Pretend Mother and Son
Su Han was also a bit surprised himself when he saw that Su Ran almost fell. Instinctively he reached out to steady her but forced himself to pull his hands back a second later.
The shred of guilt and worry that flashed past his face was quickly replaced by his coldness.
When Su Ran finally caught herself and looked up at Su Han, all she saw was a young man, who was so handsome that mortal men and gods would be envious of, looking at her coldly with distant and repulsiveness.
The moment that Su Ran looked up, Su Han seemed to have further taken a step backward, as though she was some sort of infectious disease...
Su Ran's lips twitched. She almost wanted to slap this unfamilial son of hers.
Perhaps, Su Han had only sensed that something was wrong with Gu Jiahao's banquet, but didn't realize that they were in clear and present danger. Su Ran, on the other hand, had read the original novel. She knew full well that if anything had gone wrong, both of them would have died at the Gu's.
She had risked her life to get him out of there, and what did she get in return? Not only did her instant son not appreciate her effort, he gave her a I-am-staring-at-the-flu-patient-and-better-stay-away look.
But, she found her zen almost immediately.
This future boss villain had very good reasons to dislike his own mother so much. After all, the original owner didn't exactly welcome him with both arms either.
As far as "Su Ran" was concerned, the birth of Su Han was unexpected.
At the beginning, after "Su Ran" was scarred and violated, she didn't even realize she was pregnant. When she realized it and wanted to have an abortion, it was already too late in time.
"Su Ran" gave birth to Su Han in the bathroom of her rental apartment. At the time, her first reaction was to toss the kid into the dumpster.
It was her neighbors that noticed it, called the police, and saved the innocent little life.
Perhaps, the original owner had thought about killing him ten thousand times, and had ten thousand and one ways to kill him, but fearing the law, "Su Ran" with neither money nor power had no choice but to keep the child with her.
There was no way "Su Ran", at that age, could take good care of the child, not to mention that the child was the biggest nightmare in her life.
"Su Ran" had very complicated emotions toward Su Han. Perhaps there was some maternal instinct in there, but not a lot. She mostly felt resentment and fear toward him.
The way that "Su Ran" raised him was worse than the treatment of a stray dog – sometimes "Su Ran" would be gone for days and the just a few-year-old Su Han narrowly avoided the fate of starving to death because of food from the neighbors.
Never mind if he had become twisted, the simple fact that he survived into adulthood was a miracle in and of itself.
It was only natural that Su Han and "Su Ran" were like strangers to each other. As for disgust, that was normal too.
If she was in his shoes and found out that her mother was in the line of work that "Su Ran" was in, she probably wouldn't be very fond of her either.
Not to mention that Su Han was already at the age of being able to tell good from bad and also entering into his rebellious period.
Su Ran, as an outsider, did not have the same resentment toward Su Han like the original owner. That being said, it was also impossible for her, someone who had never even been in a relationship, let alone getting married and having kids, to suddenly step into the role of a mother.
That being said, looking at Su Han's face that had already started into adulthood, Su Ran shook her head inside and sighed. He was, after all, a villain who could take on the male lead's son in the future. For sure he has superior intelligence, and he was handsome on top of that.If he didn't become twisted, he could for sure turn into an outstanding man. Perhaps even a mighty boss was entirely within reason.
Yet...
-
As Su Ran was thinking about all those things, she didn't hide her thoughts. Su Han, who was being stared at by Su Ran, suddenly felt goosebumps. This woman had always looked at him with disgust and coldness. He couldn't figure out why Su Ran was looking at him the way that she was right now.
He couldn't understand her gaze right now. Oddly, that made him feel uncomfortable.
He decided to put an end to this unpleasant sensation under her stare, so he tightened his lips a little and turned to leave expressionlessly without saying a word.
"Aren't you going home with me?" Su Ran instinctively asked when she saw that Su Han was walking away.
As soon as the words left her mouth, Su Ran felt embarrassed immediately.
How had she forgotten that Su Han had moved out of "Su Ran"s apartment when he started junior high school.
It seemed he hasn't even asked the original owner for tuition or living expenses for the last few months.
Sure enough, after he heard what Su Ran said, Su Han paused for a little. A scornful look crossed his face while he still had his back to her before he resumed walking away from her.
"You should focus on your school work right now. These types of banquets might sound fun, but they are not proper nor safe." Regardless of whether Su Han was listening to her, Su Ran felt that she was obligated to give him a heads up.
"I don't need advice from you," said Su Han coldly before he walked away without looking back.
Watching Su Han walk away, Su Ran sighed again.
It was quite obvious by now that expecting her son to listen to her and be civil with her was not going to be possible. She did, however, forcefully changed the plot in the story today. That had at least gotten rid of one of the critical turning points that contributed to him becoming a villain later on. As for what was going to happen in the future, she had no idea. And even if she did, as a cannon fodder that had already been phased out of the story, there was only so much she could do.
Putting Su Han aside for a moment, even Su Ran's immediate future wasn't exactly looking very promising.
She might have survived the night, but all the messes that were left behind to her by the original owner were still laying out in front of her.
Su Ran didn't forget the multiple messages asking her to repay her loans while she was on her way over to the banquet.
There were messages from the bank, the landlord asking for rent, late payment requests for water and power companies, and a few additional loans from loan sharks who were asking for their money back now.
Meh, at least she was still alive. Borrowing the line from the second male lead in the novel: any problems that could be resolved with money was not a problem.
In the novel, the second male lead pretended to be a coquettish and a lowly clown. When Su Ran was reading the book, she was a bit of a fan for this second male lead.
Thinking about this, Su Ran started feeling better again.
The second male lead had a secretive uncle who left him a gold mine. As long as nothing crazy happened, the second male lead wouldn't even know about its existence. When push comes to shove, she'd just have to go and steal a few pieces of gold from there.
Su Ran immediately recovered from her earlier distressed mode and walked forward at a brisk pace.
On her way out, Su Ran caught a glimpse of the cruel mansion district again, and she couldn't help but shudder.
This was the main stage where the original owner performed with her life. Today was an exception. From this point forward, Su Ran was absolutely certain that she would never enter this battlefield again!
Su Ran reassured herself with utmost certainty. What she didn't know was that sometimes faceslapping came about awfully fast.
Su Ran wouldn't be deluded enough to think there'd be buses to locations like Dongshan Court. Except that after buying her new set of clothes and taking the taxi over, she had already spent all the money that the original owner had on her.
When Su Ran was finally able to get back to her rental apartment, it was two hours later.
Before Su Ran could figure out why it was so lively in the stairwell of her building at this hour, she saw bright red paint on her own front door. Of course, along with it were the three big words, "PAY US BACK!"
"Oh, that woman is finally back now. All the banging and knocking almost gave me a heart attack earlier."
"Exactly. I heard that she had taken out loans from the loan sharks."
"Oh my lord! Loan sharks? That's not the kind of characters that peasants like us will cross path with!"
"Yeah, we peasants might not, but did you not see what kind of a person that woman is?"
"Exactly. Aye, I heard that she has a son? I haven't seen him in a while, did she trade him in as a form of payment?"
"Hey hey hey. Stop making sh*t up over there. The adult might be bad, but the child is innocent. I think her son moved out on his own a while ago."
"Good for him. If he stays with her, sooner or later she would have sold him."
The neighbors were probably upset that Su Ran had brought them so much trouble in the middle of the night, so they didn't really care that she could hear them gossiping about her.
If she was still the original owner, she'd probably had already gotten into a fight with them.
But right now, Su Ran just went inside her apartment without saying a word. As much as everyone wanted to let out more steam, they never got the chance to.
"Oh, whatever. It's so late in the night, let's all just go home."
"I am going to go check and see if my grandchild was woken up."
"My husband has the early shift tomorrow. I should go back as well."
***
On the other hand, even though Su Ran has the original owner's memories and was somewhat mentally prepared, when she saw the scene inside the door, she was still stunned beyond words.
This was an old house from the last century. The house wasn't big, with one bedroom, one living room, half a kitchen and a bathroom.
It looked as though there was some leaking issue, in the bedroom so the original owner had already given up on it completely. In the living room, some 40 – 50 pairs of shoes took up almost half the area of the living room. On top of the only couch, there were piles and piles of the original owner's clothes. Needless to say, there were all of the same style as her earlier semi-transparent spaghetti straps and leather skirts that barely covered her bottom.
As for the half kitchen, it was also taken up by the original owner's clothes and shoes. Apparently, it hasn't served its original purpose for many years.
Su Ran spent a long time in the apartment before she was finally able to locate $9,000 that the original owner has not yet gotten around to spending and a receipt for a $90,000 loan in a knock off designer purse.
Why did she say "she hasn't gotten around to spending them"?
Because "Su Ran" had no concept of savings. Even though she was already so down on her luck as to becoming a barmaid, with the exception of the male lead, her biggest favorite pastime was still to buy, buy, buy.
When "Su Ran" was just banished from the Su's, she still had with her a lot of designer brand purses and clothing, but she had already sold them all a few years ago.
As for these cheap "work clothes" that were of poor quality, nobody would want them even if she offered them up for free.
Which was to say that this $9,000 was all the money that Su Ran has right now.
$9,000 should be enough to pay off rent, power, and water bills for the month, but the $90,000 loan from the loan shark...
Su Ran sighed.
She would never have imagined that as the genius musician that was rumored to only drink dew from flowers, she would one day have to worry about paying bills.
Perhaps, she should go back to doing what she did best.
The plotline for the original owner female villain supporting character had already phased out for over 10 years by now. She didn't see it being an issue should she choose to live her life any way that she wanted.
(a/n: translation from novel updates!)