Looking at Shen Ci's travel-worn and extremely hurried appearance, Zhou Yang's gaze was strange: "Wait, Shen Ci, even if Xie Yu was hospitalized, what were you running for?"

Shouldn't Xie Yu's contract partner be hoping for him to die an early death?

Shen Ci paused and didn't reply to that: "Where is Xie Yu?"

Zhou Yang pointed toward the ward: "In the room, persuading Lin Yin."

The ward's door was tightly shut. There was a rectangular decorative glass panel on the door through which one could faintly see inside. Shen Ci looked in; Xie Yu was sitting on a tall, small round stool, his two long legs having nowhere to be placed, so they could only be aggrievedly crossed. At this moment, he was holding a small knife peeling an apple, leaning forward to talk to Lin Yin.

"I'm not here to persuade you either," Xie Yu held up three fingers. "He Zhiyuan probably has this amount of cash on hand. The He Family can give twice as much. How much you can get out of them, you can weigh for yourself."

Lin Yin lay on the hospital bed, her face pale, her eyes flashing slightly: "You came to see me, just to say this?"

Xie Yu scoffed: "He hit someone, there should be some price to pay."

Xie Yu was thoroughly annoyed with He Zhiyuan. If he wasn't restricted by his character setting, he would have knocked out two of that good-for-nothing's teeth long ago.

The two really didn't have much to say. Xie Yu placed the peeled apple on the table, said a few more nonsensical pleasantries, and pushed the door open to come out.

Zhou Yang looked up: "How did the persuasion go? Did she relent?"

Xie Yu shrugged: "She didn't relent. I'm not familiar with her, so of course I couldn't persuade her."

Zhou Yang then turned to Shen Ci: "You've spoken with Lin Yin, you go and try to persuade her too."

Xie Yu frowned: "Why should he go?"

Shen Ci and Lin Yin were in similar situations, both playthings in the hands of rich young masters, and Xie Yu's reputation was even worse than He Zhiyuan's. Now that Lin Yin was lying in the hospital ward covered in injuries, what kind of logic was it to have Shen Ci go persuade her?

Shen Ci had originally been silent, standing quietly to the side. At this moment, he suddenly said: "I can try."

Xie Yu was startled and looked up, only to see Shen Ci's eyes half-drooped, his emotions all hidden beneath his eyelashes, indistinct.

With that, he really pushed the door open and went in.

Xie Yu then sat down on the bench, thinking to himself, 'Strange.'

After five or six minutes, Shen Ci came out of the ward and gave a slight nod: "She agreed."

Zhou Yang was surprised: "She agreed?"

Xie Yu raised an eyebrow and poked the System: "Was this in the original text?"

The System flipped through the novel: "No, in the original text, although He Zhiyuan also hit people, he didn't do it on the street. This time he drank too much and lost control."

Xie Yu found it amusing: "He didn't lose control in the novel, but he lost control now?"

The System explained: "It's like this. He wanted to mess with Shen Ci before, and in the original text he succeeded, but now you took the person away on the pleasure boat. He was extremely displeased and has been drinking for the past two days."

Xie Yu increasingly felt that Shen Ci's actions were strange. Given the personality of this person who directly sent the original owner to the psychiatric hospital in the later stages, not only did he not let He Zhiyuan go to jail now, but he also helped persuade Lin Yin, and even succeeded?

He quietly observed Shen Ci. Teaching Assistant Shen stood quietly to the side, his slender and upright body wrapped in a shirt, his eyes lowered without a word, looking exceptionally docile.

Under Xie Yu's silent gaze, Shen Ci's face was calm, but his fingers were hidden in his sleeves, his fingertips rubbing together slightly, as if nervous.

Xie Yu withdrew his gaze and didn't say much: "If you still have classes, go back to the university first. Zhou Yang and I have some things to discuss."

Shen Ci paused for a moment, hesitating to speak, then nodded and turned to leave. His back was held straight, and his steps seemed slightly stiff.

Xie Yu flipped through the novel. Just as the person was about to reach the end of the corridor, he suddenly thought of a plot point and spoke: "Wait a minute, Teaching Assistant Shen, are you substituting for a class this Wednesday?"

Shen Ci paused and stopped in his tracks: "Yes."

As the end of the term approached, undergraduates had Q&A sessions. Shen Ci was a teaching assistant; he wasn't responsible for lecturing, but he was still responsible for in-class Q&A. Wednesday was fully booked all morning with his classes.

Xie Yu said: "Alright, I'll come find you before your class on Wednesday."

There was a plot point on Wednesday, so he needed to prepare a bit.

Shen Ci's brow twitched imperceptibly, and he immediately said: "Okay."

He left with quick steps.

Once he was gone, Zhou Yang clicked his tongue: "What are you doing? Where did he offend you that you have to teach him a lesson? When you mentioned Wednesday just now, his face turned completely pale."

Xie Yu: "It's nothing, really."

There was indeed a perverted plotline in the original text, but it didn't matter, he would make the plot less perverted.

Zhou Yang laughed: "You also saw that there's something wrong with Shen Ci persuading Lin Yin?"

Among the trio in the original text, Zhou Yang was the only one with a brain. Lin Yin had bitten down hard and refused to relent at first, wanting huge compensation. It made no sense that Shen Ci could persuade her with just a few light words. It could only mean that Lin Yin had ulterior motives, and this matter with He Zhiyuan wasn't over yet.

Xie Yu played dumb and brushed it off: "You're overthinking it. I don't think it's that deep."

He Zhiyuan was an 80th-tier male supporting character in the novel, with low IQ and terrible character, practically the fighter jet among trash. Xie Yu was about to pack his bags and go traveling soon, so he couldn't be bothered to care.

Zhou Yang: "Shen Ci probably thought you were going to teach him a lesson over this. He was scared out of his wits."

Xie Yu: "Nothing of the sort."

He bypassed Zhou Yang, "I'm leaving too. I rushed over here early in the morning, I'm dead tired."

At this time, he would usually still be sleeping.

He stepped downstairs, not taking the elevator. His good mood for the morning had been practically ruined by He Zhiyuan's mess, so he wandered aimlessly along the wards. As he strolled, he ended up at the Special Treatment Area.

This area was invested in by Xie Yu's father, Xie Yuanshan. It belonged to a semi-private ward within the public hospital area, communicating directly with foreign teams, and was used for clinical trials of some unlisted drugs. According to the novel's background, Shen Ci's grandmother should be staying here.

The novel didn't write much about this old lady; she was merely a background board for the entire text, and her illness was also the beginning of Shen Ci's suffering. Suddenly, Xie Yu wanted to see what this old lady looked like.

Shen Ci had classes and was in a hurry, so he didn't have time to stay long in the hospital. He had only stopped here for a few minutes before leaving. Xie Yu then slowly shuffled to the front of the ward and looked inside through the glass observation window.

This was a single VIP ward. A haggard old woman lay in the pure white bedding, so weak it seemed she could dissipate at any moment. Beside her were placed many unnameable instruments, displaying incomprehensible waveforms and scanning curves. An IV drip was placed high to the side, the medicinal liquid being injected into her blood vessels at a constant speed.

Judging solely by her bone structure, this old woman did bear some resemblance to Shen Ci.

Reading the novel through a screen, all the characters seemed like background boards whose life and death were insignificant. But standing before the window now, Xie Yu dazedly realized that this was indeed a living, breathing person. The weight pressing down on Shen Ci wasn't just some illusory excuse for smut in a novel, but a very real burden of life.

The weather was already quite cold now. The air Xie Yu exhaled condensed on the glass, forming a patch of white fog. He raised his hand to wipe away the fog, but suddenly met a pair of eyes.

The old woman in the room was looking at him.

Those tea-colored eyes were seventy to eighty percent similar to Shen Ci's, her gaze clear. She looked at Xie Yu, first slightly confused, then revealing a kind smile.

Xie Yu paused and returned a smile. Then, he wiped the glass clean, pretending to have just casually passed by, and stood up to leave.

Wednesday, three days before the end of the term at A University, Jiang City experienced a pattering drizzle.

Every autumn rain brings a bout of cold. After the autumn rain, the temperature plummeted. There were many more people wearing trench coats and padded jackets on the street, and some were even fully armed, wearing hats and scarves, bundled up tightly.

Shen Ci took one last look at the lesson plan and closed the folder.

He packed his things into his bag and didn't enter the classroom. He just stood at the entrance of the teaching building. Many students recognized him and politely greeted him. Shen Ci nodded to them one by one. Some students even came over to strike up a conversation, asking him why he didn't go inside when the weather was so cold.

Shen Ci only said he was waiting for someone. After about ten minutes, a Bentley slowly drove in and stopped at the main entrance.

This car was too conspicuous—large headlights, dual exhausts, and five meters in length. It looked extraordinarily expensive. Many students stopped to watch, and some even took photos with their phones. Not long after, the car window rolled down, and Xie Yu waved from the driver's seat. Shen Ci pursed his lips slightly and bent down to enter the car under the watchful eyes of the public.

As the car door closed, the sound of discussions suddenly grew louder.

This wasn't Xie Yu's first time coming to the university. Many second-generation rich kids recognized his car's license plate, and his identity had been thoroughly dug up on the campus forum. Shen Ci was also implicated. All kinds of rumors emerged one after another; calling Shen Ci a kept man was considered mild, as more people said he was selling himself to climb the social ladder.

Shen Ci never cared about these things. He and Xie Yu were in a contractual relationship anyway, so being a kept man and selling himself were the truth. There was no need to refute it. But getting into the car in front of so many people still made him somewhat hesitant.

Xie Yu dressed warmly today, wearing a grayish-tea-colored scarf, the lines of his side profile sharp in the shadows.

Shen Ci's fingertips moved slightly, feeling a bit nervous.

He had been too presumptuous in his conversation with Lin Yin. Xie Yu had been right at the door, and with a little inquiry afterward, he could probably guess most of it. That wasn't a wise move. Yet, he had an inexplicable feeling that even if Xie Yu knew what he had said, he wouldn't do anything to him.

This feeling was baffling and entirely unreasonable. Young Master Xie valued brotherhood and loyalty the most. He Zhiyuan had known him for nearly ten years; in comparison, what did a plaything that could be replaced at any time count for? But Shen Ci had done exactly that. He hadn't thought that much about it in the hospital, but now, sitting in the car, he suddenly became nervous.

Would Xie Yu... be angry? Did he come looking for him today to punish him?

But this nervousness was slightly different from the countless times before. Although he was apprehensive, there was no pain or despair, and even an indescribable anticipation.

What was Xie Yu looking for him for?

Xie Yu didn't let him guess for too long. He just handed over a box: "For you, wear it during class."

This was a line from the original text.

It was a square-shaped packaging box with a gold-stamped logo on top.

Shen Ci paused: "What is this?"

Xie Yu swallowed the plotline dialogues expressionlessly, cursing the original text countless times in his heart, and merely said: "You'll know when you open it."

The name of this chapter was 'Completely Shattered'.

Having gone through all the previous plotlines—the beatings, the torture, the games on the boat—the novel reaching this point was meant to accomplish a complete mental breakdown.

The Shen Ci in the novel had extremely tough bones and refused to yield. What could be a more torturous method than beatings and punishments?

To degrade his self-esteem in front of relatives and old friends, to dissolve his personality under the watchful eyes of the public, to make him wear something unacceptable and finish lecturing from the podium—and then, you could admire the sight of a beauty completely breaking down.

Through the thick layers of mosaics, Xie Yu couldn't even finish reading this chapter.

Shen Ci pursed his lips. He held his breath and gently lifted the lid off the packaging.

It was a scarf.

A golden-tea-colored scarf, made of wool, soft to the touch, with a beautiful houndstooth pattern.

Xie Yu irritably gripped the steering wheel: "Wear it. You are not allowed to take it off for the entire class, otherwise you know the consequences."

Shen Ci didn't speak, his gaze sweeping over Xie Yu's neck; the style and pattern of the two scarves were exactly the same, almost like matching couples' items officially designated by the merchant.

He held up the soft fabric, like holding up a piece of cloud: "...For me?"