SAHBQT 03

Chapter – 03

The Beloved Missy — The Diary

“It was just a bit of interest in mechanical assembly,” You Mingming said. “I really don’t know much about perfume. Send me whatever materials you have—I’ll take a look.”

Before transmigrating into these books, the perfume market in You Mingming’s original world was dominated by floral scents. Her understanding of perfume was limited to the simple framework of top notes, heart notes, and base notes.

If the novel world shared even a sliver of common ground with the real world, then with the supporting female character’s constitution—naturally carrying the fragrance of a hundred flowers—she really was a… born heartthrob.

Not to mention that her scent also had the effect of soothing the mind.

Keep in mind, this was a world completely severed from nature, rife with wars over every scrap of land. Humans living amidst concrete and steel were like hamsters confined to tiny cages—ordinary people riddled with anxiety, soldiers suffering from postwar trauma…

The fact that someone as special as her hadn’t been dissected yet was truly thanks to the brilliance of law and humanism.

“How do you know she won’t be dissected?” the system spoke up, like a ghost, its tone deeply ominous.

“Whoa, don’t scare me,” You Mingming said, rubbing her arms, then asked, “Tell me honestly—did Pei Qingqing really die of heart failure?”

The system fell silent. And its silence generally meant denial.

Thus You Mingming learned a very important piece of information—under no circumstances should she go out alone.

Of course, staying home didn’t seem entirely safe either. The way that maid had clung to her handkerchief with such obsessed expression… who knew when she might lose control of her desires and tear You Mingming apart alive?

“So, give up on the Pei Jingzhi task and focus on completing the first one as soon as possible,” the system urged her like a nagging mother. “I believe with your abilities, you’ll resolve things here quickly.”

“No,” You Mingming refused. “If a person doesn’t challenge their limits, what’s the difference between them and a dried fish?”

The system was cold and indifferent—it had known this would be the answer.

As an AI that worked for the Main God unpaid and considered it the highest honor, the system couldn’t quite understand You Mingming’s willingness to put herself in danger for twenty million yuan.

It was just twenty million—a string of data…

Knock, knock, knock—

The closed door was knocked on three times. Without waiting for You Mingming’s response, the knocker pushed the door open on their own, gave the room’s layout a critical once-over, and covered her nose with a handkerchief as she spoke. “I heard that young general from the Bai family came over?”

“Your adoptive mother, Qi Xin,” the system explained.

You Mingming slipped into her pure-white-flower persona. She only looked up at Qi Xin briefly before quickly lowering her head again, saying nothing.

Qi Xin was long accustomed to her temperament. With a mix of disgust and impatience, she said, “You’ve stirred up such a scandal. Though it’s been suppressed, it still affects the Pei family’s reputation after all.”

“Take this chance to marry that young general as soon as possible. Don’t keep mooching off our family.”

“Also, your family’s businesses have taken a hit from this incident—stocks have plummeted, and you owe about seven or eight hundred million. Don’t expect the Pei family to help pay off your debts.”

After saying this, Qi Xin furrowed her brows and left. Only when she was far enough from the room that she knew she wouldn’t be influenced by the fragrance into feeling affection for her adoptive daughter did she let out a sigh of relief.

Truth be told, she loathed Pei Qingqing—and she loathed Pei Qingqing’s origins even more.

Seven or eight hundred million? You Mingming clicked her tongue. Even all her own assets combined didn’t add up to that much.

The system dumped all the perfume-related material it had into You Mingming’s mind, then reminded her, “There’s a USB drive in the cabinet in front of you. It was left to Pei Qingqing by her parents. It contains many ancient perfume formulas—some of which are already lost.”

“Wen Suyue’s theft system is currently analyzing and copying. In about twelve hours, it will have reproduced everything in full.”

“Wen Suyue will use those formulas to rise to new wealth overnight, commanding assets worth ten billion.”

Ten billion…

Tearing up, You Mingming walked over to the cabinet and dug out a notebook, as well as the securely wrapped USB drive. She asked, “Can I take this back to the real world with me? I want to donate it to the country and benefit the masses.”

The system: “…”

The system: “No.”

You Mingming sighed. Since she couldn’t take this treasure trove of wealth back with her, she might as well just focus on the job at hand for now…

She plugged the USB drive into the computer and, while waiting for the files to load, flipped through Pei Qingqing’s diary, hoping to get a sense of what kind of person Pei Jingzhi was.

Pei Qingqing’s diary entries were very brief—most days merely recording what the weather was like and whether or not she had seen her brother.

You Mingming flipped through several dozen pages and saw nothing but Pei Qingqing’s regret over not being able to see her brother.

Her expression was somewhat wooden. It seemed Pei Jingzhi was the type of wanderer who rarely came home.

“So,” the system said earnestly, “it’s just twenty million yuan. You—”

You Mingming couldn’t be bothered with the system, which clearly didn’t understand the struggles of a working person. She quickly skimmed through the rest of the diary and finally found two pages that stood out from the rest—

Brother’s scent is different from everyone else’s. I don’t like those people—only my brother;

I really hate her. Why does she always say those things to him? Even if… but Brother is innocent. If it weren’t for her, he wouldn’t be unwilling to come home…

Was “her” referring to Qi Xin?

Aside from Qi Xin, the household only had maids, and a maid wouldn’t be enough to make the young master of the house unwilling to return.

But regarding the latter—what had Qi Xin said to Pei Jingzhi? “Even if…” Even if what?

You Mingming was thoroughly confused.

She put the notebook back where it was and decided to tackle the first task first.

The file reading progress on the USB drive had reached 99%, and a few seconds later, it opened automatically. The first thing that popped up was a video. In the video, a man and a woman stood amidst desolate hills and ruins.

They first explained where they were and what they were doing, then went on to say that if Pei Qingqing ever found life difficult, she should log into a social platform and auction off the perfume formulas stored on the USB drive.

The original Pei Qingqing had known that her parents died in the ruins while searching for these ancient perfume formulas, so no matter how hard things got, she never sold them—because those formulas were stained with her parents’ blood.

But that only made things easier for the reborn Wen Suyue.

It wasn’t hard to imagine the despair Pei Qingqing felt when she discovered that the perfumes she had developed were stolen, and that the ancient formulas left to her by her parents were all auctioned off as well.

No wonder her obsession ran so deep that even in death, she wanted revenge against Wen Suyue.

You Mingming sympathized with the girl for a moment, then used the account and password from the USB drive to log into a platform called “Quest for Fragrance.”

From here on, she would take care of things!