Chapter Summaries

Ling Yi transmigrated into a cannon-fodder role and learned he had to follow the script to prevent the world from collapsing. When Liu Ruyan heard his inner voice predict her mother's death, she left with him to discuss her urgent need for help.

• Ling Yi received the script and was warned not to change the plot, since the original Number Two cannon fodder had already caused a severe deviation.
• Liu Ruyan came out of the dormitory with Zhu Xiaoxiao, worried about raising money for her mother's brain tumor operation.
• Liu Ruyan heard Ling Yi's inner voice praise her values and predict that her mother would die during surgery despite the operation.
• Liu Ruyan faltered, then dismissed Zhu Xiaoxiao and accepted Ling Yi's offer to talk, leaving the flowers with her roommate.
• Liu Ruyan and Ling Yi drove away in his sports car, and Zhu Xiaoxiao threw the roses into a trash can in disgust.

Ling Yi followed the original plot by offering Liu Ruyan a million for her mother’s surgery, while his inner thoughts revealed that he had secretly supported her and many other students. Liu Ruyan thanked him but then asked him to take her out to eat, leaving Ling Yi wondering why she was deviating from the script.

• Liu Ruyan asked Ling Yi whether true love existed, and Ling Yi declared that he loved her while privately complaining about the scripted lines.
• Liu Ruyan asked if he would treat her well as his wife, and Ling Yi promised he would while thinking she was destined for the male lead.
• Liu Ruyan said she would be his girlfriend if he paid for her mother’s brain tumor surgery, and Ling Yi transferred her a million without making her relationship conditional on it.
• Ling Yi’s inner thoughts revealed that he had secretly funded Liu Ruyan’s school expenses and supported many other students, while the male lead had received the credit.
• Ling Yi offered to drive Liu Ruyan back to school, but she said she was hungry and asked him to take her out to eat, prompting him to question the plot and call for the system.

After taking Liu Ruyan to dinner and promising to visit her mother, Ling Yi went to a hotel and intervened when two men tried to abduct Xu Zhiyi. He realized Xu Zhiyi’s rescue was supposed to be the male lead’s scene and wondered whether saving her would disrupt the plot.

• Ling Yi reassured himself that his mission would succeed as long as the main storyline remained intact, while Liu Ruyan silently reacted to his thoughts about dying at the male lead’s hands.
• Ling Yi and Liu Ruyan ate hot pot, and he drove her back to her dorm before promising to visit her mother with her the next morning.
• Ling Yi avoided returning to his dorm because he did not want to confront his three dishonest roommates, and he headed for the Beiye Hotel to try its presidential suite.
• Ling Yi saw two men carrying an incapacitated woman toward a van, filmed them, called the police, and kicked them away when they attacked him.
• Ling Yi recognized the woman as Xu Zhiyi and helped her up, then recalled that her rescue was meant to make her fall for the male lead and asked the system for advice.

Ling Yi rescued Xu Zhiyi from the drugging plot and took her to a Ling Clan hospital, while Liu Ruyan began questioning her assumptions about wealthy people after realizing Ling Yi might have secretly funded her aid. Xu Zhiyi recovered and planned to ask Ling Yi for help taking action against White Mountain.

• Ling Yi chose to save Xu Zhiyi and carried her to Red Maple Hospital, while a Daoist-looking man passed the alley and police arrived to arrest the Black Dragon Society thugs.
• Liu Ruyan suspected Ling Yi had founded the 1029 Student Aid Fund, argued with Zhu Xiaoxiao about wealthy people, and decided to ask her homeroom teacher who supported the fund.
• Zhu Xiaoxiao condemned Liu Ruyan for dating Ling Yi, while Lin Zhi worried that Liu Ruyan might regret the relationship.
• Xu Zhiyi woke up in the hospital and told female officer Sister Wan'er that Ling Yi had saved her from White Mountain.
• Sister Wan'er said she lacked evidence to arrest White Mountain and advised Xu Zhiyi to ask Ling Yi for help using the Ling Clan's business ties to pressure the Bai Clan.
• Xu Zhiyi decided to find Ling Yi the next morning.

Ling Yi took Liu Ruyan to the hospital after his inner voice revealed that her mother’s operation would fail because an inexperienced apprentice would perform it. Liu Ruyan learned that Ling Yi was a transmigrated cannon-fodder character and resolved to keep him from leaving, while Xu Zhiyi confirmed she could hear his inner voice too.

• Ling Yi picked Liu Ruyan up outside Hongfeng No. 1 High School and gave her food before they headed to the hospital.
• Liu Ruyan heard Ling Yi’s inner voice predict that her mother would die during surgery because the assigned surgeon would let an apprentice operate.
• Ling Yi’s thoughts revealed that he had transmigrated from the real world into a short drama as a cannon-fodder character, and Liu Ruyan decided she would not let him leave.
• Ling Yi helped Liu Ruyan complete the hospital procedures and arranged a special-care ward for her mother beside Xu Zhiyi’s room.
• Xu Zhiyi recognized Ling Yi at the hospital and realized that the inner voice she had heard the night before was his.

Ling Yi learned that saving Xu Zhiyi had put him in the path of White Mountain, so he declared the Bai Clan would be wiped out and fled the hospital. Xu Zhiyi, Jiang Wan'er, and Liu Ruyan decided to investigate Ling Yi's claims about the male lead by setting a trap that night.

• Xu Zhiyi stopped Ling Yi from leaving, while Liu Ruyan, Xu Zhiyi, and Jiang Wan'er heard his rapid inner thoughts about the male lead and the women he had abandoned.
• Ling Yi realized that saving Xu Zhiyi meant he might face White Mountain in the male lead's place, and he lamented that he had gained nothing from the rescue.
• Xu Zhiyi clung to Ling Yi and asked him to warn White Mountain, but Ling Yi broke free and said the Bai Clan would soon be gone from Dafeng City.
• Ling Yi ran down the stairs, and Jiang Wan'er told Xu Zhiyi that they should verify his claims about the male lead sneaking into the principal's home that night.
• Jiang Wan'er proposed using a fugitive A-class wanted criminal to help expose the male lead, and Xu Zhiyi agreed to go with her.
• Liu Ruyan came out of her hospital room and asked to join their investigation.

Xu Zhiyi, Liu Ruyan, and Jiang Wan'er planned to keep Ling Yi from completing his mission while preventing the male lead from gaining power. They left to prepare for that night’s encounter with the male lead and Liu Ruyan’s mother’s surgery the next morning.

• Xu Zhiyi explained that Ling Yi had been sent to play the doomed cannon-fodder role, and the three women agreed to make him stay so they could change their fates.
• Liu Ruyan warned that deviating too far from the script could cause disaster and questioned what had happened to the original self-aware cannon fodder.
• Xu Zhiyi proposed winning Ling Yi’s heart or body, but Jiang Wan'er warned her not to act recklessly and urged the group to keep Ling Yi from the other female leads and the male lead.
• Jiang Wan'er agreed to support Liu Ruyan at her mother's operation and arranged to meet Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi that night to confront the male lead.
• Xu Zhiyi drove Liu Ruyan back to school, while Jiang Wan'er called her father, the director of the Dafeng City Inspection Bureau, to arrange lawful grounds for the operation.

After ordering Uncle Shui to target the Bai Clan, Ling Yi learned that Thousand Mountains Company had replaced the original Number Two cannon fodder with him and then stole the protagonist’s Twin Fish Jade Pendant at the Treasure Pavilion. Qin Wanwan followed him and confronted him in his car, while the system explained that the script had been reset so she never learned the male lead killed her brother, Qin Yu.

• Ling Yi told Uncle Shui to make the Bai Clan disappear because Sanshao had targeted Xu Zhiyi, and Uncle Shui agreed.
• The system explained that Ling Yi had replaced Qin Yu as Number Two cannon fodder, that Thousand Mountains Company had arranged the replacement, and that roles could not be left vacant.
• Ling Yi went to the Treasure Pavilion and bought the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, which contained a spatial realm, an immortal cultivation inheritance, and abundant Spiritual Qi.
• Qin Wanwan noticed Ling Yi leaving the antique street and followed him to his G-Class.
• Qin Wanwan greeted Ling Yi, and the system told him that the reset script meant she never knew the male lead had killed her brother, Qin Yu.

Ling Yi took Qin Wanwan to dinner at the Crab Palace, where she revealed that her missing brother Qin Yu had once claimed their world was fake. The system told Ling Yi that Qin Yu was a bug who might offer a way to exploit the world, and Ling Yi offered to help find him as Qin Wanwan's birthday—and his own feared demise—approached.

• Qin Wanwan asked Ling Yi to sell her the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, but he refused and accepted her invitation to dinner instead.
• Ling Yi worried that eating at the Crab Palace would make him a shield against Qin Wanwan's persistent suitor, Wu Yunqi, though Qin Wanwan said she had simply wanted the restaurant's all-crab feast.
• At the Crab Palace, Qin Wanwan tested Ling Yi by asking whether anything was wrong with the world, and he wondered if she had discovered its truth.
• Qin Wanwan told Ling Yi that her brother Qin Yu had called their world fake, left her a locked box, and disappeared; she asked if he thought she could find him.
• The system told Ling Yi it could not detect awakened characters and suggested Qin Yu might be a bug that could expose a loophole in the world.
• Ling Yi offered to mobilize the Ling Clan to search for Qin Yu and asked what was inside the box, while Qin Wanwan said she would open it after her birthday in half a month.

Qin Wanwan used Ling Yi as her boyfriend to drive Wu Yunqi away, while Ling Yi learned that Qin Yu had repeatedly failed to change the world's plot and escaped it. Qin Wanwan secretly heard Ling Yi's thoughts and resolved to make him fail his mission so he would remain in this world.

• Ling Yi's system revealed that the world had been reset many times and that Qin Yu had tried and failed to save his family before running away.
• Wu Yunqi entered with flowers, and Qin Wanwan introduced Ling Yi as her boyfriend and told Wu Yunqi to stay away from her.
• Qin Wanwan kissed Ling Yi on the cheek, and Wu Yunqi left without confronting them because Ling Yi was the Ling Clan's young master.
• Ling Yi wondered whether Qin Wanwan and the other female leads could hear his thoughts, but his system detected no abnormalities.
• Qin Wanwan realized Ling Yi's system had not detected the leaking thoughts and decided to make him fail his mission so he would stay.

After Qin Wanwan teased Ling Yi and he returned to the hotel, the male lead was arrested before he could enter Liu Ruyan’s school. Ling Yi went to class expecting to confront him, but Liu Ruyan treated him warmly and the male lead never appeared.

• Qin Wanwan teased Ling Yi outside her home, then left him to drive back to the Dafeng Hotel.
• Jiang Wan'er arrested the male lead after he stole cash from the principal’s home and injured two police officers while trying to escape.
• Ling Yi returned to Class Two, Senior Year, and brought breakfast for Liu Ruyan, who accepted it and fed him in front of their classmates.
• Liu Ruyan asked Ling Yi to accompany her to her mother’s surgery that afternoon, and Ling Yi agreed.
• The homeroom teacher arrived without the male lead and announced a mock exam, leaving Ling Yi wondering where he had gone.

Liu Ruyan learned that Lin Chen had escaped from prison and feared for herself and her mother, whose operation was scheduled that afternoon. Ling Yi planned to protect her mother while preserving his cannon-fodder role, then set off for the hospital with Liu Ruyan and an unexpected Xu Zhiyi, still doubting the plot was proceeding correctly.

• Liu Ruyan saw Jiang Wan'er's group message that Lin Chen had escaped from prison and called Jiang Wan'er for details.
• Liu Ruyan worried Lin Chen would seek revenge, but Ling Yi's thoughts reminded her that her mother's operation was the immediate concern.
• Ling Yi asked his system whether he could save Liu Ruyan's mother while still making Liu Ruyan hate him, and the system said it was theoretically feasible.
• Ling Yi gave Liu Ruyan his car keys, called Uncle Shui to arrange help, and prepared to go to the hospital with her.
• Ling Yi found Xu Zhiyi waiting with Liu Ruyan, drove them to the hospital, and questioned whether the plot was going wrong.

Ling Yi learned that he could return to his world by making the male lead turn demonic and finding awakened people, while refusing to win the female leads' love through manipulation. After Liu Ruyan's mother recovered from surgery, the women gathered at the hospital to discuss Lin Chen's escape and compare what they had learned from Ling Yi's thoughts.

• Ling Yi learned that forcing himself on any woman would make the male lead turn demonic, and that awakened people such as Qin Yu might offer another path home.
• Ling Yi arrived at the hospital, where Liu Ruyan's mother's surgery went smoothly, and Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi stayed to care for her.
• Jiang Wan'er and Qin Wanwan joined Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi at the hospital and discussed Lin Chen's escape from detention.
• Jiang Wan'er explained that Lin Chen had killed several colleagues, broken through a wall using a secret method, and was now being sought through a wanted notice and the Heavenly Eye System.
• Qin Wanwan and Xu Zhiyi traded remarks about their mutual dislike, while Jiang Wan'er and Qin Wanwan revealed their familiar, teasing rivalry.
• Jiang Wan'er asked the women to summarize what they had heard from Ling Yi's thoughts and align the details.

Qin Wanwan and the other women discussed Ling Yi’s mission, the danger posed by Lin Chen, and how becoming Awakened could let them escape the plot. Qin Wanwan revealed that Qin Yu was her brother and that his diary might contain the secret to awakening, while Ling Yi studied the Twin Fish Jade Pendant in his hotel room.

• Qin Wanwan told Xu Zhiyi, Jiang Wan'er, and Liu Ruyan that she had kissed Ling Yi and tried to invite him home, while Liu Ruyan admitted she had eaten with him and Xu Zhiyi said she had teased him.
• Xu Zhiyi recounted Ling Yi’s thoughts about mission failure, Lin Chen, and Awakened people, leading the women to consider whether some of them might be stand-ins for original female leads.
• Qin Wanwan argued that their real goal was to become Awakened so they could retain their memories through world resets and break free of the plot.
• Qin Wanwan revealed that Qin Yu was her brother and that he had left her a diary to open after her birthday, which was half a month away.
• The women agreed to protect Ling Yi and themselves, while Jiang Wan'er planned to have Heavenly Eye find Lin Chen and Qin Wanwan arranged for Qin Family bodyguards.
• The women went their separate ways, and Ling Yi studied the Twin Fish Jade Pendant in his hotel room.

Ling Yi activated the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, entered its vast inheritance space, and cultivated the first level of the Perfect Dao Physique Method, transforming his body. After messaging Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi, he learned neither woman had heard from him overnight and had feared Lin Chen killed him.

• Ling Yi had the system activate the Twin Fish Jade Pendant, which fused into his palm and gave him memories explaining its use.
• Ling Yi entered the pendant’s space and discovered dense Spiritual Qi, spiritual liquid, and countless cultivation inheritances.
• Ling Yi obtained the Perfect Dao Physique Method and automatically cultivated it, reaching the first level, the Transcendent Physique.
• Ling Yi left the space, noticed messages from Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi, and sent them his location after they replied that they wanted to find him.
• Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi had searched Ling Yi’s hotel and feared Lin Chen had killed him when they could not find him.

Ling Yi learned that Thousand Mountains Company was preventing short-drama worlds from ascending and that he needed to win a female lead’s love or make the male lead turn dark to escape. Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi visited him at the hotel, where Liu Ruyan agreed to go home with him the next day, startling Xu Zhiyi.

• Ling Yi asked the system about world resets and learned that a successful ascension would turn the Virtual-Dimensional World into a True-Dimensional World, but Thousand Mountains Company would prevent it.
• The system told Ling Yi that he could escape by completing his mission or becoming the new male lead by winning a female lead’s love, and advised him to pursue both routes.
• The hotel called to announce that Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi had arrived, and Ling Yi invited them up and ordered breakfast.
• Ling Yi asked Liu Ruyan about her mother, and she said her mother was stable and recovering.
• Ling Yi promised to keep his word and asked Liu Ruyan to go home with him the next day; she agreed, leaving Xu Zhiyi shocked.

Ling Yi and Liu Ruyan reconciled as she confessed that she genuinely wanted to be his girlfriend, and they planned to visit his parents the next day. As Ling Yi went to answer the door, he sensed Lin Chen outside and learned that Lin Chen had turned dark, leaving Ling Yi facing a dangerous encounter that would not fulfill his mission if he died.

• Xu Zhiyi jumped in with a line from the script, prompting Ling Yi to suspect that she and the others might be awakened.
• Ling Yi admitted he had pursued Liu Ruyan partly because he wanted her, while Liu Ruyan explained that she had misunderstood him and now wanted a real relationship.
• Liu Ruyan revealed that she had discovered Ling Yi founded the 1029 Student Aid Fund, and the system suggested she might be semi-awakened.
• Xu Zhiyi told Ling Yi to take Liu Ruyan shopping for gifts before their visit to his parents the next day.
• When someone knocked, Ling Yi sensed Spiritual Power outside and identified the visitor as Lin Chen, whose power was becoming demonic; the system warned that Lin Chen killing Ling Yi would not complete the mission.

Ling Yi learned that he could only kill Lin Chen after Lin Chen turned dark, then easily defeated him when he attacked Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi. As Jiang Wan'er headed to the scene, Ling Yi considered asking the World Consciousness to make him the protagonist and learned that the system could use World Origin to take him home.

• The system told Ling Yi that Lin Chen could not be killed until he had turned dark and lost his Protagonist Aura, and offered to ask the World Consciousness to make Ling Yi the protagonist afterward.
• Lin Chen entered Ling Yi's room, threatened him for approaching Liu Ruyan and Xu Zhiyi, and attacked him.
• Ling Yi caught Lin Chen's punch and struck him hard enough to injure him and leave him unable to escape.
• Xu Zhiyi said she had contacted Jiang Wan'er, while Lin Chen warned that his master Su Qinghuan would avenge him if he died.
• Ling Yi learned that the fourth level of the Perfect Dao Physique Method could let him withstand a Nascent Soul Realm powerhouse, and discussed becoming the protagonist with the system.
• The system explained that it could absorb World Origin through Protagonist Aura and use it to return Ling Yi to his own world.

Jiang Wan'er, Qin Wanwan, Xu Zhiyi, and Liu Ruyan agreed to blame an awakener for their strange behavior as Ling Yi went to cultivate. After rapidly mastering the jade pendant’s inheritances and reaching the Mahayana Realm, Ling Yi learned Qin Wanwan and Liu Ruyan were shopping together and that Liu Ruyan had agreed to act as his shield.

• Jiang Wan'er, Qin Wanwan, and Xu Zhiyi agreed to tell Ling Yi that an awakener had warned them, while Liu Ruyan focused on meeting Ling Yi’s parents.
• Ling Yi went to a deserted mountain forest and cultivated, rapidly advancing through the Perfect Dao Physique layers and absorbing the Spirit Tempering Art, Sword Control Technique, and Divine Formation Technique.
• Ling Yi advanced through the cultivation realms to Mahayana, bypassing tribulation because no heavenly tribulation appeared in the jade pendant space.
• Ling Yi checked his messages, told his parents he would bring Liu Ruyan to the Liu Clan tomorrow, and told Qin Wanwan to wait for his call.
• Qin Wanwan called Ling Yi and said she wanted him to act as her boyfriend and shield at her birthday banquet; she revealed Liu Ruyan had agreed.
• Ling Yi learned Qin Wanwan and Liu Ruyan were shopping together, and Liu Ruyan told him she was his.

Ling Yi set out to claim the male lead’s second stroke of fortune by finding Jiang Ruyun, the underground queen who possessed the key to an ancient cultivator’s cave abode. He reached her apartment and unknowingly revealed her secret to Jiang Xianxian, who was startled just as the doorbell rang.

• Ling Yi called Uncle Shui for Jiang Ruyun’s location, and Uncle Shui warned him not to provoke the feared leader of the Azure Dragon Society.
• Ling Yi recalled how Jiang Ruyun had gained her cultivation inheritance after being trapped in a well that led to an ancient cultivator’s cave abode, where she found the jade disc that served as its key.
• Uncle Shui sent Ling Yi Jiang Ruyun’s address, and Ling Yi went to her apartment in Tianhong Residential Complex.
• Ling Yi’s voice appeared in Jiang Xianxian’s mind and revealed that her mother was the underground queen and that Jiang Xianxian secretly belonged to an Azure Dragon Society branch.
• Jiang Xianxian realized the voice had exposed her mother’s identity, wondered where it was coming from, and heard the doorbell ring.