Survival

People always say nonsense they don't even understand when they're about to die. Lu Yan was a case in point. Except he was doing it deliberately. He knew the more outrageous his last words were, the more they would pique Yu Zechuan's curiosity.

Worried Yu Zechuan hadn't heard him clearly, Lu Yan repeated himself. "Yu Zechuan, I've actually had a crush on you for a long time."

"I recognized you the moment you were downstairs. Did you really think I'd be stupid enough to bring a strange man home to get out of the rain otherwise?"

Yu Zechuan clearly didn't believe Lu Yan's bullshit. Coming back to himself, he kicked the dagger on the floor away to keep Lu Yan from snatching it up as a weapon, then reached out and clamped a hand around his throat. "Lu Yan..."

Yu Zechuan drew out the name coldly, thinking Lu Yan was like some seductive vixen. "Do you think that just because you have a pretty face, every man in the world will fall at your feet? Save that kind of lie for fooling an idiot like Jiang Boyun. Don't think you can pull one over on me."

Lu Yan didn't even blink as he lied. "I'm not lying. I really do like you."

Villains often died from talking too much. The wisest thing Yu Zechuan could do now was stab Lu Yan to death, not keep arguing with him, because this man would surely say even more things to throw his mind into turmoil.

But Yu Zechuan still let his guard down. He couldn't resist sneering, "Like me? If you really liked me, why did you join forces with Jiang Boyun to send me to prison? Is that what you call liking someone?"

Lu Yan fell silent at that.

Yu Zechuan gave a cold laugh. "What, can't make anything up now?"

But Lu Yan shook his head and hesitantly forced out a sentence. "Actually... I... I let love turn into hate."

Yu Zechuan: "..."

"I liked you from my very first day at the company. But I realized that no matter how much I hovered around you, you never noticed me. Instead, you fell for that shameless scumbag Jiang Boyun."

Ever since the original host had joined Yinchuan Group as an accountant, he'd certainly spent plenty of time hovering around Yu Zechuan. But it wasn't because he "liked" him, as Lu Yan claimed. It was to pry out secrets.

Yu Zechuan tried to think back and realized Lu Yan did seem to appear in front of him often. He had simply been too busy to pay the man any attention.

Lu Yan struggled to make his eyes redden, then said in a low, hoarse voice, "At first, I never wanted to frame you. I only wanted to send Jiang Boyun to prison so you'd see his true colors. But I never expected you to love him so much that you actually took the blame for everything."

Yu Zechuan: "..."

That deficit case years ago had implicated far too many people. If it came down to it, no one was free of blame, least of all Yu Zechuan. To protect everyone else, he could only take the blame himself. Otherwise, the whole company would have gone under.

There was no escaping it anyway. Better for one person to be ruined than a whole group.

The matter was like a thorn lodged in Yu Zechuan's heart. As the years passed, it had gradually festered and rotted. Even the slightest touch brought piercing pain, yet it was brought up again and again on this rainy night.

Yu Zechuan fell into a strange, deathly silence. He abruptly released Lu Yan's throat and slowly stepped back. In the darkness, he lit a cigarette. A ghostly blue flame sprang up from nowhere, casting the scar on the right side of his face in an even more hideous light.

Lu Yan didn't relax his guard because of that. With his back to the door, he wondered whether Yu Zechuan had believed the nonsense he'd just fed him.

Yu Zechuan lowered his eyes and exhaled a cloud of smoke. Then he suddenly said, "Open the door."

Huh? Open the door?

Lu Yan wondered if the other man was finally planning to leave. That was truly thrilling news. He straightened up "reluctantly," then opened the door to an angle of 850 degrees and asked with feigned reluctance, "You... are you leaving?"

Go, go, go. The rain's going to get heavier soon.

But Yu Zechuan didn't answer the question. Expressionlessly, he flicked ash from his cigarette. "Lu Yan, do you know what I hate most in this life?"

Ah, he knew the answer to that. Yu Zechuan had said it in the previous round.

Lu Yan felt an inexplicable thrill, as if he'd cheated on an exam. He nodded. "I know. What you hate most in this life is being lied to."

The moment the words left his mouth, a sharp prick stabbed into the back of his neck. Something icy was injected into him, and his body slid helplessly to the floor. Lu Yan turned back in shock, only to see that an unfamiliar man in a black mask had appeared in the corridor at some point. His pupils contracted in disbelief.

Yu Zechuan actually had an accomplice?!!

Lu Yan's answer made Yu Zechuan pause for a moment. Coming back to himself, he crushed out his cigarette, walked over to Lu Yan, bent down, and pulled the syringe from the back of his neck. "You guessed pretty well."

Yu Zechuan patted Lu Yan's cheek. The corner of his lips curled up, but there was no warmth in it at all. "So don't make up that kind of nonsense to lie to me again."

Lu Yan...

Lu Yan felt he needed to start another round.

This time, waking up took a while. Lu Yan only felt as if he'd had a very, very long dream. He finally dragged himself free of that mudlike dream, only for his head to hurt as though it were about to explode, while his body was limp and weak.

With difficulty, Lu Yan pried open his heavy eyelids. What met his eyes was not the familiar setting of his rental apartment, but a cool-toned apartment. Heavy curtains blocked out the harsh sunlight beyond the floor-to-ceiling windows, and an unsettling silence hung in the air.

"Rustle..."

Lu Yan sat up in bed in surprise. The cool silk quilt quietly slipped down from his waist. He looked around the room, then instinctively called out, "System?"

A black heart silently materialized in the air. The same familiar mechanical voice said: [What is it?]

Lu Yan frowned. "Why isn't the location of my rebirth inside the rental apartment this time?"

But the System gave him an unexpected answer: [You didn't die. Yu Zechuan brought you back to the apartment where he currently lives.]

[It's noon the next day. How rare. You successfully survived the first day.]

The latter sentence was delivered in a cool tone, with more than a hint of enjoying the show.

Lu Yan couldn't help being surprised. He touched the dull ache at the back of his neck, threw back the quilt, and got out of bed. As he reached the door, he heard faint voices outside.

Without betraying a thing, Lu Yan opened the door a crack. Two men sat on the sofa in the living room. One was Yu Zechuan; the other had his back to the door, his face obscured, but he was most likely the bastard who had ambushed Lu Yan from behind yesterday.

Xue Jin sat on the sofa with one leg crossed over the other. Seeing Yu Zechuan's laptop resting on his knees and his hands flying over the keyboard, he couldn't help kicking the edge of the coffee table. "Hey, what are you planning to do with the guy in there? He'll wake up before long. Keeping him around is definitely going to be a problem."

Yu Zechuan frowned at the computer screen, dense streams of data reflected in his eyes. His tone was cold-blooded. "When he wakes up, get rid of him."

Xue Jin said, "If you're going to get rid of him anyway, why wait for him to wake up?"

Yu Zechuan: "..."

Xue Jin teased, "He's supposedly ‘devoted to you heart and soul.' Are you reluctant to do it?"

Yu Zechuan simply shut the laptop. "Only an idiot would believe what he says. Did you find out Jiang Boyun's schedule for the next two weeks like I asked?"

At that, Xue Jin's expression turned grave. "I don't know whether he got wind this morning that your sentence had been reduced and you were released early, but he suddenly added several bodyguards to his side. Other than a business trip to the United States next week, Jiang Boyun should be in the country most of the time."

Yu Zechuan wasn't surprised. "He has so many lackeys around him. It wouldn't be strange for them to find out. Keep an eye on him at the company these next few days. Contact me right away if anything comes up."

Xue Jin checked his watch and rose from the sofa. "All right. It's getting late, so I'll be going."

Only then did Lu Yan get a clear look at Xue Jin's face. He was refined and bespectacled, impeccably dressed in a suit, every inch the elite professional. Yet he looked vaguely familiar.

Lu Yan searched hard through the original host's memories and was startled to discover that he was Xue Jin, the investment consultant Jiang Boyun had recruited from overseas three years ago at a high salary.

Well, Yu Zechuan had planted this piece deep enough.

Watching Xue Jin leave, Lu Yan calmly closed the gap in the door and returned to bed. He frowned and thought for a moment, feeling that things were becoming more and more complicated. "System, where did this Xue Jin come from? What's his relationship with Yu Zechuan?"

The System retained its lifeless tone: [One question costs five points.]

Lu Yan thought that was pretty cheap. "Then deduct them."

The System said: [You don't have a single point. What exactly am I supposed to deduct?]

Lu Yan: "..."

Lu Yan closed his eyes and buried his face in the pillow, finding it a little hard to accept that he'd been broke in his previous life and was still broke in this one.

The System thought that without money, he could only fend for himself: [If you have questions about a character profile, investigate it yourself.]

Investigate it himself?

Lu Yan opened his eyes and gave a cold laugh. Fine, he'd investigate it himself. Who was afraid of whom? But the instant the thought rose, the pale-blue game interface suddenly popped up with a "ding":

[Ding! The player has triggered a side quest—

Investigate Xue Jin's Identity and Background.

Success reward: 50 points.

Failure penalty: None.

Time limit: 30 days.]

Lu Yan raised his brows. "There are side quests too?"

The System apparently hadn't expected this either, because it clearly paused for a moment before replying: [Side quests are triggered at random. Since one has been issued, just do it. The later the stages, the harder they become. Points can be exchanged for lifesaving items.]

Lu Yan was about to ask something else when footsteps suddenly sounded outside the door. He hurriedly fell back onto the bed and pretended to be asleep again. A click sounded as the door opened, and someone slowly walked to the bedside, casting a shadow over him.

"If you like sleeping forever so much, I don't mind helping you."

Lu Yan's eyes flew open. Yu Zechuan was standing by the bed, staring down at him. A beat later, Lu Yan came back to himself, threw back the quilt, and sat up. He put on an appropriately desolate expression. "I thought you'd kill me yesterday."

"I will kill you, but not now."

The drug in Lu Yan's system hadn't worn off. Of the strength he normally had, only twenty percent remained. So Yu Zechuan hadn't tied him up; instead, he brought him out to the living room and forcefully pressed him into a chair.

The sudden departure from the dark room made the sunlight painfully bright. Lu Yan couldn't stop himself from closing his eyes. When he opened them again, a cold phone was suddenly pressed to his ear.

Standing behind Lu Yan, Yu Zechuan said with a teasing note, "Didn't you say you like me? Ask Jiang Boyun to meet you. Show me how sincere you are."

Oh. So he wanted to use him as bait.

Lu Yan understood, but honestly shook his head. "I can't get him to meet me."

Yu Zechuan frowned. "Why not?"

Lu Yan was silent for a moment.

"...Yesterday, I called him a stupid asshole."