It felt as though he were submerged in water, tangled in seaweed and dragged down into the depths.
Dizziness, a splitting headache, gasping for air, unable to breathe.
Suddenly, a light flashed. Jiang Yumiao strained to reach it, then was swept inside.
A man lay on his back on a sofa, glasses as thick as bottle bottoms covering his face. His brows were tightly furrowed, his face flushed, and his breathing slightly labored.
"Yumiao? Are you okay?"
Jiang Yumiao snapped his eyes open. Before him stood a handsome young man who looked to be in his early twenties, his lovely, flirtatious eyes gazing at him with concern.
"I'm... I'm fine," Jiang Yumiao answered reflexively.
He took a moment to recover, then slowly sat up, surveying his surroundings from the corner of his eye. An open kitchen connected to the living room, and sunlight streamed through enormous floor-to-ceiling windows onto a fabric sofa. The country-style decor made the room feel warm and bright.
Everything looked wonderful, but there was one problem-
Why were there so many cameras?!
There were two in the kitchen, four in the living room, and several mounted in the corners. Not far away, two camera operators also had their equipment trained on Jiang Yumiao and the young man.
Jiang Yumiao remembered pulling several all-nighters to meet a deadline, typing furiously at the computer in his study just a second ago. It had been the middle of the night. Why was it suddenly sunny, and why was he somewhere unfamiliar? And who was this handsome young man in front of him?
"I just came downstairs and saw you lying here without moving. You gave me quite a scare. You already looked unwell when we were outside earlier." As he spoke, the young man poured Jiang Yumiao a glass of water.
The young man glanced around, seemingly wary of the cameras, then leaned close to Jiang Yumiao's ear and whispered, "Yumiao, is your heat coming soon? Your face looks really red."
Heat?! What heat?! Jiang Yumiao's eyes trembled. He had only ever encountered that term in ABO novels.
Suddenly, scattered fragments of memories that did not belong to him appeared in his mind.
Jiang Yumiao's expression remained calm, but the fingers resting on his thigh trembled slightly.
After absorbing the memories in his head, he had no choice but to accept one fact.
Yes, he, Jiang Yumiao, had transmigrated into the ABO Dating Reality Show love-triangle novel that he had read two days ago. Worse, he had become a nobody with the same name, there only to make Everyone's Darling, the bottom protagonist, shine: an utterly obscure novelist whose stories never reached a thousand bookmarks or a hundred comments, an extraordinarily ordinary omega whom nobody would even notice on the street!
In the original novel, the obscure writer practically had no presence at all. Or rather, his existence only mattered when Everyone's Darling, the bottom protagonist, was radiating his Gary Stu halo.
Everyone's Darling stunned everyone with a piano performance, and the obscure writer gaped and applauded; Everyone's Darling painted lifelike pictures, and the obscure writer marveled and applauded; Everyone's Darling went viral online for his singing, and the obscure writer felt pleased for him and applauded; Everyone's Darling successfully paired up with the alpha male lead, and the obscure writer was moved and applauded; several years after the Dating Reality Show ended, Everyone's Darling married the male lead, and the obscure writer attended the wedding and applauded.
In short, the obscure writer was an utterly textbook background extra in a Dating Reality Show, a convenient prop with no storyline of his own. Apart from his occupation, his characterization was paper-thin, never mind having a romantic pairing.
The current obscure writer-Jiang Yumiao-looked at the young man before him, whose flirtatious eyes naturally seemed full of affection, and understood.
No wonder he's so handsome. He's Everyone's Darling, the bottom protagonist himself!
Seeing that Jiang Yumiao still had not answered, Lin Xu assumed he was hesitant because of the cameras and whispered again, "I'm covering my mic, so they can't hear us. Yumiao, do you want to go back to your room and rest?"
Jiang Yumiao nodded lightly. This was the perfect chance to escape all those cameras and calm down, to think through exactly what was happening, how far along the Dating Reality Show was, and where everyone's relationships currently stood.
Jiang Yumiao stood up and was about to leave when a burst of noise came from outside the door.
At the sound, Lin Xu's lovely eyes sparkled, his voice brimming with delight. "Qin Yuan and Mr. Ning are back from grocery shopping!"
Hearing those two names, Jiang Yumiao's pupils abruptly contracted. The reason was simple: those two were the original novel's male lead and second male lead!
Jiang Yumiao immediately stopped in his tracks and turned toward the entrance.
The man Lin Xu called Qin Yuan was a Top Alpha and a newly crowned best actor. Since his debut at twenty-two, he had won a best actor award in just three short years, earning a reputation as a prodigy. He was also the original novel's male lead, the ultimate winner of the Dating Reality Show love triangle.
Mr. Ning, Ning Chunchi, was the original novel's second male lead. He was also a Top Alpha, the illegitimate son of a wealthy family who had grown up away from them, and a rising business star in high demand. Unloved by his parents and ostracized by his family, he had learned to fend for himself at a very young age. As a result, he grew up to be exceptionally good at caring for others. Gentle in his dealings with people, he was seen as an older brother by the other Dating Reality Show contestants.
Yet the lack of love in his childhood had left him deeply insecure and shaped his obsessive personality. Beneath his warm, courteous exterior lay a layer of ice that was nearly impossible to melt. It was exceedingly difficult for anyone to enter his heart, but once they did, Ning Chunchi would never let go.
After the Dating Reality Show ended in the original novel and Everyone's Darling, Lin Xu, chose Qin Yuan, Ning Chunchi never saw Lin Xu again for the rest of his life.
If he could not have him, he would never see him again. That was the kind of person he was.
In fact, the two had never had any intimate contact from beginning to end. Readers could only glean hints of Ning Chunchi's affection for the protagonist from a few scattered words.
Perhaps he did not even like the protagonist all that much. Perhaps he had merely received a trace of the warmth the protagonist offered equally to everyone as part of participating in the Dating Reality Show.
Yet even that pitiful little scrap of warmth was something Ning Chunchi had never experienced in twenty-eight years of a life filled with deception and scheming. And in the end, the person who gave him that warmth did not choose him, either.
The second male lead's story wrung plenty of tears from readers, Jiang Yumiao included. During the original novel's final Dating Reality Show episode, Jiang Yumiao had enjoyed the main couple's sweet moments while using an entire box of tissues to wipe away his tears over the second male lead.
Ning Chunchi had been Jiang Yumiao's favorite character while reading, and the one whose ending he could least come to terms with. That had a great deal to do with Jiang Yumiao's own experiences.
Jiang Yumiao had also lost his parents at a very young age and grown up in an orphanage. Only he knew the hardships of his own life, and reading novels every night became his sole means of briefly escaping reality. In college, he studied and worked during the day, then wrote novels until the early hours of the morning. He kept that up until graduation and finally achieved a little success with his writing. Who could have imagined that before he had much time to enjoy it, he would die suddenly from staying up too late and transmigrate here?
Jiang Yumiao sighed inwardly. Still, he had always been the type to make the best of whatever came his way. Besides, he was about to meet his favorite fictional character. It felt a little like meeting an idol, and he was rather excited.
He rubbed his hands together, waiting for Ning Chunchi and the others to come in.
"Ding-dong-your Second Male Lead Romance System is now online! Employee No. 188 is at your service."
The mechanical voice that suddenly rang out in his head nearly scared Jiang Yumiao into passing out.
"The designated romance target is approaching. Host, please remain where you are and stay highly focused." The mechanical voice was as cold as ever.
He knew it. These days, hardly anyone transmigrated into a novel without a system. Sure enough, this one had been waiting for him!
Jiang Yumiao took a deep breath and tried speaking to the system in his mind. "You said you're some Second Male Lead Romance System, and you mentioned a romance target. Don't tell me... you want me to date Ning Chunchi?!"
"BINGO~~ Just what I'd expect from the host chosen by 188!" The system's previously flat mechanical voice suddenly seemed to acquire emotion, complete with bizarre lilting inflections that gave Jiang Yumiao goosebumps. "The host's ultimate mission is to achieve a mutual match with the second male lead by the end of the Dating Reality Show." "If you fail, you'll die."
Before you continue