Chapter 4: Meow…

When Orange Quiet Forest and her parents left the main family house.

When that door, symbolizing the absolute authority of the Orange Family Main House, slowly closed.

Orange Quiet Forest felt that the window to her personal freedom had also slammed shut.

She knew it was all over.

The car tires crunched over the main family’s expensive driveway, making an irritating, grating sound.

Including her aunt, the entire family fell into a long silence.

Orange Quiet Forest leaned against the car window, watching the scenery fly by outside, and let out a deep sigh.

The warm breath fogged up a small patch of the glass.

Had her mother not helped her?

No, that wasn’t it.

To be fair, during the earlier conversation and struggle, Ms. Orange Peach had already done her best.

It’s just that in the Orange Family, the head of the main family holds absolute authority.

After all, that old man is over seventy but still looks ruddy and healthy, appearing to be in his early fifties at most.

But in reality, his views are extremely conservative.

For example, all women in the family have to attend all-girls schools from kindergarten onward, all to ensure the purity of the family’s females.

To maintain the family’s honor, so that in the future, when arranging marriages, they can fetch a good price and improve the other party’s favorability.

If there was a women’s university on the same level as Winter Rose University, he would absolutely never allow the family’s women to attend a co-ed university.

Although it’s not just the Orange Family that does this; after all, when Orange Quiet Forest was studying at the all-girls school, there were many young ladies from other families too.

For Orange Quiet Forest, whose past life was that of a man, this was just a minor thing, even a pleasant one.

It was like a mouse falling into a rice bin.

Growing up surrounded by delicate, soft, and well-bred young ladies, walking through a campus that felt like a garden of lilies every day, the air itself seemed fragrant.

She was very happy moving among the flowers every day.

Although staying in the all-girls school for a long time shattered some of her previous fantasies about such schools.

Overall, it was still great!

Anyway, Orange Quiet Forest had no interest in men.

But… the other girls in the family probably didn’t feel the same way.

They also yearned for the outside world, wanted co-ed schools, wanted to experience romance in their youth.

Actually, as early as middle and high school, that old-fashioned, conservative old man had started to have ideas.

It’s just that back then, Orange Quiet Forest was the perfect “child from someone else’s family.”

Beautiful, excellent grades, proficient in music, chess, calligraphy, and painting.

Even though she was just the younger daughter of a branch family, the family head liked her a lot, so he kept putting off the marriage arrangement.

After all… at that time, Orange Quiet Forest was very likable.

She was the type whose value would only increase over time, so there was no need to hastily arrange a marriage.

But now…

Orange Peach sat in the passenger seat, watching her utterly despondent daughter through the rearview mirror, and sighed with a mix of frustration and pity.

“I told you, didn’t I? I told you to go to school, to go to school! Even if you were just coasting along at school! As long as you were in school, it would be a shield. We could say your studies were the priority, that you wanted to pursue further education. That you wanted to get a master’s, a doctorate! But you?”

Orange Peach rubbed her throbbing temples, her voice full of exhaustion.

Orange Quiet Forest was scared now too.

“Wahh… I’m only eighteen. I’m still a baby, I don’t want to get married… I don’t want to marry a man.”

In this life, Orange Quiet Forest really hadn’t had any close contact with men other than her old father.

That old man’s strategy indeed… from a man’s perspective, probably seemed pretty great.

“I told you to go to school! If you had gone to school, at worst, you’d have an engagement set, but you could still hold out for four years. Whether it would actually happen after graduation, or if you could find someone at university to marry into our family, there would still be hope. The family head just has traditional views, it’s not that he absolutely must have a marriage alliance. Back in my day, I also…”

Our Ms. Orange Peach looked utterly miserable, deeply troubled, and let out a heavy sigh, as if trying to expel all the frustration from her lungs.

“But you had to let him find out you took a leave of absence and became a shut-in at home! In the eyes of an old fossil, what other path is there for an eighteen-year-old girl who isn’t studying, isn’t working, and is just at home all day, other than to quickly get married and focus on husband and children?!”

“Sorry, Mom…”

“And now it’s done. The family head knows you took a leave and became a shut-in at home. That conservative-minded person, if he knows there’s an eighteen-year-old shut-in in the family, of course he’d arrange for her to marry early.”

Orange Quiet Forest hung her head dejectedly.

She truly regretted it now.

If only she had just endured at school.

“Sorry, Mom…”

“Sorry… it’s hopeless now. Think about what you want to do from now on yourself. The procedures are already done.”

Yes… even though I haven’t even met that marriage partner yet.

I heard she was on a business trip abroad, but the procedures were just handled earlier, just waiting for my signature.

Now… the documents have probably already been submitted.

The marriage partner is some family head from a branch of the Kujū Family, described with a bunch of adjectives like shrewd and capable.

Anyway, I don’t want to hear it.

The two families recently had cooperation in the machinery sector, so they decided to pick branch families from each side for a marriage alliance.

That’s right… I’m a wife now.

That sounds weird.

Mom sighed.

“Hmm…”

“I didn’t want it to be like this either… I at least wanted you to have a choice. But you’re neither inheriting the family business, and you’re a shut-in. How on earth was I supposed to refuse the family head? That man works fast.”

And now it’s done… My life feels like it’s about to hit rock bottom, feels even worse than my past life.

Marry an uncle, then have children? According to this kind of conservative family, I’d probably be a housewife for the rest of my life.

No way… I’m only eighteen… Mommy, I was wrong.

As for the idol thing… the family head said it doesn’t matter.

After all, the entertainment industry is full of wild stuff; he said it’s for me to gain experience.

I looked at my aunt, who had remained silent the whole time.

I looked up through the rearview mirror at my parents, their brows furrowed tightly.

No way out.

The tragedy of a large family.

I guess this is the price of having privileged material conditions.

I sighed.

“Where to next?”

“Your marriage partner is in Los Angeles. You should go meet her daughter first.”

Arriving at the destination, preoccupied with my worries, I prepared to get out of the car.

But this area… isn’t this the very core of the city center?

And this high-end apartment building is super famous, and super expensive.

I heard the elder daughter is two years younger than me?

And there’s a younger daughter in her first year of middle school?

So it’s a second marriage?

I have to face two stepdaughters who might be even more troublesome than me right from the start?

Am I going to be the wicked stepmother?

“Wait!”

Just as my hand was about to touch the door handle, Mom in the passenger seat suddenly shouted.

Her voice was sharp, startling me so much I jumped.

“What is it?”

I turned back irritably.

“Are you going to lecture me about manners again? I’m already annoyed enough…”

At this moment, my mind was a mess from the utterly terrible marriage arrangement.

I just wanted to get this annoying business over with quickly.

However, I saw Mom staring at her phone screen, her expression a fascinating mix of emotions.

She slowly turned her head.

“Um… Quiet Forest, that… your marriage partner.”

“What about him?”

I asked grumpily.

Mom took a deep breath.

“Um… your marriage partner. At four in the morning in Los Angeles… while riding in a private helicopter… crashed and turned into charcoal… just now… they confirmed the identity of the deceased…”

The air froze.