Chapter 3 (continued)

Qin You fell silent for another moment.

He turned to ask the system, [Are you sure that's the original owner's line?]

[...] After holding back for a long time, the system answered truthfully, [The system revised and wrote the lines based on the original owner's past speech and word choices in the book.]

Qin You settled the matter. [Don't write any more from now on.]

[...] The system swallowed its grievances and said, [All right, but you're being too cold. You should at least use a form of address, and you can't change it again. Otherwise, using his full name won't feel intimate at all, and you'll stray from your character, which will be bad for the mission...]

Then it gave in, as if making a compromise. [Sigh! If you really don't like A-Sheng, I can pull forms of address the original owner used from the book. You can call him Shengsheng or Sheng'er.]

Qin You: "..."

Forget it. A-Sheng it was.

Their brief exchange of thoughts ended just as the driver beside him spoke up. "Young Mr. Qin, I have a first-aid kit in the trunk. I'll go get it!"

"Let's go together."

Qin You glanced at the bodyguard and assailant still fighting on the ground nearby and said to the man, "It's not safe here yet, and your wound needs treating too. I'll help you over."

But the man said coolly, "Thank you, but there's no need. I still have a few things to take care of. Please, go ahead."

Qin You could tell he was being dismissed.

As Yan Tingshen's assistant, it was only natural that he should take care of the unconscious Yan Tingshen first.

Since the target himself didn't care about his injury, there was no need for Qin You to insist.

Because of his status as a "pursuer," he left him with a few words before departing.

"Stay safe."

The bodyguard had been wholly focused on Li Jianhang, who had attacked them. Only after sweating profusely and binding the man's hands behind his back with a tie did he notice that Young Mr. Qin, who had saved them, was already far away.

He immediately looked ahead and saw his boss standing where he was with his back to him. Panting heavily, he hurriedly said, "Mr. Yan, I've caught him!"

Yan Tingshen's gaze remained fixed on the retreating figure, his eyes dark. "Mm."

Qin You, the Qin Household's successor, who had been urgently summoned back to the country and needed to be groomed as soon as possible.

The information had been delivered to him yesterday.

A good-for-nothing who knew only how to indulge in pleasure, utterly worthless.

He hadn't expected to be saved twice by someone like that.

But after meeting him, Qin You didn't seem as bad as the information suggested.

And A-Shen?

If he remembered correctly, he and Qin You had only met a few times as children, when their families had visited each other more often. They hadn't been close.

—I've missed you all these years.

Where had that come from?

"Mr. Yan, Assistant Pei is still unconscious, but Young Mr. Qin's driver told me they've already called the police and the hospital. Should I call again?"

Yan Tingshen turned his gaze back.

On the ground, Li Jianhang was being forcibly pinned down, veins bulging on his face and neck as he struggled and roared hoarsely.

Yan Tingshen looked down at him, leisurely took a handkerchief from his left breast pocket, and pressed two fingers over the stinging wound on his forehead. Then he casually wiped the blood from his fingers.

Li Jianhang knew full well what the other man was capable of. Meeting that indifferent gaze looking down on him, he instinctively felt a chill seep through him from the inside out, with fear following close behind.

He trembled uncontrollably all over, cursing through chattering teeth.

"...Yan Tingshen... you'll die a horrible death!"

He wanted to say more, but saw that Yan Tingshen had already turned away.

The snow-white handkerchief, stained with scarlet blood, drifted down through the air and covered his face.

The shadow descending over him made him feel suffocated, and he was nearly overwhelmed by fear in the dimness.

"...I—"

The bodyguard knocked Li Jianhang unconscious with a deft chop, stopping him from uttering any more filth. He was about to ask for instructions again when he heard his boss's calm voice in front of him.

"No need. Let the Qin Household handle those things. Arrange for people to take care of the rest."

The bodyguard first acknowledged the order, then recalled the conversation he had heard in the car. He glanced warily around, stood up and stepped closer, asking in a low voice, "Mr. Yan, could what happened today have something to do with the Qin Household?"

Yan Tingshen was concise. "Investigate them too."

By ordinary reasoning, the Qin Household had no feud with the Yan Family and no personal grudge against him, so they wouldn't go this far.

Even if they did, they wouldn't have chosen today, Old Qin's birthday, much less allowed Qin You to appear at the scene of the accident.

As for who had orchestrated this farce from behind the scenes—

Yan Tingshen closed his eyes for a moment and drew his thoughts back.

Inevitably, the Qin Household was also going through a troubled time, and some things couldn't be left to conjecture.

On the path he walked, the slightest misstep would lead to the outcome he had just faced.

"Yes." The bodyguard never asked unnecessary questions and simply sought further instructions. "And Assistant Pei?"

Yan Tingshen looked at Pei Sheng, whom the bodyguard had hurriedly settled not far away. "How badly is he hurt?"

The bodyguard replied, "He has quite a few external injuries, but none of them are very serious. We won't know the details until he's examined at the hospital."

Yan Tingshen gave a slight nod.

He paused briefly, then turned back toward Qin You.

The other man was leaning back lazily against the trunk, his jacket already piled at his feet. He was rolling up his shirt sleeve and applying medicine by himself.

He was a little too far away for Yan Tingshen to see Qin You's expression.

But Yan Tingshen had seen the wound being inflicted, and it wasn't shallow.

Though if Qin You's sudden move hadn't interrupted him, the knife wouldn't have done him much harm anyway.

What surprised him was that Qin You had blocked the knife without hesitation.

—What reason would make Qin You willing to be injured to help him out of danger?

Yan Tingshen gazed intently at the faintly dark figure beneath the moonlight.

He could find no sufficiently reasonable explanation in their past interactions.

Just then, the bodyguard suddenly said, "Mr. Yan, the Qin Household's driver is coming over."

As he spoke, the driver jogged toward them, calling out from a distance, "Young Mr. Qin asked me to bring the first-aid kit!"

The bodyguard looked at Yan Tingshen.

Yan Tingshen said, "Go help Pei Sheng. Take good care of him."

The bodyguard looked at his injury and hesitated, but still didn't dare disobey his order. "All right."

With that, he went to meet the driver.

But when he thanked the driver and reached for the kit, the driver moved it out of his reach.

"Sorry, Young Mr. Qin told me..."

The driver continued forward and only finished when he reached Yan Tingshen. "To hand it to you personally."

The bodyguard hesitated and turned back to ask his boss what to do, only to find him looking at the kit in the driver's hands, his thoughts unreadable.

"Shall I treat it for you?" The driver, now in front of Yan Tingshen, dutifully asked.

Yan Tingshen said, "Thank you. I'll do it myself."

The driver was still hesitating, but when he looked up and met the man's indifferent gaze, as if he were accustomed to giving orders, his breath caught, and he opened the first-aid kit instinctively.

Yan Tingshen took a few supplies and glanced at the bodyguard.

The bodyguard immediately led the driver toward Pei Sheng.

As the two walked away, the surroundings gradually grew quiet.

For no particular reason, Yan Tingshen looked again at the figure who was almost a stranger to him.

The other man was still sitting at the trunk. He seemed to notice and suddenly looked back.

Yan Tingshen was about to look away when he saw the figure briefly raise a hand to him.

After only a pause, he lowered it.

The gesture was casual, but not frivolous.

It was also rather different from the debauchery described in the information.

Yan Tingshen rubbed the medical supplies in his hand.

This Young Mr. Qin seemed to do as he pleased.

Then how much of what had happened today had been on a whim?

[Host, why did you have someone else deliver the medicine to the target? The data shows that this situation is an excellent opportunity to raise his favorability.]

Qin You said, [Being so eager when we've just met would easily make him suspicious. Haven't you heard? When someone offers you uncalled-for favors, they're either up to no good or trying to rob you.]

The system saw the light. [Host, you really have thought of everything!]

But it still felt things weren't quite perfect. [But Host, you're being a little too gentle with the target. That's a deviation from the character's domineering personality and could be bad for the mission. I suggest being more forceful to speed up the progress of the relationship. The following is a sample text.]

Several passages appeared on the panel.

[Qin You seized Pei Sheng's hand and pulled him roughly into his arms. As Pei Sheng struggled weakly, his face flashed with thirty percent nostalgia, thirty percent lingering fear, and thirty percent caution. His arms tightened further. "A-Sheng, don't reject me. From now on, let me protect you. I promise I'll never let you suffer this kind of harm again!"]

[...]

"..." After reading the first passage, Qin You closed his eyes and waved the panel away.

It would be strange if something like that could speed up a relationship.

The system was still puzzled. [Host, did you finish reading? I can write more.]

Qin You said, [You're writing based on the original text, so it's bound to fail. Don't write any more of this either.]

The system had no rebuttal. [All right...]

Qin You put down the gauze in his hand.

If the target were as easy to fool as the system, this mission would be a piece of cake.

He'd already suffered a work injury, and he was still supposed to hurry off to work?

He'd already died once. There was no need to push himself so hard.

The work would still be there. It wouldn't run away, and no one would help him with it either, so he might as well slack off whenever he could.

Besides, he'd taken a knife for the target, yet the target's attitude remained lukewarm. Clearly, he didn't think much of today's "life-saving favor." With someone like that, doing more now would probably just be taken for granted.

Thinking of this, Qin You looked at the wound on his arm and chuckled.

Was the target really cold on the outside and warm on the inside?

From the look of it, he was clearly cold both inside and out.

That inscrutable face flashed through his mind, and Qin You turned toward the place where the Maybach hung suspended, looking thoughtful.

Or perhaps the target had guessed that even if he rolled down from here, his life wouldn't be in danger.

Judging by the book's original plot, Male Lead Gong and Shou had indeed remained alive and kicking throughout the rest of the story. It seemed the car accident hadn't had much effect on either of them.