On a stone bollard in the plaza next to a high-end shopping mall in the city center, a boy squatted wearing a baseball cap.
A simple, loose white T-shirt paired with light denim shorts that reached just above the knees, and a pair of distinctive sneakers, already enough to catch the attention of passersby. Not to mention the pale chin and faintly pink lips peeking from under the cap; everyone passing by couldn’t help but glance at him.
【That person has walked back and forth three times? What’s he doing?】
Jiang Yumo bit off half a popsicle in one go. “Who knows!”
System scratched its head: 【You humans are really hard to understand!】
“Because you’re not human!” Jiang Yumo grinned, casually flicking his hand, sending the popsicle stick landing perfectly in a trash can a few meters away.
He pulled out his phone and snorted at Gu Yu’s explanation.
System: …Waaah, this is supposed to be the noble, righteous male lead!
“Lucky for him,” Jiang Yumo muttered, a medical bandage wrapped around his neck to cover those… suggestive marks. “If I didn’t have something to do, I’d tear a layer of skin off him!”
The system had been wanting to ask since earlier: 【Host, what are you doing here?】
There weren’t many people around, and the daily tasks had only been partially completed this morning.
【Don’t say I didn’t warn you, if daily tasks aren’t finished, there will be random penalties related to the male lead!】
Jiang Yumo: “Enough, enough! Stop nagging like an old hag! Do I need you to tell me this?!”
System: …Who asked it to remind about tasks anyway?
System · Feeling wronged but can’t fight back ·
Suddenly, Jiang Yumo’s phone rang.
He looked at it coldly as it automatically hung up. Less than a second later, it rang again, again hanging up automatically.
On the third call, Jiang Yumo finally pressed to answer just before it could hang up.
“Jiang Yumo!” On the other end came Mrs. Jiang’s frantic, panicked voice, completely losing composure. “Jiang Huarong! It’s your father, has he contacted you? Huh? Jiang Yumo, speak! I know you’re listening! Just say something!”
Mrs. Jiang’s voice from the other end was nearly hysterical. The system could hear the helplessness, fear, and panic in her tone, though it didn’t know what exactly had happened.
But—
The system cautiously glanced at the host.
He didn’t show an ounce of pity. On the contrary, his large, round, black-pearl-like eyes curved into a delighted, mischievous smile.
“Mrs. Jiang, it seems like you’re the one begging me now,” Jiang Yumo said, without hiding anything. He deliberately added a faintly mocking tone: “This attitude of begging someone to do something, so insincere.”
“Jiang Yumo!”
“If you have nothing to say, I’ll hang up,” Jiang Yumo said casually. “My phone bill isn’t cheap, you know.”
Wait, so she wasn’t even worth a few cents of his phone bill?
“One hundred thousand!” Mrs. Jiang spoke so fast she barely got it out before the call could be cut off. Her voice regained the calm composure from before. “Just tell me where Jiang Huarong! I! S! At!”
“Hahahaha!” The boy’s bright, sunny laugh carried a completely unhidden malice. “You’re his wife and you don’t even know, how would I know?”
He didn’t pause even half a second before hanging up and blocking the number.
【Host! How dare she?!】
The system knew how the Jiang family had treated the host before. It didn’t know exactly what had happened, but Mrs. Jiang’s tone was outrageously self-righteous!
Jiang Yumo said: “You’ve underestimated her.”
It was only because of everything Jiang Yumo had done these past days, so far beyond ordinary, that Mrs. Jiang hesitated, holding back, otherwise that woman would have done anything to protect her own interests.
In a way, she and Jiang Huarong were a natural match.
A blanket can’t hide the rising value of two different kinds of people.
However, with Mrs. Jiang’s usual self-important attitude of “I am the most noble in the world,” the only things that could break her composure were either her own interests… or her two children.
And Jiang Chongyuan was probably still recovering at this point, which meant it had to be Jiang Ran!
Jiang Yumo clapped his hands.
Good! Perfect!
He had long been annoyed by Jiang Ran. That person seemed to know everything while pretending to be innocent, but in reality was secretly stirring up trouble, blowing small issues out of proportion, and letting Jiang Yumo bear all the consequences.
Although it wasn’t clear what trouble she had gotten into this time, whenever a member of the Jiang family faced difficulty, Jiang Yumo could cheer with both hands and feet.
Mrs. Jiang was not someone to give up easily. After being blocked, she immediately borrowed someone else’s phone to call again, but Jiang Yumo was busy completing his daily tasks and didn’t pick up.
He deliberately ignored her. According to the original timeline, at this point, Jiang Ran had no troubles at all. Thanks to Jiang Yumo’s efforts, she successfully advanced to the next level, getting close to a true heiress and a young master.
Although still on the periphery, far from the real inner circle, it was still a major step forward for the Jiang family.
But that was the story after Jiang Yumo had been successfully “sacrificed.”
Now, Jiang Yumo had directly cut off the Jiang family from feeding off him. What would happen to the Jiang family next? Even he couldn’t predict it.
One thing was certain, it wouldn’t be good.
Jiang Yumo now had no worries about food or money. Besides the 5 million generously gifted by Mrs. Jiang, there was the 50,000 from Gu Youyou, almost like a daily offering. Over time, Jiang Yumo noticed the frequency; it seemed her account had a daily limit of 50,000.
Each time she wrote that it was a voluntary gift. There was no reason to reject money handed to him like that.
Jiang Yumo always clicked “Accept,” and added a prefix to Gu Youyou’s name, “Money-scattering child.”
Gu Yu wasn’t exactly a good kid, but his little sister was decent. Since she was so sincere, he might as well reluctantly accept her as a junior.
The plaza near the mall was crowded, but Jiang Yumo had become increasingly skilled at completing his tasks. By the afternoon, he had only two daily tasks left. Being daytime on a workday, there weren’t too many people or unexpected incidents.
Jiang Yumo was munching on a cone when his gaze suddenly sharpened.
At an intersection a dozen meters away, a young woman in a checkered skirt and shirt was talking on her phone. Suddenly, the phone slipped from her hand, and she stepped into the continuous flow of traffic.
Passersby felt a gust of wind and instinctively turned their heads.
Like a cheetah on the open plains, the boy covered the distance in just a few breaths. He leapt over the median and pulled the girl back just as she was about to be hit by a car!
“I wanted to jump off a building or something! Don’t blame me, damn it!” the driver yelled after stopping, then drove off.
“Hey, I don’t know why you want to die, but don’t do it in the middle of the road. If you die, the driver will suffer and pay for it.”
“You’re still young. What’s so hard that you can’t get over it?”
“Young people today are way too fragile. Too much study stress and they commit suicide, breakups and they commit suicide, lose a job and they commit suicide, get scolded by the boss and they commit suicide. Tsk tsk tsk… they just eat too much.”
A few passersby murmured and walked on, but the woman heard every word.
“Waaahhh, you don’t understand!” The woman sat back down on the ground and started crying. “If anyone really wanted to die, who would? I just… I have no other way.”
She had barely mustered the courage earlier, and now she couldn’t help blaming him. “Why did you save me?!”
“Then go die.” Jiang Yumo said flatly, clearly irritated. “I won’t stop you.”
Earlier, the system had taken over Jiang Yumo’s body, which allowed him to move at such incredible speed. Now his legs trembled slightly from overexertion, muscles sore and screaming.
The woman paused, something about that voice sounded familiar.
She lifted her head, wiped her tears, and focused. “It’s you!”
“You know me?” Jiang Yumo’s steps faltered. Seeing her face clearly, he said, “Yeah… I think you look familiar.”
The woman scratched her cheek. “At the bus stop before… that pervert taking photos…”
“Oh, it’s you.” Jiang Yumo remembered immediately.
The day he had gone to the amusement park with Gu Youyou, while waiting at the bus stop, he had casually dealt with a man who was secretly taking photos under women’s skirts.
“And this too.” The woman pulled up a recording from her phone’s livestream, her voice excited, cheeks flushed. “That night you saved so many people! You were amazing!”
Jiang Yumo paused mid-step. The video playing on her phone showed everything he had done the night he was reborn and bound to the system.
【Wow! That really is you!】
The boy in the video looked calm, but his actions were far from ordinary.
The woman kept chattering, “There were so many dangerous moments. If it weren’t for you, those people would’ve been dead… or crippled…”
Her overflowing praise and admiration poured out like it cost nothing, anyone normal would blush hearing it.
System: 【Host! She’s complimenting you!】
She was calling him the best person she had ever met or something like that, definitely a bit exaggerated.
System shook its head: another person being fooled by the host.
“I just don’t understand why the trending topic got taken down afterward,” the woman muttered.
Jiang Yumo’s heart skipped a beat. Only someone with that kind of financial power could remove a trending topic, and at the time, it seemed like there was only one person capable of that.
So their rebirth must have been around the same time as his.
This also explained why, that night, even though he clearly saved Gu Youyou, Gu Yu still harbored hostility toward him. If it was because Gu Yu remembered what Jiang Yumo did in his previous life, it made perfect sense.
Jiang Yumo touched his neck.
His fingers felt the slightly rough texture of the medical bandage. He squinted, smiling like a triumphant fox.
Two times! Two consecutive defenses broken! Hahaha! Absolutely brilliant!
If those self-important young masters and heiresses knew that Gu Yu, the high and untouchable flower of the wealthy, had changed so drastically because of him, going from a calm, refined gentleman to an emotionally unstable, easily provoked obsessive man, it would be incredibly entertaining!
How could he make Gu Yu obey him?
Jiang Yumo’s eyes narrowed with interest. Thinking back over the past few days, every time he got near Xu Feiyao, Gu Youyou, or the others, Gu Yu would appear. He didn’t believe it was a coincidence.
With Gu Yu’s personality, he must have started keeping someone on him immediately after rebirth. Otherwise, how else could he always show up so punctually?
And the system didn’t know any of this, it really was just a useless companion for chatting.
Right now, Gu Yu must think Jiang Yumo had hidden intentions, and that he would harm his friends and family like in the previous life.
If Jiang Yumo played it right, staged a few more acts, and made Gu Yu separate him from the Jiang Yumo of the previous life, then all of Gu Yu’s past cruelty would turn into guilt and self-blame.
At that point, Gu Yu would be easily under his control!
Hahaha! This was even more satisfying than killing him!
If only Xu Feiyao and the others from the previous life could witness it too, that would be absolutely thrilling!
Jiang Yumo raised his hand, clenched his fist, determined to succeed.
System: The host is laughing in a way that’s giving me goosebumps again.