Unreliable Mrs. Du, the Young Lady Has "Gone Straight" in This Lifetime

Inside the grand mansion.

Pitter-patter, pitter-patter...

Du Wanyi ran barefoot through the house with zero regard for decorum, her face etched with impatience as she dashed toward the exit.

She grumbled inwardly, What kind of ridiculous mansion is this? It’s so huge I can’t even run out of it! I swear I’ll tear it down one day!

If the ancestors of the Du family heard this, they’d probably rise from their graves in outrage. A centuries-old ancestral home, and she wants to demolish it just because it’s too big?

Is there even a shred of humanity left in her?

At a corner, Du Wanyi, sprinting at full speed, collided with a short-haired woman who had just returned to report her progress.

DUang!

A loud crash echoed as Du Wanyi toppled backward, landing squarely on her backside.

"Ow, that hurts!" Du Wanyi whined pitifully, though the short-haired woman—completely innocent in this scenario—had suffered just as much. Despite being the one at fault, Du Wanyi struck first.

"Little Lanlan! How could you run so fast inside the house? You hurt me! Waaah!"

The short-haired woman: "..."

She climbed to her feet. "My apologies, Family Head. I’ll be more careful in the future!"

Seeing that she had successfully shifted the blame, Du Wanyi immediately stopped her fake crying and waved her hand dismissively, adopting the magnanimous air of a benevolent leader.

"Just don’t let it happen again, okay? Next time, I’ll have to get really mad and punish you! Hmph!"

Puffing out her cheeks and planting her hands on her hips, she tried to look as imposing as possible. The short-haired woman remained silent but nodded obediently, promising once more not to run indoors.

"Hey, where’s Little Hanhan and the... uh, the tasty one?"

Du Wanyi blinked, peering behind the short-haired woman but seeing no sign of her "daughter-chan" or—

The short-haired woman’s head tilted in confusion. "Tasty one?"

"Oh! I mean Ye Cheng! Slip of the tongue, slip of the tongue!" Du Wanyi coughed twice, hastily patching up her Freudian slip.

Luckily, it was the short-haired woman she was talking to. If it had been the young mistress, she probably would’ve skipped the talking and gone straight to violence—because some wicked old hags just deserved a good spanking!

The short-haired woman didn’t dwell on it. She was used to her family head spouting weird nonsense.

"The young mistress and Young Master Ye are still outside. I believe they were taking photos," she answered after a brief pause.

"Photos?" Du Wanyi’s eyes sparkled. What was there to photograph around here? If they had to take pictures, shouldn’t they be the spicy kind?

A devious grin spread across Du Wanyi’s face as she rubbed her hands together like an overexcited fly.

"Come on, Little Lanlan! As hosts, we must be polite—after all, he’s Little Hanhan’s boyfriend!"

With that, she revved up her engines and sprinted barefoot toward the mansion’s entrance, leaving the short-haired woman behind, still questioning whether she’d heard correctly.

Must... be polite?

That was not something she ever expected to hear from their family head. If memory served, when the Dongfang Family’s patriarch had visited to discuss business, Du Wanyi had acted like an absolute tyrant.

She’d sprawled across the hall, stuffing her face with fruit, legs crossed, watching brainless short dramas on her phone.

Dongfang Zhan hadn’t even gotten a single bite of fruit. Instead, he’d been forced to negotiate while watching those ridiculous videos with her. When they finally wrapped up, just as things were about to be finalized—

Du Wanyi, the absolute gremlin, had chirped, "Hey, old man, what were you saying earlier? Can you repeat that? My eyes were too loud just now, so I didn’t hear."

Dongfang Zhan had promptly left in a rage.

In the end, it was the young mistress’s father—after finishing his work at the company—who had to rush over to the Dongfang Family in the dead of night to finalize the deal.

If Ye Cheng caused trouble, it was usually the Student Council President who cleaned up the mess. But in the young mistress’s household? Whenever the gremlin Du Wanyi stirred up chaos, it was her husband, Shen Ming, who had to step in.

The head of the Shen Family... and the matriarch of the Du Family.

Yes, matriarch—because Du Wanyi was the true head of the Du Family.

By that logic, if the young mistress was the heir of the Shen Family, then her spouse would be the...

The short-haired woman snapped out of her thoughts and hurried after her family head.

Outside the Shen Family mansion.

Du Wanyi’s face lit up with excitement. She’d finally escaped her own house! Now, where was that "tasty meal" she’d been waiting for?

"Young Mistress, are you okay? Young Mistress?!"

Ye Cheng held the completely "shut down" young mistress in his arms, desperately trying to reboot her. Earlier, a massive spider had crawled onto her little leather shoe—

And then... she’d just froze.

It was clear she had a deep-seated fear of such creatures, but he hadn’t expected her reaction to be this extreme. In hindsight, that first beating he’d taken wasn’t entirely undeserved—after all, he had used her worst fear to trick her.

What surprised him was that the young mistress hadn’t even screamed. She’d just... powered off, stiff as a board before tipping backward. Luckily, Ye Cheng had caught her in time.

Mmm... She was soft, fragrant, and inexplicably pleasant to hold. And... ahem—no, no! This was purely an act of justice!

With no maids or bodyguards around, Ye Cheng had no choice but to cradle the "unconscious" young mistress and attempt to revive her.

But before the young mistress could reboot—

Du Wanyi arrived.

The sight of this "prince and princess" scene made her grind her teeth in envy.

Ugh! Little Hanhan is so young, yet she’s already feasting this well?! No wonder she’s been single all these years—she was just waiting for the perfect one!

This is so unfair! Waaah... I want a "tasty meal" too!

Her focus had completely derailed. She hadn’t even noticed her "unresponsive" daughter—her gaze was locked onto Ye Cheng’s face.

So handsome... Even more so than in photos! Look at those eyes, that nose, those ears, that—

"Ahem... Family Head, the young mistress seems to have fainted."

The short-haired woman, standing behind Du Wanyi, eyed the rigid form of the young mistress and cautiously spoke up.

"Got it, got it. Let me watch a bit longer. Damn it, why didn’t I have this when I was younger... Huh? What? Who fainted?"

Du Wanyi was still lamenting when she suddenly processed the second half of the sentence—something was wrong. Someone fainted? Who?

She took a closer look—the young mistress had "passed out cold."

Du Wanyi: "???"

"Ahhh! Little Hanhan, what’s wrong?! Waaah!!!"

The short-haired woman: "..."