The wet sounds of tangled kisses slowly spread.
Soft, tender lips offered themselves up, kissing again and again. A tongue swept over the seam between lips, and unconscious moans lit the night's final fire.
In his haze, sweltering heat surrounded Li Shu, and a warm, burning-hot body enveloped him.
Moonlight from outside the window fell on Li Shu's fair nape, and the intimate night flowed from his shoulder blades to the hollow of his lower back.
His panting was enticing.
The man beneath Li Shu braced his elbows against the bed and rose slightly, his arm muscles flexing, the veins running from the backs of his hands up his arms bulging ever more prominently.
Gurgle, gurgle-
Some incredible current seemed to keep pouring into Li Shu's ears. His heartbeat was louder than the noise outside, each beat heavier than the last.
There was something on his mouth. So soft.
It smelled nice.
Not sure. Better lick it.
Wait...
Why did it have two halves?
Huh???
Hiss-
Li Shu nearly leaped in fright and hurriedly pushed the man away. Once he saw that the person he had just been kissing so passionately was male, even his fingers trembled.
"You... I... th-this... huh?"
As Li Shu stammered out his shock, half his backside had already scooted off the bed. He looked like a startled animal with its fur standing on end, his two round eyes staring at the other man who had inexplicably appeared on the bed.
He was just an ordinary college guy. One moment, pxx had told him he was a premium user who only needed to invite one more friend to help slash the price to get the latest Apple phone for free; the next, he was staring wide-eyed at the handsome man before him.
An unfamiliar room, an unfamiliar version of himself taking the initiative to kiss an unfamiliar man.
What
the
actual
fuck!
[Ding! Loading plot...] [Congratulations, host! As pxx's luckiest user, you have won an opportunity to transmigrate into a novel. You are now in a no-romance power-fantasy novel on Tomato Book City. The male lead is Pei Song'an.] [You must help Pei Song'an secure his position as Hong Kong City's crown prince. Successfully advance the plot, and you may return to your original world and receive a massive cash prize of one hundred million.]
Li Shu froze at the amount of the prize.
How much? How much did you say?
He kept claiming good luck on Douyin. Was it finally his turn!?
He really had been born to be emperor!
Given the tricky situation before him, the system did not give Li Shu much time to take it in and briefly outlined the current circumstances:
[You have secretly loved your childhood friend for years. When you saw him arrive at the banquet with a pretty boy, you finally snapped.] [You drugged your childhood friend and even reached out to take off his pants-]
Listening to the system's cold voice, Li Shu used the moonlight from outside to take his first proper look at the man before him.
The disheveled shirt could no longer conceal the man's deeply defined collarbones and sexy chest muscles. Beneath that pitiful scrap of fabric, his sharply sculpted shoulders and torso instead looked to Li Shu like a sultry invitation masquerading as resistance.
Li Shu's gaze moved down. The belt had been tossed beneath the bed, and the signs of the trouser fastening being forcibly yanked open remained.
His gaze lingered there, only to be scalded in an instant.
To be fair, this childhood friend of his had quite a body. He probably never skimped on looking after himself.
Before the system could finish, the man opposite him suddenly found the strength to push himself up and pin Li Shu to the edge of the bed, five long fingers clamping hard around his throat.
Moonlight fell squarely on the man's handsome features, and his backlit brows and eyes gradually became clear. Bloodshot streaks added a sharp edge to his slightly upturned eyes. His pale lips, together with that exceptionally handsome face, radiated coldness and distance amid their intimidating air.
Li Shu had only been a college student before transmigrating. He had never encountered anything like this. That single look immediately frightened him into a cold sweat, and he strained his neck, trying to draw some fresh air into his lungs.
Hey!
Why didn't this shitty childhood friend care about their history at all? Going straight for his throat?
At the same time, the system suddenly glitched.
A strange electrical buzz, carrying an eerie quality that made his skin crawl, swept rapidly past Li Shu's ears.
[Unknown error detected!] [Recompiling plot.] [You drugged the ruthless, decisive crown prince, Pei Song'an. Your attempt to remove his pants failed, and he is currently pinning you to the bed like a baby chick.]
Li Shu, who understood now: ?
Who?
The male lead, Pei Song'an?
You're telling me now that what I tried to strip off was actually the crown prince's golden underwear?
System, I really don't have time for your nonsense. Didn't pxx say I was the luckiest person? Is this how you treat an emperor?
Unfortunately, no amount of complaining helped. Li Shu could neither reach out and slap the system twice nor break free of Pei Song'an's hold.
His fair face flushed red, his brownish eyes shone with moisture, and a bead or two of sweat clung to his neck. His Adam's apple bobbed uncontrollably beneath the man's palm.
Shit.
If he kept choking him much longer, he really was going to die.
Fortunately, the man seemed to be gradually regaining his senses, and the pressure of his hand eased somewhat along with it.
"The Li Family's youngest son?"
Pei Song'an's voice still held some of the drug-induced rasp. His lips pressed into a cold line, and his tone alone sounded nothing like what a cheerful college guy like Li Shu would normally encounter.
After waiting two seconds without receiving an answer, Pei Song'an's patience dwindled along with the drug's effects. Still, he made no further move, merely sweeping a deep gaze over Li Shu's face.
"Is that question so difficult to answer?"
Li Shu raised his eyes, his wet gaze meeting Pei Song'an's obsidian-like eyes. He parted his lips slightly, paused, then closed them again.
It wasn't difficult.
The main problem was that the system hadn't told him either!
Pei Song'an's stare made Li Shu panic, and his hand unconsciously felt around beside him. Out of the corner of his eye, he saw that the phone screen was lit. Under the circumstances, rather than let Pei Song'an strangle him as some pervert, he might as well turn himself in.
Getting locked up and taught a lesson had to be better than losing his life, right?
He had no idea where his fingertip touched the screen, but a conversation suddenly came through the speaker without warning.
"It's Li Shu's birthday banquet today. Didn't you promise to pick him up?"
The instant he heard the voice, Li Shu matched it to its owner, perhaps because he now occupied the identity of the character in the book. The speaker was a friend of his childhood friend, Chen Yannan.
Chen Yannan's voice was gentle and even. "Li Shu isn't a child anymore. He can get there himself. I need to go to the airport. The son of my grandfather's old army buddy is coming back to the country, and he asked me to pick him up."
His friend said, "That kid is the same age as Li Shu. He isn't a child either. Besides, do you really not know what he wants? Are you really going to marry into his family for their technology? You know perfectly well that Li Shu likes-"
Chen Yannan interrupted, "Li Shu can like anyone, but it absolutely cannot be me. I only see him as a younger brother."
At that voice, the sensation of gurgling filling his ears returned. His nose stung uncontrollably, and his throat tightened. Li Shu could only swallow desperately to conceal the sudden change in himself.
Li Shu had only just transmigrated and had not even met the original owner's childhood friend, yet merely hearing his voice nearly robbed him of even the most basic composure. It showed how special this Chen Yannan had been to the original owner.
The rushing water in his ears grew louder and louder. Cold spread from his fingertips to his heart, and Li Shu's vision darkened uncontrollably as he saw a scene both distorted and clear.
In that scene, Li Shu saw how the original owner and Chen Yannan had first met.
Because Li Shu's father had cheated, his mother divorced him. On the day she moved out, ten-year-old Li Shu cried his heart out, chasing the departing car until a rusty taste rose in his throat.
He fell to the ground, scraping both legs bloody.
Little Li Shu gritted his teeth without crying, stood up, brushed the dust off himself, and slowly limped in the direction the car had gone. Even though it was long out of sight, he kept walking, as if defying himself.
Someone suddenly caught his wrist.
A handsome teenage boy scooped Li Shu into his arms and carried him to a bench in a nearby park.
"Sit here and wait for me for two minutes."
Soon, the boy returned with a bag of medicine and crouched down to tend to the wounds on his legs.
Chen Yannan had said only two other things that day, but little Li Shu had remembered them to this day.
"Don't cry."
"I'll protect you from now on."
The scene suddenly blurred, mingling with a low-quality blackness as it receded farther and farther from him.
The memory flashed through Li Shu's mind in an instant, two or three seconds at most. Yet even now, his heart was still racing. His fingers unconsciously curled and clenched the sheets, his almond-shaped eyes were wet, and scalding tears slid pitifully from their outer corners.
Amid his shock, Li Shu quickly digested what he had just learned. His current identity remained unclear, but much else was already apparent.
Not only had he pulled at the wrong pants and molested the crown prince, he was also a pathetic, heartbroken little simp whose love went unrequited!
Wasn't there supposed to be a sweet date after a slap?
Why was it nothing but slaps right from the start?
Pei Song'an lowered his eyes to stare at the dazed Li Shu. The young man looked very much as though those two questions of his had scared him into tears.
He hesitated for two seconds.
Pei Song'an released his grip and straightened, bracing one hand on the bed as he forcibly concealed the weakness and discomfort caused by the drug. An appraising look flickered across Li Shu's face, and he understood most of what lay behind this "accident."
"What are you crying for?"
"Weren't you very bold when you were kissing me just now?"
He transmigrated in his own body.
Before you continue