【Please choose one option within twenty seconds and complete it within forty seconds.
1.Shout at Yuan Wei: Yuan Wei! Screw you @#￥%!
2.Shout at Yuan Wei: You’re just a poor nobody, who are you trying to impress?
3.Shout at Yuan Wei: Get lost! And don’t ever come back once you leave!
Failure to complete the task within the time limit will result in an electric shock punishment. 20, 19, 18…】
Su Youtian froze. She blinked, and the moment she opened her mouth, the system cut in:
【No wailing! No throwing tantrums and rolling around! Keep stalling and you’ll get shocked!】
She immediately shut her mouth. “Why aren’t you erasing me anymore?”
【We’ve known each other this long, so I’m giving you special treatment. Stop wasting time! 10, 9…】
Su Youtian said, “This is way too hard. Can I just mumble it quietly?”
【No! 8, 7…】
Su Youtian grew frantic. “Then which one am I supposed to pick?!”
The first one was full of insults, way too humiliating for her to say out loud. Most importantly… it was too long.
The second one called Yuan Wei a poor nobody? No, no, that was way too harsh, she couldn’t say that either.
【6, 5, 4…】
Then only the last option remained. It was simple, easy to remember, and fit perfectly with her identity as a sentimental, fragile heroine from a romance novel.
Su Youtian nodded.
【3, 2…】
“3! I choose 3!”
【Option 3 selected. Host, please complete option 3 within one minute. 40, 39…】
Having narrowly escaped disaster, Su Youtian let out a sigh of relief. But the moment she looked up, she found nothing but darkness ahead, not a single trace of Yuan Wei.
“S-System…” Su Youtian said shakily, “Yuan Wei disappeared.”
Damn it, did he grow eight legs or something? He was injured, how was he still walking so fast?
【I checked the map. He’s 200 meters away from you. I’ll guide you there.】
“Two hundred meters in forty seconds? What kind of misunderstanding do you have about my trash-tier stamina?”
【Less than forty seconds left. 35, 34…】
Su Youtian nearly spat out blood. “I knew this task wouldn’t be that simple.”
【33, 32…】
“Stop counting! I’m running already!”
With that, Su Youtian hugged Tuotuo tighter and started running while howling.
“Yuan Wei! Yuan Wei!”
She shouted as she ran. Tuotuo got squeezed in her arms and yelped loudly, struggling to climb down.
“Don’t move, don’t move! Mommy’s taking you to find Daddy. If Daddy can’t find Mommy, Mommy’s going to get roasted alive, QAQ!”
Tuotuo: “Awoo awwoo?”
【20, 19, 18… There are still 160 meters left. How are you this useless?!】
Su Youtian: “QAQ”
“Yuan Wei! Yuan Wei, where are you?!”
Su Youtian looked exactly like a tragic young wife carrying a child while searching for a heartless man, running forward in panic and helplessness.
Tuotuo’s little head bobbed violently in her arms from all the shaking. Looking at the line on the map inching forward as slowly as a snail, Su Youtian felt her chest tighten so badly it seemed ready to explode. A metallic taste gradually spread in her mouth, and stars burst before her eyes.
As she ran, tears streamed wildly down her face.
“Awoooo! You might as well just electrocute me to death! I seriously can’t run anymore!”
【Almost there! 10, 9, 8…】
Su Youtian truly couldn’t keep going anymore. She simply set Tuotuo down by the side and flopped onto the ground, rolling around.
“What sin did I commit in my past life?! You might as well just electrocute me to death!”
【Rolling around again! Rolling around again! Be careful or I’ll shock you!】
“Go ahead then, shock me!”
【Fine, fine! I’ll give you another ten seconds!】
Su Youtian wailed, “Even if you gave me another ten minutes, I’m not doing this anymore!”
She was still rolling on the ground when she suddenly bumped into someone’s legs. Startled, she looked up.
Yuan Wei was bending down slightly, looking at her calmly.
Under the light, his face was deathly pale, yet there was a trace of helplessness between his brows.
“What are you rolling around for?”
【5, 4, 3…】
In that split second, Su Youtian suddenly wrapped herself around Yuan Wei’s leg and howled:
“Get lost! And don’t ever come back once you leave!”
After shouting that, she clung to him tightly.
【Task complete】
Yuan Wei raised one eyebrow and shifted his leg slightly. Su Youtian clung to him while smearing tears and snot all over his pant leg.
Yuan Wei pressed his lips together helplessly. He crouched halfway down, and his tall figure immediately enveloped Su Youtian.
Sniffling, Su Youtian said, “You said you wouldn’t hit me.”
Yuan Wei helped her up, then moved his leg slightly, clearly pointing out how her actions contradicted her words.
“Weren’t you telling me to get lost?”
Su Youtian lowered her head and saw that she had twisted Yuan Wei’s pants into a wrinkled mess. Tears, snot, and dirt were all smeared together on the fabric. Embarrassed, she lowered her head even further.
“I’ve let go now. You can leave.”
After saying that, she secretly peeked at Yuan Wei out of the corner of her eye.
Yuan Wei picked up the howling Tuotuo from the side. “You followed me all the way here just to tell me to get lost?”
“…”
Even she felt that her behavior was idiotic.
Yuan Wei shook his head helplessly, seemingly already used to her bizarre way of thinking. Looking at Su Youtian’s dirt-streaked face, he lifted Tuotuo up in front of her.
Su Youtian: “?”
Yuan Wei suddenly pressed Tuotuo’s fluffy fur against her face, then rubbed it up, down, left, and right.
Su Youtian: “…”
Tuotuo: “Awoo?”
Yuan Wei put Tuotuo down and nodded. “I don’t have a handkerchief, so this will have to do.”
How could you treat your own dog son like this?!
She spat out a strand of dog fur, snatched Tuotuo back into her arms, then sat on the ground and turned away with her butt as the pivot.
“If you won’t forgive me, and now I’ve insulted you too, then let’s never contact each other again from now on. You go your way, I’ll go mine!”
The moment she finished speaking, her stomach growled loudly.
With righteous confidence, she poked Tuotuo’s belly.
“Tuotuo, why do you get hungry so easily? Didn’t I just feed you?”
Tuotuo yawned and curled up in her arms, completely unmoved.
Yuan Wei looked at her helplessly, slid both hands under her armpits, and with one effortless lift, raised her steadily to her feet.
Su Youtian jumped in shock. “Y-You, what are you doing?”
Yuan Wei said, “Let’s go. I’ll take you to eat.”
Su Youtian glanced at the pitch-black streets around them. “Where to?”
“My house.”
Yuan Wei’s home still carried a faint smell of blood and medicine. Sitting on the sofa, Su Youtian watched Tuotuo bury its head in its bowl while eating, its back legs raised high as if it were about to take off. She couldn’t help but smile a little.
To the right, a photo of Yuan Wei’s mother still hung on the wall. There wasn’t a single piece of fruit on the coffee table, yet beneath the memorial photo were piles of bananas and oranges.
Looking at the worn but tidy furniture, Su Youtian’s eyes grew hot.
She lowered her head, almost not daring to look at the kind and gentle woman smiling in the photograph.
Yuan Wei’s mother had devoted her entire life to him. She came from a poor background, yet she had been independent and longed for freedom. The only mistake she made in her life was meeting Yuan Wei’s father. She was gentle, but also naive, easily deceived by his sweet words. In the end, the scumbag disappeared, leaving her to struggle through life alone while raising Yuan Wei.
After finally managing to raise him into adulthood, illness took her life away.
Back when Su Youtian wrote the story, she had deliberately left this as part of Yuan Wei’s setup so he would have a chance at a dramatic rise to success. In almost every novel, the domineering CEO-type male lead shared a similarly tragic childhood. They lacked love, didn’t know how to love, and waited for the heroine to melt their cold hearts and save their dull lives.
Su Youtian never thought there was anything wrong with writing it that way, until she transmigrated into this world.
Only then did she realize that a few short lines she wrote had decided an entire person’s life.
She lowered her head deeply, almost unable to face Yuan Wei.
If he ever found out that she was the “culprit” behind all the misery in his life, he would probably torment her even worse than he did Sheng Xia.
Su Youtian let out a bitter laugh.
“Hey, System, what do you think would happen if I rewrote Yuan Wei’s mother to be reborn? Would this novel world still continue to exist?”
【That’s not for me to decide.】
If the System couldn’t decide, then who could?
She remembered asking similar questions before, and the System’s answers had always been vague. So who exactly was behind the System, the one who made her transmigrate into this novel?
“Sheng Xia!”
“Huh?”
Su Youtian stretched her neck toward the kitchen.
A dim yellow light glowed there. Yuan Wei wore an apron as he lowered his head over the stove, cooking noodles in a pot. Su Youtian had never expected that when Yuan Wei said he’d bring her home for dinner, he actually meant cooking for her personally. Being able to eat noodles made by the male lead of her own novel, she was probably the first person ever to experience that.
As Su Youtian thought this, her gaze suddenly froze.
Under the warm light, Yuan Wei’s hair looked slightly golden, soft and fluffy with a gentle glow. His back curved slightly, his neck long and slender. A few unruly strands of hair rested against his collar. The apron outlined his lean waist even more clearly, while his loose home clothes hung casually, one pant leg trapped beneath his foot.
Without realizing it, Su Youtian tightened her grip on the sofa fabric. Yuan Wei’s slightly bent posture formed such a perfect curve that it made people instinctively want to press themselves against him.
Su Youtian: “System, what were you saying just now? Something about walking afterward…”
【Pour out all the dirty thoughts in your head already! He’s cooking for you, and you’re still thinking like this? Doesn’t your conscience hurt?!】
Su Youtian lowered her head. “I have sinned. I’ve been bewitched by beauty, sigh…”
【Look at how hopeless you are!】
Yuan Wei glanced back slightly. “There are clean clothes in the wardrobe. Go change.”
Su Youtian obediently nodded. The moment she stood up, she noticed two dusty marks left on the sofa cushions, perfectly shaped like butt prints when put together.
Su Youtian: “…”
She grabbed the eating Tuotuo and rubbed it back and forth over the sofa.
Tuotuo: “Awoo? AWOO!!!”
Yuan Wei clicked his tongue. “You’re bullying Tuotuo again?”
Su Youtian quickly set Tuotuo down and stood at attention. “No! I’ve never bullied it!”
Tuotuo shot her a sideways glance, then bit its bowl and dragged it noisily into the corner before burying its face inside.
Yuan Wei added seasoning into the pot, calmly stirring the noodles with chopsticks.
“Go change your clothes. Dinner’s almost ready.”
Su Youtian answered obediently. She walked into the bedroom, shut the door, and opened the wardrobe.
Whoa! An entire row of shirts.
Thoughtfully, she glanced toward the door outside, then deliberately picked the shortest one.