Chapter 1: Like Father, Like Daughter

Transmigrating into a book was yesterday’s problem, wanting to run away is today’s reality.

In the bright living room, two massive arched French windows fully showcased the sprawling lawn outside. Natural light flooded in unobstructed, spilling across the gilded, carved railings.

It felt very much like the calm before a storm.

Shang Ying forced herself to look calm as she laid the exam paper onto the table. The edges were slightly wrinkled, so she stretched out her hand to smooth them out. Then, her gaze drifted sneakily toward the elegant man sitting on the sofa, whose sharp brows and handsome features carried a gentle air refined by the years.

The glaring red corrections on the test paper were an absolute eyesore, and the score of 28 points was even harder to look at. Shang Heng took one look at it and felt his temples throb violently. He opened his mouth, wanting to say something, but closed it again when he caught his youngest daughter's subtle, anxious movements as she smoothed the paper.

What a massive headache of a child!

You couldn’t really blame Shang Ying for this. After all, who could have anticipated that the exact moment she transmigrated would be right in the middle of an exam?!

Anyone who has been out of school for years would know the sheer horror of opening your eyes only to hear the sudden, soul-snatching ring of an exam-start bell! It was an absolute nightmare.

Well, what's done was done. With the current economic downturn and a bad overall environment, reading too many novels made transmigrating into reality seem not all that bizarre. The novel Shang Ying had landed in was titled “Fleeting Domineering Presidents, Ironclad Female Lead”.

True to its name, it was a reverse-harem story. The female lead was named Lin Yuan, and she had an endless supply of high-quality boyfriends. Whoever she liked best at the very end would become the male lead. In the end, the female lead picked the worst of the bunch, a guy named Huo Yunshu.

Coincidentally, the character in the book who shared Shang Ying’s exact first and last name was a member of the villain faction. She was the most notorious troublemaker in the entire text. Her actions didn't cause fatal damage, but she was exceptionally agonizing to deal with.

In the original plot, the character Shang Ying couldn't stand Huo Yunshu’s pretentious, posturing attitude, so she deliberately went out of her way to target and suppress him. Furthermore, she despised how Lin Yuan received praise from Shang Heng for tutoring her, so she frequently tripped the two of them up.

What she never expected was that her three older brothers and one younger brother would all fall hopelessly in love with Lin Yuan. Upon discovering that she was bullying Lin Yuan, her three older brothers constantly lectured her, while her younger brother threatened her both openly and covertly. Their already distant familial relationships became frozen solid. Naturally, the original character refused to mend her ways, and the more they lectured her, the more fiercely she bullied the female lead.

Originally, Shang Ying had just picked up this face-slapping, satisfying novel to pass the time and get a quick dopamine hit. However, because the villain shared her name, she couldn't enjoy it at all. Most of the "satisfying" plot points relied on this villain being utterly humiliated.

That said, in certain aspects, this villain and Shang Ying herself shared a remarkably similar personality. Every time she read about the character messing with the pretentious male lead, Shang Ying had actually found it hilarious.

She seriously suspected the author of this book was some personal enemy of hers.

In the end, the villain Shang Ying's final outcome was being thrown into prison by the male lead on his climb to success. She technically secured a "permanent public sector job" by eating prison food, but she never got to enjoy that iron rice bowl for long. She was tortured to death by her "colleagues" in the cell.

At this very moment, Shang Ying still wanted to voice one complaint: ‘Damn, that guy really is the king of pretentiousness.’

After venting her internal complaints, she still had to face the reality of the exam. Fine, an exam is an exam, she could just write random answers. But when she lowered her head to look at the paper, it turned out to be chemistry! Who on earth could pass that?

It is worth noting that Shang Ying was an absolute, thoroughbred chemistry dunce. Even during her actual college entrance exams back in her original life, she had scraped together a mere forty-something points after scaling. Her brain might as well have been filled with solid cement, not a single drop of knowledge could penetrate it.

Therefore, this 28 points was already the result of her performing at an absolute peak level. She was actually quite satisfied with it. At least she had guessed half of the multiple-choice questions correctly!

Amidst the heavy, suffocating silence in the room, Shang Heng finally waved his hand, completely unwilling to look at Shang Ying’s irritating face.

“Take it away. I don't want to look at it."

Shang Ying stood rooted to the spot, silently pushing the exam paper a little further forward.

"Parent's signature."

The school had already sent the report card directly to the parent's phone, so Shang Heng had known about her abysmal score the first instance it came out. If it weren't for the school strictly requiring a physical signature from a guardian, Shang Ying wouldn't have actively sought out a scolding.

The father in this book was an exceptionally strict man who demanded absolute perfection from the younger generation. Anything less than perfect was met with punishment. The original host's three older brothers had boasted outstanding academic records since childhood, making them elites among their peers. Yet, by the time the genes reached her, the excellent family line had suffered a massive, catastrophic failure.

"You want me to sign a score like this?! How did I end up fathering a child with such a stupid brain! 28 points! If you added up all the points your brothers lost on their tests, it still wouldn't equal how many points you missed!"

A ceramic teacup was slammed heavily onto the table. Tea inevitably splashed out, soaking into the wrinkled exam paper until it turned damp and translucent.

Shang Heng rarely lost his temper like this, let alone hurled insults straight to someone's face. However, today happened to be the anniversary of his late wife's passing, so his mood was genuinely terrible. Furthermore, that 28 points was an incredible eyesore. If it weren't for the fact that Shang Ying's face looked about 80% identical to his deceased wife's, he would have pulled off his belt to whip her long ago.

This furious roar caused even Shang Ying, who had seen plenty of big scenes in her past life, to tremble slightly. Her beautiful eyes narrowed sharply. Once she snapped out of the shock, she cursed violently in her mind. She had been a spoiled brat who threw tantrums since childhood, no one had ever dared to speak to her in such a tone!

"Why are you yelling?! So what if I failed an exam? Since my brothers are so brilliant, why don't you just ask them to take the exams for me?! Either way, this is the maximum score I can get. If you don't want to sign it, then don't!"

Shang Heng was visibly stunned. He clearly hadn't expected his youngest daughter to talk back to him like this, and his chest began to heave violently with suppressed rage.

His expression shifted rapidly, becoming unreadable and complex. After a long pause, he managed to squeeze out a single line.

"When exactly did I yell at you?!"

"Aren't you yelling at me right now? If you aren't yelling, why is your voice so loud? Are you trying to dissipate heat?!" Shang Ying shot back righteously.

"In a literal minute, I’m going to go to my dead mom's grave and tell her that you're abusing me, so she can come into your dreams tonight and scare you to death!" She distinctly recalled the book mentioning that today was the death anniversary of the first Mrs. Shang.

"You... you!" The head of the Shang family, who usually kept his emotions completely hidden, was now flushed red with anger. "Rebellious daughter! You are simply a rebellious daughter!"

"Where on earth are your manners?! How dare you bring up your mother! I have spoiled you far too much, which makes me deeply apologetic to your mother!"

Shang Ying had never lost a verbal argument in her life.

"Where are your manners? If you hadn't yelled at me first, would I even be arguing with you? Like father, like daughter. I learned all of this from you!"

The servants standing in the living room were completely terrified by the scene unfolding before them. None of them dared to breathe loudly, doing everything they could to minimize their presence. They had never seen the master throw such a massive tantrum before.

Having sat on the sofa watching the drama play out for quite some time, Ning Wanyuan finally spoke up to smooth things over.

"Alright, it's just a poor exam score, it's not a big deal. She can always just be sent abroad in the future. Heng, don't be angry. Yingying, you shouldn't speak to your father like that either. Hurry up and apologize to your dad."

A flicker of confusion crossed her eyes. Though Shang Ying was typically unruly and reckless, she had never crossed Shang Heng to this extent before. In fact, not a single member of the younger generation in the Shang family ever dared to defy him like this.

Ning Wanyuan spoke in a soft, gentle tone, placing her well-kept, smooth hand gently over Shang Heng’s to comfort him.

Hearing this third voice, Shang Ying finally directed her gaze toward the lady sitting on the sofa.

The stepmother of the Shang family, a literal wolf in sheep's clothing. This woman always appeared to be speaking up on her behalf, but in reality, her words were designed to trigger Shang Heng and make him even angrier. After all, the thing he despised most was a useless loafer in the family.

‘Damn you, if you're so good at acting, why don't you go perform in a theater troupe?’

Thus, Shang Ying didn't play along with the act at all. She immediately threw a tantrum, showing zero respect.

"What does my conversation with my dad have to do with you? Stop acting like a good person here. My dad hates second-generation trust fund babies who go abroad the most. Are you trying to add fuel to the fire? You're doing this on purpose!"

Ning Wanyuan's elegant face froze instantly. Beneath her shock, a wave of embarrassment washed over her. Normally, Shang Ying maintained a decent relationship with her and was quite obedient. She had never exposed this side of herself before.

"So you actually knew that."

Seeing that his youngest daughter actually possessed a shred of self-awareness and understanding, a portion of the fury raging inside Shang Heng's chest dissipated. Then, with a trace of irritation, he signed his name across the exam paper.

"Next time, you are not permitted to speak to your Aunt Ning in such a manner. Hurry back to your room."

Shang Ying grabbed the exam paper and turned to leave without a single second of hesitation, acting as though she couldn't care less about standing there to be scolded.