At the engagement party where countless relatives and friends were invited, He Ran ran away from the marriage. Just when Lu Wan in a wedding dress was completely at a loss, He Jinxing appeared and asked Lu Wan calmly, “Do you mind changing the groom?”.

This male protagonist highlight was one of the most popular plots in domineering CEO romance novels. In the end, He Jinxing replaced He Ran and completed the engagement banquet with Lu Wan.

… …

So fucking romantic ah!

At this point, He Ran—this tool man—was basically 886¹. He would sometimes jump out like a clown, get slapped in the face; jump out again, and get slapped in the face again…

He was just used by the author whenever the plot needed watering.

Gou An found herself impatient and angry, feeling as if her heart had been scratched by a cat. She wanted to drag the man lying on the stretcher beat him up some more, asking him if he was crazy and why the hell did he run away from the marriage!

‘Snap!’.  The ‘Your Life Story Is My Gorgeous Epitaph’ function was turned off.

Unfortunately, a certain stupid cat was still immersed in this inexplicable, sorely old-fashioned romantic plot of saving the engagement party by exchanging the grooms and could not extricate himself.

[Jiao Jiao: I really want to know what He Jinxing was thinking when he suggested changing the groom to Lu Wan.]

Gou An stretched her legs and rubbed her back which was already sore from being injured. According to the rules of sadomasochism novels, the hero definitely doesn’t care about the heroine at the beginning. What he was thinking at that time was probably something like ‘it doesn’t matter who I marry, there’s so many other people out there, I can’t let this bring shame to our great He family’, right?

[Jiao Jiao: Is your back making you sour?]

Gou An: Sour?

[Jiao Jiao: Why do I feel like you are sour right now?]

Gou An: …

Gou An: What the hell are you talking about!

[Jiao Jiao: Look, you are still angry! I am a kitten, I don’t bullshit, so what a kitten like me says is the truth!]

… …

It only took the time for the ambulance to reach the hospital to read through He Ran’s short life (??).

When they arrived at the hospital, Gou An helped go through the formalities, and then saw with her own eyes how the He family rushed over and pounced on He Jinxing who was sitting there fine, and He Ran who was getting his sprained ankle bandaged next to him.

On the phone, members of the Honorable Daughters chatgroup were all @ her frantically, asking about the situation in the hospital.

[SHY YUTONG²: An’an, what’s happening? Is Uncle Perky Butt okay?!!]

Gou An, who now had black lines on her face, took a picture for Zhou Yutong, showing her that Uncle Perky Butt was sitting there just fine.

[SHY YUTONG: How pitiful! He’s just sitting there like that! Go comfort him, and take advantage of his weakness to get to the top! Go, go!]

Compared to He Ran who seemed to be about to die, Gou An didn’t see what was so pitiful about He Jinxing, so she put her cell phone in her pocket and went home.

… …

After returning home, Gou Yu was already there waiting. He asked about the basic situation and learned that everyone was fine. Father Gou breathed a sigh of relief.

Sitting side by side on the sofa, Gou Yu’s phone rang. He picked up the phone and said two sentences, including “Have you arrived?”

Gou An was very confused. How could someone come to visit when it was already this dark outside? At this time, the father and daughter looked at each other. 

Gou Yu, who knew very well how much his daughter liked to beat around the bush when talking, chose to get straight to the point, “Did you forget that there is still your bodyguard issue that has not yet been resolved?”

Gou An shook her head, “I don’t want a bodyguard.”

Gou Yu muttered, “You can’t refuse this. Combined with what happened at the racetrack today, you’re ready to star in Final Destination Part 8,” all the while walking towards the entrance.

After a while, the door opened and closed again, and Gou Yu walked back inside the house. He turned around and said to the person who was probably still standing by the entrance, “Come in, don’t be shy.”

“?”

Miss Gou looked towards the door blankly and saw a slender figure coming in. The person was very tall and wore washed-out jeans and a white T-shirt.

Short haircut.

He had delicate features, fair skin, and sharp eagle eyes.

Her mind went blank for just a second, and then memories came flooding back.

At this moment, Gou An finally remembered the first scene of the movie Titanic, where the great Mr. Ye Lang from the lower class got a ticket to her broken and doomed-to-sink ship…

It all started one day when Gou Yu said to her: My dear girl, I think you need a bodyguard.

… …

This day has finally arrived.

Gou Yu probably never knew in the past that the bodyguard he had carefully selected for his daughter had a hidden skill called ‘stealing what he guards’.

The biggest crisis in Gou An’s life was created by the person who was supposed to protect her.

At this moment, Gou Yu looked the bodyguard in front of him up and down, not noticing at all that the person sitting on the sofa had suddenly stiffened. He was quite satisfied and said almost to himself, “I guess you, a vain person, would want a good-looking bodyguard so that you can show off when you go out. But don’t think he’s just good-looking, he’s also a good fighter. I saw it myself this afternoon—your Uncle Wang couldn’t last more than five moves against him.”

Uncle Wang was the Gu family’s old security commander, a former mercenary from the Golden Triangle³ who has retired from the underworld. Gou Yu has employed him for many years and trusted him very much.

Anyone who could defeat him was indeed no ordinary person.

… And he really wasn’t.

This person was once favored by Gou An, how could he be an ordinary person?

“Ye Lang, greet her.”

While Gou An was savoring her own stupidity and outrageous behavior in the past, the man standing five meters away called her.

“Miss.”

The voice was hoarse and low, and oh so familiar. Standing a few meters away, Ye Lang’s face was as calm as the sea, and his deep eyes looked at Miss Gou on the sofa without any hesitation.

All five of her senses were fully awakened by the single word ‘Miss’.

Her heart suddenly contracted, causing a sharp pain.

Gou An raised her hand to her chest, as if to caress her throbbing heart. She has never been so decisive as she was right now, “I don’t want him.”

It was a clear and decisive tone.

The person standing not far away narrowed his eyes slightly.

As if feeling that the rejection wasn’t strong enough, the next second, Gou An picked up a book lying on the coffee table in front of her and said to the person at the door, “I don’t want you! Get out!”

The pages of the book flipped as it flew, hitting the front of Ye Lang’s chest with a ‘bang’. The corner of the book slammed into his chest hard and fell to the ground.

Being hit by such a heavy book would be painful, but Ye Lang just tilted his head slightly to avoid being hit in the eyes…

He didn’t move his feet the entire time.

No one expected that Miss Gou would react so violently to the new bodyguard, and the living room fell into a brief silence.

Finally, the usually taciturn man broke the silence.

Ye Lang said, “That’s the second time.”

… …

Last time it was a bowl of steaming-hot porridge.

This was the second time she hit him with something.

If memory served him correct, they have only met twice in total.

Ye Lang thought seriously about what could have gone wrong between them, but Gou An thought that his silence was a sign of murderous intent. The reminder [Favorability: 10] was enough to make anyone’s hair stand on end. 

Without waiting for Ye Lang to react, Gou An turned to Gou Yu and screamed, “Dad, look!”

Gou Yu asked in shock, “What am I looking at? Should I look at you being lawless and attacking strangers like a crazy person?”

Gou An: “…”

“What’s going on? Why did you suddenly hit someone? Are you not feeling unlucky enough recently? From being attacked during the school’s opening speech to almost losing contact with you during that Endless Night fiasco, you’ve been hit by one disaster after another. Your mother and I have been nearly scared to death! An’an, we’re hiring you a bodyguard to protect you. You have to be obedient in this matter.”

Gou An shook her head, “I won’t listen! Because he is not a good person! Get him out of our house! Dad, let’s talk about Endless Night. Can it be that Endless Night got into such a big mess that day because those mad dogs were looking for him? Why did I react so strongly? Of course it’s because I recognized him—”

Gou Yu asked, “Who did you recognize?”

Ye Lang said, “You recognized the wrong person.”

Gou An: “…”

“What do you mean I recognized the wrong person?! They were looking for you! If I keep you by my side, then what’s the difference between that and keeping a wolf by my side to protect myself from being bitten by a dog!”

The white fingertip was pointed at the man’s nose not far away.

The accused was silent for a few seconds, probably thinking about her wonderful metaphor, and then decisively denied it again (very firmly), “That night, it wasn’t me.”

Gou An’s pupils trembled. This guy actually lied!

… Oh, wait, of course he would lie.

After all, she was almost cheated to death by him.

Gou An was really furious.

“Oh, it wasn’t you? As far as I know, they were looking for a man named ‘Wolf ge‘ that night,” Miss Gou sneered. “Excuse me, how many Wolf ge does Endless Night have?”

“I don’t know. Anyway, it’s not me.”

“If it wasn’t you, why did you run away that night!”

“I was scared.” Ye Lang paused and managed to come up with a plausible excuse, “There were a lot of them.”

“…”

That night, Gou An was so angry that she couldn’t sleep.

From the Day the Engagement was Broken translated by Maela @ whitemoonlighttranslations.com

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T/N: You know how in other novels, the villainess awakens and they turn a new leaf, living a good life full of righteousness? Yeah, that’s not Gou An. She is just lawless 😂

But also, her reaction to Ye Lang makes me doubt her characterization as ‘awakened’. She remembers Ye Lang, and her heartbreak at his betrayal is real. Doesn’t that make her reborn?  

But also, someone got her fur bristling at He Jinxing volunteering to be Lu Wan’s groom…

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FOOTNOTES:

1. 886, it means ‘byebye!’ Bābāliu sounds like ‘byebye le’, le being an emphasis sound. ↩︎
2. Zhou Yutong’s chat name here is ‘JIEJIE, I ATE 3 ELEPHANTS’ but it somehow changed to ‘SHY GROUNDHOG’ later in the story without explanation. I figured if the author themselves didn’t care too much about it, then I can just rename it ‘SHY YUTONG’; this makes it easier for readers to remember too. ↩︎
3. The Golden Triangle is a mountainous area by the borders of Laos, Myanmar, and Thailand. It is recognized as one of the largest producers of opium. 
   The Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone is a casino haven predominantly patronized by Chinese tourists (gambling is illegal in China) and has since gained a reputation of being a ‘Chinese city’ (even though it’s in Laos) rife with illegal activities such as drug, human and animal trafficking. ↩︎