Chapter 2 Goodness, I've entered the world of the novel?

The three of them fell into silence once more.

Wen Yao gazed at the chaos around her. The small courtyard held just three rooms, and one of them had already collapsed.

Given the way they had died in the modern world, it was clear there was no going back. Yet, with the family together, it didn’t seem to matter much where they ended up.

“Dad, brother, do you both remember anything?” Wen Yao asked.

Wen Jun nodded. “A little, not much.”

Wen Changping hesitated. “Well, yes, I guess.”

Honestly, he would have much preferred not to remember at all. What a disaster.

Wen Yao narrowed her eyes at him, suddenly recalling how the house had collapsed.

“Comrade Wen, quite impressive—just for the sake of gambling, you tried to sell me and my brother,” Wen Yao said, folding her arms and fixing Wen Changping with a half-amused, half-serious look.

Wen Changping, in this body now called Wen Xiuyi, had been a notorious gambler, infamous in the area. Once, he had passed the scholar’s exam and seemed to have a promising future, but he fell in with the wrong crowd and ruined himself. He indulged in every vice except prostitution, gambled away everything the family possessed, and forced his own parents to sell their land to pay his debts. Not only that, he got the entire family thrown out of the main house, and these three dilapidated rooms were all they had after the split.

They had a mother, Lady Liu, the daughter of Wen Xiuyi’s schoolteacher. Not long ago, her childhood sweetheart, now an official, returned for her. He gave Wen Xiuyi twenty taels of silver in exchange for a divorce, after which she abandoned her children and left to enjoy a better life with her first love.

Wen Xiuyi, with the money in hand, went gambling again. When it was all lost, he set his sights on his ten-year-old daughter and sixteen-year-old son, intending to sell them. The two resisted desperately, and in the struggle, they knocked down the pillar supporting the roof. The house collapsed, burying all three of them.

When they regained consciousness, they had become the family they now were.

Wen Yao glared at Wen Changping, who quickly forced an awkward smile and tried to appease her. “That was the original owner, not your real dad. Even if I starved, I’d never sell you.”

Wen Yao knew that, but the original father really had been scum.

“So, where have we ended up?” Wen Jun asked. Though he had some memories, they were so fragmented he couldn’t piece things together.

Wen Yao shook her head. She had no idea. According to her memories, the farthest the original body had ever been was the mountain behind their house.

Wen Changping, however, remembered more. “I know this. This country is called Annan, ruled by the Li family. We’re in a place called Yunwu Town, and our village is Guting Village. There’s no record of it in history, so I guess it’s not from our era. Your names haven’t changed, just your ages—Yao Yao, you’re ten, Xiao Jun is sixteen. As for me, I’m called Wen Xiuyi here. Remember that. Oh, and you have a younger brother. You saw him earlier—the little one, nicknamed Bighead, real name Wen Zhao. The old woman who took him away is your grandmother. Remember that?”

Wen Yao froze as if struck by lightning. Her lips trembled before she asked, “Dad, what did you say our little brother’s name was?”

“Wen Zhao. Your grandfather named him. But since he’s so young and can’t speak yet, everyone just calls him Bighead.” Seeing his daughter’s reaction, Wen Xiuyi grew anxious. “Yao Yao, what’s wrong?”

Wen Yao’s eyes darted around, and she started tugging at her hair, pacing in place.

Wen Jun hurriedly grabbed her hand. “Stop, or you’ll pull it all out.”

Wen Yao abruptly stopped and said, “Dad, brother, do you remember the novel I was complaining about before our accident?”

Both nodded. It was because two minor characters in that book shared their names that Wen Yao had reluctantly read it. Those characters only appeared for a single chapter, and the subsequent plot was so awkward it made Wen Yao want to die of embarrassment—so she had told it to her father and brother for amusement.

Now, with everything connecting in her mind, Wen Yao suddenly felt as if a veil had been lifted.

“My mother—this body’s mother—is her surname Liu? And her childhood sweetheart is named Meng De, right?” Wen Yao pointed at herself.

Wen Xiuyi thought for a moment, then nodded.

“That’s right, that’s his name—he’s an official in the capital.”

With this confirmation, Wen Yao nearly lost it. “Damn it!”

The father and son looked at her, bewildered. “What’s wrong?”

Wen Yao glanced around. Aside from the devastation, there was nothing else. She lowered her voice and explained everything to them, finally widening her eyes. “Wen Zhao—our little brother—is exactly the tragic second male lead I complained about, the one who could have built a great career but instead became obsessed with love.”

“Damn!” The father and son’s pupils shrank in shock. That mute little boy?

Even Wen Yao could barely believe that the mute toddler from today was the same Wen Zhao who, in the novel, climbed to great heights only to sacrifice himself for the female lead because of his obsession.

Yes, the novel’s brief description of Wen Zhao’s background matched theirs exactly. Older brother Wen Jun, second sister Wen Yao, mother Lady Liu remarried to Meng De, biological father Wen Xiuyi a gambling addict, unable to speak before age five but extremely intelligent. After being taken to the capital by Lady Liu, he was trained by Meng De into a calculating, ruthless man who stopped at nothing to achieve his goals.

The novel even hinted that because of Wen Zhao’s good looks, Meng De once gave him as a gift to a powerful official in exchange for a promotion.

It was these experiences that made Wen Zhao so gloomy in his youth, and the female lead’s appearance became his one ray of hope. Even when he reached the pinnacle of power, he willingly became a stepping stone for the lead couple.

After hearing all this, Wen Xiuyi asked urgently, “So what happened to the three of us in the end? What did the book say?”

Wen Yao tried to scratch her head again, but Wen Jun stopped her. Only then did she say, “My brother and I were sold by you and disappeared without a trace. Wen Zhao never found us, not even at his death—the author probably forgot about us. After selling us, you gambled the money away, got into a fight, and were beaten to death.”

She added, “It’s said not even your corpse was claimed—your body was thrown into the mountains and fed to the dogs by the gambling den.”

Wen Changping was speechless.

In the original novel, the three of them existed only to provide background for Wen Zhao’s character and future. They appeared for a single chapter before exiting the stage, and the next chapter returned to the main characters, with Wen Zhao already a rising star in the capital.