to harm Fang Lihai.

Fang Lihai wasn’t just Xu Ziyan’s husband—he was also a battalion commander, the village’s most respected figure, a source of pride and connections. Xu Xiuyun’s actions directly harmed everyone’s interests. Besides, they had all grown up together as fellow villagers—how could she do something so terrible?

Xu Ziyan threw the rubbed paper at Xu Xiuyun, "Call the police! What’s your excuse now?"