Chapter 1: The Arrogant and Domineering Fake Young Master 01 Part 1

Dappled colored lights swayed in the haze, accompanied by a wailing, chaotic cacophony, as if he were trapped in some bizarre hallucination.

The scene before Li Ye was blurred, as if veiled by thick fog. He could vaguely make out someone beside him, his mouth opening and closing as though shouting something in fury. Instinctively, Li Ye’s expression darkened. Frowning, he snapped, “Shut up.”

The person beside him snapped his mouth shut at once.

Li Ye closed his eyes slightly.

A flood of information surfaced in his mind.

This world had originated from a novel centered around a classic “Real and Fake Young Masters” trope. The Child of the Plane was the True Young Master, Shen Ji, while the villain was the Fake Young Master, Xu Zhaochen.

Unlike the clever, resilient, and noble True Young Master, the Fake Young Master—his foil—was foolish, cold-blooded, and thoroughly selfish: a useless, hedonistic scion. Driven by bitter jealousy, he relentlessly harassed and undermined Shen Ji in every way. But Shen Ji possessed an unyielding pride and refused to bow, which only provoked Xu Zhaochen to escalate his torment.

At school, Shen Ji found himself sabotaged by Xu Zhaochen at every turn. Before long, his mother, Shen Fu, was diagnosed with leukemia. Driven into a corner with nowhere else to turn, Shen Ji was finally forced to swallow his pride and yield to Xu Zhaochen.

Yet just as Shen Ji prepared to donate his bone marrow to save her, medical tests revealed that he was not Shen Fu’s biological son. Once the initial shock faded, Shen Ji began digging into his past, eventually uncovering the truth: they had accidentally been switched at birth.

Even when Xu Zhaochen learned the truth, he showed not the slightest remorse. Not only did he refuse to donate bone marrow to save his biological mother, but his hostility toward Shen Ji only burned hotter.

The Xu parents refused to indulge his childish tantrums. Compared to the outstanding True Young Master, the Fake Young Master appeared all the more pathetic. Seeing even his own parents side with Shen Ji, Xu Zhaochen stormed out of the Xu household in a fury. But that was hardly the end of it. Once cast out, he refused to concede defeat, obsessed with exacting revenge on Shen Ji.

To see it through, Xu Zhaochen stooped to colluding with another antagonist, Gu Baichong.

Gu Baichong had long harbored ambitions to devour the Xu family’s assets. He feigned agreement to help crush Shen Ji, though his true sights were set on bringing down the entire Xu family. But Shen Ji, as the Child of the Plane, was no easy prey. He dismantled Gu Baichong’s schemes, steered the Xu family safely through the crisis, and launched a devastating counteroffensive.

With Gu Baichong’s plot ruined, Xu Zhaochen—having outlived his usefulness—was discarded like a broken tool. By then, any bridge back to the Xu family had been burned to ash.

Those who had once resented Xu Zhaochen took vindictive pleasure in kicking him while he was down, eagerly stirring up trouble. Just when he was backed into a dead end, Shen Ji reappeared. By this point, Shen Ji stood far above him, ruthlessly compelling Xu Zhaochen to sign the marrow donation agreement. Once the procedure was complete, Xu Zhaochen was entirely spent of value. Shen Ji tossed him aside like garbage.

Destitute and forsaken by all, Xu Zhaochen finally ended his own life by leaping from the roof of a high-rise.

[Information Transfer Complete.]

[World Loading Complete.]

[World Grade: C.]

[World Mission: Play the villain Xu Zhaochen and complete the Main Storyline.]

[Mission Reward: 2,000 System Points.]

Li Ye slowly opened his eyes.

The scene gradually came into focus. Li Ye finally discerned the person beside him: a young man in a leather jacket. His features were passable, but his close-set brows lent him a sullen air, and his expression was steeped in crude, thuggish malice.

Seeing Li Ye stir, the young man thought in irritation, He can actually sleep through this racket? Even so, a sycophantic grin stretched across his face. “Young Master Xu, you’re awake?”

Li Ye regarded him with a cool gaze. “What were you saying just now?”

Remembering the grievance, Wang Shao spat out venomously, “Who the hell does that Shen Ji think he is? How dare he try to steal a woman from you, Young Master Xu? He must have a death wish.” Then, softening his tone, he raised an eyebrow and grinned conspiratorially. “I’ve prepared a little surprise for you today.”

Li Ye’s gaze rested on Wang Shao, utterly unreadable.

Having just digested the storyline, he naturally recognized the man standing before him.

The Wang family was considered well-off in this city, but they were nothing compared to an old-money titan like the Xu family. Because so much of his family’s livelihood hung on the Xus’ favor, Wang Shao fawned over and accommodated Xu Zhaochen at every turn. He was Xu Zhaochen’s prime lapdog… and later, once Xu Zhaochen’s true status was exposed, the first person to kick him in the dirt was this very same “loyal hound.”

Naturally, Wang Shao had also played a major part in orchestrating the harassment of Shen Ji.

Under Li Ye’s piercing stare, Wang Shao felt the hair on the back of his neck prickle. Meeting those deep, unblinking eyes, the confidence he had felt in pleasing his patron suddenly wavered. For a heartbeat, he hesitated, unsure whether to press on.

Just as Wang Shao wavered, Li Ye’s lips curved into a faint smile. He tilted his head with lazy, unmistakable amusement. “Oh?”

At the sight of that smile, the suffocating tension evaporated like mist before the sun, sweeping away Wang Shao’s sudden unease. He let out a quiet breath. It must have been my imagination… He had trailed after Xu Zhaochen long enough to know his volatile temper inside and out.

He was just a spoiled, willful rich kid. Stroking his ego was hardly a challenge, and Wang Shao had made an art of it.

Grinning broadly, Wang Shao clapped his hands and signaled to the lackeys nearby. “Bring him in.”

The private karaoke lounge was dimly lit and deafeningly loud. Aside from Wang Shao, several other youths slouched casually around the room—all part of Xu Zhaochen’s regular entourage. Yet judging by how naturally Wang Shao barked orders, it was an open question whose word they actually respected…

Fortunately for them, the original Xu Zhaochen was far too oblivious to notice such subtle undercurrents. Li Ye saw it clearly, but he was equally indifferent. As long as Wang Shao performed his assigned role, nothing else mattered.

Two thugs slipped out the door and returned a moment later, shoving a young man into the room ahead of them.

Scanning the room, the young man’s brow furrowed in sudden alarm. He turned on his heel to leave, but a heavy hand shoved him roughly from behind. Stumbling forward, he looked up and caught Li Ye’s gaze. His thin lips pressed into a grim line; behind his sharp, guarded eyes flickered a glint of confusion.

Shen Ji worked various odd jobs outside of his university courses. Just yesterday, an acquaintance had tipped him off about a lucrative translation gig and instructed him to meet here. But the second he crossed the threshold, his instincts flared. Something was terribly wrong. He had been lured into a trap.

This was certainly no venue for academic translation. Furthermore, Shen Ji recognized Xu Zhaochen—the university’s notorious, silver-spoon degenerate. This crowd was undoubtedly bad news. Yet he had never crossed paths with any of them, nor could he recall ever provoking their ire.

With the exit already barred behind him, raw survival instinct snapped Shen Ji’s posture taut. His expression hardened into stone.

Li Ye leaned forward slightly, narrowing his eyes as he took the young man in.

Shen Ji wore a faded shirt washed nearly white, yet pressed impeccably neat. Tucked into clean black trousers, it accentuated the lean, firm contour of his waist. He was tall, with long limbs and a crisp, aloof presence that stood in stark contrast to the sleazy grime of this room.

This was indeed this world’s Child of the Plane.

Li Ye let out an amused chuckle, his eyes crinkling. Turning his head, he gave Wang Shao an approving nod. “Well done.”

Wang Shao caught his breath, momentarily dazed. It was common knowledge that Xu Zhaochen possessed an extraordinary face; strip away his pedigree and his looks, and he was thoroughly useless. Having run with him for so long, Wang Shao ought to have been immune to it. Yet now, pinned beneath that faintly mocking gaze and bathed in careless praise, a strange dryness seized his throat. He bowed his head to conceal his sudden fluster. “As long as Young Master Xu is pleased.”

Xu Zhaochen had spent the last several weeks aggressively pursuing Gu Yu, who openly despised him as an uncultivated playboy. Just yesterday, she had discarded Xu Zhaochen’s lavish bouquet into the trash, only to turn around and walk into a study hall side by side with Shen Ji. When word reached Xu Zhaochen, he had smashed a bottle in a blind rage.

He was, after all, the heir of the prominent Xu family. Striking out with a woman was humiliating enough, but Gu Yu was the pampered young mistress of the Gu clan—not someone he could simply coerce. But losing out to an impoverished, nobody student had thoroughly shredded Xu Zhaochen’s fragile ego. Wang Shao had deliberately orchestrated this trap today so Xu Zhaochen could vent his spleen.

In the clutches of this unruly gang, Shen Ji would be lucky to leave in one piece.

Resting on his knee, Li Ye’s fingers tapped a steady, contemplative rhythm as he mulled over the events to come. Suddenly, a chime echoed through his consciousness.

[Main Quest Activated: Humiliate Shen Ji and threaten him to stay away from Gu Yu.]

Li Ye raised an eyebrow.

009 promptly chimed in: “Host, this Main Quest is a critical narrative node calculated by the Main System to advance the plot and stabilize the world. I strongly advise completing it as soon as possible.”

009 spoke with strict professionalism, but beneath the surface, its data streams were trembling with anxiety.

These days, no one wanted the thankless job of playing a villain doomed to a wretched end. Antagonist roles across the sub-worlds were disastrously understaffed, leaving countless realities dangling by a thread. To maintain narrative equilibrium, the department had no choice but to draft outside Hosts—except most Hosts balked at playing the fall guy! Out of ten candidates, four were obsessed with staging a glorious comeback and washing their reputations clean; three sought only to cling to the protagonist’s coattails for an easy ride; two treated both mission and narrative as passing clouds, caring about nothing; and the lone individual willing to fulfill the brief usually bungled it out of sheer incompetence…