“If I told you I was just joking, would you believe me?”
Lin Jiujiu had transmigrated.
The moment she opened her eyes, she found herself holding a knife to the neck of a handsome man whose gaze was as vicious as that of a mob boss.
Lin Jiujiu was horrified.
As a thoroughly upstanding young woman of the twenty-first century, there was absolutely no way she would do something so heinous.
But she couldn’t let go.
Two black firearms were currently pressed against her temples, while two bodyguards built like oxen stood on either side of her.
Clearly, the moment she moved the knife even a fraction, her head would be blown apart.
The handsome man let out a cold laugh. A heavy murderous intent stained his narrow, deep-set eyes, and his magnetic voice sounded like that of some famous singer. “Baby Jiujiu, you just said that you were going to avenge Gu Wenhe…”
One hand rested on her slender waist. He drawled out his words, his magnetic voice carrying a hint of ambiguous tenderness. He sounded nothing like someone with a knife against his throat. “Have you forgotten?”
Lin Jiujiu: “Heh heh.”
The hand holding the knife trembled slightly. She gave a dry cough twice and asked in confusion, “Gu… Gu Wenhe? Who’s that?”
The name sounded familiar.
Extremely familiar.
“Of course, it’s the person you were willing to die together with me just to please.” The handsome man’s smile deepened, but Lin Jiujiu could clearly see a trace of cruelty within it.
She froze and swallowed. “Could it be… Pretty Boss and Her Charming Secretary?”
That was the old-fashioned romance novel her roommate had been listening to day and night these past few days.
Lin Jiujiu had ended up hearing quite a bit of it as well.
The title was a little tacky, but the plot was even more melodramatic than one could imagine.
The entire novel revolved around the love between the male lead, Gu Wenhe, and the female lead, Chen Ran. It was a classic office romance filled with angst. And in a story like that, there naturally had to be a scheming, materialistic green-tea female second lead and a deranged villain.
As luck would have it, the green-tea second lead shared Lin Jiujiu’s exact name. As the male lead’s childhood sweetheart, she relied on her wealthy and powerful family to meddle in their relationship every day. She even went so far as to risk her life to seduce the male lead’s great nemesis, all so that the male lead would look at her one more time.
In the end, she and the great villain traded one life for another and fell off a cliff together.
The male lead, who had manipulated the entire situation from behind the scenes, was deeply wracked with guilt for a while after learning of Lin Jiujiu’s death. Nevertheless, he chose to keep the truth hidden and went on to live happily with the female lead.
Although the female lead eventually learned the truth and had a quarrel with the male lead, believing him to be heartless and ungrateful, she ultimately chose to forgive him.
Lin Jiujiu rapidly recalled the general plot, her unfocused gaze falling on the kitchen knife in her hand.
Boohoo.
Why did it have to be this plot?
If she remembered correctly, this was the moment when the original owner turned against the great villain and attacked him for the first time. Unfortunately, the great villain was too skilled, and he also had bodyguards protecting him. She had been thrown into a dark room and tortured for seven days and seven nights.
The contents of that dark room had been so horrifying that the novel had skipped over them entirely!
That alone showed how painful it must have been.
“What is Baby Jiujiu talking about?”
That dangerous yet captivating voice, touched with a faint smile, sounded beside her ear again, interrupting her thoughts. “Come now, you choose…”
Shen Huan held up three fingers.
They were fair, with sharply defined joints—extremely enticing.
He slowly folded down one finger. “First, you can spend a few days in the water prison.”
Lin Jiujiu let out a soft whimper.
The enormous kitchen knife at his neck trembled, and the sound of guns being cocked immediately rang in her ears.
She hastily steadied her hand and shook her head like a rattle. “N-next one?”
Shen Huan smiled. A playful glint flashed through the eyes behind his gold-rimmed glasses as he folded down a second finger. His tone was as gentle as though he were coaxing her. “Second, go play in the basement with Seventh Master. How does that sound?”
Seventh Master was Shen Huan himself.
The basement was the dark room where people were tortured to death in the original novel.
Lin Jiujiu’s already pale face instantly drained of all color. Pouting, she declared with absolute certainty, “I choose the third one!”
She was completely unaware that she had already been led into a trap.
The person with a knife pressed to his neck was clearly him.
Shen Huan smiled and spread his hands, an apologetic curve appearing at the corners of his lips. “Sorry, Jiujiu. I almost forgot—there is no third option.”
Lin Jiujiu: “I don’t believe you. That’s impossible. You’re lying…”
She turned her head and glanced at the two tall, burly bodyguards, despair creeping into her voice. “Shoot me. I don’t want to live anymore.”
Bodyguard: “Understood.”
The two men immediately tightened their grips on their guns.
Lin Jiujiu’s eyes widened in disbelief. Then she burst into tears, threw the kitchen knife away, and hugged Shen Huan tightly around the waist, rubbing her face against his clothes. “No, wait! I was just joking! Don’t you understand a joke when you hear one?!”
She had thrown herself at him so suddenly that her delicate, soft body practically burrowed into his arms.
Shen Huan froze for a moment. He raised a hand to adjust the frame of his glasses, an unintentional trace of murderous intent surfacing on his face. Then he gently stroked the back of her head and smiled. “Once you throw away your weapon, you have no bargaining chip left. Are you planning to let me deal with you however I please?”
Lin Jiujiu hugged him even tighter, wiping her tears and snot all over him in terror. “I didn’t mean to kill you! I actually have dissociative identity disorder, boohoo! I’ve been sick since I was little!”
“Dissociative identity disorder?”
Shen Huan grabbed her by the back of her collar. Unfortunately, when a person’s survival instinct exploded, their strength was truly astonishing. He actually couldn’t pull her away.
Seeing this, one of the bodyguards promptly pressed his gun against the back of Lin Jiujiu’s head again and asked for instructions. “Seventh Master, do you need me to blow her away?”
Shen Huan: “…Is there any possibility that shooting her right now would also happen to shoot me?”
In reality, he wasn’t as brutal as the rumors claimed. His vicious reputation was entirely thanks to these two brainless bodyguards.
The bodyguard thought it over for a long while, decided that there was some sense to it, and put his gun away again.
Lin Jiujiu had been too frightened to move a moment ago.
Now, she finally raised her head and looked at Shen Huan with a heart-rending expression. “The personality that liked Gu Wenhe before has already been killed by me. The personality that remains now is the one that truly likes you, boohoo.”
Shen Huan raised an eyebrow. His eyes, hidden behind the lenses, curved ever so slightly, carrying a restrained, ascetic allure that he could not quite conceal. “But Jiujiu, you also said a few days ago that you only liked me. Today, you wanted to kill me for Gu Wenhe. How am I supposed to believe you?”
Lin Jiujiu thought there was room for negotiation.
Her sobbing quieted considerably, but her mouth moved faster than her brain. “If I’m lying, may I be a dog.”
Shen Huan: “…?”
He glanced at the bodyguard behind him. “Drag her out…”
Before he could finish, Lin Jiujiu came to her senses and loudly cut him off. “I—I’m a dog!!! Boohoo, I’m a dog!”
Shen Huan sighed. Still stroking her silky hair, he softened his voice and coaxed her, “What a coincidence. I happen to own a sanatorium that specializes in treating severe mental illness. How about you go stay there for a few days, Jiujiu?”
Lin Jiujiu: “…Can I say no?”
A sanatorium.
Boohoo.
It sounded even more terrifying than the dark room.
Shen Huan smiled gently. He wrapped an arm around her slender waist and curved his lips. “What do you think, baby?”