Chapter 59: The Rival Top Appears

Su Mingyao looked troubled. With his gentle and refined features, the moment he put on an expression of facing difficulties, bystanders around him immediately grew restless, eager to step in and help—or strike up a conversation.

Jiang Jingwu felt love at first sight.

A college student in B City, Jiang Jingwu was currently a junior. After securing a guaranteed spot in graduate school, his advisor had generously granted him a few months off. No classes, no worries about jobs or entrance exams—he was free as a bird. He planned to tour every scenic spot in B City first, then maybe hit the rest of the country.

He’d considered finding a relationship before, but in all these years, he hadn’t met anyone who caught his eye.

Maybe I’ve just been hanging out with too small a crowd, all stuck in the school bubble, he thought. If I branch out and meet more people, I might find someone.

That was exactly the point of this solo trip. Broadening his horizons was part of it, sure, but so was crossing paths with new faces along the way.

Yet here, right now—before he’d even finished sightseeing in B City, barely out the door—he’d encountered his destined one!

Jiang Jingwu had always assumed he was straight. Then Su Mingyao appeared, and he realized the truth: he wasn’t straight. He just hadn’t met the right person yet.

Su Mingyao’s arrival was like a beam of light slicing through a drab, gray world, painting everything around it in vibrant colors!

Right then, his fated partner was frowning faintly, probably short on strength. He gripped the leash of a frisky, disobedient Labrador Retriever with both hands, clearly exasperated by the massive dog.

I’ll help out!

Jiang Jingwu’s eyes lit up. Perfect opening—no fumbling for small talk required.

Su Mingyao was wondering when he could drag this skeleton-turned dog back home. Once there, he’d shove it into Luo Shang’s room, lock the door, and let Luo Shang sort it out when he got back. He didn’t notice the approaching college guy with his clear-eyed, somewhat dopey gaze, who spoke up.

“Hey, you look like you could use a hand?”

“Want me to hold the leash? I’ve got a good grip!”

Hearing that familiar voice, Su Mingyao reacted on instinct. “Huh? Yeah, sure. Here.” He handed over the leash.

The skeleton Labrador saw its leash pass from its owner to a stranger and unleashed a low, rumbling growl from its chest cavity.

Fine if the owner’s brother held it—brother was basically owner too. But who the hell was this guy?

He stank of that intensely repulsive aura of the living!

“Woof!” The skeleton Labrador’s sharp bark jolted Su Mingyao back to his senses.

He looked up, taking in a face far younger than the one in his memories. Suddenly, it hit him: he’d screwed up.

The old him knew Jiang Jingwu as a close friend. But the current him “shouldn’t” know him at all.

To this Jiang Jingwu, he ought to be a total stranger. Instead, he’d treated him like a buddy of many years and just handed over the skeleton dog!

Jiang Jingwu was the second male lead from that danmei novel. If Luo Shang embodied the classic vicious male side character role, then this Jiang Jingwu was the archetypal rival top, vying with the main gong for the protagonist bottom.

Back when Su Shang and Shen Changqing’s engagement hadn’t been called off yet, Su Mingyao—out of moral qualms—had kept his distance from Shen Changqing. After all, catching feelings for his brother’s fiancé felt deeply wrong.

Yet he harbored emotions that went beyond mere friendship for Shen Changqing. That left Su Mingyao in a miserable funk, his mood soured.

So Su Shang had sicced his shady buddies on him, goading them to drag Su Mingyao to a bar and get him plastered. The plan: dump the blackout drunk in the alley out back. With looks like his, who knew how many opportunists would come sniffing around.

But in that very alley, the sloshed Su Mingyao crossed paths with a decent guy—the third male lead, rival top Jiang Jingwu. Jiang Jingwu happened to pass by, scooped him up, hauled him to a hotel, dosed him with hangover meds, and kept things strictly platonic. They swapped contacts and started hanging out as friends.

While Shen Changqing was tied up dissolving his engagement to Su Shang, Jiang Jingwu slipped in as the supportive pal, treating Su Mingyao to all sorts of distractions to lift his spirits. That ended up as one of the fuses that later ignited the rift between Shen Changqing and Su Mingyao.

Jiang Jingwu may have crashed and burned in love, but he and Su Mingyao stayed friends for over a decade without a single break.

Because Jiang Jingwu treated Su Mingyao very well—in a different sort of way. Shen Changqing was good to Su Mingyao too, but it always carried a lofty air of superiority, like a person in power bestowing favors on someone beneath them. Jiang Jingwu, by contrast, treated Su Mingyao as an equal. Su Mingyao could sense that the man truly had his best interests at heart, so he gradually grew accustomed to it, accepted the gesture, and came to see him as a good friend.

But they weren’t good friends yet!

On top of that, the Skeleton Labrador was already roaring now, and who knew what it might do next.

If it had been an ordinary dog, fine—he could just foot the bill for Jiang Jingwu’s rabies shot if it bit someone. But this was a skeleton dog! What if a bite turned him into a skeleton too? Or worse, what if it wrapped him in deadly yin energy?

Su Mingyao recalled the life-draining pull and the gusts of chilling wind when Necromancer Sophia had descended, and he lunged to grab the leash from Jiang Jingwu’s hand.

“Wait, hand it over quick, or it might bite you!”

“Hiss, what a vicious dog!” Jiang Jingwu said in surprise, staring at the snarling Labrador.

If my master hadn’t ordered me not to bite people willy-nilly, I’d rip the skull clean off his head and wear it as my own right this instant. Such young, vibrant bones… Just look at that sturdy femur, the spine still perfectly linked together, the skull free of calcium loss or osteoporosis. I want them. I want to flay him alive, strip his tendons, and swap his bones for mine!!!!!

The Skeleton Labrador was doing its utmost to hold back. As an undead creature, its instinct to prey on the living was ever-present, though Luo Shang’s overwhelming pressure had kept it locked down until now.

With Luo Shang gone, that pent-up hunger sprang free like a coiled spring finally released.

Su Mingyao holding the leash had been the right call. In matters of the mystic, he could stand in for Luo Shang, keeping the Skeleton Labrador in check. But hand the leash to anyone else? No chance.

Especially not to someone like Jiang Jingwu—young, strong, brimming with vibrant life force.

To an undead, the aura of the living was both deadly poison and irresistible elixir. Overindulge, and it killed you. Survive the feast, and it became pure nourishment!

Meeting the Skeleton Labrador’s icy glare, Jiang Jingwu suddenly felt a shiver run through him, as if tendrils of cold were seeping up from the leash itself.

“It’s okay. I can help you subdue it. You can’t let a dog think it’s the boss of the house, or it’ll walk all over you. Now that I’m here to back you up, we can set it straight on its place in the family hierarchy!”

Jiang Jingwu declared.

He’d already noticed how Su Mingyao had been dragged along while walking the dog earlier, a clear sign of zero respect for its owner. And now that the leash had changed hands, the mutt was baring its teeth at all of them, owner included? That just proved it saw itself as top dog!

Dogs had evolved from wolves, pack hunters with ironclad pecking orders. They chose alphas to lead, and that dynamic carried over to dogs. Let one decide it outranked its owner, and it wouldn’t hesitate to get nasty.

That kind of delinquent mindset had to be nipped in the bud, or it might turn on its owner without warning!

The thought of his love-at-first-sight crush getting hurt by this beast made Jiang Jingwu yank the leash taut and bark an order.

“Sit!”

“Oh, right—what’s its name again?”

Jiang Jingwu realized too late that he didn’t even know the dog’s name. Awkward.

“Su Mingyao. My name is Su Mingyao,” Su Mingyao replied.

He still hadn’t told Jiang Jingwu.

“Got it, Su Mingyao. Sit!” Jiang Jingwu commanded sternly.

Su Mingyao: ?

Jiang Jingwu caught on in an instant. “Wait… sorry! My mistake!!”

“I’m Jiang Jingwu.”

I know, Su Mingyao thought to himself.

Anyone else who tried to butt in and “help,” he’d have shut down flat.

Only Jiang Jingwu— who’d bailed him out so many times in his past life—could get his hands on that leash.

“I didn’t mean it like that, I just…” Jiang Jingwu stammered, fumbling for words.

Seizing the moment, Su Mingyao yanked the skeleton dog back to his side.

The instant the leash hit Su Mingyao’s grip, the barking stopped. It still eyed the living with predatory hunger, though.

That aggression toward the living had been roused now, and it wouldn’t settle anytime soon—not without Luo Shang there to make it heel perfectly.

“I don’t know the dog’s name, actually. And to be precise, it’s not mine. It belongs to my little brother,” Su Mingyao said.

“It’s only natural that it doesn’t respect me as its owner. My little brother went out to have some fun today, so I’m taking the dog for a walk in his place, and he didn’t even bother telling me its name.”

Jiang Jingwu flew into a rage upon hearing this. “That’s so irresponsible! How could they let you walk a large dog like that all by yourself? What if it drags you to the ground?”

How could such a handsome brother get hurt? He immediately began blaming that stranger of a “little brother” he’d never even met.

This reaction matched his behavior in the original plot perfectly.

Meanwhile, Luo Shang—who was fishing at the bottom of the deep sea with his teammates—heard a ding from the system disguised as a watch on his wrist. The plot progress updated to 28%.

Luo Shang glanced at it impassively, then tugged his sleeve down to cover the data, blocking his teammates’ curious stares as well.

“It was just some unimportant matter. Let’s keep going.”

Luo Shang sat poised on a rocky outcrop jutting from the deep sea bed. He waved his fishing rod, which was baited with meat and fitted with a small lantern designed to lure in the light-seeking fish of the deep.

“The deputy captain’s still as obsessed with fishing as ever…”

Even β-62 from the Luo Shang Party was at a loss for words.

She should’ve known the entertainment would be fishing! She’d actually thought he might introduce some local deep-sea specialties from this world, but no—it was still just fishing! She really shouldn’t have expected anything else from the deputy captain’s hobbies!

“Should I tell the deputy captain… that the real reason he can’t catch any fish is the captain…?”

Chen Guyi fell into a dilemma.

The deputy captain looked so pitiful, failing to hook a single fish like that. But if he spilled the truth… and the captain found out…

Chen Guyi shuddered and ultimately kept his mouth shut.