His Request

Standing at the entrance, Cen Xia looked up at the sign under the dim lights and turned to Lu Mian. "Your sister performs here?"

Lu Mian glanced down at the navigation app, then switched out of it and carefully checked the address Lu Xiao had sent. He nodded. "This is the place."

The two went in together.

People came and went in the bar, dressed in all sorts of outfits. Cen Xia even saw someone with horns on his head walk past.

"Is today's theme cosplay?"

Both of them were dressed normally, but they didn't look out of place in the bar, because some people were cosplaying as corporate drones.

The music in the bar was too loud. Cen Xia shouted in Lu Mian's ear, "Where's your sister?"

Lu Mian didn't hear him and leaned his ear closer to Cen Xia's mouth. "What did you say?"

"Where's your sister?"

"Backstage."

"Where's backstage?"

Lu Mian fell silent.

The two wandered through the crowd like headless flies, searching for ages without finding the right place. When they asked the staff, the staff took them for obsessive fans and wouldn't give them the time of day.

Out of ideas, Cen Xia booked a booth in a fit of frustration.

"Message your sister. Tell her we'll wait here for her to go onstage."

"I did. She hasn't replied."

They had barely been seated for five minutes when Cen Xia saw what it meant to attract bees and butterflies, and what it meant for people to flock over like ducks.

People came over one after another with drinks in hand, some hinting around and others asking outright to get to know Lu Mian. Some even put the booth's tab on their own bill.

The people who came were men and women, tops and bottoms.

Don't ask how Cen Xia knew. He'd done his homework after transmigrating.

But he had to admit that Lu Mian really did have what it took to attract people.

He sat there loosely with his eyes half lowered, his whole bearing languid and listless, a stark contrast to the fervor and intoxication around him.

His face had smooth contours, and his lips were thin and pale. Only when he raised his eyes to look at someone did their beauty begin to show. Cen Xia had never seen anyone with eyes more beautifully shaped.

They were like a colorful phoenix with its tail feathers drawn in, or the delicate outlines on a meticulous painting of a court lady.

But there was a flaw in that beauty: Lu Mian's eyes had form but no spirit. He gave everyone the same dead look, seeing no one as worth his notice-literally no one in his eyes.

So many people came that even the word "scram" couldn't keep the wild bees and wanton butterflies from throwing themselves at him. In the end, he leaned listlessly against Cen Xia-

"I have a boyfriend."

Only then did that stop the people around them who were itching to approach.

But there was still someone who couldn't take a hint.

"He's not good enough for you. Come with me."

Lu Mian lifted an eyebrow, not even getting a clear look at the person's face. He reached out and put an arm around the waist of the person beside him, pulling lightly, and that person fell into his embrace.

His tone was indifferent. "I only like him."

The person left, having made a fool of himself.

Cen Xia was stunned to find himself in Lu Mian's arms. From his angle, all he could see was Lu Mian's fair chin.

Lu Mian lowered his head and met his gaze, earning himself a slap on the chin from Cen Xia.

The slap was neither too hard nor too light, but it fully conveyed Cen Xia's displeasure.

He climbed out of Lu Mian's arms.

"When you use me as a shield, could you at least tell me first? Even a look would do."

That sudden move had nearly made his heart stop.

Lu Mian lowered his eyes in silence. Cen Xia thought his slap had knocked the kid into shutting himself off and was debating whether to comfort him when Lu Mian spoke.

"Your waist is really slender."

"..." Cen Xia was speechless. "Your big bro here has a wasp waist and an ape's back. If you're jealous, just say so."

Hearing that, Lu Mian turned his gaze to his back. After carefully tracing its shape in his mind through his clothes, he didn't quite agree with the description.

But he didn't say so, afraid Cen Xia would slap him again.

The band onstage was still singing a love song at the top of their lungs when Lu Xiao, who hadn't replied to their messages, finally responded.

Ding-dong, ding-dong. Messages kept popping up.

"What's wrong?"

Lu Mian simply handed him the phone.

Lu Xiao: Holy shit, someone committed a crime and got taken away! I was just helping them with the investigation. It was so exciting!

Lu Xiao: It was in a private room on the second floor. I saw it with my own eyes! They found quite a lot of stuff! They've got some nerve, selling that stuff in the capital!

Lu Xiao: You're here? Wait for me a bit. We should be on in half an hour.

Lu Xiao: Whatever you do, don't go to the second floor. They haven't left yet.

Cen Xia read the messages three times. The more he read, the more familiar they seemed.

This plot...

Wasn't this Lu Mian and Wen Xingzhou's first meeting in the original novel?!

He closed his eyes, trying his best to ignore the sounds around him as he thought back carefully.

He knew something was wrong. Lu Xiao's characterization was off!

According to the original plot, Lu Mian had indeed come to this bar today, but not to see Lu Xiao perform. Rather-

He frantically searched his memory.

Lu Xiao, who had appeared in only two chapters of the original novel, was rebellious, stupid, and brazen. Today, she had been tricked into coming to the bar, forced to drink, and drugged. In her last lucid moment, she had called Lu Mian...

Wen Xingzhou had followed a covert lead to this bar as well. There, he had run into Lu Mian, who was trying to leave with Lu Xiao but was being stopped...

At that point in his recollection, he opened his eyes, his emotions hard to name.

The sounds around him faded at high speed, as though someone had pressed fast-forward. The heartbeat in his chest was deafening.

The plot had fallen apart on its own, without any external cause.

Shi Su could still be explained away as the butterfly effect. Although Lin Jiandu's characterization differed from the original, the plot hadn't changed much.

But this book had collapsed from within, without any outside interference.

Lu Xiao's characterization had changed, and this part of the plot had changed with it.

This wasn't a butterfly flapping its wings, but a hypothesis that had been invalid from the start.

The air rippled, and everything before his eyes broke apart and scattered like snowflakes.

Cen Xia was pulled into a vast expanse of white.

He stood at its center.

As if sensing something, Cen Xia raised his head and met the gaze of his nonexistent form.

He said nothing, so Cen Xia spoke for him. "You're asking for my help."

It wasn't a question, but a statement.

He was silent for a moment, then said, "Yes."

Cen Xia smiled. "Can't you fix it yourself?"

He said, "This world has come alive. If I intervene rashly, it will cause a disaster."

Come alive, Cen Xia repeated silently. Once paper characters had thoughts of their own, didn't that mean they'd come alive?

"What do you want me to do?"

"Put the plot back on track."

Cen Xia shook his head. "I can't."

"There's no way I can force... anyone who already has thoughts of their own to take a path they don't like."

He threatened, "If you don't do this, the world will collapse completely, and you'll perish along with it."

Cen Xia shrugged indifferently. "Then let it collapse."

"..."

He took a step back. "I don't need you to follow the plot exactly. Just make sure they appear where they're supposed to at the key moments."

"And then?"

"The plot will change according to what the protagonists do."

"Didn't you say you couldn't change the plot at will?"

"...As long as the key turning points don't disappear, my energy can sustain the whole world."

It didn't sound bad. Cen Xia nodded. "All right."

Cen Xia seemed to hear him breathe a sigh of relief, but before he could make sure, he was sent back.

Time, which had stopped in reality, began moving again.

Lu Mian was still sitting on the booth's leather sofa, while Cen Xia still held Lu Mian's phone. "What are you spacing out for?"

Cen Xia handed the phone back and curved his lips, his voice enticing. "Want to see some excitement?"

Suspicion appeared in Lu Mian's eyes. "What excitement?"

"The excitement on the second floor."