I Became the Male Lead's Mom Who Wrote a Five-Million-Dollar Check

[My Neighbor's Novel, "Reborn as the Female Supporting Character Who Shares the Male Lead's Hard Times," Is Currently Updating!]

So far, Ji Xingyan is reasonably satisfied with the script she has as the male lead's mother. After all, anyone who gets to be a protagonist's parent must have been a significant figure in the previous generation, even if they only serve as part of the story's backstory.

Aside from her husband's abilities in the bedroom taking a nosedive after he turned thirty, Ji Xingyan has no complaints about anything else.

At last, she has reached the highlight of her life.

She's about to meet the female lead, who is still an innocent high school student. Of course, the encounter will end quite unpleasantly. As the script dictates, the haughty male lead's mother will happen to notice the sparks of young love between the leads and will do everything she can to snuff them out. She will even produce an astonishingly generous check for five million.

And the innocent female lead, with her fierce pride, will of course reject the insult without hesitation.

Ji Xingyan carefully takes out the check, afraid of tearing it, and waits for the female lead to leap to her feet in the cafe and refuse in no uncertain terms

But Yun Min reaches out without a hint of hesitation and takes it, saying something that leaves her dumbfounded. "Thank you, Auntie. I'll leave your precious son right away. But inflation is pretty bad these days, and bank interest rates are low. Could you raise the amount a little?"

Ji Xingyan nearly lost five million just like that.

Luckily, experience counts for a lot. She had already wondered if the female lead, like her, knew about this ridiculous melodramatic plot, so she had prepared for that possibility when she wrote the check.

-

Yun Min runs home, waving the check under her father's and uncle's noses and showing off shamelessly for quite a while.

"I can't say I'm interested in Xu Yaotian... But his mother is beautiful and generous. I really admire her."

"Take another look."

Her father and uncle say it in unison, a rare occurrence, as if they'd both fallen into a trap set by this woman when they were young and naive.

Faced with a beautiful, middle-aged woman, Yun Min is reluctant to believe them. "What? She gave me the check, and she even signed a gift agreement. Surely she can't take it back, can she?"

But when she goes to cash it at the bank the next day, she discovers it's a bad check

Ji Xingyan doesn't have any money deposited at that bank.

When Yun Min goes back to ask her about it, Ji Xingyan asks in return, her expression utterly sincere, "Do you think my son is worth five million?"

Well, fair enough.

In Yun Min's eyes, Xu Yaotian is worth about as much as a fifty-yuan movie ticket.

-

Meanwhile, not far away, Xu Yaotian expects his mother to wage World War III against the woman he has a crush on. Instead, the two of them sit together in perfect peace and agree that he isn't worth much.

A cold aura rises beside him, overwhelming everything around it.

When he turns around, his father is wearing a rare, warm smile.

[Here's a little bonus scene]

unclear family, nuclear family (4)

Yun Min @ The World's Best Mother-in-Law: Xingyan, let's go visit some viral photo spots this weekend! I've already got the selfie stick, tripod, and reflector ready, muah~

Xu Yaotian @ Mom: I need a distinguished guest for an academic conference this week. I think you'd be perfect. I can send a car to pick you up.

Xu Ji: Can't you two go have fun by yourselves? Why do both of you have to come after my wife? What's wrong with you!?

Ji Xingyan: ...

[An impromptu idea from the day before, recorded on 2023.6.3]

The next book I want to write is in the series "When the Author Gets Mean, Even They Get Insulted", "Cheap Love." Here's the blurb:

"Everyone sings of love's greatness, but my love was worth no more than one hundred thousand."

Out of sheer boredom today, I skimmed through some stories on Jinjiang. That writer, what was her name, Dai Dan? Her writing was utter rubbish. The male lead's mother casually pulls out a check for five million, and people in the comments say five million is too little. What utter nonsense

They don't know that the richer people are, the more careful they are with their money.

I closed my eyes and remembered the newspaper wrapped around that one hundred thousand fifteen years ago. It had been sealed away for years, but I could still remember the cheap smell of the ink and the dark, damp, moldy scent that only comes with the plum rain season.

The ceiling fan above me rattled, shaking loose dust from another era.

The woman smiled gracefully. "Take this money. You should understand what I'm saying."

Without a second thought, I broke up with Zhou Yinchun that very day. Unlike the male leads in romance novels, he didn't try to stop me. He didn't even put up the slightest protest, let alone look at me with reddened eyes. He couldn't even be bothered to furrow his brow. His eyes were full of unconcealed disgust. "Fine. Don't regret it."

Fifteen years later, the one hundred thousand hadn't been enough to change the impoverished life my family and I led. I was still an ordinary woman, mediocre and only a little pretty, while he had grown ever more distant and unattainable.

That hundred thousand was a windfall I'd managed to get from his mother.

My husband, who died young, was already gone. My son attended the Central Street Elementary School where his father had taught. Because of my unhappy memories of that school, and the way they tried to hush things up when my husband died... I decided to send my son to an international school instead, so he wouldn't have to repeat my hopeless life.

I took my son, whose kind heart was just like his father's, to the entrance interview.

But I never expected him to fail. I don't think it had anything to do with his intelligence. It had everything to do with being born into a powerless family like mine.

He looked up at me and tried to comfort me. "Failing is normal, Mom. Don't be sad. I can still get into the best middle school in Jiangcheng when I graduate from elementary school."

I said nothing.

It wasn't because I was indifferent to my son. It was because I had spotted Zhou Yinchun, the school's honorary board member, surrounded by people in the hallway of the international school.

He looked at me as if I were a filthy rat who didn't belong in a skyscraper.

-

That night, holding the room key his assistant had given me, I stood outside the Ritz-Carlton's presidential suite.

The strap of my cheap bra slipped off my shoulder.

Themes: Respect children's personal wishes and help them develop healthy personalities.