Chapter Summaries

In the Federation’s impoverished Sixth District, Xin Hexue endured a rainy evening and listened to his abusive adoptive father, Xin Bao, demand attention. The chapter revealed how Xin Bao exploited Xin Hexue’s childhood acting work and left him with little, ending as Xin Bao’s gambling debts came into focus.

• Xin Hexue sat in a restaurant during heavy rain, bothered by the humidity and the man talking across from him.
• Xin Bao berated Xin Hexue and claimed he had rescued and raised him from infancy.
• Xin Hexue recalled that Xin Bao had taken him from a garbage dump at age seven, abused him, and forced him to beg while pretending to be disabled.
• At fourteen, Xin Hexue appeared in a successful film, which helped him leave the Twelfth District and finish high school.
• Xin Bao accepted acting jobs on Xin Hexue’s behalf, took the earnings, and disappeared when Xin Hexue became an adult.
• Xin Hexue’s accumulated acting fees had not been enough to cover Xin Bao’s gambling losses.

Xin Hexue gave his abusive adoptive father, Xin Bao, a bank card while concealing his disgust and learning that the story’s plot revolved around Pei Guangji. After hearing how the script would exploit and discard him, Xin Hexue rejected it as worthless.

• Xin Bao demanded money from Xin Hexue to repay his gambling debt, and Xin Hexue handed over a bank card containing fifty thousand star coins.
• Xin Bao questioned where Xin Hexue had gotten the money, and Xin Hexue said he had earned it waiting tables.
• System K revealed that Xin Hexue’s role involved signing a two-year lover’s contract with Pei Guangji to repay Xin Bao’s debt.
• Xin Hexue learned that Pei Guangji’s childhood friends would abuse him while Pei Guangji was away, before Pei Guangji cast him out and he eventually died in a border uprising.
• Xin Hexue called the script devoid of boundaries or value and said it belonged in a shredder.

Pei Guangji confronted the Sixth District’s person in charge over a fabricated factory accident, while Xin Hexue was drugged and forced into the private room. Pei Guangji recognized the scheme behind the unexpected guest, and the person in charge found himself threatened at gunpoint.

• Xin Hexue realized Xin Bao had drugged his tea, and a waiter forcibly led him toward a private room despite his weakness.
• Xin Hexue told System K that his body could not survive sex; K allowed him to disregard the plot, and the waiter pushed him into the room as a gunshot sounded.
• Pei Guangji interrogated the person in charge about a false factory-fire report and learned the man had hoped to raise F-series drug prices.
• Pei Guangji explained that the F-series was being phased out for the G-series and suspected the person in charge had been set up as a disposable pawn.
• The person in charge expected Black Snake’s chosen beauty to entertain Pei Guangji, but Xin Hexue entered the room, drugged and unable to recognize faces.
• Pei Guangji understood the person in charge’s intentions and had a bodyguard press a gun against the man’s back.

Xin Hexue avoided the drugged encounter with Pei Guangji, then struggled to endure the drug’s effects alone and passed out in his bath. After K called emergency services, Xin Hexue woke in a white room, unsure where he was.

• Xin Hexue asked Pei Guangji for water and massaged his temples, then left the private room before the drug could force him into the scripted encounter.
• Pei Guangji ordered his bodyguard to interrogate the man inside, paid Xin Hexue’s bill, and told the bodyguard to investigate Xin Hexue’s identity.
• Xin Hexue told K that he had given his money to Xin Bao, then endured the drug’s effects in a cold bath.
• Xin Hexue passed out after attempting to relieve the drug’s effects, and K called emergency services.
• Xin Hexue woke in a white room and wondered if he had reached heaven.

After waking in the hospital, Xin Hexue wandered off in search of hot water, met a boy from the Xi Family, and collapsed in the courtyard. Pei Guangji carried him to a high-end ward, where Xin Hexue woke to find that Pei had paid his medical fees and was introducing himself with a contract.

• Xin Hexue pulled out his IV and searched the hospital for hot water, observing its mechanically and genetically modified patients along the way.
• In the courtyard, Xin Hexue helped a boy choose flowers for Xiaomei and accepted a piece of candy before fainting.
• Pei Guangji arrived with bodyguards, identified the boy as a child from the Xi Family, and told him to go play.
• After the adults left, the boy's memories became hazy, while a huge black, scorpion-like silhouette crushed the fallen cosmos petals and disappeared into the darkness.
• Xin Hexue woke in a high-end ward and learned from K that Pei Guangji had paid his earlier hospital fees.
• Pei Guangji handed Xin Hexue a contract and introduced himself by name, allowing for Xin Hexue's face blindness.

Xin Hexue refused to sign Pei Guangji’s contract immediately, citing his injured hand, and Pei Guangji gave him half a day to decide whether to accept one year of obligations in exchange for Xin Bao’s life. After Pei Guangji left, Xin Hexue learned why he had been injured and tried to eat with his wrapped right hand.

• Xin Hexue refused to sign Pei Guangji’s contract, and Pei Guangji threatened to hand Xin Bao over to Black Snake unless Xin Hexue agreed.
• Xin Hexue showed Pei Guangji the bruise on his hand, and Pei Guangji ordered another doctor to treat it and gave him half a day to consider the contract.
• Pei Guangji left the hospital room after explaining that Xin Hexue would owe him one year of obedience and assistance through his rut in exchange for Xin Bao’s life.
• Xin Hexue read the contract, noticed its one-year term differed from the system’s version of the plot, and set it aside.
• Xin Hexue asked K about Pei Guangji’s injury and learned that a beam had scalded him in a fire at the West City Pharmaceutical Factory.
• Xin Hexue tried to eat chicken soup with his left hand, but the chicken slipped from his spoon into the bowl.

Xin Hexue signed Pei Guangji’s contract and lured him into finding evidence of Xin Bao’s crimes, but Pei Guangji’s Rut came early and he attacked Xin Hexue in the hovercraft. Xin Hexue’s tears briefly restored Pei Guangji’s awareness, and Pei Guangji ordered the hovercraft back to District One instead of the Pei family residence.

• K told Xin Hexue that Xin Bao had fallen into Black Snake’s trap and that its people were closing in on his apartment.
• Pei Guangji found Xin Hexue outside his vandalized apartment, sheltered him from the rain, and promised to deal with Black Snake.
• Xin Hexue tricked Pei Guangji into retrieving evidence of Xin Bao’s assaults from the apartment.
• After signing the contract, Xin Hexue was pinned down by Pei Guangji, whose Rut had come early.
• Xin Hexue told Pei Guangji that he was hurting him, and his tears helped Pei Guangji regain some awareness.
• Pei Guangji ordered the special assistant to take them back to District One, avoiding the Pei family residence.

Pei Guangji took Xin Hexue to his villa while overwhelmed by rut, and Xin Hexue eventually used K to incapacitate him when his advances went too far. Pei Ying returned to the villa and found Xin Hexue there, leaving him watching the unfamiliar Beta with growing malice.

• Pei Guangji apologized for hurting Xin Hexue and took him to the Halfway-Up-the-Mountain Villa, telling his assistant to arrange somewhere else for Pei Ying to stay.
• Pei Ying received the message that he could not return to the villa, but went there after school and saw Pei Guangji holding someone in the bedroom.
• When Pei Guangji's advances exceeded what he could tolerate, Xin Hexue asked K to stun him, then kicked him onto the floor and went to wash.
• Pei Ying came downstairs and watched Xin Hexue in the living room, judging him to be a Beta and noticing the marks on his skin.
• Pei Ying leaned into his malicious streak as he continued observing Xin Hexue.

Pei Ying grew interested in Xin Hexue, helped treat his cut, and learned that Xin Hexue could distinguish him from Pei Guangji by his appearance. The next morning, Pei Guangji woke after his rut and apologized to Xin Hexue, believing he had been rough with him.

• Pei Ying panicked when Xin Hexue dropped a glass and began coughing, then helped him to the sofa.
• Xin Hexue touched Pei Ying's face to memorize his blue hair highlights and left-ear stud, earning more of Pei Ying's affection.
• Pei Ying treated the cut on Xin Hexue's leg and learned that poor health kept him from using genetic improvement agents.
• Xin Hexue returned to the room, checked that K had not fried Pei Guangji's brain, and fell asleep beside the unconscious Alpha.
• Pei Guangji woke in the morning with fragmented memories of his rut and apologized to Xin Hexue for losing control.

After Pei Guangji’s rut, he treated Xin Hexue like a live-in partner, visiting his bed each night and trying to make their home life comfortable. Xin Hexue’s affection score reached 67, while Pei Ying discovered that dinner from the Drunken Immortal Tower tasted different.

• Pei Guangji left Xin Hexue to rest, warned Pei Ying to stay away from the second floor, and arranged for Xin Hexue to remain at the villa.
• Pei Guangji kept Xin Hexue’s shirt at work, sent him ointment, and gained affection points when Xin Hexue thanked him.
• For a week, Pei Guangji returned each night to embrace Xin Hexue while he slept, earning affection points despite their lack of face-to-face interaction.
• Xin Hexue complained about the housekeeper’s cooking, so Pei Guangji arranged for a chef from the Drunken Immortal Tower to prepare dinner.
• Xin Hexue checked Pei Guangji’s affection value and found it had reached 67.
• Pei Ying was surprised that dinner tasted different after the Drunken Immortal Tower’s dishes arrived.

Xin Hexue collapsed with acute gastritis and a persistent fever after overeating, and the Pei Corporation's medical team began treating him. Pei Guangji stayed away to pursue a lead about the alien species, while Pei Ying remained by Xin Hexue's side and carefully followed the doctor's instructions.

• Xin Hexue gave Pei Guangji their signed one-year relationship contract, but Pei Guangji left after Jiang Jing called with news about a lead on the alien species.
• Xin Hexue collapsed from stomach pain, and Pei Ying called the family doctor before messaging Pei Guangji.
• Pei Guangji decided not to return, told Pei Ying to have Xin Hexue see a doctor, and sent the medical team to the Halfway-Up-the-Mountain Villa.
• The doctors diagnosed Xin Hexue with acute gastritis and a persistent high fever, and found that he was allergic to many medications.
• Pei Ying listened closely to the doctor's instructions for caring for Xin Hexue and told the doctor to rest in a guest room.

Pei Ying cared for Xin Hexue through his fever and grew flustered by his attraction to him, while Pei Guangji returned to the villa and reacted to hearing that Xin Hexue had called for him. At school, Pei Ying found Xin Hexue had completed his assignment for him and realized he had misplaced the parent-teacher meeting invitation.

• Pei Ying took the day off to care for Xin Hexue, whose fever broke overnight, and became embarrassed after seeing and washing his body.
• Xin Hexue told Pei Ying he might have called for Pei Guangji while feverish, prompting Pei Ying to leave the table in a huff despite Xin Hexue thanking him.
• Pei Guangji visited the villa, heard Xin Hexue murmur his name, and gained affection when Xin Hexue greeted him before reverting to calling him Mr. Pei.
• Pei Ying went to school and discovered Xin Hexue had completed his homework on scratch paper, but he refused to submit it because he did not want Xin Hexue to think he was stupid.
• Pei Ying learned that a parent-teacher meeting was scheduled that afternoon and realized the invitation his deskmate had tucked into his exercise book was missing.

Xin Hexue attended Pei Ying’s parent-teacher meeting, and Pei Ying’s jealousy culminated in an unwanted kiss that Xin Hexue answered with a slap. Xin Hexue then waited for Pei Ying to apologize and messaged Pei Guangji about keeping a clingy campus dog.

• Xin Hexue arrived at Pei Ying’s school for the parent-teacher meeting, and Pei Ying gave him his jacket while worrying about his health.
• Xin Hexue reviewed Pei Ying’s poor grades and offered to help him improve, but Pei Ying pulled him into a stairwell and asked why he was so kind to him.
• When Xin Hexue said he would keep an appropriate distance if Pei Ying felt uncomfortable, Pei Ying kissed him, and Xin Hexue slapped him and left.
• Xin Hexue explained to K that he had anticipated Pei Ying’s actions, and Pei Ying’s Affection Points rose by twenty after the slap.
• Xin Hexue waited for Pei Ying to apologize while petting a campus dog, then sent Pei Guangji a photo and asked if he could keep it.

Xin Hexue remembered his first life as Planet B3081’s crown prince, including his clandestine bond with the space pirate Ling Ji and the victorious campaign that preceded his death. Back in the present, Pei Ying escorted him from the rain, while Xi Xiaode recognized him as the man he had seen at Sixth District Hospital.

• Xin Hexue recalled his punishing life as crown prince and the birthday when Ling Ji secretly brought him grilled sweet potato skin and a jade ring with a key to Ling Ji’s collar.
• Ling Ji warned Xin Hexue not to campaign against Planet 3042, but Xin Hexue went to the front lines, won the campaign, and soon died after his strength rapidly failed.
• In the present, Xin Hexue crouched beside the little yellow dog as rain fell, and briefly saw a monstrous shape in the shadow of the student holding an umbrella over him.
• Pei Ying arrived with an umbrella, apologized for speaking impulsively, and took Xin Hexue back with him.
• Xi Xiaode approached the little yellow dog and told the adult beside him that Xin Hexue was the big brother he had seen at Sixth District Hospital.

At Xi Zhengqing’s sister’s wedding, Pei Guangji learned that his grandfather had asked Xi Zhengqing about the person he had taken in. Pei Guangji kept his relationship with Xin Hexue private, while Xi Zhengqing probed him about the yellow dog and the mechanical cat.

• Xi Zhengqing greeted Pei Guangji at his sister’s wedding and introduced his nephew, Xi Xiaode.
• Xi Zhengqing told Pei Guangji that Xi Xiaode had undergone psychological treatment and showed him the yellow stray dog the boy had adopted.
• Pei Guangji recognized the dog as the one Xin Hexue had wanted to keep, and challenged Xi Zhengqing’s disparaging remarks about its breed.
• Xi Zhengqing revealed that Pei Guangji’s grandfather had asked him whether Pei Guangji had secretly taken someone in.
• Xi Zhengqing noticed Pei Guangji repeatedly checking messages from his Beta lover and asked whether the mechanical cat had been a gift for him.
• Pei Guangji recalled that Xin Hexue had accepted the mechanical cat and hugged him, and thought their life together had been harmonious since then.

Pei Guangji believed Xin Hexue was deeply attached to him, but Xin Hexue discovered that Pei Guangji had concealed Xin Bao’s death and other decisions from him. After confronting Pei Guangji, Xin Hexue asked to terminate their contract, leaving Pei Guangji unable to explain himself.

• Pei Guangji reread Xin Hexue’s messages and concluded that Xin Hexue was in love with him, while Xi Zhengqing and Zuo Yongyan asked about the person Pei Guangji was keeping.
• Jiang Jing told Pei Guangji that Xin Bao had been bullied in prison, and Pei Guangji refused to move him or discuss the matter with Xin Hexue.
• When Xin Hexue disappeared during heavy snowfall, Pei Guangji checked his location and found him returning to the villa covered in snow.
• Xin Hexue presented Pei Guangji with an intercepted court judgment and family death notice, then asked to terminate their contract and promised to repay the one million star coins.
• Pei Guangji tried to explain his role in Xin Bao’s imprisonment and death, while Xin Hexue confronted him about hiding the truth, cutting off his ties to his father, and installing a tracker in his communicator.

Xin Hexue planned to use Pei Guangji’s growing affection to set his revenge in motion, while Pei Guangji decided to propose after realizing he might love him. Pei Guangji’s hovercraft crashed, and his final message asking someone to care for Xin Hexue went to a group chat; the next morning, Xin Hexue remained unaware of the accident.

• Xin Hexue told K that Pei Guangji’s affection points had reached ninety and named Xi Zhengqing as his next target.
• Jiang Jing advised Pei Guangji to communicate with Xin Hexue and ask himself whether he loved him, prompting Pei Guangji to plan an engagement and proposal.
• Someone tampered with Pei Guangji’s hovercraft, and it caught fire before a cargo craft collided with it.
• Pinned in the wreckage, Pei Guangji tried to forward Xin Hexue’s location and ask someone to care for him, but the message went to a group chat with Xi Zhengqing and others.
• Xin Hexue slept through the news of the crash, and the next morning he noticed that Pei Ying seemed distracted before he hurried off to school.

Pei Ying learned that Pei Guangji remained comatose and returned to the main family, while Xin Hexue stayed alone at the villa. Xi Zhengqing visited the villa, pretended to be Pei Guangji, and found himself drawn to Xin Hexue, who welcomed him home and offered him birthday cake.

• Pei Ying learned that Pei Guangji was still in a coma and decided to protect his place in the family heir succession.
• Pei Ying told Xin Hexue he would stay with the main family for a while, and Xin Hexue went to watch the squirrels in the garden.
• Xi Zhengqing confirmed Pei Guangji's condition and visited the mountainside villa, where he became fixated on Xin Hexue.
• Xi Zhengqing pretended to be Pei Guangji and claimed a business-trip accident had left his vocal cords recovering from surgery.
• Xin Hexue kissed Xi Zhengqing's Adam's apple in concern, then took him inside and offered him a piece of the birthday cake he had saved.

Xi Zhengqing visited Xin Hexue for his birthday, accepted a degrading dog collar, and tried to maintain his friendly disguise while Xin Hexue maneuvered him into eating spoiled cake. Later, Xi Zhengqing gave Xin Hexue a moonstone necklace, while Xin Hexue continued concealing his investigation into Pei Guangji’s affairs.

• Xi Zhengqing ate the week-old cake and accepted the dog collar Xin Hexue gave him, mistaking it for a gift Pei Guangji would have liked.
• Xin Hexue learned from K that Xi Zhengqing’s mechanical stomach and spare bionic heart made him difficult to kill.
• Xin Hexue asked Xi Zhengqing to stay the night, then found Pei Guangji’s contract in a safe and left a drawer slightly open as a deliberate clue.
• Xi Zhengqing found Xin Hexue reading a book about genetic modification and gave him a moonstone necklace made from a stone in his secret collection.

Xin Hexue used desire to gain control over Xi Zhengqing, but Xi Zhengqing overpowered him before K intervened. Xi Zhengqing woke the next morning with only a fragment of the night’s events in his memory, then found something unexpected in a desk drawer before joining Xin Hexue for breakfast.

• Xin Hexue provoked Xi Zhengqing and used their collar and intimacy to reverse their roles, while his affection value fluctuated before rising overall.
• Xi Zhengqing pinned Xin Hexue on the desk and kissed him, believing he could control the young man through his reactions.
• When Xi Zhengqing tried to kiss him again, Xin Hexue called for K, who shocked Xi Zhengqing unconscious.
• K carried the exhausted Xin Hexue to bed, and Xin Hexue asked whether calling K “big brother” counted as a safeword.
• Xi Zhengqing woke in the study with only the memory of Xin Hexue’s tears, opened a partly closed desk drawer, and then joined Xin Hexue for breakfast.