[Lifespan Countdown: 3 Days]
[Key Plot Countdown: 2 Hours]
[Pregnancy Progress: 0% (Host, please find the Long Aotian protagonist as soon as possible to complete the mission and increase your remaining lifespan.)]
The night was deep, and the hazy rain blurred the moonlight.
Assistant Jin was methodically going over the arrangements for the rest of the evening with Yu Jingcheng.
Yu Jingcheng listened in silence, his gaze sweeping over the transparent panel suspended in midair. His brows drew together slightly.
Assistant Jin had astonishing powers of observation. She paused her report and asked, “President Yu?”
“Continue.” His voice was cold.
As he listened to the schedule, Yu Jingcheng reviewed the summaries of various projects. He called in several project managers and rearranged the overall coordination. By the time everything was finished, an hour had passed.
Beyond the enormous floor-to-ceiling windows, rain poured down in a boundless curtain.
Yu Jingcheng watched as the rain grew heavier and said, “Postpone my schedule for the next two days.”
“All right.” Assistant Jin was long accustomed to Yu Jingcheng’s swift and decisive manner, and immediately began making adjustments.
“Arrange for a few bodyguards to pick someone up.”
Assistant Jin acknowledged the order. Before she could ask for the time and location, she sensed a rare flicker of emotion from her usually unshakable superior.
The corner of Yu Jingcheng’s lips twitched, and his eyes turned icy. “Forget it. I’ll go myself.”
Assistant Jin was faintly startled. Who could possibly require President Yu to go and pick them up personally?
“An enemy.”
Only afterward did Assistant Jin realize that, in her astonishment, she had actually asked aloud.
…
Rain poured down in the darkness of night.
Deep within a narrow alley, Huo Yu sat slumped against the wall, dressed in a black suit, his face as pale as paper. He was being mercilessly drenched by the downpour, while the thick, pungent stench of blood filled the air.
His eyes were half-closed, and his consciousness was hazy.
At first glance, he appeared to have already passed out. Yet the moment he sensed someone approaching, he forced himself to open his eyes and remain alert.
Dull footsteps crossed the endless rain, falling in a steady rhythm.
A well-dressed man approached one step at a time beneath a black umbrella. His silver-white hair fluttered in the wind.
A glowing red cigarette ember rested between his fingers. His posture was languid, and the wisps of smoke curling around him accentuated his pale skin and delicate, light-colored features, lending him an eerie air—like some beast lying in wait within the darkness.
Huo Yu instinctively sensed danger. His hand tightened around a shard of porcelain beside him.
Yu Jingcheng stopped in front of Huo Yu and looked down into his eyes.
His gaze held indifference and contempt, as well as a deep, concentrated disgust.
“Huo Yu.”
“What a sorry state you’re in.”
Yu Jingcheng sounded as though he were merely making an observation, yet his voice carried a strange note of pleasure.
Huo Yu keenly sensed the hostility radiating from the man. The instant the other crouched down, Huo Yu struck without warning, thrusting the shard of porcelain toward Yu Jingcheng.
Huo Yu had lost all his memories upon waking. He could only stare blankly at his surroundings as the rain poured over him. This was the only person who had passed by, and he carried an aura of danger. The ruthlessness buried deep in Huo Yu’s bones made him choose, without hesitation, to eliminate the threat.
The merciless ferocity of the attack caused Yu Jingcheng’s eyes to flicker.
Huo Yu was fast, but Yu Jingcheng was faster.
The cigarette butt fell to the ground. Yu Jingcheng seized Huo Yu’s attacking hand and twisted it forcefully. Huo Yu winced in pain, and the shard slipped from his grasp into Yu Jingcheng’s hand.
Yu Jingcheng rotated the shard and swiped it toward Huo Yu’s throat. Huo Yu instantly recoiled, only to slam the back of his head against the hard wall.
With a heavy thud, the shard pressed coldly against his throat. Ignoring the sharp pain in his skull, Huo Yu evened out his breathing.
Using the shard to lift Huo Yu’s chin, Yu Jingcheng forced him to look up in a humiliating position.
Huo Yu winced as a bead of blood seeped from his chin.
Blood stained the corner of his eye, blurring his vision as he struggled to make out that excessively beautiful, almost pathologically handsome face.
He thought for a long time, but still could not remember where he had seen that face before. Frowning, he laboriously asked, “...Who... are you?”
Seeing Huo Yu in such a fragile state—as if anyone could destroy him or save him—Yu Jingcheng’s eyes darkened.
He really was a sorry sight.
So sorry that Yu Jingcheng found his mood inexplicably improving.
In the novel, Huo Yu had described him as the vicious, sinister White Ghost. If he did not act viciously at least once, wouldn’t that let the Long Aotian protagonist down after giving him such a high opinion?
Looking down at Huo Yu, he said, “You don’t remember me?”
“Huo Yu.”
“Weren’t you the one who messaged me and asked me to come?”
Huo Yu narrowed his long, narrow eyes, openly suspicious as he stared at Yu Jingcheng.
Faced with Huo Yu’s distrust, Yu Jingcheng remained expressionless. He increased the pressure in his hand, successfully watching Huo Yu wince in pain while having no choice but to look up at him.
“Speak,” Yu Jingcheng said in a low voice.
Huo Yu remained silent, suppressing his harsh breathing.
The excessive silence of his archenemy, who looked like a dead dog, bored Yu Jingcheng. He slowly pushed the shard deeper, ignoring the warning light that suddenly flashed red on the system.
Fine currents of electricity surged through his entire body. Amid the system’s piercing alarm, Huo Yu—who had appeared to be completely under Yu Jingcheng’s control—suddenly erupted into action.
Ignoring the shard slicing into his palm, he abruptly knocked Yu Jingcheng to the ground. The umbrella fell aside, splashing water everywhere, and the bloodstained shard came to rest against Yu Jingcheng’s throat.
A grim smile appeared on Huo Yu’s face.
“Now we can have a proper conversation. Who are you, and what are you here for?”
Blood dripped down, striking Yu Jingcheng’s neck. He blinked lightly, the corner of his lips curling upward. There was no fear on his face—only restrained excitement.
“Doesn’t it hurt?” he murmured. “Or do you enjoy pain?”
Huo Yu applied more pressure with the shard. “Answer my question.”
Rainwater blurred Yu Jingcheng’s vision. He blinked, revealing a pair of eerie, blood-red eyes, and replied in a languid tone, “I’m your creditor. I came to collect your debt, naturally.”
“Tell me the truth!”
Certainty filled Huo Yu’s face, as though he had already seen through Yu Jingcheng’s lie.
But Yu Jingcheng was telling the truth. The two of them were bound by a blood debt.
Yu Jingcheng placed a hand over Huo Yu’s, sensing the other man’s barely perceptible tremor. “I’m impressed by your intelligence,” he said. “But sometimes, the truth belongs to whoever holds the power.”
One by one, black-clad figures emerged from the darkness. More than ten bodyguards watched Huo Yu with predatory eyes.
Huo Yu’s attention was drawn away.
Yu Jingcheng drove his knee into Huo Yu’s abdomen. As Huo Yu grunted, Yu Jingcheng abruptly flipped him over and reclaimed the upper hand.
He planted one foot on Huo Yu’s chest and bent halfway down, bringing his face close. His fingertips stroked the wound at Huo Yu’s temple with something resembling tenderness, inflicting further pain without seeming to realize it. He only wanted to wipe away the smear of blood.
“You really did lose your memory?”
Huo Yu had suffered a head injury and lost a great deal of blood. His body was also inexplicably feverish and unbearably restless. His earlier struggle had already consumed most of his strength, leaving him powerless to resist.
Reason and desire tangled together. Huo Yu bit through the flesh inside his mouth and asked, “Are you... going to kill me?”
His fingertip moved maliciously over the wound as he savored the sight before him. At last, Yu Jingcheng gave him an answer.
“No. How could I kill you?”
“Come with me, or die here?”
Yu Jingcheng asked it gently.
Huo Yu said nothing.
“You don’t need to be so wary of me. Let’s get reacquainted. I’m Yu Jingcheng, your patron. If you hadn’t suddenly attacked me, I wouldn’t have treated you like this.”
Yu Jingcheng removed his foot from Huo Yu’s chest and extended a hand, the gesture symbolizing friendship.
The act of giving someone a slap and then offering them a sweet date was a game Yu Jingcheng, a businessman, had long since mastered.
"What... drug did I take?" The hoarse voice carried suppressed gasps. Huo Yu tightened his grip, using the sharp pain to cling to his fading consciousness.
Even stray cats and dogs retain their wild instincts and never trust humans easily, let alone someone like Huo Yu, who once had every detail of situations under his control. He did not trust Yu Jingcheng, yet he subconsciously wanted to pry more information out of him — the only person who had passed through this alley.
Yu Jingcheng said, "No idea. You don't like beating around the bush, and neither do I. I'll ask one more time. Come with me, or stay here?"
"...I'll go!"
Huo Yu knew full well that staying here would lead to certain death. Even if this lifeline being extended to him was laced with thorns, he had no choice but to grab hold of it.
Yu Jingcheng let out a soft chuckle, picking up the black umbrella from the ground. The wide canopy tilted in Huo Yu's direction as if in a show of misplaced pity, and the silver strands of his hair caught the rain, droplets trickling down his ends. For the first time, Huo Yu caught something other than the usual impassiveness in those eyes — a complex, peculiar focused glint.
"A very wise choice." Yu Jingcheng held out his free hand, extending the invitation once more.
The man looked dignified and elegant, and even the hand he stretched out toward Huo Yu seemed like some kind of condescending charity.
Huo Yu squinted at the sight, then this time he grabbed Yu Jingcheng's hand, holding on tight as if he himself was the one calling the shots.
The faint pain from his palm made Yu Jingcheng feel a little intruded upon, but Huo Yu's disheveled, desperate look, like a drowning man clinging to a lifeline, was strangely captivating.
He brushed off the slight discomfort, led Huo Yu into the clean, spacious backseat that was warm and cozy, then pulled out a first-aid kit and gestured for the other man to tend to his own wounds.
Yu Jingcheng could very well have brought a personal doctor along on his way here, but he chose not to. Blocking the female lead from rescuing the Long Aotian male lead and successfully intercepting him counts as altering the plot, but wanting to see Huo Yu suffer a little was just his own mean streak at work.
The moment he had just driven off with Huo Yu, the system's notification pinged.
[Key Plot Node: Interfered with the male and female leads' first meeting. Reward: 2 extra days of lifespan. Current remaining lifespan: 4 days, 21 hours, 38 minutes]
[Pregnancy Progress: 0% (No progress made at all)]
[Please complete the pregnancy mission as soon as possible, Host.]
Yu Jingcheng listened to the announcement with cold indifference. He was someone who had already died once, only to be pulled back three years in time by a self-proclaimed Pregnancy System, right at the plot point where Huo Yu got into a car accident, was hunted down, and lost his memory — the very opening scene of the original novel.
The world Yu Jingcheng found himself in was set in a urban tycoon story where the overpowered male lead crushed all his opponents. The all-powerful head of a financial conglomerate lost his memory after a car crash, and was picked up by a sweet, adorable female lead on a rainy night, kicking off a several-million-word underdog-crushing power fantasy. And Yu Jingcheng himself was nothing more than a vicious side character written by the author to highlight the male lead's genius in business, a mere tool meant to push the male and female leads' romantic relationship forward.
So in his past life, no matter how hard he fought against Huo Yu, he could only end up looking like a clown. Even his most foolproof plans ended up benefiting someone else, and he was always one step behind Huo Yu, until he was eventually killed by the man.
Yu Jingcheng came to this timeline to take Huo Yu's life, but when he caught sight of the hidden, confused, insecure glint in Huo Yu's eyes, a far more brilliant idea popped into his head than simply killing him — getting him pregnant.
To see a man like Huo Yu fall for his arch-nemesis while he was amnesiac, and even bear his child? The look on his face when his memories returned, his entire world crumbling apart as he realized he had been hopelessly in love with his worst enemy, to watch the man who had always stood above him fall from his pedestal, filled with hatred yet unable to tear himself away from Yu Jingcheng — that was far more thrilling to him than just killing Huo Yu.
After getting in the car and receiving the first-aid kit from Yu Jingcheng, Huo Yu instinctively popped two anti-inflammatory pills, disinfected his wounds, and wrapped them in bandages all by himself.
As time passed, the dizziness caused by excessive blood loss faded, but a wave of searing heat rising from his lower belly grew more and more intense. The rationality he had been forcing himself to hold onto was teetering on the edge of collapse, and even his breaths came out hot and ragged.
A flush crept over Huo Yu's face, and he bit down hard on his lips to fight the sensation. The damp, sticky, burning heat all blended together, nearly driving him insane.
Huo Yu's breathing was so heavy that Yu Jingcheng lowered his eyes, watching him with undisguised amusement.
This scene existed in the original novel too. Huo Yu's car crash at the very start was caused by drugging, and the person who slipped him that drug was none other than Yu Jingcheng's cousin, Yu Miaoxin.
Yu Jingcheng had no shortage of siblings and cousins, most of whom he had sent abroad after he took power. Yu Miaoxin was one of the rare exceptions. Back before Yu Jingcheng climbed to his current position, Yu Miaoxin was the real young miss of the Yu family, and she and Huo Yu could even be considered childhood sweethearts.
Unfortunately, Huo Yu never had the slightest romantic feelings for his childhood friend, only ever seeing her as a little sister. Later, Yu Miaoxin resorted to drugging him, but the effects of the drug kicked in later than expected, causing Huo Yu to get into the car crash. All her painstaking efforts ended up benefiting the female lead instead.
After that night Huo Yu spent with the female lead, even with his amnesia he doted on her carefully, and by the time Huo Yu reappeared in front of the public, the female lead was already his fiancee. Yu Miaoxin flew into a rage and targeted the female lead again and again, but all she ever managed to do was make the two fall even deeper in love.
Yu Jingcheng found it rather amusing. Among the younger generation of the Yu family, only he and Yu Miaoxin remained in the country, and the two of them were nothing more than side characters meant to push the male and female leads' relationship forward.
When a hand that was far hotter than normal landed on his thigh, Yu Jingcheng's eyebrows lifted, a flicker of surprise crossing his face.
Huo Yu was holding onto Yu Jingcheng's knee to steady himself, and with a burst of unknown strength, he suddenly tugged at Yu Jingcheng's tie and leaned in to kiss him.
Everything happened so fast. Yu Jingcheng instinctively dodged to the side, but his cheek still took the impact.
He, the one who had planned to force Huo Yu into submission, had just been stolen a kiss by the other man first.
Scorched, ragged breaths fanned across his face. Huo Yu was like a man dying of thirst who had finally found water, kissing him messily and clumsily, trying desperately to ease the overwhelming fire burning through his veins.
Yu Jingcheng had never been this intimate with anyone before. The hot, heavy breaths made his own breathing stutter for a split second. He pressed his hand down on Huo Yu's, frowning as he looked at the other man.
Right before his fingers could wrap around Huo Yu's wrist, Huo Yu seemed to sense the resistance from his "prey". He forced Yu Jingcheng's hands down, and pushed him roughly back onto the seat, pinning him beneath his body.
The man on top of him was breathing scorchingly hot, and a certain part of him, impossible to hide, was pressed right up against Yu Jingcheng's thigh.
Yu Jingcheng's silver hair was slightly tousled, and he let out a soft, mocking huff.
Their eyes met, and Yu Jingcheng could see thick, unbridled lust — and a hint of possessive conquest — in Huo Yu's gaze.
Huo Yu wanted to sleep with him.
From the faint traces of remaining rationality in his eyes, Yu Jingcheng could tell that the man wasn't just using him to ride out the drug's effects. He was also testing him, using his most primal reaction to verify whether what Yu Jingcheng had said earlier was a lie.
Yu Jingcheng, who had always been so indifferent that even his smiles never reached his eyes, burst out laughing — the kind of restrained, sharp laughter that came from being so infuriated he could no longer hold it back.
He wrenched free of Huo Yu's hold in one swift move, flipped the man over onto the seat, curled his fingers around Huo Yu's throat, and looked down at him from above. "Maybe you want to do it right here in the car."
The story has officially started [good luck lotus emoji]
This is a tale about a villain and the Long Aotian protagonist, more or less following the vibe described in the synopsis [confetti emoji][confetti emoji][confetti emoji]
