Chapter 7: Mom goggles
As soon as she heard Ruan Hao’s voice, Yan Ning stopped in her tracks.
It was the end of the school day, and the entrance was packed with people and cars. Every now and then, a street vendor’s calls mixed with the playful laughter of the students.
Yan Ning stood there alone, backlit by the setting sun, but she had already spotted Ruan Hao’s car a long time ago.
But still, she pretended to search for a while before finally letting her gaze settle on Ruan Hao.
Through the crowd and leaving over the passenger seat, Ruan Hao’s waving hand was particularly noticeable.
Yan Ning flashed a bright smile.
Ruan Hao called out, “Come on, Ning-Ning!”
But inside, she was panicking as she thought: Hurry up! She’d already seen from the rearview mirror that Ding Qi, who was laying on the ground outside the car, had started to stir and whimper.
The system: “Uh…”
It doesn’t even want to speak anymore. Let’s just have a moment of silence for Ding Qi.
As soon as Yan Ning got in the car, she didn’t even have time to fasten her seatbelt, before Ruan Hao immediately hit the gas. She then weaved out of the crowded street with a display of impressive driving skills that caught both Yan Ning and the system off guard.
Yan Ning didn’t say anything; she was always good at staying calm under pressure and so she stayed composed as she buckled her seatbelt in the middle of the chaos.
The system played a clapping sound effect.
Clap, clap, clap!
System: “Look at how far you’ve come, Ruan Hao.”
Ruan Hao chuckled awkwardly, “Don’t praise me, or I’ll get cocky.”
System: “Hah…”
Now let’s see how you’re going to explain this to Yan Ning.
As the car left the school zone, it gradually slowed down. While waiting at a red light, Ruan Hao turned her head and asked Yan Ning, “What do you want for dinner?”
The system: “Uh…”
So we’re acting like nothing happened, huh?
Yan Ning paused for a moment, then gave Ruan Hao a sweet smile as she answered obediently, “I’ll eat whatever you cook, Hao-Hao.”
Ruan Hao thought for a moment, “How about steak?”
Yan Ning replied, “Sure…”
Inside the Yan Family’s villa, the thing Ruan Hao was most satisfied with was the walk-in refrigerator. Damn, was it amazing. Combined with the attached pantry, the entire thing was bigger than her previous home. The range of ingredients was comparable to a large supermarket, and it allowed Ruan Hao to fully display her culinary skills.
As she was thinking about what to cook, the system complained, “Please don’t overfeed the female lead.”
Ruan Hao retorted, “Kids are still growing, so they need more food. Who cares about getting fat? Health is what matters the most.”
The system: “…”
Even as Ruan Hao chatted nonsense with the system, she didn’t forget to ask about how Yan Ning’s day was at school.
Yan Ning had been busy all night, so at school, she mostly slept in class. When Ruan Hao asked her questions, Yao Ning answered with vague responses, which Ruan Hao accepted with nods of approval. “Don’t overwork yourself, make sure to balance work and rest.”
Yan Ning obediently replied with a soft hum.
Ruan Hao melted at the sound, “So sweet, it makes me want to have my own daughter!”
The system, blunt as always, added: “Indeed, she’s quite good at balancing work and rest. At night, she’s trying to figure out how to screw you, and during the day she catches up on sleep.”
Ruan Hao: “…” Something seemed off about that last sentence.
“Huh?”
The system also felt something was wrong with its words and it added, “She spends her nights trying to screw you over, then naps during the day.”
Ruan Hao: “…”
The system: “She…”
“Stop talking…” Ruan Hao cut it off, “You’re quite good at blowing things out of proportion…”
System: “?”
Ruan Hao: “The more you describe, the worse it gets.”
System: “…”
Yan Ning fell asleep about halfway home, so Ruan Hao slowed down and turned what should’ve been a ten-minute drive into twenty, and then into a leisurely thirty minutes. Ruan Hao asked, “So why exactly was Ding Qi in my car?”
The system was silent for a moment.
Ruan Hao suddenly had a bad feeling, “On second thought, I don’t want to hear it.”
But the system insisted on telling her everything, “After Yan Yizhou died, the original Ruan Hao gave Ding Qi a copy of the keys to all the cars and houses the Yan family owns… He must’ve been partying nearby and, after seeing your car, decided to hop in.”
Ruan Hao: “…” She should’ve parked farther away!
Yan Ning showed no signs of waking up, so Ruan Hao patiently kept driving. Suddenly, her phone rang unexpectedly.
It was Jiang Le calling.
Yan Ning, who had been pretending to sleep, slightly opened her eyes.
Outside the window, the setting sun made way for a tranquil night.
“Hello?” Ruan Hao pressed her earpiece, “What’s wrong?”
Jiang Le’s voice was grave as she spoke, “President Ruan, after you fired Chen Jiade, our tech staff checked his computer and found that he copied a lot of internal company data onto his own computer.”
Ruan Hao blinked in confusion.
Chen Jiade? That name sounded familiar.
The system reminded her, “The guy you fired at noon.”
Ruan Hao suddenly remembered. She frowned slightly and asked Jiang Le, “Are you sure?”
Jiang Le replied, “We’re sure…”
After a pause, she added, “Are you coming back to the office?”
Ruan Hao: “….”
What kind of question is that? I’m already off work! I’m supposed to be making steak for my precious Ning-Ning!
The system couldn’t take it anymore: “Go to the company. Yan Ning is watching. You can’t ruin your character settings any further.”
With no other choice, Ruan Hao instructed Jiang Le, “Call the police, preserve the evidence, and have a lawyer meet me in the conference room.”
A flicker of annoyance crossed her eyes, “Since he played dirty first, he shouldn’t blame me for making sure he can never work in this industry again.”
After that, she hung up the phone.
System: “Wow, you’re so cool!”
Ruan Hao smugly replied, “Not bad, right?”
System: “….”
Give her an inch and she’ll take a mile.
Ruan Hao drove the car into the neighborhood, parked in front of the villa, and then gently nudged the still pretending-to-be-asleep Yan Ning awake.
Yan Ning rubbed her eyes and, after a while, looked at Ruan Hao as she mumbled, “I’m sleeping…”
Ruan Hao: “Uh-huh…”
We both know you were just pretending to sleep, thank you very much.
“Ning-Ning….” Ruan Hao lowered her eyes. The light in the car was dim, matching the dim street lights outside the window, and they outlined Ruan Hao’s figure clearly. The shadow of her long, curled eyelashes fell on Yan Ning’s cheeks. After Yan Ning responded with a sleepy-sounding, “hmm” Ruan Hao murmured again, “Ning-Ning…”
System: “Now you’re exaggerating too much, you’re acting like you’re about to confess to her.”
Ruan Hao: “….”
The perfect atmosphere was totally ruined!
In the darkness of the car, Yan Ning’s gaze was full of indifference as she watched Ruan Hao’s performance.
Ruan Hao took a deep breath, gave Yan Ning an apologetic smile, and said, “Something suddenly came up at the company, and I need to go back. I might not return for a few hours, so it seems we won’t be able to have that steak.”
Yan Ning quietly stared back at her.
Ruan Hao was naturally soft and fragile-looking, her eyes glistening, as if they held pools of water, giving off an air of subtle, pitiful fragility.
Her apology was gentle, her lips were curving into a helpless smile—how could anyone blame someone who looked like that?
It was such a stark contrast to the harsh President Ruan just now.
Yan Ning let out an understanding “Ah” and then smiled, “There’s no helping it then. Go ahead and do what you need to do. Don’t worry about me.”
A child can not hide their emotions well. Ruan Hao could clearly hear the disappointment in her tone, and paired with a forced smile, the effect was devastating. It crushed Ruan Hao’s heart: “Poor baby.”
The system wanted to roll its eyes: “She’s acting, obviously…”
Ruan Hao refused to believe it: “She’s just a neglected kid who needs a little love! A little baby who doesn’t want to come home and eat alone at the table!”
System: “Isn’t your filter for her a little too thick?”
Ruan Hao chuckled softly: “She is still the female lead, don’t make her sound like some sort of villain.”
System grumbled: “But isn’t she a villain to you?”
Ruan Hao and the system bickered non-stop, but it didn’t interfere with her acting as she handed Yan Ning her backpack: “I’ll make you that steak tomorrow, I promise.”
But Yan Ning didn’t accept the backpack. She shook her head and said, “I want to go to the company with you.”
Ruan Hao froze for a moment, then, realizing something, she gave Yan Ning a reassuring smile: “Don’t worry, I’ll be back before you fall asleep.”
Yan Ning, however, was insistent: “I don’t want to be alone in an empty house.”
Those words hit hard. Even the system was stunned with pity for a couple of seconds, unsure if Yan Ning was being genuine or just acting. But within those two seconds of confusion, Ruan Hao had already surrendered and agreed.
System: “Ugh…”
The mom goggles1 strikes again.
Ruan Hao dropped Yan Ning off at her office before heading to the meeting room.
Chen Jiade had stolen company data, which meant he breached several confidentiality agreements—a matter that couldn’t be taken lightly. Ruan Hao decisively reported it to the police, which immediately caused a massive stir within the industry.
When it involved a prominent family like the Yan’s, hitting the trending searches was a common occurrence.
Jiang Le whispered to Ruan Hao: “For now, the online discussions haven’t impacted the stock market, but some competitors are using this to muddy the waters and point fingers at us for being incompetent.”
Ruan Hao twirled her pen, thought for a moment, and said, “Let’s not waste our trending status.”
Jiang Le: “What?”
Ruan Hao tapped the pen on the table: “If we’re already trending, we might as well use it. Have the film department work overtime and officially announce the project we confirmed today. Buy some slots for related trending searches as well.”
Jiang Le’s eyes lit up, and she quickly went to take care of it.
Someone from the company had already gone to the police station, and the lawyer was drafting a statement. So after Jiang Le left, the meeting room fell into brief silence.
Ruan Hao hadn’t eaten much at lunch, and so was feeling hungry. This body had lots of stomach issues, so her stomach was aching just from some minor hunger pangs.
Ruan Hao slowly massaged her stomach, her lips turning pale from the pain.
The system couldn’t stand it anymore and reminded her: “There’s painkillers in the left drawer of your desk.”
Ruan Hao shook her head: “Yan Ning is here…”
The system was puzzled: “What does that have to do with her?”
“You don’t get it?” Ruan Hao sipped some hot water and said, “When all is said and done, Yan Ning is just a kid. Getting her to lower her guard to gradually like me is one thing, but I cannot let her feel pity towards me.”
System: “?”
Ruan Hao clicked her tongue, “If she pities me, she’ll end up conflicted and struggle with the evil image of me she already has in her heart. If she struggles too much, it might cause the kid to have an emotional breakdown.”
System: “….” What kind of nonsense is this? Where did Ruan Hao even get all this parenting knowledge?
Ruan Hao smiled slightly but didn’t explain.
She asked the system: “What’s Yan Ning doing right now?”
System: “Trying to crack your computer’s password.”
Ruan Hao: “….” Her “she’s just a kid” filter shattered immediately.
She was baffled: “Did she finish her homework already?”
System: “No….”
After a pause, the system added, “Oh no…”
Ruan Hao: “?”
System: “She succeeded…”
Ruan Hao: “What’s my password?”
System: “That freeloader’s birthday.”
Ruan Hao: “….[redacted swearing]”
The system comforted her: “Don’t worry. Yan Ning just flipped through your desk calendar and found that day was marked with a heart, so she…”
Ruan Hao: “Blegh!”
System: “…”
When Jiang Le returned, the lawyer had finished drafting the statement. After reviewing it with Chen Jiade’s supervisor, they approved it and sent it out. Ruan Hao glanced at the time—it was almost 9 PM.
“Miss Yan has already eaten,” Jiang Le said as she followed her. “She also drank her milk.”
Ruan Hao nodded, walking toward the office door. As she pushed it open, she asked the system, “Do you have a function to block pain?”
System: “I do, but there are some side effects.”
Ruan Hao, afraid Yan Ning might notice something was wrong, so she didn’t care about the side effects: “I won’t die, right? Just use it for now.”
The system was silent for a moment, then said, “Done…”
The pain in her stomach was still there, but suddenly Ruan Hao couldn’t feel it anymore. She sighed with relief and opened the door.
The double doors faced the desk directly, and her footsteps fell silently on the carpet. The desk lamp was soft as its dimly lit light revealed Yan Ning hunched over her homework at the desk.
Ruan Hao said, “What a good kid…”
System: “Only on the surface.”
Ruan Hao opened her mouth to speak, but suddenly the door behind her was slammed open. A man reeking of alcohol staggered in, followed closely by Jiang Le, who was trying to catch him, “President Ruan, he barged in so suddenly that I couldn’t stop him!”
Ruan Hao: “….”
She felt nauseous again.
Ruan Hao: “System!”
The system whistled nonchalantly in her mind.
Ruan Hao: “???”
Why are you pretending to be calm?!
The intruder was none other than Ding Qi. Since Jiang Le was Ruan Hao’s secretary, she knew all about him. When she saw him arrive, she intentionally wanted Yan Ning to witness this scene so she only half-heartedly tried to stop Ding Qi before letting him in.
Ding Qi, drunk and slurring his words, staggered forward, trying to hug Ruan Hao. His drunken words were stammering: “Y-You dare say I-I need to be stopped? Who, who dares to stop me?”
Ruan Hao dodged to the side, instinctively taking a glance at Yan Ning.
Yan Ning maintained her calm expression, the initial surprise in her eyes fading as if she suddenly understood something important.
Her gaze flickered briefly between the two, and she pretended to be ignorant, as she looked at Ruan Hao and asked, “Who is he?”
Jiang Le looked at Yan Ning: Miss Yan, can you not understand with your own eyes? She cheated on President Yan!
Author’s Notes:
Yan Ning: My dad was probably not the only one she cheated on… (Author: Not true)
- The direct translation is “mom-fan” 妈粉, basically a fan who acts like a mom who says their child can do no wrong or is the prettiest. Using mom goggles here, but might use mom-fan for later chapters depending on context. ↩︎
Fluffy Translations 
Looks like there is more to Ruan Hao that meets the eye (i wonder if that is the right quote).
Break up with Ding Qi well, Ruan Hao. The former Ruan Hao might be capable but blind.
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