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"I, Huo Jiu, don't lack ancestors, and I've got no interest in being anyone's grandson."

One bastard CEO had already made Huo Jiu furious, and now all these ridiculous plot characters had shown up too. The rage boiling in his chest could no longer be contained.

"You're being far too nasty!" Lu Manzhen's face flushed red with anger. "If you don't want to, then just say so. No matter what, the Bai family are your elders—"

"They're Su Zhuo's elders, not mine." As Huo Jiu spoke, his gaze suddenly turned toward the entrance.

At the foyer, Su Shiyuan, who had just returned from work, was changing into slippers with Aunt Zhao's assistance.

Living under the same roof, Aunt Zhao had naturally heard Huo Jiu's sarcastic mockery and foul-mouthed insults. She had been a servant of the Bai family, then followed the Bai family's eldest daughter as part of her dowry when she married into the Su family, where she had worked for more than twenty years. She still had feelings for her former employers, the Bai family. Naturally, she could not tolerate Huo Jiu insulting them like this.

Right in front of Lu Manzhen and Huo Jiu, Aunt Zhao repeated Huo Jiu's insults about the Bai family to Su Shiyuan, her face full of indignation.

Su Shiyuan frowned slightly and looked at Huo Jiu.

"What the fuck are you looking at?" Huo Jiu snapped, fury blazing in his chest. "If you dare do shameless things, don't be afraid of people talking about them."

The words were truly vicious. Aunt Zhao's face flushed red as she demanded furiously, "Who are you calling shameless?"

"Whoever brought it up is shameless." Huo Jiu sneered. "Don't say I didn't warn you. The fact that I couldn't stay in the Su family home and wandered outside with a high fever for seven days and seven nights can't be covered up anymore. Now the Bai family has come up with such a shameless proposal. If you're not afraid that word getting out will damage both families' reputations, I don't care either."

Aunt Zhao's expression changed. No matter how much she disliked Huo Jiu, she had to admit that he was right. This little brat had such a sharp tongue and was so close to First-Rank Pavilion. If they truly pushed him too far and he went around spouting nonsense, neither the Su family nor the Bai family could afford that kind of humiliation.

Su Shiyuan's expression eased slightly as he gently persuaded him, "That was only Yue Ling's immature idea. She has always doted on Xiao Zhuo. Xiao Zhuo's maternal grandparents are old, and they were simply worrying too much out of concern. Xiao Zhuo's condition has worsened these past few days, and he can barely eat. They're panicking too. They were grasping at straws, not deliberately trying to slight you."

"I don't care," Huo Jiu said. "I don't know them. Even if they were deliberately bullying me, I'm not someone who lets people bully me."

Su Shiyuan believed that without question. He sighed in frustration and walked over to Huo Jiu. "Xiao Zhuo's condition can't be delayed any longer. I discussed it with the doctors. The surgery has to take place next week. Take good care of yourself these next few days. In a few days, I'll arrange for you to be admitted to the hospital for the operation."

As Huo Jiu's attitude grew increasingly intense, Su Shiyuan gave up on gentle tactics as well. He forcefully set the date for the surgery, leaving Huo Jiu no room to hesitate.

Huo Jiu gave a cold laugh.

As the plot continued to Reload, Huo Jiu had also discovered that developments and relationships outside the plot's key points were not fixed. They would gradually shift along with changes in his attitude.

For now, these changes did not seem to affect the plot's normal progression.

For example, no matter how Huo Jiu's attitude changed or what he did, it would not alter Su Shiyuan's intention to make Huo Jiu donate bone marrow to Su Zhuo.

But likewise, no matter how badly Su Shiyuan wanted Huo Jiu to donate bone marrow to Su Zhuo immediately, he could not alter the pace of the Original Plot.

Su Shiyuan had to arrange the bone marrow transplant at the time specified by the Original Plot. No matter how forceful and urgent he appeared, even if Huo Jiu had deliberately torn all pretense apart, Su Shiyuan would not change the surgery date.

That made Huo Jiu very curious. He wanted to know what would happen if, during a Reload, he did something that would destroy the Original Plot, then followed the Original Plot's progression anyway—for example, killed Su Shiyuan before donating bone marrow to Su Zhuo. With the Original Plot missing a key character, how would it continue afterward?

Would it erase Su Shiyuan and all his scenes, then continue developing, or would it collapse outright from the loss of an important plot character?

Of course, Huo Jiu was only thinking about it. He would not actually do such a thing. He was not deranged enough to insist on killing Su Shiyuan. Besides, by the laws and moral standards outside the plot, if Huo Jiu really did that, never mind the plot's development—at the next time point, the police would certainly arrest him and send him to prison.

By then, even if Huo Jiu wanted to regret it, he would have passed the original time point and lost the ability to Reload and change Su Shiyuan's fated death, forfeiting his initiative.

Huo Jiu would not do something so needlessly troublesome.

But neither did he want to keep tolerating the increasingly idiotic behavior of the plot characters—

It was as though they were deliberately trying to provoke him. As Huo Jiu continued to Reload, his attitude toward the plot characters became increasingly forceful, and the feedback they gave became more and more extreme.

For instance, during the previous Reloads, the Bai family had never once asked Huo Jiu to cook special meals for Su Zhuo.

Only this time, in order to successfully save Diwu Ling, that bastard CEO, Huo Jiu had no choice but to follow the plot's development from the first Reload and compete in cooking against First-Rank Pavilion's head chef. He had also changed the dish used in the competition to Squirrel Mandarin Fish. That was what drew the Bai family's attention.

According to the Bai family's second daughter, Su Zhuo liked sweets, especially dishes like this—sweet and tangy, delicate, and beautiful. Since Huo Jiu was such an excellent cook, she hoped his special meals would awaken Su Zhuo's appetite. That was why she had made the suggestion.

But in Huo Jiu's view, this behavior had no practical purpose beyond further demonstrating that every plot character doted on Su Zhuo unconditionally, while conveniently provoking Huo Jiu's emotions.

Yet Huo Jiu still could not understand why the Original Plot wanted to use the plot characters' actions to provoke him—or, more precisely, provoke the original owner of this body.

Still, Huo Jiu noticed another detail—in the Original Plot's description, the original owner had not initially been crazily jealous of Su Zhuo, nor had he been willing to do anything to steal everything Su Zhuo had. Only after enduring constant comparisons and provocation did he become paranoid and extreme, painstakingly plotting to harm Su Zhuo.