The instant Jiang Qingzhou opened his eyes, he found himself staring straight up at an ornate European crystal chandelier. The cold light stabbed into his pupils, and the inevitable sting made him squeeze his eyes shut again.
Once he recovered, Jiang Qingzhou raised a hand to wipe the moisture from the corners of his eyes and, forcing himself through the dizziness left over from staying up all night, slowly sat up.
The pure white carved nightstand with its ornate pattern, the elegant vintage rug, and a small angel wall lamp all felt unfamiliar to him.
He threw off the thin blanket, stepped barefoot onto the soft rug, opened the door, and walked out of the bedroom, puzzled and confused.
In the living room downstairs, on a leather sofa, a man in a black suit sat leaning back against the backrest, legs crossed, head down as he scrolled his phone.
Hearing the noise, the man looked up at Jiang Qingzhou.
The moment he saw Jiang Qingzhou, a trace of impatience and mockery appeared between the man’s handsome brows.
“You can really sleep.”
The man put away his phone and walked up to Jiang Qingzhou.
His sharp, cold gaze bore down on Jiang Qingzhou from above, his tone full of arrogance and warning. “I came to tell you that ‘Shall We Date?’ starts airing in three days. If you want your mother’s kidney transplant to go smoothly, then keep a close eye on Liang Tingyun for me, and don’t let any other woman get close to him.”
The cold voice dropped without warning, and Jiang Qingzhou was completely stunned.
The name Liang Tingyun sounded very familiar.
The substitute-lover novel he’d stayed up all night reading, the scumbag male lead’s unrequited love was named Liang Tingyun.
But who was this man in front of him? Why would he mention Liang Tingyun?
Could it be he hadn’t woken up yet?
Jiang Qingzhou blinked in confusion and secretly pinched the inside of his thigh.
It hurt.
He wasn’t dreaming.
Seeing Jiang Qingzhou standing there in a daze, the man’s voice turned a few degrees colder. “What are you dazing off for? Jiang Qingzhou, I’m telling you, I’ll be watching the livestream at all times. Don’t even think about trying any tricks.”
Having said that, the corner of the man’s mouth lifted slightly, and he said mockingly, “I imagine you don’t want your mother to die of kidney failure because you couldn’t find a donor, either.”
The cold, emotionless voice sounded by his ear, and a bold thought suddenly occurred to Jiang Qingzhou.
He tried it out, speaking carefully. “Xiao Wenyao?”
“What?” The man frowned noncommittally.
Jiang Qingzhou’s eyelid twitched violently. There was only one thought in his mind, he really had transmigrated into a book.
He’d transmigrated into the very novel that had made him cry while reading, curse while crying, and want to drag the scumbag out of the book and tear him apart just to vent his anger, a novel called ‘Fall into the Abyss’.
The male lead in the story, who shared his exact name, had been noticed by the scumbag Xiao Wenyao back in university.
Xiao Wenyao used his position as a benefactor to get close to the original protagonist, spending half a year chasing him with everything he had until he finally won him over.
But less than half a year into their relationship, the original protagonist suddenly learned that Xiao Wenyao only saw him as a substitute, and so he proposed breaking up with Xiao Wenyao.
But Xiao Wenyao wouldn’t let the original protagonist leave. He used the original protagonist’s gravely ill mother to threaten him into staying by his side, and became even more excessive in forcing the original protagonist to imitate his unrequited love, Liang Tingyun.
Liang Tingyun was a famous acting-emperor in the entertainment industry. As a nobody newcomer that Xiao Wenyao had thrown money at to break into the industry, Jiang Qingzhou was frequently exposed online for wearing the same outfits as the acting-emperor.
Once the matter came to light, Xiao Wenyao stopped hiding it and only grew more excessive.
Not just formal wear, even their everyday clothes matched. In short, everything matched.
In the end, he was mocked and harassed by the entire internet for riding on the attention, and every detail of his private life was dug up and exposed.
The original protagonist’s mother, hearing people in the hospital gossiping about her son, was in a car accident on her way to find him.
After the original protagonist finished handling his mother’s funeral affairs, he lay down on the bed he’d slept in as a child, all hope gone, and slit his wrists.
Reading this novel had left Jiang Qingzhou both sad and angry, and he’d immediately written a three-thousand-word review.
Other readers who saw the comment had teased Jiang Qingzhou about memorizing the whole text, just in case he transmigrated into the book and got driven to death by Xiao Wenyao.
At the time he’d dismissed it, never expecting that the very next day he’d open his eyes and see Xiao Wenyao.
What a load of nonsense!
Hadn’t Xiao Wenyao just said something about keeping an eye on Liang Tingyun?
He seemed to remember there really was a passage like that in the book.
Xiao Wenyao had done every wrong there was to do, forcing the original protagonist to imitate Liang Tingyun, yet he hadn’t even dared to confess to the man himself.
Upon learning Liang Tingyun was going to appear on a dating variety show, Xiao Wenyao hadn’t hesitated to spend money investing in it, stuffing Jiang Qingzhou into the show to watch over Liang Tingyun on his behalf.
Sending his own unrequited love’s substitute to help obstruct that very unrequited love’s romance, only Xiao Wenyao could think of something like that.
“Nothing.” Jiang Qingzhou looked at Xiao Wenyao’s punchable face, clenched his fists, and, gritting his teeth to hold back the urge to hit him, promised in a low voice, “I’ll keep an eye on Liang Tingyun.”
He’d only just transmigrated and hadn’t sorted out the situation yet, so he had no choice but to agree for now.
Xiao Wenyao seemed quite satisfied with Jiang Qingzhou’s attitude.
He gave a cold, indifferent hum of acknowledgment, raised his hand, lowered his eyes to check the watch on his right wrist, and tossed out, “Behave yourself and stay here. In three days, someone will come take you to the airport,” then turned and hurried out the door.
With the eyesore of a scumbag gone, the grand, magnificent hall regained its proper brightness and quiet.
Jiang Qingzhou stood rooted in place, frantically thinking about how to deal with the ending where he’d be driven to suicide by Xiao Wenyao.
If he remembered correctly, the original protagonist had died not long after appearing on the dating show.
Xiao Wenyao was rich and powerful, the original protagonist’s mother was gravely ill and needed a huge amount of money for treatment, and he himself was universally disliked in the entertainment industry, with no way to escape Xiao Wenyao’s threats.
Unless he could find someone even richer and more powerful than Xiao Wenyao to rely on.
Someone richer and more powerful than Xiao Wenyao, wasn’t that exactly Liang Tingyun?!
The book hadn’t described Liang Tingyun in much detail, he was purely a tool used to torment the original protagonist.
In the few scenes where Liang Tingyun did appear, it was mentioned that Xiao Wenyao’s ability to establish himself in the business world back then was largely thanks to Liang Tingyun’s help.
If he could latch onto Liang Tingyun, then what would he have to fear?
Wasn’t there a saying, what do you do when you find out you’ve been treated as a substitute by a scumbag? The best defense, of course, is to kick the scumbag to the curb and steal his unrequited love!
That way he could both save his own life and get revenge on the scumbag, killing two birds with one stone!