As evening fell, Lu Zhiyu stood silently in front of the huge villa, staring at the official seal pasted across the entrance.
The setting sun stretched his lonely figure long across the ground, making him look unbearably desolate.
Song Kening stood behind him, not knowing what she could possibly say to comfort him.
Just then, a black Porsche stopped beside them.
The window rolled down, revealing Zhou Yuqing’s refined yet revolting face.
“Oh, Zhiyu. You’re still here?”
He slowly opened the car door and stepped out. His eyes swept contemptuously over Lu Zhiyu before landing on Song Kening, amusement dancing in his gaze.
“I heard you spent the entire day running around and couldn’t borrow a single cent?”
Lu Zhiyu pressed his thin lips together and said nothing.
Zhou Yuqing’s smile grew even more smug.
He pulled a business card from his pocket and held it out to him.
“How about I point you in the right direction?”
“I know a sixty-year-old wealthy widow whose husband passed away. She’s worth hundreds of millions. With a face as handsome as yours, go be her lover. I guarantee you’ll have everything you could ever want. No more starving on the streets.”
Lu Zhiyu’s hand hanging at his side suddenly clenched into a fist.
“Get lost.”
Zhou Yuqing wasn’t angry. Instead, he laughed and casually tossed the business card onto the ground.
“Lu Zhiyu, what are you still acting so proud for?”
He stepped closer and sneered.
“You’re nothing but a stray dog now. The banks won’t lend you money, your friends won’t answer your calls, and there’s no place left for you in the entire city of Huacheng!”
“Just wait until you’re reduced to begging!”
He turned around to leave, but the moment his peripheral vision caught sight of Song Kening, he stopped.
With a lecherous grin, he reached out to touch her face.
Song Kening reacted instantly and slapped his hand away.
“Keep your filthy hands off me!”
Zhou Yuqing snorted.
“Song Kening, what are you pretending for? Aren’t you just obsessed with money?”
“Now that Lu Zhiyu is bankrupt, why don’t you become my lover instead?”
“Heh!”
Song Kening looked at Zhou Yuqing’s smug face and gave a cold laugh.
“Who would want money that you got by betraying your own brother?”
Zhou Yuqing wasn’t offended. Instead, he laughed.
“Fine! You’ve got guts! Let’s see how long the two of you can keep this up!”
He turned and got into his car.
Before leaving, he stuck his head out of the window and viciously threw out one final sentence.
“Lu Zhiyu, I’ll be waiting for the day you come crawling to me on your knees!”
The Porsche roared away, disappearing into the distance.
Lu Zhiyu remained standing in front of the villa, completely motionless.
His back was still straight, but the desolation he could no longer conceal seemed to cling to his entire figure.
Song Kening looked at his back, her heart filled with complicated emotions.
He had been betrayed by the person he trusted most, falling from the clouds into the mud overnight.
Brothers united, willing to take a knife for each other…
Except in this case, the knife had been shoved straight between his brother’s ribs.
In the novel, Lu Zhiyu endured for three years before making his comeback, launching a ruthless revenge and tearing apart every one of his enemies.
But there was a problem.
The novel was written in a flashback-style narrative.
It began with Lu Zhiyu returning three years later, so the book never went into detail about how he had actually lived during those three years.
All it said was that when he returned, he had become a ruthless, emotionless, obsessive monster.
Even the child he’d had was raised to the point of developing autism.
That was when the sunny, kind-hearted female protagonist—a psychologist—appeared and warmed Lu Zhiyu’s cold heart. She also helped cure the child’s autism.
That was why the novel was called The Salvation of the Obsessive Big Shot.
Song Kening bit her lower lip and gathered her courage before walking up to him.
She gently tugged at his sleeve.
“Lu Zhiyu.”
“Let’s leave Huacheng. We can go somewhere else and start over.”
Lu Zhiyu slowly turned around.
His dark eyes were filled with mockery.
“I don’t have a single cent right now. I can’t even survive in Huacheng. Where do you expect me to go?”
“Huacheng is too expensive, and all your enemies are here. If you stay, you’ll only give them another chance to humiliate you!”
Song Kening looked straight into his eyes.
“Let’s go to a city where no one knows you and start from scratch. You can definitely make a comeback!”
Lu Zhiyu stared at her with a heavy gaze.
“Why are you still following me?”
Song Kening’s mind went blank, and the words escaped her mouth before she could think.
“I might be pregnant with your child!”
A vein throbbed at Lu Zhiyu’s temple.
“Are you crazy? It’s only been one day. How could you possibly know you’re pregnant?”
“I didn’t have money to buy emergency contraception! What if I really am pregnant?”
Song Kening lifted her chin confidently, without the slightest trace of guilt.
Lu Zhiyu: “…”
He took a deep breath.
He couldn’t be bothered arguing with this unreasonable woman and simply turned around and walked away.
“Wait for me!”
Song Kening hurried after him.
“I don’t have an ID, I don’t have money, and I don’t have a job. There’s no way I can survive on my own!”
Lu Zhiyu stopped and turned back to look at her, his brows tightly furrowed.
“You don’t have any money? Then why don’t you become Zhou Yuqing’s lover?”
Song Kening: “…”
The real vicious female supporting character hadn’t even finished elementary school.
In this world from the novel, she would barely be able to get by on her own.
She couldn’t leave Lu Zhiyu.
He might not have any money now, but he had the ability to make money.
Lu Zhiyu looked at her.
After remaining silent for half a minute, he finally asked,
“Where do you want to go?”
Song Kening’s eyes lit up.
Her mind began racing.
Huacheng corresponded to Shanghai in the real world. A city with lower living costs and plenty of opportunities would be Guangzhou.
But if she said Guangzhou, Lu Zhiyu definitely wouldn’t believe her.
Novelists loved using fictionalized versions of cities like Beicheng, Jing City, Jiang City, Haicheng, Huacheng, and Gangcheng…
There didn’t seem to be many overbearing-CEO novels set in Guangzhou.
Guangzhou should correspond to Yangcheng!
“Yangcheng. Yes, Yangcheng is an international metropolis too. Rent is cheaper, living expenses are lower, and no one knows us there. You can survive in Yangcheng without having to work yourself to the bone.”
Lu Zhiyu said calmly,
“I don’t have money for a train ticket.”
“You have that suit you’re wearing! Just sell it. Then you’ll have money, right?”
Song Kening pointed at his designer suit jacket.
Lu Zhiyu looked down at the custom-made Armani suit he was wearing.
The once mighty CEO Lu had now fallen so low that he had to pawn his clothes.
At the secondhand shop, the owner held a magnifying glass and carefully inspected the suit jacket inside and out for quite some time.
Then he slowly held up five fingers.
“Five thousand yuan. Take it or leave it.”
Lu Zhiyu’s brows knitted together.
“This jacket originally cost 230,000 yuan.”
The owner didn’t seem bothered.
“Kid, it’s secondhand now. If you think that’s too little, don’t sell it.”
Lu Zhiyu had no choice but to take the five thin stacks of cash.
Five thousand yuan.
The man who had once casually spent tens of millions was now left with only 5,000 yuan to keep himself alive.
Wearing only a white shirt, he walked out of the shop.
The evening breeze carried a lingering heat, making him frown slightly.
Song Kening immediately approached him.
“How much did you get?”
“Five thousand.”
“That’s enough, that’s enough! More than enough for us to get to Yangcheng!”
Song Kening was so happy she nearly jumped.
Lu Zhiyu watched her excited expression, growing increasingly confused.
“Why exactly are you so determined to follow me?”
Song Kening blinked.
“What if I really am pregnant with your child? Do you want to be an irresponsible jerk?”
Lu Zhiyu: “…”
At this moment, all he wanted was to throw this woman onto the side of the road so he wouldn’t have to look at her anymore.
Song Kening followed behind him, chattering nonstop.
“Think about it. You’re going to Yangcheng alone, and you don’t know anyone there. Wouldn’t that be lonely…?”
Lu Zhiyu suddenly stopped.
Song Kening walked straight into his solid back and immediately grimaced in pain.
“Ow!”
“What exactly are you trying to do?”
Song Kening rubbed her nose, walked around to stand in front of him, then looked up at him with an extremely serious expression.
“Lu Zhiyu, let’s have a partnership marriage!”
Lu Zhiyu looked utterly bewildered.
“What kind of partnership marriage?”
“It’s basically living together and making ends meet. No romance, just physical needs, no emotional involvement!”
“You focus on building your career, making money, and supporting the family. I’ll take care of everything at home and raise the child!”
“When you make your comeback later, you can divorce me whenever you want. I won’t cling to you, and I definitely won’t pester you!”
Lu Zhiyu wondered if this woman’s brain had been hit by a door.
“What do you want out of this?”
Song Kening lowered her eyes and answered softly,
“I just want a way to survive.”
In this strange world, she was completely alone.
She had no money, no ID, and had taken the place of the vicious female supporting character.
So the child would naturally be born ten months from now.
Only by staying with Lu Zhiyu did she have a chance of surviving and avoiding being sent to the Golden Triangle.
Besides, he wasn’t truly a bad person.
He had simply been misunderstood and betrayed.
Lu Zhiyu remained silent for a long time.
The night breeze was cool, lifting the hem of his white shirt.
He lowered his head and looked at the girl standing before him.
She was wrapped in a hotel bathrobe, wearing canvas shoes, her hair messy.
Yet her eyes were clear and determined.
For some inexplicable reason, he couldn’t bring himself to refuse her.
“Let’s go.”
He finally spoke.
Song Kening froze.
“Where?”
“To Yangcheng.”
Song Kening’s eyes instantly widened.
“You agreed?!”
Lu Zhiyu didn’t answer.
He pulled a hundred-yuan bill from his trouser pocket and handed it to her.
“Take it. Go buy some decent clothes.”
Song Kening clutched the red banknote tightly.
Her nose suddenly stung, and she nearly burst into tears.
On her second day after transmigrating into the novel, she’d spent the entire day running around in a bathrobe.
She could finally afford to wear a proper set of clothes!
She looked around and spotted a street stall beneath the underpass selling cheap clothes.
She immediately ran over, crouched down, and began carefully picking through the inexpensive T-shirts and jeans.
Lu Zhiyu stood some distance away, watching her.
Under the dim streetlights, her small figure looked especially thin, yet there was an inexplicable resilience about her.
He withdrew his gaze and looked up at the night sky over Huacheng.
Neon lights glittered brilliantly.
The city was ablaze with lights, and skyscrapers towered everywhere.
It was a magnificent, prosperous metropolis.
And yet, in this enormous city…
not a single light was shining for him.