Actually, Yu Haiqing had noticed this NPC as soon as he logged into the game yesterday.

Originally, he hadn’t really cared much about what kind of story Gods and Demons’s third anniversary would be putting on. He was logging into his account purely out of nostalgia, like craving something you’d once gotten tired of but that, after a while, brings back memories the moment you see it again.

With his current mindset and level of busy work, there was a good chance he’d get bored after a few days.

But once he was in, things immediately felt off.

He hadn’t looked at the detailed script, just the preliminary storyline points that Gou Yuan had provided to him according to protocol. It had been lying on his desk, and Yu Haiqing had skimmed through it, noting a few of the initial plot points.

There definitely wasn’t supposed to be any hidden BOSS setup.

Being professionally inclined, he’d checked out the scene and remembered the person hidden under the rock garden.

It wouldn’t have been anything special—except it was Xie Shuangxue, who always seemed full of surprises.

So, after emerging from the rock garden, Yu Haiqing had approached Xie Shuangxue to inspect his palm. Naturally, by then, there was no longer any stone there.

However, he later compared the fragments scattered in the secret passage and found they were the same type as the ones embedded in the grass. They’d fallen off the secret passage walls, distinct from the regular pebbles outside.

If that was just a hunch, the subsequent changes made Yu Haiqing feel certain this NPC was no ordinary one. He’d followed Xie Shuangxue from the moment he tossed that bottle of medicine to Ling Xuan, and Yu Haiqing could already foresee the domino effect that would follow.

But he didn’t intervene.

He wanted to see if things would unfold just as he expected.

It was far more interesting than the third anniversary event itself.

Then came the incident with the medicine. Xie Shuangxue hadn’t told Chun Yao the truth to go against Elder Ling, nor had he gone back on his statement during the interrogation.

If Xie Shuangxue had chosen either of those paths, Yu Haiqing would have dismissed it—no need to spend extra time on it.

That would have been entirely out of character, an OOC move. If it had happened, the impact would’ve reduced Luo Yin’s influence, affecting the main character’s storyline. That kind of major misstep would be automatically corrected by Sea, so it would’ve been pointless—Xie Shuangxue’s actions would have been nullified.

But Xie Shuangxue had taken an unconventional path.

While Yu Haiqing had expected Ling Xuan’s response, switching the last bottle of medicine had still surprised him.

It was as though he’d perfected every possible move.

Xie Shuangxue was well aware that he couldn’t switch the earlier bottles of medicine, as Luo Yin would have had ample time to inspect them, and if anything were off, he would’ve detected it. Luo Yin was meticulous, and any slip could throw the whole plan off course.

But by the time Xie Shuangxue was caught with the medicine in hand, there was no time for close inspection, allowing the storyline to progress without affecting the main character’s performance.

However, with Chun Yao and Luo Yin’s attention to detail, they’d undoubtedly go back and check. Once they discovered the switch, the pivotal plot points would have stabilized, and Sea would have no issue tolerating this change when Xie Shuangxue doubled back to stir things up.

When Yu Haiqing came across this part during a meeting, he wasn’t angry at all; in fact, there was even a hint of a smile on his face.

He had always disliked people playing mind games around him, especially in the workplace, as it often meant more talk than action, with people focusing on appearances and sometimes stepping on others just to show off. It was shameful and bound to backfire.

But this didn’t mean he disliked people with plans and ideas.

The business world was like a battlefield; Yu Haiqing himself wasn’t entirely pure-hearted and had employed plenty of tactics himself.

The way Xie Shuangxue had been written into the storyline wasn’t exactly to Yu Haiqing’s taste. He was selfish and malicious, so even with his good looks, Yu Haiqing hadn’t been too impressed the first time they met.

But now, it seemed that this NPC knew Sea better than Yu Haiqing did.

Could this be a side effect of Sea’s upgraded freedom and realism?

Yu Haiqing wasn’t entirely sure.

But now, every time he looked up at his screen and saw Xie Shuangxue’s face, which others saw as pitiful, he couldn’t help but sense a subtle, tea-scented vibe in the way Xie Shuangxue carried himself.

It wasn’t the type of tea vibe that bothered him.

Xie Shuangxue was able to keep his character consistent while tweaking the storyline, without overshadowing the main character, undermining other supporting roles, or triggering Sea’s alert system. And as Lin Tong had mentioned, he’d drawn a significant amount of traffic to both departments; Lin Jiao Live was even planning to launch a special Xie Shuangxue section.

He wasn’t just altering the storyline inside the game—he was shaking things up outside of it too.

Yu Haiqing now had a character in his game who defied everyone’s expectations of how the story would unfold. Even he didn’t know what Xie Shuangxue would do next. Wasn’t that a delightful surprise?

With the company now on track, he hadn’t felt this way in a long time.

The boredom was actually one of the main reasons Yu Haiqing had stopped playing before. Sea had gone through several upgrades, reaching a point of stability where he no longer needed to manually patch bugs. The game had moved past its initial phase, and while there were always new events, they weren’t challenging for him anymore. He already knew the main storyline, so it was naturally uninteresting.

But now, things were different.

The points Lin Tong had raised in the meeting weren’t really Yu Haiqing’s main concern. They might’ve been compelling for Gou Yuan, who was obsessed with metrics, but they served well enough as superficial reasoning.

Yu Haiqing’s true motivation for not modifying Sea wasn’t about departmental performance—it was purely because of Xie Shuangxue.

He was curious to see what Xie Shuangxue would do next.

After all, Xie Shuangxue wasn’t supposed to have any further screen time in the upcoming story script.

In the original plot, Xie Shuangxue was just a minor antagonist in the early stages, not someone who was constantly stirring up trouble. He wasn’t the main character and didn’t have that much screen time.

After the Penglai City arc, Xie Shuangxue was supposed to be punished with a period of confinement. Chun Yao didn’t let him stay in Penglai for long, soon sending him back to the Feather Clan and placing him in a quiet room under her supervision.

Though it was called confinement, it was more a means to keep him safe from Elder Ling’s wrath than a true punishment—a form of protection.

Xie Shuangxue took a hit and stayed there quietly until his wounds healed.

So, in the early world story, he truly wasn’t supposed to participate. He was to reappear later, and currently, none of the main characters planned to involve him. Even Chen Xin, who cared about him, wasn’t inclined to bring him along.

“Not all the main cities have good relations with the Feather Clan. Even if they share godly heritage, we’ve been away from the mortal world for too long. Many pay lip service, and with the Demon Clan stirring things up, danger is inevitable,” Chen Xin explained. “In a few days, you’ll both return to the Feather Clan. At least the Floating Dream’s core will be safe. Ling Xuan, you must look after Shuangxue.”

Ling Xuan, of course, nodded in agreement.

Xie Shuangxue was barely sixteen, almost seventeen, and Ling Xuan was only a few months older. Neither of them was of age, so logically, they shouldn’t be involved in this.

Unexpectedly, Xie Shuangxue didn’t argue, simply nodding obediently with a very cooperative look.

But Qiao Zhihui, crouching outside, was a bit agitated upon hearing this.

“What’s that supposed to mean? Does it mean I won’t see my boy in the next quest?” He caught on immediately. “How can that be? What if he gets bullied again?”

He couldn’t understand why Endless Sea, that trash company, always seemed to be targeting his boy. Xie Shuangxue was practically the hottest name around—was it reasonable to lose his exposure like this?

Had Yu Haiqing gotten a little too full of himself?

Was he jealous of his boy’s popularity?

After spending a day in the special forum, he’d picked up on the fan lingo quickly, especially those last two lines—common jokes on the forum, since everything there somehow always linked back to Yu Haiqing.

The second arc of the Penglai City storyline wasn’t very long, mainly advancing the plot and introducing the world quest. Since Qiao Zhihui hadn’t gone along the main storyline, he received the information a bit later than other players, so as soon as he finished, the arc was over, and he got kicked out again, just like yesterday.

Even if he didn’t accept the quest himself, the system would assign it automatically.

He opened the task interface, where the world quest for Floating Dream was already listed, along with Penglai City’s important plot points. It wasn’t set to start until tomorrow.

The third-anniversary event worked this way, with new storylines each day, giving players time to decide which world quests to follow. The quests would vary in difficulty and reward.

Since there was no need to rush, Qiao Zhihui took one look at the task screen and closed it, immediately heading over to the official forums to demand justice.

He angrily opened the special forum, and sure enough, it was already in an uproar.

“Xie Shuangxue must be in the world quest!”

“If I can’t see my boy tomorrow, Dog Designer is dead!”

Yu Haiqing, watching the live stream, saw all of this.

…They’re even dragging me into this?

Being cursed was part of daily life since he started making games, and he didn’t care much anymore. But this time, he felt a bit wrongly accused.

Maybe he hadn’t always been wrongly accused, but this time he genuinely was on Xie Shuangxue’s side.

Xie Shuangxue would feel that soon enough.

Right now, Xie Shuangxue was feeling a weight lift off him, a sign he’d once again slipped backstage within the system. He was sure now that he’d succeeded.

Changing the storyline wasn’t hard—there were plenty of ways. But it only mattered if he could change it in a way that both the game department and Sea would accept.

At first, he’d been uncertain about how Endless Sea would handle this, worried that he’d attract too much attention right from the start. After careful consideration, he’d realized that taking the whipping was inevitable.

It had been a test.

Ling Xuan and Chen Xin were one aspect; Chun Yao and Luo Yin were another. And most importantly, the players themselves. Beneath these three surface layers, Xie Shuangxue was constantly testing the boundaries of Sea and the game department.

It seemed like the Gods and Demons team was quite lenient, imposing no excessive restrictions on him. This was a good sign, boosting his confidence.

This time, the backstage plot would span over half a month. When he saw the players again, it would be time to set out.

The Feather Clan, having been out of the mortal world for so long, was sending a team to investigate those cities, a significant event that required deliberation over who to send and what to do.

He knew he had no role in the early stages of the world quest. But he couldn’t have that; the players would forget him.

Moreover, Xie Shuangxue had noticed that due to the storyline’s shift, there would now be gaps in the original setup.

For example, Ling Xuan taking care of him was not in the original plot. Any interactions between them were blank storylines, which meant his presence and actions here required minimal control.

If he could join the world quest early, it would create even more of these blank storylines, offering him prime opportunities to change his fate.

A clever NPC needed to know how to add scenes for himself.

But breaking free of the storyline restrictions would require more than just his own efforts; he’d need to borrow others’ strength.

However, Xie Shuangxue was in no hurry. He’d focus on his recovery and patiently wait for that person to arrive.

They would come eventually.

Somewhere, Elder Ling had the distinct sense that someone was thinking about him. He sneezed, feeling deeply annoyed.

Ever since he arrived in Penglai, things had been rough.

No, it was actually since he met Xie Shuangxue—nothing had gone smoothly since!

First, his plans had been overturned by Luo Yin. Though he hadn’t suffered any real loss, it had set him and Chun Yao in clear opposition, and this young princess was far more troublesome than he’d anticipated. Then there was the matter of the mainland’s brewing chaos.

And on top of that, his young disciple seemed to no longer listen to him.

He’d initially thought Ling Xuan’s interest in Xie Shuangxue was a passing phase, but as the days went by, Ling Xuan seemed more and more invested in him.

When Elder Ling stopped by one day, he found Ling Xuan helping Xie Shuangxue sit up, personally feeding him porridge.

Ling Xuan, feeding someone porridge?

He could hardly believe his eyes.

“What are you doing?” Elder Ling fumed at the sight. “Is this really something you should be doing? Does he not have hands?”

Without turning his head, Ling Xuan calmly continued, “Shuangxue is hurt. His whip wounds are severe, and the injury to his arm makes it painful to lift anything, so I’ll take care of it.”

He didn’t mind at all, feeding Xie Shuangxue with an enthusiastic expression.

Xie Shuangxue was being adorable, wrinkling his brows from the bitterness of the medicine without a word, while Ling Xuan handed him a piece of candy. He took it, cheeks puffing up as he slowly bit into it like a little squirrel.

So cute!

Ling Xuan even asked himself how he hadn’t liked him the first time they’d met.

He must have been blind.

Thankfully, it hadn’t lasted long.

So now he felt even more displeased with Elder Ling’s hostility toward Xie Shuangxue.

“Master, don’t be so harsh on him,” Ling Xuan said. “His face is still pale; you’ll frighten him.”

“You actually feel sorry for him?” Elder Ling thought his disciple had lost his mind. “Do you not understand what he’s done? Ling Xuan, do you really think the medicine incident was entirely my doing?”

Bringing that up only made Ling Xuan more defensive of Xie Shuangxue. He couldn’t help but feel indignation as he spoke.

“Don’t bring it up again,” he said. “Shuangxue has taken responsibility, and it’s all in the past. What else do you expect him to do?”

Elder Ling felt as if Ling Xuan was completely bewitched. He took a few angry breaths, turned to Xie Shuangxue, and demanded, “What exactly did you do?”

Xie Shuangxue, who had been silent this entire time, finally spoke.

He gently advised Ling Xuan, “Elder is only looking out for you, so don’t argue with him. I really shouldn’t be troubling you like this; I’ll handle it myself.”

He reached for the medicine bowl, but Ling Xuan didn’t let him, instead urging him to sit tight.

Then Xie Shuangxue sighed softly, looking at Elder Ling with a gentle expression and tone that was both humble and sincere. “I know you don’t like me, and the past is all my fault. If there’s anything more that you’re unhappy with, I’ll change.”

“But… I have no family left. Can’t I even have a friend like Ling Xuan?”

Elder Ling: …

The words nearly choked him, leaving him speechless, as if a combination of pure white lotus and cunning green tea aura had left him entirely defeated.

Xie Shuangxue!