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Ji Mu stood there, stunned, for quite a while.
Even the little figure standing on the moral high ground, whipping his conscience, froze mid-swing, completely at a loss.
Did I just get played??
Unbelievable!
What did she take me for?
A circus monkey? The Piedmon from Digimon?
There's no way, I have to take back control!
A sense of indignation surged within Ji Mu for the first time, as if he had just awakened from a dream after being toyed with in someone's palm. "Where's the female lead?"
[...She slipped away a long time ago.]
"?"
He quickly scanned the area, but there wasn't a trace of the girl.
Ah, this...
He stood there for a moment, sword in hand, gazing in all directions, utterly lost.
"I feel like I'm the one being bullied here."
He had finally taken something seriously, only to lose so completely.
[Obviously.]
The system sighed in exasperation.
[That childish, pretend kind of bullying you tried? It's a miracle no one burst out laughing!]
"...It wasn't that bad," Ji Mu muttered under his breath.
The system nearly laughed out of sheer frustration.
He's still feeling good about himself, huh?
[Host, do you even realize how serious this is? If you keep treating everything like a game, we won't be able to complete the mission!]
Ji Mu couldn't be bothered to argue with the system anymore. He casually spread his hands. "But I think this mission is pretty much a joke to begin with."
The second book revolved around the theme of a "wife-chasing crematorium."
Its core was a piece of youth pain literature—an emotionally intense, angst-ridden romance.
The general plot revolves around the female lead, who was chosen from an orphanage to be the heart donor for the Yu family's precious daughter, essentially serving as a living vessel. Although she lives under the same roof, her status is so low that even the servants treat her with disdain and order her around.
Her adoptive father and three foster brothers look on silently, allowing this mistreatment to continue. Sometimes they even join in, further wounding her emotionally.
After a long, painful journey of her trying to escape and them relentlessly pursuing her, as well as a series of dark, twisted, and emotionally intense entanglements, the story reaches its climax. Just as the female lead, battered and broken, is wheeled into the operating room to have her heart removed, the male leads finally awaken to the truth.
They easily earned the female lead's forgiveness with just a few words of repentance on their knees.
From then on, they lived happily ever after.
And Ji Mu? He was cast as the minor villain who relentlessly bullied her in the early chapters.
Reading through the entire novel, the abuse the female lead endured seemed endless.
One can't help but wonder what kind of mindset the original author had while writing it.
The level of cruelty was so extreme that even a classic Qiong Yao drama would pale in comparison.
[That's why the original novel's logic is completely flawed. After the story evolved into a real-world scenario in the previous timeline, the plot hadn't reached the finale, yet the female lead had blackened and wiped out the entire Yu family.]
After finding a nearby bench and sitting down, Ji Mu suddenly noticed a loophole.
"I have a question. Given the outrageous things the Yu family does, wouldn't the female lead turn evil on her own, even without my involvement?"
Are we abusing bugs now?
[You think I didn't consider that?]
The system mocked his naivety.
[Fan Lei just talked to me about this not long ago. In this timeline, the plot has deviated slightly. The Yu family will mysteriously disappear for certain reasons and basically won't show up in the early stages.]
Ji Mu frowned, deep in thought.
"What if I find someone else to bully her?"
As long as the blackening value increases, who cares who causes it?
[Cut the nonsense. You're the only one with a villain script right now. Everyone else doesn't even qualify as cannon fodder.]
The system mercilessly shattered his fantasy once again.
[If someone else causes the female lead to blacken, the mission will be deemed a failure.]
"..."
So no matter how I try to dodge it, the blame still falls on me in the end?
With his elbows on his knees, Ji Mu cupped his face in his hands. A frown slowly formed on his brow as worry crept across it.
Sigh. What a headache.
[Host, look on the bright side. In the previous life, the female lead was bullied by so many people. In this life, it's just you. Isn't that a twisted kind of kindness?]
The system tried to untangle his mental knot.
[I get it, being the bad guy doesn't feel great. But it really depends on the situation.]
[This is the only way we might be able to change the female lead's tragic fate from her previous life.]
[In the end, she gets her happiness, and you walk away with twenty-five million. Isn't that a win-win?]
[Besides, we're just passing through this world. So what if she ends up hating you?]
[Sacrifice one for the happiness of millions. Noble, isn't it?]
After that combination of comforting logic, Ji Mu gradually began to waver.
He let out a long breath, releasing all the pressure that had built up in his chest.
"All right, I have no problem playing the villain. But what about the female lead's androphobia? Isn't her perception of men still at minus ten?"
[You don't need to worry about that.]
Seeing that the host had finally come around, the system was overjoyed.
[Once you successfully push the female lead's blackening value to 100, Fan Lei will take care of the rest.]
Ji Mu finally felt at ease.
As long as the world consciousness has a safety net, everything will be fine.
"System, what's the next step?"
[The female lead should be back in the classroom by now. We're classmates, remember? Let's go stir up some trouble!]
"Okay."
Ji Mu clenched his fists, ready for round two.
He had transferred to Jiangcheng for three reasons:
Bullying! Bullying! And more f*cking bullying!
[Heh heh.]
The system let out a sinister chuckle, slipping into character in an instant.
"When our Wolong-Fengchu duo gets serious, how could the female lead not explode?"
Yu Hua? Hmph.
Get ready to sink into a nightmare of inescapable despair!
……
Summer.
Tall phoenix trees stood proudly alongside the shaded path. The sound of cicadas echoed endlessly through the summer air.
It was the start of the school term. Students flowed in and out of the teaching building in a constant stream. The stairwell buzzed with noise and movement, a chaotic convergence of footsteps and chatter.
Yu Hua slowly climbed the stairs, step by step.
From time to time, glances were cast her way, accompanied by hushed whispers such as "She's so pretty." Some boys passed by, deliberately making a commotion in an attempt to draw her attention.
But she seemed completely unaware of it all.
As she reached the floor where her classroom was located, her pace slowed.
The blazing sunlight filtered through the gaps in the windowpanes and cast fragmented beams across every face it touched.
She raised her hand to shield her eyes.
The corridor was crowded and bustling, but the light wasn't particularly harsh. She did it only to hide the emotions quietly stirring beneath the surface, emotions she didn't want anyone to notice.
As the shadow cast by her hand fell across her face, her thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the brief encounter just moments ago.
The boy was dressed in black from head to toe; the outfit accentuated his tall, lean frame. One could faintly make out the taut lines of his slim waist beneath the fabric.
The air was stiflingly hot, and he had casually undone the top two buttons of his shirt, revealing a strikingly sensual collarbone.
Like two crescent moons embedded in shadow, his collarbones traced a smooth arc between his neck and shoulders.
His arms were casually crossed over his chest and his posture was relaxed.
Every movement carried a hint of laziness and the unrestrained arrogance of youth.
Despite the strange pair of glasses that blurred his features, Yu Hua recognized him the moment he spoke.
Their first encounter was slightly different from what she remembered.
The boy was no longer on the stage at the opening ceremony, basking in the spotlight as the center of attention. Instead, he stood quietly among the crowd, just another face in the audience, unacknowledged by any of the school leaders.
The only thing that hadn't changed was that he still tried to tease her the moment they met, just like in her previous life, and gave her that same unique nickname.
Yu Hua lowered her lashes, her fingers brushing lightly across her cheek.
The coolness of her fingertips seeped through her skin and into her bloodstream. It spread through every vein and bone in her body.
Amid the noisy clamor around her, she seemed to hear a muffled, rhythmic pounding in her ears.
"Little Mute."
She silently mouthed those three words.
To others, the nickname might have sounded like an insult, but to Yu Hua, it held a special meaning.
She placed her hand over her chest and felt the fierce, rapid pounding beneath her palm.
Each heartbeat sent warmth through her once-cold limbs as if reviving her from within.
Ji Mu...
Our game has begun.