Back downstairs at the rental house, Shen Qiuxun looked up at the sky, saw the bare branches of the tree, and felt a sudden sense of melancholy.
[What are you melancholy about?]
‘Sigh, it feels like the weather’s completely changed after just one trip out.’
Passing through the small ground-floor door and going up two steps, Shen Qiuxun backed out again. He looked up at the surveillance camera above the doorframe, his gaze shifting slightly. ‘System Buddy, help me pull up the surveillance footage.’
[Against regulations.]
‘Please, System Bro.’
[.]
Shen Qiuxun jogged upstairs and opened the door. A black shadow darted out with a whoosh, anxiously circling his feet and meowing. Those green cat eyes watched him intently, licking and sniffing, as if concerned about him.
Picking the kitten up, Shen Qiuxun looked around left and right. Everything in the room was as before, not the slightest trace of violence.
He stood in the living room for a while, then suddenly thought of something. He went into the bedroom, rummaged through the cabinet, and pulled out that “How to Make Your Husband Dote on You for a Lifetime.” He flipped through it. It was worlds apart from the one in Xu Zhiyuan’s room.
He peeled off the book’s purple dust jacket. The book’s true title finally surfaced. On the pages, yellowed with age, were printed a few large black characters: “How to Raise a Good Dog.”
‘.’ Shen Qiuxun’s vision went dark. He wrapped the dust jacket back on, woodenly stuffed the book under the leg of the table that was a bit too short, shakily climbed onto his own recliner, and then neatly arranged his apricot-yellow little blanket. No wonder Fu Mingchuan was getting weirder and weirder!
The Second-hand Market has screwed me over so deeply!
He refused to face it.
And then Shen Qiuxun fell asleep.
When he woke again, it was deep in the night. Groggily awakened by the cool breeze from the balcony, he wrapped himself tighter in the blanket. “Ah Chuan, close the door.”
“…”
Shen Qiuxun opened his eyes again, only then remembering Fu Mingchuan was in the slammer. How tragic.
Both of them were tragic.
He got up, refilled Kitty’s bowl with cat food. His own sleepiness was gone. He closed the doors and windows, washed up, and returned to the bedroom. He tapped his Lightbrain and saw the surveillance data packages the System had sent him.
He watched them meticulously. Nothing was amiss. It was simply a sunny afternoon, a squad of police officers burst in, and a while later, Fu Mingchuan left with them.
Sitting on the bed, he saw a sky-blue pillow. The pillow was embroidered with two very cute little kittens. The stitching was dense and fine, vividly lifelike. You could tell the person who embroidered it had real skill.
[Host, want to check your livestream account?]
‘Fine.’
Shen Qiuxun was also curious how this account of his, which was sporadically active, face-hidden, silent, and bored to death, had managed to become popular.
He logged into his account, “Water and Fire,” then ignored the exploding notification red dots. Following the trending topics and sorting out the timeline, it took him quite a while to roughly understand. He didn’t know whether to laugh or cry.
It all started with a content creator who loved making parody remix videos. The creator claimed to be a fan of “Water and Fire.” One day, on a whim, he edited Shen Qiuxun’s livestream footage, added some quirky sound effects—like poking electrical conduits, twisting electrical wires, hammering tools. In short, it was as wildly remixed as it could be. He uploaded the video, and it became an overnight sensation.
Netizens drawn in by the video followed the clues and found his account. After reviewing his past livestream videos, they discovered… Wow, this sleep-aid streamer is truly charming.
Just look at that figure.
Look at that aura.
Look at those hand techniques.
Word of mouth spread, and Shen Qiuxun’s fans grew more and more. The speed of his dark-horse rise was comparable to riding a rocket.
Then a large group of people were clamoring under his previous videos, begging him to start a livestream.
“…”
[Host isn’t excited?]
‘Excited about what? Can’t take it with me.’
[Makes sense.] But the System thought: maybe next time it could still be used.
Wait, what next time?
‘And, this video site is under WW’s umbrella.’
[.]
The whole WW group is his, and he cares about this bit of tip money?
No good, it had already been corrupted by capitalism!
Shen Qiuxun had no intention of forcing himself to start a stream. He rubbed the little sky-blue pillow and prepared to sleep. His eyes had been closed for a while when he suddenly sat up again. His hair was messy. The harsh white light was caught by his bangs, only slivers of light sliding from the tip of his nose down to his fair, pretty chin, adding a hint of an eerie aura.
Fragments of those remix parody videos flashed through his mind. He muttered to himself, “Interstellar video editing technology really is miraculous.”
[Yeah, what about it?]
The System just watched its Host, who had been about to sleep, sit on the bed in a daze. It wondered if he wasn’t used to staying alone in the rental house. Or maybe he missed the company of the second male lead a bit?
Just as it was letting its imagination run wild, it saw the Host seem to have an epiphany. He put on a jacket, pulled out a chair to sit, then projected his Lightbrain screen, pulling up the surveillance video that had just been so carefully reviewed.
His pale fingertips flew across the holographic screen. The hand speed was so fast the naked eye could only catch afterimages. After a flurry of dizzying operations, a different segment appeared in the video. The System was certain this segment had not been in the surveillance footage earlier. So… the surveillance footage had been tampered with!
Shen Qiuxun looked at that familiar figure with silver hair in the footage, the corner of his mouth twitching. Sure enough, he never should have taught that money-loser how to pick locks! He was furious!
‘But… why would Xu Zhiyuan report Fu Mingchuan?’ Shen Qiuxun pondered, unable to come up with a reason. After all, Xu Zhiyuan and Fu Mingchuan had absolutely no intersection, nor any conflict of interest.
[Perhaps… he was worried that the fugitive Fu Mingchuan would hurt you?]
‘?’
So that was it.
So, Xu Zhiyuan had chanced upon Fu Mingchuan hiding in his room, found out the other was a fugitive, worried that he was being deceived, and so acted righteously. He had even specifically picked a time when he wasn’t home, so he wouldn’t feel sad.
‘Who asked him to protect me? Money-loser.’
System who had casually pulled a reason out of thin air: [.]
Shen Qiuxun copied the video, preparing to go find trouble with Xu Zhiyuan the next day.
A dreamless night. Shen Qiuxun woke early for the first time, full of energy. Today was the day Fu Mingchuan was sent off to the Military District. He had to go see him off. He searched the rental house for a long time but found nothing decent to give him. He just scooped up Kitty, who was eating with gusto, and ran out the door. He ran all the way to the police station and was led by an officer to see Fu Mingchuan one last time.
After the mental struggle last night, Shen Qiuxun had come to terms with it. He’d let Fu Mingchuan off and let himself off the hook. He had done what he could. Whether Fu Mingchuan felt moved or not was his own business.
Things like love couldn’t be forced. Now, what he could try to do was call him when he had time to keep up their friendship, and then secretly trip him up to prevent him from succeeding in his career.
So whether or not to get him out actually wasn’t important.
The meeting time was very short. Shen Qiuxun reached his hand inside, and the man grasped it.
“Take care of yourself, rest more, be lazy more, don’t stand out too much. Don’t rush ahead when there’s danger. Value your life a little. Kitty and I will wait for you at home.”
“Meow meow meow.”
Fu Mingchuan, who knew what he was imagining, actually looked resolute in his gentle expression. “I understand.”
Understand my uncle’s aunt’s second uncle’s grandpa.
“That’s not what I meant. I just beg you to be safe and sound. Those things about making achievements and building a career, let’s not do those, okay?”
“Meow meow meow meow meow.”
Fu Mingchuan nodded with a smile, his eyes full of reluctance and concern. “Xiao Er, wait for me.” He rubbed Kitty’s little head. “Be good, don’t cause Mama worry.”
Mama your uncle’s second aunt’s immortal great-grandpa.
“I really like our current life of being content with poverty and simple pleasures. We don’t strive for wealth, power, or status. I just want you to come back safe and sound, got it, Ah Chuan?”
Between Fu Mingchuan’s brows appeared an expression of deep emotion. His parents had always pushed him to compete for first place since childhood, hysterically demanding he be superior. And now, there was someone who spoke such loving words to him: “Just be safe, don’t compete to be first.”
How could he bear to let his Xiao Er live a hard life with him forever?
And how could he be willing to, empty-handed, hand Xiao Er over to someone else?
Shen Qiuxun didn’t know why, but he just had a bad feeling about this. He wanted to warn him a couple more times, but the officer came to knock on the door. He could only leave while looking back every two steps. Walking to the door, Shen Qiuxun sighed.
‘System, do you think he understood?’
[maybe.]
‘My heart feels so panicked. Last time this happened was… last time.’
[Host, you didn’t even praise me for using English. You’ve changed.]
‘Go die somewhere.’
[When there’s trouble, it’s “System Bro.” When there’s none, it’s “damn System.” I see right through you.]
Shen Qiuxun returned to the Small Hotel, selected a few frames from the restored surveillance video, and printed them into a thick stack of A4 paper. In his mind, he tried out the image of slapping this stack of paper across a certain someone’s face. There was a satisfying feeling akin to arrogantly slapping down a stack of checks.
Anyway, it was done using the Small Hotel’s money.
Boarding the private jet, Shen Qiuxun successfully stormed into the WS Hotel. He just so happened to run into Jiang Shiyan, whose expression was grim and somber, stepping out of the private elevator. The other party saw him, paused for a moment, before re-hanging a smile onto his face and coming over to greet him. “Madam, you’ve come at just the right time.”
Thus, before Shen Qiuxun could even sit down and drink some water, he was led into another car. The car was very fast; calling it teleportation wouldn’t be an exaggeration. The scenery, blurred into a mosaic, rapidly retreated past the glass. Jiang Shiyan sat beside him with a smiling face, apologizing.
“I’m sorry, Madam.”
“Don’t call me Madam.”
Jiang Shiyan smoothly amended his address. “Alright, Mr. Shen.” He paused for a moment, his expression a bit awkward. “It’s like this: President Xu has suddenly fallen ill with Pheromone Disorder. The situation is critical. I know President Xu’s original agreement with you was one Mental Guiding session per week, but necessity knows no law. I must ask Mr. Shen, in consideration of your established relationship with President Xu, to please help him.”
“Of course, if you have any requests, feel free to raise them. For troubling you with this trip, compensation is only proper.”
Shen Qiuxun silently stashed the thick stack of paper into his jacket. He thought for a moment. “Is it worse than five years ago?”
Jiang Shiyan nodded. He tapped the screen on a cabinet, and a holographic screen suddenly appeared before them. On it was a detailed list of Xu Zhiyuan’s various vital signs. The dense text made Shen Qiuxun’s eyes hurt, but he still understood the red-colored gauge data.
It wasn’t just serious; it was extremely serious.
So Xu Zhiyuan had been dragging such a wreck of a body behind him, following him around and keeping him company. Quite dedicated.
“But I’m here to pick a fight with him, actually. How about… I come back in a couple of days?”
Just as Shen Qiuxun was speaking, he suddenly saw the other’s eyes light up. Jiang Shiyan adjusted his glasses. “This is the perfect time to pick a fight. President Xu is delirious during his Rut. You can beat him up or scold him as you please. You could even coax him into handing over his entire fortune. That would be no problem.”
“???” Were these words that should be coming out of an Assistant’s mouth?
Under Jiang Shiyan’s earnest gaze, Shen Qiuxun felt goosebumps rise all over his skin. Finally, he woodenly and haltingly said, “Al…right then.”
