After Transmigrating into a Cannon Fodder Real Daughter, the Plot Changes

Chapter 147 Part 2 – Live-in Son-in-law (II)

The verdict for the kidney-robbing case was out—Jiang Zhou and Bai Guolin were both sentenced to fifteen years. The case made the trending topics, so naturally Jiang Ruo was aware of it. Even if she hadn’t checked the trending list or followed the case updates, the girls in her dorm wouldn’t have missed a chance to mock her.

After the verdict came out, her roommates started throwing sarcastic remarks at her. Even though she stayed silent, they still refused to let her off.

Jiang Ruo used to think these girls were acting under Tong Yi’s orders, which was why they always targeted her. But Jiang Li had thrown the evidence in her face, proving that the only person who had ever been targeting her… was actually Tong Xu.

Back then, she had indeed intended to manipulate Tong Xu to save her brother, but all her efforts had been in vain. Tong Xu saw through her true motives and retaliated, which wasn’t surprising. What Jiang Ruo hadn’t foreseen was how merciless he would be—the things he orchestrated were clearly designed to drive her to the brink of madness.

With no other option, she had to go to Tong Bingran and beg him to spare her. Having once been part of the wealthy elite, Jiang Ruo naturally knew who Tong Bingran was and had a rough idea of his personality. She remembered Jiang Huai once describing Tong Bingran as a cautious man—someone who wouldn’t make enemies unless absolutely necessary. So, she figured that if she just played pitiful in front of him, he would surely go home and rein in Tong Xu.

And she’d been right—after she pleaded with him, Tong Bingran gave his son a harsh warning. From that day forward, Tong Xu never dared to send anyone after her again.

After Tong Xu got disciplined by his father, Jiang Ruo’s roommates stopped receiving the money he used to send them for harassing her. Uncertain about Mr. Tong’s intentions, the girls tried to contact him again, only to discover that all their numbers had been blocked.

It didn’t take long for them to figure it out—Mr. Tong was no longer planning on targeting Jiang Ruo. That meant they were now useless to him, and he had no reason to keep their contact info.

Suddenly losing such a lucrative “side job,” the girls were all in a foul mood. Unable to vent their frustration on Mr. Tong, they turned their anger on Jiang Ruo instead. After all, they were already in the habit of bullying her. Before, they did it for money; now, they could do it to release their pent-up resentment without any real consequences. So why wouldn’t they?

Jiang Ruo had long since become the rat everyone wanted to beat. Even if she tried telling classmates or dorm supervisors that she was being bullied, no one would take her side.

The money had dried up, but the girls only became even more vicious. They simply wanted to see Jiang Ruo looking helpless and miserable, which gave them a twisted sense of satisfaction.

Of the six girls in the dorm, five regularly bullied her. The sixth had never laid a hand on her, but she had also never once spoken up for her, choosing instead to coldly watch from the sidelines.

All the girls thought Jiang Ruo would just keep her head down and endure until graduation, like an ostrich burying its head in the sand.

What none of them expected was that Jiang Ruo would go to the police and report them for campus bullying. And she hadn’t gone unprepared—she had planted a voice recorder in the dorm a long time ago and had quietly been gathering evidence.

After tormenting her, the others would often gloat openly. In their eyes, Jiang Ruo was a pitiful, helpless nobody. Even when speaking or acting in front of her, they never held back.

Everything her roommates had done to her was recorded. Jiang Ruo extracted the audio files and submitted them directly to the police. Campus bullying had become a hot issue in recent years, and since she had filed a report, the police couldn’t ignore it. All the girls were summoned for questioning.

None of them had ever experienced being summoned by the police before and were understandably nervous. At first, they tried to deny everything, but once the police presented the evidence, they had no way to talk their way out of it.

While their actions hadn’t caused physical harm, the psychological damage was undeniable. Jiang Ruo listed multiple grievances and demanded compensation for emotional distress. After doing the math, the girls realized that the amount she was asking for far exceeded what Mr. Tong had ever paid them. They felt Jiang Ruo was being outrageously greedy.

At the police station, Jiang Ruo stayed composed, unsettlingly so. “You don’t have to agree to compensate me—we can take it straight to court. Just make sure you won’t regret it when that summons shows up.”

Jiang Ruo hadn’t taken them directly to court because she had done her legal homework. She knew that even if she sued them, the compensation would likely be minimal.

It was like the time she was assaulted by the man next door. He had tried to do something so horrible to her, but because she lacked evidence, the case ended up going nowhere.

The only silver lining was that after she filed that lawsuit, everyone in the surrounding neighborhoods, that man’s friends and family, and his coworkers all learned what kind of disgusting thing he had done. Even though he wasn’t sentenced, he was socially destroyed. Now that he had a lawsuit on his record, even if he wasn’t convicted, other women would be extremely cautious around him—so in a way, she had done something good.

But her roommates were a different story. While they had targeted her repeatedly, they hadn’t physically harmed her. Even if she did sue, the most she could claim was for the damage to her property—like when they poured water on her bed—or the fact that they locked her in the bathroom, causing her to miss her final exam and fail the course, leading to mental distress.

But civil lawsuits weren’t that simple; she’d have to spend money on a lawyer, pour time and energy into the case, and in the end receive barely any compensation. It just wasn’t worth it.

If these girls had done something as vile as that man, she could’ve destroyed their social lives. But what they had done was neither too severe nor too trivial. At most, it would only get them gossiped about for a while.

Besides, her reputation was already in tatters. Once things escalated, public opinion could just as easily turn against her.

After much thought, Jiang Ruo finally decided to report everything to the police with the evidence she had collected. Once the officers received her report, they naturally stepped in to mediate. Her roommates were all the type to bully the weak and fear the strong. Under the threat of legal action, she knew they would choose to cough up some money just to keep things quiet.

As expected, the moment the word “court” was mentioned, the girls all started trembling in fear. Under the police’s mediation, they agreed to pool together some money to compensate Jiang Ruo for emotional damage. Though the amount was far less than what Jiang Ruo had originally demanded, it was still enough to make them feel the sting.

They did the math and realized that what they paid Jiang Ruo was equivalent to everything they’d earned from Mr. Tong.

In other words, all their efforts had not only brought them no gain, but had also earned them a good scolding at the police station.

After they left the station, Jiang Ruo looked at the nervous girls and asked, “Have you ever wondered why, even though I had gathered all the evidence last semester, I only reported it now?”

The girls glanced at each other, but none could say a word. In this moment, none of them still saw Jiang Ruo as some weak, pitiful little thing—this was clearly a black-hearted lotus in disguise!

Jiang Ruo smiled at them innocently. “Because I knew you were acting under Tong Xu’s orders. Even if I had reported you and gotten compensation, he would’ve probably given you even more money afterward. Of course I wasn’t going to let you profit off me.”

Seeing the girls slightly gape in shock, Jiang Ruo stepped a little closer and said softly, “Now that Tong Xu has given up on targeting me, and you’ve become discarded pawns, having to pay this money yourselves must really hurt, huh?”

The girls: “…”

“I went to the counselor before and told her you were bullying me, but she just gave you a light reprimand, and that only made you worse. So this time, I didn’t tell her before calling the police. But I’m pretty sure the police will notify her anyway. Don’t you think?”

Jiang Ruo spoke with a calm smile the whole time, but the girls found her expression deeply eerie and terrifying. Only now did they realize: although Jiang Ruo usually acted innocent and harmless, making everyone believe she was just some white lotus, she was actually incredibly calculating.

Back when Jiang Zhou and Bai Guolin committed crimes on her behalf and went to prison willingly, everyone blamed their downfall on her beauty.

But the truth was, with someone as deeply calculating as Jiang Ruo, it was probably all too easy for her to wrap a man around her finger if she wanted to!

Jiang Ruo could see what they were thinking and smiled. “You think I’m manipulative, don’t you? But if none of you had pushed me first, I wouldn’t have had to use any schemes at all.”

With that, she turned and walked away without looking back, leaving the girls staring at one another in silence.

A long time passed before one of the taller girls finally said, “Do you think the counselor will punish us?”

A slightly chubby girl frowned. “A disciplinary record is no big deal—we can find a way to get it erased later. But I’m worried she’ll tell our parents. My mom will definitely beat me.”

But worrying changed nothing. Even though Jiang Ruo didn’t press charges in court, the school staff and students soon found out what the girls had done. They were all issued formal warnings and publicly criticized by the school, and their parents quickly found out, unleashing a storm of scolding on them.

From that day on, though people at school still didn’t like Jiang Ruo, no one dared to openly target her anymore.

Yet Jiang Ruo herself didn’t feel any real joy.

Her brother and Bai Guolin had both been sentenced to fifteen years. Even though they had filed appeals, the verdicts likely wouldn’t change.

By the time they got out… would she still even be alive in this world?