"Sophia Sterling, please don't try to buy me off. I didn't choose to be with Lionel Ashworth—life just pushed me there!"
The first thing Sophia saw when she opened her eyes was this woman staring at her, cheeks burning red, voice trembling with anger.
Sophia casually snapped her fingers. In that instant, the whole scene froze like someone had slammed a pause button.
"Mo Lian, load the plot."
"For the millionth time, I'm not Mo Lian. My name is Moliān."
"Same difference."
"Damn it!"
While Moliān kept ranting, Sophia absorbed the entire storyline.
The original owner shared her name—Sophia Sterling. She had been hopelessly in love with Lionel Ashworth for years, but he treated her like she was invisible. After her “good friend” egged her on, she slipped him something. Only, instead of ending up in her bed, he’d stumbled out the door and straight into this woman—Rowena Forest.
One accidental night later, Lionel got hooked on Rowena’s body and paid her to become his mistress.
Then came the scene she’d walked into: the original Sophia waving a check, trying to pay Rowena to walk away. Of course Rowena refused, and she and Lionel kept messing around behind everyone’s backs.
Not long after, the Ashworth Group and Sterling Group planned a marriage alliance. Rowena found out, fought with Lionel like crazy, and when he still insisted on marrying Sophia, she left the country, heartbroken. Once abroad, she discovered she was pregnant.
Lionel couldn’t find her anywhere and threw all his frustration onto Sophia. He married her but never touched her, spending every night partying instead.
Sophia’s younger brother Linden Sterling studied abroad, met Rowena, fell for her, helped her become a top designer, and invited her to work at his jewelry shop.
Rowena had barely returned when her son went looking for Lionel. After a DNA test confirmed the kid was his, Lionel demanded a divorce but couldn’t bear to abandon the Sterling fortune. Conveniently, Sophia’s father suffered a stroke, giving Lionel the chance to take over the Sterling Group and secretly siphon assets.
By the time Mr. Sterling woke up, the family empire was collapsing. The shock killed him, and the Sterlings fell apart completely. Lionel took everything and even gifted Linden’s jewelry store to Rowena.
Drowning in guilt, Linden ended his own life.
Losing her brother pushed the original Sophia over the edge. Fueled by grief and rage, she tried to kill Rowena. Lionel caught wind of it and threw her straight into prison.
Once she died, Lionel and Rowena lived their perfect little family life, even having twin daughters afterward.
Those two got their happy ending, while the original Sophia’s resentment spiraled into something dark enough to draw Moliān’s attention.
And that was how Moliān dragged Sophia Sterling into this world.
Sophia Sterling opened her eyes and stared at the girl in front of her. The girl looked barely twenty. Her hair was casually tied back, a few wisps falling messily by her ears. Her eyes were bright, her features delicate—just one glance and you couldn’t help feeling a strange urge to protect her.
“Host, I need to remind you,” the girl said, voice crisp yet a little tense. “Your job is to turn the female side character’s life around. Not to kill off the male and female leads. If either of them dies, this whole world collapses.”
“I know that.” Sophia’s tone was flat, almost bored.
Mo Lian sucked in a deep breath—then exploded. “You ‘know’? You freaking know? Then why the hell did you kill the male lead in the last world?!”
“Host, if you keep wrecking worlds, the system will deduct your merit points,” she warned again, voice trembling like she was about to cry from anger.
“So annoying.” Sophia’s patience snapped. She reached out, grabbed the little floating doll-like projection, and chucked it far away without a second thought.
A snap echoed. The world around her snapped back to normal like nothing had happened.
Across the room, Rowena Forest seized the check on the table, clearly ready to tear it in half. But before she could, a slender, cool hand stopped her movement.
“I want to ask you something, Ms. Forest.”