After hanging up the call, Wang Jian sent a message to another number, making sure the content he had just contacted no one could ever trace it.
On the other end, the person going by the name King of Spades was a little annoyed as she reassured him once again. If it wasn't for the fact that Wang Jian had done her a favor, she would never have helped him with such a trivial, unchallenging errand.
Wang Jian picked up on Spade's mood, so he played up a pitiful act. Spade didn't reply for a long while. Only after several minutes did a short text pop up on his screen. Wang Jian curled his lips into a smile after reading it, and finally sent a line: "I'll bring you a strawberry cake later."
This time Spade replied instantly, full of huffiness.
[Who eats that kiddie stuff!]
The corner of Wang Jian's mouth tugged even wider. Even though he was all alone in his room, he mumbled to himself "So cute" out loud, as if he was putting on a show for someone.
And there really was someone watching his little performance.
That rebellious, genius "girl" nicknamed Spade—every electronic device in his room could act as "her" eyes, and Wang Jian knew that perfectly well.
What Wang Jian did not know, however, was that he had more than one audience.
If this was any other time, Mu Yue would have found the male lead's greasy face disgusting even to glance at for a second. But this time, she watched the entire scene, purely for the sake of enjoying the drama.
That "little loli" was no real little girl, after all—he was a total pervert who loved cross-dressing. Mu Yue didn't hold any prejudice against guys who liked wearing women's clothes, nor did she think all cross-dressers were perverts, but this one was genuinely, certifiably warped.
Tsk tsk, could it be that the three-person show on the cruise ship unlocked some hidden attribute in the male lead? Now he's even hitting on a cross-dressing guy? That doesn't make sense. A playboy protagonist shouldn't be chasing guys, that's totally not what the audience signed up for.
Looks like this male lead is really getting desperate.
No wonder this guy was bold enough to meddle in the Tang family's business deal—it turns out he's recruited one of the core members of his team.
As the male lead, he was bound to have underlings. Fatty Shi Le, whose plans Mu Yue had messed up earlier, was the number one and the most important one, representing financial backing, and also the male lead's brother-in-law. The rest of the team members mostly took care of the shady, under-the-table work for him.
There was the thief with god-tier lockpicking skills that Mu Yue had dealt with before, the smooth-talking playboy with no known real name who was a pro at scamming rich women, this Spade, and the mercenary he'd picked up abroad. Lockpicking, con artistry, hacking, muscle—each one was an indispensable classic utility character for the protagonist.
And in a setup like this, there was always bound to be a good-looking, contrastingly charming woman who had a crush on the male lead, either secretly or openly. But that wasn't Spade—that character was the yet-to-appear mercenary. The male lead already had no shortage of women around him—rich young ladies, gentle ones, feisty ones, he had them all. What he was missing was a woman who knew martial arts, could stay by his side to protect him at all times, could fight, could be intimate with him, was loyal, and wouldn't stir up drama or jealousy with the other women—exactly a utility character like Shuang'er from The Deer and the Cauldron.
When it came to cyber tech, of course Mu Yue's four systems were far more professional. So Spade's full profile popped up in front of Mu Yue in no time.
Eighteen years old, a cynical edgy teen. A genuine genius, but a genuine pervert too. His original family life was a total mess, which left major flaws in his personality. The male lead didn't meet him online, they met in real life. In the original novel, the male lead helped him retrieve a runaway dog, and that was how he owed Wang Jian a favor.
Mu Yue flipped through their earliest chat records and found the plot was mostly the same—this time around, the male lead had helped him get back a runaway cat.
Spade seemed really fond of small animals, and his facial features were rather innocent and harmless-looking, very deceptive. But in reality, he was no animal lover at all. Every single cat or dog that ran away, that the male lead found and brought back to him, ended up tortured to death.
Those innocent cats and dogs were nothing but his punching bags to vent on when he was in a bad mood. Humans were his real toys. His teachers, his classmates, anyone he took a disliking to—once he set his sights on them, the victims would end up maimed at the least, and their families destroyed at the worst.
The original novel never spelled this out clearly on the surface. It only mentioned that he had gender dysphoria, loved wearing women's clothes, and looked just like a porcelain doll. But there was a passing mention of one small incident: a teacher who had a happy family and smiled too brightly was exposed with nude photos and an explicit video the very next day, and jumped off a building to commit suicide a week later.
The original plot framed it as him exposing that teacher's immoral behavior, as if he was standing on a moral high ground passing judgment. But what Mu Yue was seeing of Spade's handiwork now, after her systems ran a full check, showed that the photos were secretly taken, the videos were fabricated, and only the death was real.
Every single member of the male lead's team, except for the Little Fatty who was kept in check by his older sister, was a total outlaw. If they were all arrested, they'd either get the death penalty or spend the rest of their lives behind bars.
The male lead had x-ray vision, and he had met Spade in person. Mu Yue didn't buy for a second that Wang Jian didn't know Spade's real gender. What surprised her, though, was that even the original novel never mentioned Spade's sexual orientation, but the male lead had somehow picked up on it.
A sudden whimsy struck Mu Yue. What if she showed Spade the video of the male lead's three-person show from before? It might not have any negative backlash on her, but… could this Wang Jian end up being the very first playboy protagonist in his genre to get railed?
The thought immediately made her think of Shi Yu. She already had a plan to let the original novel's designated main wife stumble across the male lead's dark past all by "accident".
Now that Spade had showed up ahead of schedule, she could send that video to Shi Yu under Spade's name.
Spade was a pervert through and through. Sending that kind of explicit video to some random person out of the blue totally fit his character. What's more, he was a hacking pro, so it would be easy to hijack Shi Yu's electronic devices to make sure she got a clear full view of the male lead's face.
Once the idea fully formed in her head, Mu Yue couldn't help but cheer for herself. Perfect, perfect, perfect. That's exactly what she was going to do.
There! This was sent to you by that pervert, okay, it has nothing to do with me!
No matter what silly little infatuation Shi Yu might have had for Wang Jian, it would all be completely cleared away after this.
Mu Yue was cackling with joy, and the two bear paws of the Villain System were flying across the interface, executing Mu Yue's order the very second it was given.
Spade, huh? Genius hacker, huh? One of the male lead's core team members, huh? Hehehe! None of them can escape the schemes of their host, this villain!
Mu Yue ignored the Villain System's overexcited bear face and switched back to the surveillance feed on the male lead. She had to admit, Wang Jian did have a few useful skills. Look at him—he was about to reap huge benefits with the bare minimum cost again.
The plot point where the male lead met Spade had happened much earlier than in the original story. The two had met very few times and barely kept in touch, which was why Mu Yue hadn't noticed it right away.
Spade, just like that playboy, never had his real name mentioned in the original novel. With such a huge population in the country, and so many similar scattered cases, it wasn't exactly easy to track him down in advance.
But right now...
"Just turned eighteen," Mu Yue said with a smile that held no warmth, "An adult at last. How nice."
Wang Jian walked out of the hotel, got into a taxi, and headed straight for the Jade Market. He casually picked up a magazine in the car to pretend to flip through it as a cover, and the moment he was hidden from view, his face twisted into a grimace. It was so disgusting — the mere thought that that Spade was a man made him want to throw up.
But there was nothing he could do. He had been pulled out of an underground casino by the Tang family, and was tied down by their restrictions at every turn. On top of that, while the Tang family's youngest granddaughter was fond of him, the rest of the Tangs all viewed him with hostility, making it nearly impossible for him to cultivate any useful allies.
This Spade was extremely useful to him right now. He would hold back this current humiliation, and pay every last bit of it back sooner or later!
A cold glint flashed in Wang Jian's eyes. He tamped down all his emotions, put the magazine away, and closed his eyes to rest. No sooner had he arrived at the market than he received another message from Tang Miaoxin, asking where he was, when he had left the hotel, and why he hadn't said a word to her.
Wang Jian cursed under his breath in irritation. Even though he thought this little girl was quite pretty, her spoiled rich girl temper was truly unbearable sometimes. She was clearly coddled far too much, and he would have to teach her a proper lesson later. He had never liked overly strong women, and as for the Tang family — did they really think he was too stupid to see that they were just trying to use him too? If it came down to it...
As these thoughts raced through his mind, Wang Jian kept typing his reply, the tone in the text still gentle and indulgent as ever.
Mu Yue had watched the whole little scene play out, and shook her head with a sigh. The male lead's acting had improved a little, but he really was far more twisted on the inside.
She stretched, and got ready to head out too.
She was going to the Jade Market as well. Today was the perfect chance to apply a debuff to the male lead, so that she wouldn't have to be anywhere near his group during the transaction three days from now.
And on top of that, she wanted to see for herself just how much power the male lead's protagonist's halo still held, and whether his cheat ability of x-ray vision would be affected too.
For this trip, she brought along not just her two bodyguards, but also Carter the butler. The hotel was a fair distance from the Jade Market, and it took Mu Yue roughly forty minutes to get there.
As soon as she stepped out of the car after it was parked, she drew the eyes of many people nearby. Most of them were tourists visiting the market, with a small portion being locals and shop owners. The shop owners in particular stared at Mu Yue, who was flanked by her protectors, their eyes practically glowing.
They all moved in unison. The moment they saw Mu Yue walk into the first shop, the staff who were out front drumming up customers immediately turned and hurried back to their own stores, urging their bosses to put their best goods on display right away.
Mu Yue noticed that, but it was none of her concern. That was for the shop owners to worry about. All she had to do was wait for them to bring their finest treasures out to her, so she could pick whatever she liked.
Among the items she had obtained from check-in rewards was a luck boost, and she activated one that would last three hours. In the very first shop, she bought a string of white ice-type glass jadeite beads. The beads were sparkling and translucent, truly stunningly beautiful, and the necklace had a well-thought-out design that did not look old-fashioned at all — it only exuded luxury and elegance.
It was priced at around five million. To judge whether the price was inflated or not, she had Carter and her Divine Rich Cat with her. Neither of them made a peep of protest, so Mu Yue went ahead and bought it right away.
The whole transaction took barely ten minutes, and when she walked out of the shop, there was a new jadeite bead necklace around her neck. The owners of the several adjacent shops lit up at the sight — that was a huge business! As fellow merchants, they knew exactly what kind of stock each other had. That bead string wasn't quite the absolute treasure of the shop, but it was close, and that single order was enough to cover three years of earnings.
So Mu Yue happily embarked on a new round of shopping sprees. Every shop she walked into treated her with the most enthusiastic and thoughtful service. There was almost no short-sighted fool who would try to rip her off just because she looked like a walking money bag — that kind of person could never survive running a business in this market.
Shrewd merchants all had sharp eyes for spotting valuable customers, and mouths that knew better than to ever offend a patron.
Mu Yue enjoyed being treated like royalty for a good while, and came away with a whole collection of beautiful jadeite pieces of all different sizes and colors. It was her first time visiting a jadeite market, and this was where she got to see the widest variety of jadeite shades all in one place.
Before long, Mu Yue wandered over to the largest raw stone area in the very center of the market.
Wherever the male lead showed up, there was usually a big scene to go with it, and today was no exception. Normally this area was just lined with stalls, but today a major store was taking the lead to host an open-air auction.
Right then, the male lead and the Tang family's youngest granddaughter were right there in the middle of the crowd, picking through the raw stones.
Mu Yue's eyesight was excellent now, and from far away she caught sight of the male lead frowning as he studied the raw stones.
It was obvious Wang Jian was looking very carefully, seeming unable to make up his mind for a moment.
Was this just the male lead putting on a performance? In the original story, the male lead's x-ray vision had helped him judge the value of the raw stones effortlessly.
That seemed to be exactly what the Tang family's granddaughter was wondering too. She was getting bored from wandering around, and urged Wang Jian to hurry up, only for Wang Jian to shake her hand off with a hint of irritation.
Mu Yue raised her eyebrows in surprise. Oh?
