Cheng Mingjiao didn’t react for a long time.
After a while, he hesitantly asked, “What do you mean… ‘go back to the real world’?”
Zhang Xiyue had already sorted out her thoughts and had been waiting for him to ask. “I know this sounds completely unbelievable to you, but your world is just a novel to me. Half a year ago, on my way to work, I suddenly appeared inside this novel. The only way I can take the hundred-million-yuan reward and go home is by getting the male supporting character in the novel to let go of his obsession with the female lead and become a positive, ambitious person.”
“You were wondering why I treated Chen Mingjiao so well, right? That’s because he’s the male supporting character—the target of my mission. I’ve been helping him all this time, and the progress bar is already more than halfway full. Once it reaches one hundred percent, I’ll be able to go home.”
“I’m someone who could leave at any time. It might be today, or it might be tomorrow, but I definitely won’t be staying here forever. So I can’t give you what you want. Do you understand?”
She said a great deal in one breath, while Cheng Mingjiao simply stared at her in a daze, as if he couldn’t digest any of it.
When she finished, Zhang Xiyue fell silent, giving him plenty of time to process everything.
It was probably noon. Bright sunlight streamed through the gap in the curtains. Even though there was only a single beam of it, it was enough to clearly illuminate the expressions on both their faces.
Suddenly, Cheng Mingjiao drew in a deep breath, as if a statue that had slept for years had finally come to life.
His eyes instantly reddened. Trembling, he reached out and touched her face. “Was… was I too harsh? Did I lock you up until you became mentally ill?”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
“I—I’ll call a psychologist right now. Zhang Xiyue, don’t be afraid. I’ll take you to see a doctor. We—”
Zhang Xiyue sighed and interrupted him. “Zhuangzhuang.”
Cheng Mingjiao immediately shut his mouth. Like a puppy that had done something wrong, he looked at her with both fear and misery.
Zhang Xiyue soothingly squeezed his shoulder. There were still teeth marks on it from where she had bitten him the night before.
The stinging pain helped Cheng Mingjiao calm down a little.
“I’m telling you the truth,” she said, each word deliberate.
Cheng Mingjiao: “…”
“You’ve been searching for me for the past two months. If I’m not mistaken, you found all kinds of records proving that I exist, but you couldn’t find a single person connected to me. Isn’t that right?”
His lips moved slightly.
“That’s because I transmigrated into this world in my physical body. I, as a person, entered this world, but originally, I didn’t exist here. In order to make my presence seem logical, the world automatically created a history for me and put it into all those records.”
“You mean…” Cheng Mingjiao couldn’t help interrupting, “the records proving your existence were forged by this world?”
After saying it, even he thought it sounded absurd. “How could that be possible…?”
Zhang Xiyue looked at him calmly. “You visited my neighbors, didn’t you? You asked my former teachers and classmates about me. You investigated my other social connections too. Aside from Zhou Ce and the others, and the people I met after arriving here on May sixth, does anyone else remember Zhang Xiyue?”
This world might be able to alter certain things, but it definitely couldn’t alter people’s memories. That was why she was certain Cheng Mingjiao hadn’t found anything.
Sure enough, Cheng Mingjiao seemed to recall something, and his expression shifted.
Zhang Xiyue rubbed her temples. “I know this is difficult for you to accept, but this is—”
Before she could finish, a certain naked person suddenly threw his arms around her and pressed his hot body against hers.
“Zhang Xiyue, were you always someone people barely noticed?” His voice was thick with emotion. “You’re obviously such a wonderful person, yet those people didn’t care about you at all. They ignored you and neglected you. That’s so pitiful.”
Zhang Xiyue: “?”
“I was too careless. I searched for so long, but I never thought about why none of those people remembered you. I’m sorry… I’ll treat you well from now on—ten thousand times better than I do now. You’ll be the most important person to me. I absolutely won’t—”
“Wait a second.” Zhang Xiyue pushed him away, cutting off his emotional speech in the process.
Cheng Mingjiao hurriedly wiped the corner of his eye, pretending he hadn’t been crying.
Zhang Xiyue stared at him speechlessly for a long while before saying, “I’m not someone people failed to notice… No, even if I had no presence at all, it would be impossible for every single person to ignore me! Cheng Mingjiao, stop deceiving yourself.”
Cheng Mingjiao said nothing. He simply kept looking at her with an expression that said, My Zhang Xiyue is so pitiful.
Zhang Xiyue felt as if she were about to develop tumors from frustration.
After taking a long time to calm down, she began again. “Let’s go over this from the beginning. First of all…”
“No need for ‘first of all.’” Cheng Mingjiao hugged her again and went right back to sucking on her like a mango pit.
“We’re going to see a doctor. As long as you cooperate with the treatment, you’ll get better eventually.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
Cheng Mingjiao continued soothing her with little kisses, trying to calm her down that way.
The more he kissed her, the angrier Zhang Xiyue became. Even more infuriating was the fact that his kisses were arousing her.
If this continued, they would end up having another pointless conversation. In her haste, she dodged his lips. “What’s today’s date?”
“November twenty-fourth.” Cheng Mingjiao hummed softly and kissed her again.
The moment Zhang Xiyue heard the date, her heart stirred. She suddenly felt as if even heaven wanted her to confess the truth today.
She had read the novel ten years ago, and she no longer remembered much of the plot. But she remembered this date clearly.
Because it was the day the female lead proposed.
According to the story, the male and female leads had a disagreement that morning. When they left together, neither of them said a word. Then, halfway through the drive, a small collapse suddenly occurred ahead of them, and they nearly ended up buried beneath it.
The shock made the female lead realize how fleeting life was, and she immediately took the initiative to propose to the male lead.
If Zhang Xiyue told Cheng Mingjiao about the proposal, he would definitely suspect that she had known about it in advance. So she could only…
“According to the plot, there should be a small collapse on Nanwan Road today. It ought to be reported in the news. You can search for it if you don’t believe me.”
Cheng Mingjiao was still kissing her. “Search for what? I’m not searching—”
“Cheng Mingjiao!” Zhang Xiyue grew anxious.
Her shout made Cheng Mingjiao pause, and he reluctantly released his mango pit.
They lay there for a while. Then Cheng Mingjiao pulled out his phone. After glancing at her a few times, he cautiously entered the password.
Zhang Xiyue, who was actually trying to peek at it: “…”
Only a few dozen seconds passed between entering the password and typing in the search terms, but to Zhang Xiyue, it felt like an extremely long time.
She stared fixedly at Cheng Mingjiao, trying to determine from his expression how far he had gotten in his search.
But Cheng Mingjiao’s face remained calm. There was no way to tell what he was thinking. After swiping through his phone a few times, he looked at her.
It seemed as if nothing had happened.
Sure enough, he locked the screen, tossed the phone aside, and sighed. “There’s no news. You’re just making things up.”
Zhang Xiyue was startled. “No news? How could that be? In the original—”
“What original story?” Cheng Mingjiao interrupted with a frown. “Zhang Xiyue, stop talking nonsense.”
Zhang Xiyue opened her mouth. Seeing the stiffness in his expression, she suddenly realized something. “You saw the news, didn’t you?”
Cheng Mingjiao threw back the covers and got out of bed, muttering, “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”
“You saw the news, didn’t you?” Zhang Xiyue pressed on. “It happened sometime between eight and ten. We were together the entire time. If I hadn’t come from another world, how could I have known about it without watching TV or scrolling through short videos…”
Before she could finish, Cheng Mingjiao had already pulled on his pajamas and hurried away.
“Cheng Mingjiao!” Zhang Xiyue cried in exasperation. “Stop right there!”
Cheng Mingjiao only walked faster.
Then he disappeared.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t get up to cook until after noon. By the time she finished, it was nearly one o’clock. The villa was utterly empty, as though she were the only person left in it.
She sat at the dining table and silently finished her meal. At last, she took a long bread roll down to the basement, where she found the withdrawn Cheng Mingjiao in the audiovisual room.
When she turned on the lights, she saw him sitting there with his eyes lowered and his brows drawn together.
Zhang Xiyue felt a headache coming on. She took the initiative and sat down beside him, then tossed the little bread roll onto him.
Cheng Mingjiao, who believed that meals had to be eaten on time even if the sky were falling, had no appetite whatsoever at that moment. He merely gripped the bread in silence.
Zhang Xiyue sat with him. She appeared to be lost in thought, but was actually trying to figure out how to comfort him.
Before she could come up with anything, Cheng Mingjiao spoke first. “Am I the male lead in the novel?”
Zhang Xiyue stiffened, her expression flickering. “Well… everyone is the protagonist of their own life.”
Cheng Mingjiao was silent for a moment. “So I’m not… Then what am I? The number-one male supporting character? Number two?”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
He wasn’t anything. He wasn’t even a background character.
Zhang Xiyue didn’t know which fact would be more shocking to a man who had believed since childhood that the entire earth revolved around him: that this world was actually a novel, or that Cheng Mingjiao wasn’t its male lead.
She was carefully considering how to break it to him when Cheng Mingjiao, who had been sitting motionless, suddenly fell backward onto the sofa.
“Zhang Xiyue,” he called.
Zhang Xiyue immediately came to attention. “I’m here.”
She waited for him to curse the author for having such terrible taste and failing to choose him as the male lead.
But his emotions were surprisingly calm. He didn’t seem to care about that at all.
He only asked, “Did you mistake me for your target because my name sounds like Chen Mingjiao’s, and that’s why you deliberately approached me?”
Zhang Xiyue hadn’t expected him to uncover the last of her secrets in such a short time.
She stared at him blankly for a long while before finally nodding with difficulty.
From the moment she admitted that she was a transmigrator, she had no intention of lying anymore. No matter what the truth was, she would give it to him.
Then she waited for his fury to erupt.
But he didn’t lose his temper. He only stared at her steadily. After a long while, he calmly concluded, “So I’m the counterfeit.”
“You’re not…” Zhang Xiyue blurted out, but the moment she met his gaze, her confidence faltered.
She had, in fact, mistaken him for someone else.
Because she hadn’t been cautious enough, because she had been too careless and too sure of herself, she had barged into his life without permission and turned it upside down.
“I’m sorry…” She had nothing else to say. All she could do was apologize.
Cheng Mingjiao curved his lips slightly and suddenly asked, “It must have been hard.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…What?”
He raised a hand to cover his eyes. The fragile line of his throat was exposed beneath the light, his Adam’s apple rolling violently as he struggled to suppress his emotions.
It took a long, long time before he could speak normally. His murmur sounded almost like a dream.
“I thought that even if you didn’t like me at first, at least you had chosen to date me willingly. But it turns out you were forced to do it for the sake of completing your mission. You weren’t even with me of your own free will… Being with me must have been difficult. You must have felt so wronged…”
Zhang Xiyue was an idiot who could only carry out that damned mission in the most foolish way.
She didn’t know how to protect herself, and had actually used her own body as a bargaining chip.
She had been unlucky. After working so hard for so long, she had finally discovered that she had chosen the wrong person.
Cheng Mingjiao felt sorry for Zhang Xiyue.
When Zhang Xiyue heard his trembling breath, she lost the ability to think for a moment.
From the time she and Cheng Mingjiao had met until now, barely more than half a year had passed. She couldn’t understand how he had come to love her so much that even after learning a truth capable of overturning his entire worldview, his first instinct was still to worry about her.
How had such an unreasonable, almost inhuman love been given to her?
What had she ever done right? It seemed like nothing. She had merely been lucky enough to mistake the wrong person for the right one.
He had simply been unlucky enough to be mistaken for someone else.
Zhang Xiyue knew that, if she wanted to leave successfully, the best thing to do now was not to show him even the slightest trace of pity.
But she wasn’t Cheng Mingjiao. She couldn’t go against her instincts. So she shifted closer to him and imitated the way he had held her during their first embrace. Somewhat awkwardly, she raised her arms and tried to hug the seemingly difficult, yet actually soft-hearted and kind Cheng Mingjiao, who was worrying over her.
Cheng Mingjiao began to tremble even harder. He managed to hold back his tears, but couldn’t stop a tiny sob from escaping.
“Zhang Xiyue has been very lucky. Even in another world, because Cheng Mingjiao was there, she was able to live a wonderful life and receive so much care and love. Although Zhang Xiyue really wants to go home, and although she sometimes feels wronged, her hurt has never been because of Cheng Mingjiao.”
Zhang Xiyue paused for a few seconds before continuing, “More than eighty percent of Zhang Xiyue’s happiness here has been because of Cheng Mingjiao.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s breathing grew even more ragged, but he still refused to look at her.
Zhang Xiyue lowered his hand. Only after his tear-filled eyes met hers did she speak gently.
“Zhang Xiyue made a mistake and deceived Cheng Mingjiao. That was Zhang Xiyue’s fault. Cheng Mingjiao can be angry. He can curse at her. But he mustn’t doubt himself, because… Zhang Xiyue would be sad.”
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyes grew even wetter, and he hurriedly turned his face away.
After a long while, he finally managed to calm down enough to reveal a little of his grievance. “But you… You only realized that you’d mistaken me for someone else when we went to Yunxi Temple that day to see Grandma, and you helped distract the Chen family matriarch, didn’t you? The moment you realized your mistake, you broke up with me. If being with me really wasn’t something you endured against your will, why did you run away so quickly?”
“That was because I knew I would definitely return to the real world. I was afraid that the longer I dragged things out, the more deeply I would hurt you later.” Zhang Xiyue was rather helpless when she brought it up. “I didn’t expect it would still hurt you.”
Cheng Mingjiao stared at her for a long time. Only after confirming that she wasn’t lying did he make a couple of dissatisfied little noises and burrow into her arms.
“You knew I’d be hurt,” he mumbled. “I thought that when you asked me that night if I loved you, and I said ‘I guess,’ you really believed I was just fine.”
Zhang Xiyue said, “How could I? I’m not an idiot… Stop squirming. You’re hurting me.”
Cheng Mingjiao stopped nuzzling against her and lifted her onto his lap.
After a while, he asked, “Do you really have to go?”
“Yes. I have to go.”
“Why?” Cheng Mingjiao looked up. “It’s not as though you…”
He broke off halfway through, suddenly falling silent as he tried to figure out how to phrase it without hurting Zhang Xiyue.
Cheng Mingjiao had grown this old, and for the first time in his life, he worried that his emotional intelligence might not be enough.
The moment Zhang Xiyue saw his expression, she wanted to laugh. She finished the thought for him. “You mean, since I don’t have any family left, why do I still want to go back?”
Cheng Mingjiao nodded silently.
Zhang Xiyue sighed. “Because even if I don’t have family, I still have friends and mentors. They were the ones who stayed by my side through the hardest days. The fact that I’m here now means I’ve disappeared from that world. They must be frantic with worry.”
“…If you leave, I’ll be frantic too,” Cheng Mingjiao muttered.
Zhang Xiyue shook her head. “It’s not the same.”
“How is it different?”
“If I disappear from here, you’ll know I’ve gone home. You might miss me, but at least you’ll have peace of mind. But they… they have no idea where I am. As far as they know, I’ve vanished without a trace. If I never go back, they’ll worry about me for the rest of their lives.”
Teacher Lin was old enough to retire. Her legs were no longer in good shape, and she also suffered from a chronic illness. She had been transferred to the logistics department several years ago, but whenever Zhang Xiyue needed a file, Teacher Lin would still visit eight different departments in a single day to help her find it.
Xiao Mo had grown up with her. She was gentle and soft-spoken, and had gotten married a few years ago. She now had a child. Her husband treated her badly, and she didn’t dare divorce him because she had no source of income. Yet whenever he badmouthed her, she could still smash a liquor bottle over his head.
Then there were her high school classmates, An’an and Xiaobai. One dreamed of traveling the world, while the other only wanted to return to his hometown and raise chickens. But because their incomes were too low, they didn’t dare quit their jobs even though both were already in poor health.
And yet, when Zhang Xiyue had been short of money to buy her grandmother a burial plot, they had handed over all their savings without hesitation.
She really was an extraordinarily lucky person. Even though she had gradually lost every member of her family between the ages of fifteen and twenty-eight, there had always been people who loved her in their place, allowing her to grow into a well-adjusted, kind, and sunny person.
They had given her so much love that she was certain they would keep searching for her as long as they couldn’t find her. Even if it affected their own lives, they would never give up.
She absolutely could not allow her disappearance to become a burden that kept them from living normal lives.
Zhang Xiyue lowered her eyes. “I have to go back.”
Cheng Mingjiao stared at her in silence for a long while before muttering, “I need to think… I need to think…”
Zhang Xiyue had no idea what he needed to think about. She guessed he was trying to decide whether to let her leave. She reached out and patted his head. “Are you hungry?”
Cheng Mingjiao had been displeased by the way she casually patted him as if he were a dog, but the moment she asked, his stomach suddenly growled.
Zhang Xiyue smiled. “Stay here by yourself for a while. I’ll go make you something to eat.”
Cheng Mingjiao didn’t want to let her go and looked at her with wide, pleading eyes.
Zhang Xiyue pretended not to notice and left.
Cheng Mingjiao stayed alone in the basement for half an hour. When he returned to the first floor, the dining table was already covered with a sumptuous spread: green beans with scrambled eggs, scallion-braised pork ribs, clear-braised pork ribs, boiled baby bok choy, and sweet fermented-rice dumpling soup.
He stared at the feast for a long time, then let out a little grunt and tried to burrow into Zhang Xiyue’s arms again.
Startled, Zhang Xiyue quickly pushed him into his seat.
Cheng Mingjiao finally got to eat his long-delayed lunch.
Once he was full, his mood brightened along with his stomach. He announced the result of his deliberations to Zhang Xiyue. “I’m not letting you go. You can forget about it.”
Zhang Xiyue’s eyelid twitched.
“It’s a hundred million in prize money, right? I’ll give you two hundred million, and I’ll transfer some of the properties under my name to you too. Even accounting for inflation, it’ll be more than whatever the hell that system is offering. You can stay now, right?” Cheng Mingjiao tried to deploy the power of money.
Zhang Xiyue remained expressionless. “No.”
“Why?” Cheng Mingjiao grew frantic.
Zhang Xiyue was speechless. “Because the money in your world is fake to me, just like this world is fake.”
“Bullshit. How could it be fake?” Cheng Mingjiao had completely accepted that his world might be a book, but he refused to accept her logic. “Can’t my money buy things? If you can spend it, then it’s real money!”
“Even if it is real, so what? All my social ties are over there. ‘If a rich man doesn’t return home, it’s like wearing fine clothes at night.’ Having money is no different from not having money if I can’t spend it within my own social circle. Money only has emotional value when you spend it on the people connected to your life.” Zhang Xiyue argued with him.
Cheng Mingjiao grew anxious. “You have social ties here too!”
Zhang Xiyue thought about it and realized he had a point, so she gave up arguing. Instead, she explained in detail all the reasons she had to return besides money, including her deep affection for each of her friends and the concerns weighing on her mind.
After listening, Cheng Mingjiao remained silent for a long time. Just when Zhang Xiyue thought he had finally been moved, he said with a sympathetic expression, “Then I guess they’re just unlucky.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
“But don’t take it too seriously. I did some research just now. In a lot of transmigration novels, after the female lead lives out an entire lifetime in the novel’s world, she returns to her own world in her younger form, back at the exact point where she crossed over. So, in the eyes of her family and friends, she never actually disappeared.”
Cheng Mingjiao was determined to convince her. “So just stay here and live out your life with me. Once you turn ninety and suddenly keel over, you’ll become your young self again and return to your world. Then you can call your friends and tell them how much you missed them. They’ll be completely baffled and wonder why you’re suddenly so emotional when you were just chatting with them yesterday.”
Listening to his description, Zhang Xiyue laughed in exasperation. “Are you actually explaining the plot to me now?”
“What else am I supposed to do?” Cheng Mingjiao demanded angrily. “I looked up the settings for a lot of novels. In some of them, the male lead does follow the female lead back to her world, but that only happens when a black-hole-like portal appears at the moment she crosses over, allowing the two of them to jump through together. You never mentioned anything like that, so there’s a very high chance you’ll go back alone. I have no way to follow you, so all I can do is persuade you to stay!”
Zhang Xiyue hadn’t expected him to have researched so much during those thirty minutes alone. She was speechless, but also somewhat helpless. “Even if you wanted to come with me, I wouldn’t agree.”
He had no name in this novel, but in this world, he was the Emperor—the person loved by the most people, the center of the entire universe.
She couldn’t deprive others of their right to love him, just as she couldn’t turn a blind eye to the pain of her mentors and friends.
Cheng Mingjiao didn’t understand any of these complicated thoughts. All he heard was that she wouldn’t let him go with her, and he immediately grew dejected. “You really don’t like me. You were only humoring me before…”
“…If I didn’t like you, why would I humor you?” Zhang Xiyue countered.
Cheng Mingjiao said, “Maybe you just think I’m annoying. Like buying candy for a child who keeps crying—not because you like the child, but because you want to trade the candy for some peace and quiet.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…”
The Emperor always seemed to be perceptive at precisely the wrong moments.
She had no idea what to say. Seeing that he was about to sink into another emotional low, she could only cup his face and kiss him hard several times.
“Is that enough?” she asked.
Cheng Mingjiao was displeased. “That’s not enough.”
Zhang Xiyue raised an eyebrow. “What more do you want?”
Cheng Mingjiao thought for a moment. “Don’t just kiss my face. Kiss my…”
Zhang Xiyue clamped a hand over his mouth, not wanting to hear the rest.
And with that, the matter was considered settled.
But in truth, the problem between them had not been resolved.
Cheng Mingjiao firmly believed that although Zhang Xiyue’s friends in her world would be saddened by her disappearance, they would not grieve for the rest of their lives.
A philosopher had once said that everyone was the world’s best expert at healing themselves. No matter how much pain they suffered, time and self-consolation would eventually dull it.
Everyone except Cheng Mingjiao. If Zhang Xiyue left, he would be so devastated that he would die on the spot. So, for the sake of living a few years longer, he had to selfishly keep Zhang Xiyue by his side.
When he explained this theory to Zhang Xiyue, she wanted to slap him. But when she met his anxious gaze, she restrained herself.
Day after day passed, and both of them waited for the other to give in.
Zhang Xiyue had no phone and no way to contact anyone else, so all she could do was wait. Cheng Mingjiao, on the other hand, made all sorts of efforts.
“I’m planning to have Liang Xiao establish a memory research institute and develop a pill that can make you forget your other world. Once you take it, you won’t be anxious about returning anymore.” He spoke with absolute conviction.
This time, Zhang Xiyue genuinely wanted to beat him up. “Let’s not even talk about whether you can successfully develop it. Even if you do, aren’t you worried about side effects?”
Cheng Mingjiao thought about it and realized that she had a point. He could only regretfully abandon the idea.
Two days later, he brought her a new proposal. “How about I assemble a team of scientists to build you a time machine? Then you can travel back and forth whenever you want.”
Zhang Xiyue was speechless for a long while. After confirming that he was serious, she could only nod wearily. “Fine. Go ahead.”
With her approval, Cheng Mingjiao’s spirits soared. In the shortest time possible, he gathered all the key researchers from his company’s own development base. He also contacted Guo Fengnian to connect him with several experts, and soon a full-scale research project was underway.
Unfortunately, the team had only been assembled for two days when Cheng Hanting and Feng Shan showed up at the door.
When they saw the tightly locked doors and windows, along with the astonishing abundance of supplies inside, the two of them could hardly believe that their own son had committed such an atrocity.
“Cheng Mingjiao, you… you’ve really outdone yourself!” Feng Shan was shaking with rage. Her outstretched finger, tipped with a manicured nail, nearly poked him in the face. “If Fengnian and Xiao Xiao hadn’t told us that you hadn’t gone out in ages and had been doing all sorts of bizarre things, it never would have occurred to me to come looking for you…”
Guo Fengnian and Liang Xiao had just come through the door when they heard their names. Before they could even process the fact that Cheng Mingjiao had locked Zhang Xiyue up, they turned around and walked straight back out.
“Is this how your father and I taught you to behave?” Feng Shan continued to rage. “How can you face anyone after doing this?”
Cheng Mingjiao’s brows drew together in displeasure. He was unhappy that she had gotten someone to force their way through his door. “Mom, I’m an adult. How can you barge into my home so rudely?”
“Am I the rude one, or are you?!” Feng Shan grew even angrier. “Have you lost your mind? How could you do something like this to Xiyue? Don’t you know it’s illegal?” As she spoke, she grabbed the trash can from the floor and hurled it at him.
Zhang Xiyue hurriedly pulled Cheng Mingjiao aside and explained, “Auntie, please don’t be angry. Things aren’t what you think…”
“Xiyue, don’t be afraid. Now that we’re here, we won’t let him carry on like this,” Cheng Hanting suddenly said, after remaining silent until then. He gestured for Feng Shan to pull Zhang Xiyue over. “If we need to call the police, we’ll call the police. If we need to take him to court, we’ll take him to court. I can spoil my son as much as I like, but he has to pay the price for what he’s done.”
Zhang Xiyue hurriedly explained, “He didn’t force me. I did it willingly!”
Cheng Mingjiao’s eyelid twitched, and the corner of his mouth lifted in a smile shaped like a single pixel.
His parents had barged into his life without permission and disrupted everything. His parents were bad.
Zhang Xiyue had gone so far as to fabricate a story to help him. Zhang Xiyue was good.
Conclusion: Zhang Xiyue treated him better than his parents did.
Zhang Xiyue was the best person in the world.
“What are you smiling about?” Feng Shan sharply caught his infuriating expression and grew even angrier. “You’ve driven Xiyue into Stockholm syndrome, and you’re proud of yourself?”
Cheng Mingjiao immediately became serious. “Mom, could you please stop letting your imagination run wild?”
“How dare you talk to your mother like that!” Cheng Hanting demanded.
Cheng Mingjiao thought he was being treated unfairly. “I’m merely stating the facts.”
“Stating the facts? Fine. You PUA’d Xiyue, and now you’re trying to PUA your mother too, is that it?” Cheng Hanting’s expression grew darker and darker. “What are you planning to do next? PUA me? Lock all of us up in your miserable house?”
“…Why would I lock you up?” Cheng Mingjiao asked, completely bewildered.
Feng Shan said, “So you admit it—you only wanted to lock up Xiyue!”
Cheng Hanting: “What a disgrace to the family!”
Feng Shan: “What a humiliation!”
Cheng Hanting: “Disgusting!”
Zhang Xiyue: “…Uncle, Auntie, could you listen to me first?”
The entire family of three turned to look at her in unison.
Zhang Xiyue felt a little pressured, but after a brief silence, she still spoke earnestly. “I don’t have Stockholm syndrome, and I haven’t been PUA’d. My mental state is perfectly normal. Everything happening now is within my control. Mingjiao and I do have a small disagreement, but it’s something we can resolve. Uncle, Auntie, could you please trust me?”
Feng Shan and Cheng Hanting exchanged a glance before asking her again, “Are you really sure you don’t want to call the police?”
“We’re not just putting on an act,” Cheng Hanting stressed. “As long as you nod, I’ll send him in and have him sentenced to ten or eight years.”
Zhang Xiyue: “…Really, there’s no need. Thank you, Uncle and Auntie.”
Cheng Hanting let out a sigh.
Cheng Mingjiao was sensitive to every nuance. “Why do you sound disappointed?”
Cheng Hanting: “Hmph!”
Cheng Mingjiao: “…”
After pacifying Feng Shan and then Cheng Hanting, Zhang Xiyue finally managed to send them away.
The elders had left, but the hole blasted through the front door remained, gaping open and waving at Zhang Xiyue.
Cheng Mingjiao asked in an offhand manner, “Do you want to go outside?”
Zhang Xiyue said, “Yes.”
“Zhang Xiyue!”
She sighed. “What good would going outside do? Unless I resolve the matter of you, how am I supposed to focus on completing my mission?”
Cheng Mingjiao lifted his chin. “You’ll never get rid of me in this lifetime.”
Zhang Xiyue gave a short laugh.
Cheng Mingjiao wrapped his arms around her, looking a little gloomy. “My parents want to send me to prison.”
“…Stop pretending to be pitiful.”
Exposed, Cheng Mingjiao instantly transformed back into the lofty Emperor. “I’ve decided to sever ties with them unilaterally. When they turn sixty, I’ll fulfill my filial duties at the lowest possible cost.”
Zhang Xiyue felt a pang of sympathy for Feng Shan and Cheng Hanting.
Cheng Mingjiao was about to say something else when he suddenly caught sight of two furtive figures out of the corner of his eye. His face turned cold, and he charged straight out through the hole in the door.
Three seconds later, the sounds of Guo Fengnian and Liang Xiao howling in agony came from outside.
Guo Fengnian shouted, “We were wrong! We really were! We only came because we were worried after not seeing you for so long!”
Liang Xiao: “Yes, yes, we were just too worried…”
Cheng Mingjiao wasn’t buying it. “Oh, please. Didn’t you call my parents because you found out I’d kidnapped Zhang Xiyue?!”
Guo Fengnian: “Whoa, whoa, whoa—so you admit it!”
Cheng Mingjiao: “So what if I do? Go ahead and call the police!”
Liang Xiao: “Don’t push me. I really will call them!”
“Go ahead!” Cheng Mingjiao grabbed his arm and pinned it down.
Liang Xiao let out a howl. “These are a surgeon’s hands!”
Cheng Mingjiao scoffed. “I’ll break them, and you can retire.”
Liang Xiao: “Guo Fengnian, save me!”
Guo Fengnian: “…Could you not shout my name at a time like this?”
Cheng Mingjiao gave a cold laugh and was just about to carry out his righteous suppression when he looked up and met Zhang Xiyue’s eyes.
She stood there gently, watching them with a smile, a hint of envy hidden in her eyes.
Cheng Mingjiao froze.
For one brief moment, he suddenly realized why Zhang Xiyue, despite desperately wanting to go home, had remained unhurried and continued holding her ground against him.
Because Zhang Xiyue knew perfectly well that, in the end, the one who compromised would never be Zhang Xiyue.
