The beginning

[A Qiang, help me check whether this new proposal can pass the boss's review.]

[Dear Tan, asking me to review a proposal to "remake A Qiang" is like asking a mouse to judge the seasoning of rat poison. I think it's excellent, seasoned just right. As for your boss, that doesn't matter.]

Ji Tan stared at the AI's reply on his computer screen and feebly scratched his hair, which had long since become a bird's nest. "A Qiang, you don't understand."

The boss mattered. A lot!

Otherwise, this proposal wouldn't have been called "A Qiang's autonomous creation framework proposal, version 233."

Ji Tan swayed to his feet and drifted like a ghost through the deserted company late at night.

His unscrupulous boss had dreamed up the idea of creating a superintelligence that could automatically write novels, produce long and short dramas, and generate games without limits or human assistance. They had already spent three years on this almost impossible project. Recently, everyone had truly reached their limit, so Ji Tan had given the team a short break. As the project lead, he had stayed behind alone to deal with their unreasonable boss.

After fetching the thick stack of printed proposal pages and a cup of extra-strong black coffee, Ji Tan returned to his desk to run the final test on the new proposal.

[A Qiang, write a novel using my name.]

The little eyes on the screen that indicated thinking blinked once, and then an astonishing masterpiece began appearing at a hundred characters per second.

[Ji Tan was born into a wealthy family, innocent, carefree, and without a worry in the world, until his father took up-gambling, lost the family fortune, and ran up enormous debts. His mother ran away, and his older brother fell ill. Frail Ji Tan had no skills, no way out, and no one to rely on. He could only sell drinks at a karaoke club. Until that man appeared-Huo Zhaixing. Mr. Huo paid off his debts and pampered him in an eight-thousand-square-meter villa. He thought his life would remain happy forever, until Mr. Huo's first love returned.

"Qiao Qiao is my true love. As for Ji Tan? Heh, that idiot is nothing but the heart donor I prepared for Qiao Qiao."

"Huo, you're really ruthless."

...]

Ji Tan's hand trembled slightly around his cup, and he faintly tasted rust on his tongue. He felt as though his mouth held not coffee but a mouthful of blood. After three years of painstaking cultivation, one thousand and ninety-five days and nights, and two hundred and thirty-three revisions, this was still the crap it produced!

Repetitive transitions, inexplicable em dashes, meaningless parallel constructions, shitty characterization...

The screen was still furiously churning out a hundred characters per second, and Ji Tan's heart began pounding at a hundred beats per minute. The thud-thud echoed against his eardrums, accelerating relentlessly.

[His eyes reddened, his tears shattered into eight petals.]

Thud-thud...

[He came to a sudden realization, regretting his past mistakes, blind to the situation he was caught in.]

Thud-thud-thud!

[He fled, he pursued, his heart turned to ash, he knelt in the pouring rain in remorse!]

Thud-thud-thud-thud!!!

The taut string in his mind snapped with a crack, and Ji Tan felt a chill spread from the top of his head to the soles of his feet. The screen blurred into a wash of blue light. Dazed, he turned to look for a window, wanting to see whether the blue light made his pale face look ashen. Then he collapsed onto his desk with a thump, his ear folding beneath him before he could straighten it.

I'm probably the first AI engineer to be angered to death by his own product, Ji Tan thought hazily, trying to move and rescue his flattened ear. The next instant, he sank into darkness.

Gurgle, gurgle. His head felt as though it had been filled with water, and the surrounding clamor also seemed to reach him through water.

"Mr. Ji agreed to this... voluntarily, right?"

"Stop wasting time."

So noisy.

The smell of disinfectant filled his nose. Dazzling white light shone directly onto his eyelids, making it difficult to open his eyes. Frowning, Ji Tan forced them open a crack and saw several doctors in white coats and masks swiftly wheeling the bed beneath him along.

"Prepare for heart removal surgery. Operating room 014, confirmed."

Surgery?

Was removing the heart how they treated cardiac arrest caused by overtime?

What a treatment-cut off the head for a headache, chop off the foot for a sore foot!

What kind of crooked hospital was this? Help!

Ji Tan's eyes flew open. Struggling to sit up, he saw IV needles in both hands, dripping an unknown cold liquid into his veins. His ankles were strapped to the rails of the wheeled hospital bed.

The medical staff around him cried out at his sudden awakening, and the wheeled bed stopped.

"Ji Tan, behave!" A man in a sharp suit with slicked-back hair, looking every inch the respectable gentleman, stepped out from behind the doctors and roughly pushed Ji Tan back down. A soothing smile appeared on his reasonably handsome face. "Be good. The surgery will be over soon. As long as you give Qiao Qiao your heart, we'll have our wedding next month."

Ji Tan choked and coughed, staring in horror at the man before him.

Qiao Qiao, a heart...

He swallowed and forced out a hoarse question. "Huo... Huo Zhaixing?"

The man smiled very slowly, revealing a sharply chiseled, hook-shaped dimple on the side of his face, like the Grim Reaper's scythe harvesting lives. "I'm here. Don't be afraid."

You're the reason I'm afraid!

Ji Tan shook his head, trying to shake off the effects of the drugs. Clearly, he had transmigrated into the novel the AI A Qiang had just written for him. The man before him was his nominal "husband," the domineering CEO about to literally take his heart out-Huo Zhaixing.

Ji Tan swiftly pulled the needles out of both hands and felt his mind clear a little. He took two deep breaths to gather his strength, and when Huo approached to stop him, he swung a backhanded slap at him.

Smack! Blood that had welled up from the roughly extracted needles trickled down the slender dimple, looking exceptionally gruesome.

"People die when you take their hearts out. Are you a fucking idiot?" His throat could produce only a breathy near-whisper, and his slap had little strength behind it either. Ji Tan felt around on either side, searching for something to defend himself with, and actually found a thick stack of A4 paper at the small of his back, tucked into the elastic waistband of his hospital pants.

Ji Tan: ?

Huo Zhaixing wiped the blood from his cheek with his thumb, then bent down unconcernedly and offered his other cheek, soothing him softly as though coaxing a child. "Tan, you're confused from sleeping. Having your heart cut out won't kill you. I've already prepared the best mechanical heart for you, set with a sapphire worth thirty million. It's more durable than a real heart. Once it's installed, we can be together forever."

If it's such a wonderful heart, why not give it to your first love?

"I don't consent." Ji Tan refused firmly, signaling for the medical staff to hurry up and stop this lawless lunatic.

The doctor beside the bed glanced at Huo Zhaixing and silently raised the intravenous syringe in his hand. The young nurse gave Ji Tan a sympathetic look and slipped him a little note:

[Don't date a scumbag next time.]

Ji Tan: "..." Was this really the time for that?

Huo Zhaixing cupped Ji Tan's cheek in one hand and stroked it gently. "You owe Qiao Qiao this heart. You understand my difficulties, don't you?"

Ji Tan couldn't understand. He could only seize the moment while the scumbag was lost in his own artistry, whip out the two-finger-thick stack of A4 paper, and slam it into that straight, handsome nose. In a flash, with Mr. Huo's startled "Ow!", everyone began flailing like live shrimp tossed into boiling water.

The black-clad bodyguards swarmed forward, the anesthetist's needle plunged into a bodyguard's arm, and excited bystanders raised their phones to take pictures. The first love's delicate, youthful voice came from far away. "Huo, are you all right?"

Amid the chaos, Ji Tan swiftly undid the restraints and staggered out of the crowd.

Clutching his nose, Mr. Huo kicked the bodyguard who kept shoving against him. "Go after my spouse, you idiot!"

His limbs were still weak, his calves felt filled with lead, and Ji Tan gritted his teeth and ran toward the exit. The people in the hospital corridor automatically cleared a path for him, but not one offered help or tried to call the police. Soon, the scrape of leather shoes against the floor came from behind him, the bodyguards' chaotic footsteps turning into notes heralding his death.

He couldn't escape like this!

Ji Tan's gaze swept rapidly over the crowd, searching for someone who might help. Even in a fictional world, a domineering CEO wasn't invincible. An antidote had to be close at hand.

Then he spotted a familiar face.

It wasn't that he had eyes sharp enough to pinpoint someone amid all this chaos. That face was simply so outstanding that, standing in the crowd, it seemed to occupy an entirely different layer from everyone else's. It was precisely because of that excessively handsome face that Ji Tan had forgiven the man's devilish behavior countless times. He was the instigator of all this, the unscrupulous boss who had forced Ji Tan to work late into the night until he finally dropped dead at his desk-Xie Zhi!

Xie Zhi wore an exquisite suit, with his bow tie and pocket square immaculately arranged. Even an ornate double silver watch chain hung at his waist. Yet he hadn't put his jacket on properly, merely draping it casually over his shoulders. His arms, clad in a black silk shirt, were loosely folded. He tilted his head and looked over as though watching a show, showing no intention of helping.

At that moment, Ji Tan had no time to wonder why this guy had transmigrated along with him. He turned and charged toward him. "Xie Zhi, help!"

"What did you call me?" Xie Zhi unfolded his arms.

Ji Tan had never imagined he would one day be so happy to see his boss. Even his numb legs filled with strength as he raced joyfully toward him like a young swallow returning to the woods.

Suddenly, a powerful force struck him from behind and pinned him firmly to the floor. The A4 pages flew from his hand and slid several meters without scattering. The thick stack had actually been neatly stapled together. There, in stark black letters on the white cover, were the words "A Qiang's autonomous creation framework proposal, version 233."

That was his proposal?!

Having been forced to read countless melodramatic novels for work, Ji Tan instinctively reached for the document. In typical novel settings, any item that transmigrated alongside the protagonist was bound to be a special advantage.

A pair of men's patent-leather shoes with red soles stopped beside the proposal. Their owner, Xie Zhi, asked politely, "Do you need help?"

Ji Tan blinked away the reflexive tears welling in his eyes and nodded with difficulty.

Xie Zhi picked up the stack of printouts, patted it off, and smilingly handed it to Ji Tan, who was still lying on the floor. "Here."

"..."

Was that what I wanted help with?