Chapter 3

Editor & Proofreader: Fherlie Paguio

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Ye Qingyun flipped through a few more pages in astonishment, finding that the important sections were highlighted throughout.

Could it be? Had Gu Shenyuan read it carefully?

Had he seriously studied the obscure and difficult book that almost no one else had ever read, besides Ye Qingyun himself?

A rush of excitement welled up inside him, and Ye Qingyun almost burst out laughing.

He turned his back to Gu Shenyuan, hurriedly flipping through the pages and pretending to be angry, trying hard to keep his expression under control.

After finishing the book, Ye Qingyun turned back around and growled, “You think underlining a few sections means you understand it?”

Gu Shenyuan remained silent, his deep black eyes unblinking as he looked at Ye Qingyun.

Ye Qingyun pointed to one underlined passage and shoved the book under Gu Shenyuan’s nose, his voice fierce as he demanded, “Do you even know what this means, hmm?”

Gu Shenyuan lowered his gaze to the passage, his long eyelashes half-concealing his eyes as he calmly replied, “I know a little.”

“A little?” This book was not an easy introductory read. For someone to understand even a little meant they had not only read it but had also put effort into studying it!

Ye Qingyun was elated. As a long-time solitary researcher, he had never had anyone to discuss his work with. Now, all of a sudden, there was someone—Ye Qingyun practically wanted to talk to Gu Shenyuan for days on end.

But because of his character, he had to approach this indirectly.

“You think I’ll believe that?” Ye Qingyun tossed the book back onto the table with a scowl, looking offended. “Do you think someone like you could understand my book?”
Gu Shenyuan looked at the disheveled pages Ye Qingyun had thrown down, and his brow furrowed slightly.

Ye Qingyun, hands in his pockets, turned away disdainfully. “I’ll give you a test. If you pass, I’ll admit you understood it. But… I doubt you’re even capable of scoring zero.”

After his sarcastic remark, Ye Qingyun didn’t turn back to see Gu Shenyuan’s reaction and strode out, clearly conveying his desire not to stay in the same room with him.

The door slammed shut behind him. Gu Shenyuan’s gaze slowly withdrew from the door and fell on the book Ye Qingyun had tossed on the table. He picked it up silently, smoothing out the wrinkled pages and placing it back on top of the stack.

————

As Ye Qingyun stepped outside, he soon spotted Pu Tian leaning against the wall and smoking.

Ye Qingyun wasn’t particularly surprised. This scene also appeared in the original novel, where the scheming antagonist was worried the side character would develop feelings for the handsome protagonist and thus eavesdropped outside.

Hearing the side character’s disdainful attitude towards the protagonist, the antagonist felt pleased. The protagonist couldn’t possibly fall for the side character, and since the side character disliked the protagonist, only coming to explain things because of his orders, the antagonist could relax completely.

Reflecting on the conversation he’d just had with Gu Shenyuan, Ye Qingyun felt that although his lines differed from the original script, they still expressed his jealousy towards Gu Shenyuan, so it shouldn’t be a problem.

Ye Qingyun pretended to be startled, nervously asking, “Pu, Pu Tian? What are you doing here?”

Pu Tian looked him up and down, his expression subtly changed. “Wasn’t I supposed to ask you to speak well of me? What were you saying just now?”

Ye Qingyun was taken aback, recalling that he had been too emotional and hadn’t helped Pu Tian. But in the original story, the side character forgot to compliment the protagonist out of jealousy during their first meeting, and Pu Tian didn’t blame him there. Why was Pu Tian, in reality, reacting differently?

Ye Qingyun felt confused, lowering his head and speaking in a pitiful tone, “I’m sorry… I forgot this time. I’ll say the right things next time.”

As soon as he finished speaking, he heard Pu Tian irritably take a deep drag of his cigarette and walk over.

Ye Qingyun quickly frowned, unsure of what Pu Tian was thinking.

Could it be that this world’s Pu Tian particularly liked Gu Shenyuan and couldn’t tolerate him making this mistake?

Suddenly, he felt a weight on his shoulder as a hand rested there.

“Don’t make that face; lift your head,” Pu Tian ordered.

Ye Qingyun didn’t understand, but he expressionlessly raised his gaze to look at Pu Tian.

Pu Tian wore his typical charming yet roguish expression, looking at Ye Qingyun with an enticing voice, “With that face of yours, say what you said to Gu Shenyuan to me. Just say…” Pu Tian paused, his eyes lighting up, “Just say—just you?”

Ye Qingyun: “…”

Remembering Pu Tian’s peculiar kink for being given the cold shoulder, Ye Qingyun immediately changed to a teary-eyed expression, trembling as he said, “Of course, I can’t compare to you. I-I’ll try to become better, so could you give me a chance to be with you?”

Visible goosebumps appeared on Pu Tian’s arms, and he threatened, “If you want to be with me, do as I say.”

Ye Qingyun: “?”

“Come on, why aren’t you following the script?”

Is this story only meant for him?

Ye Qingyun was almost about to spit blood. He struggled to salvage the plot, his voice tinged with distress, “What’s wrong with you? Why do you have to torture me like this? I can’t do it; I can’t say such rude things to you!”

Pu Tian, disgusted by the display, immediately let go of his hand, looking at Ye Qingyun as if he were a fine piece of jade marred by a second-rate craftsman, growing angrier the longer he stared.

Pu Tian extinguished his cigarette, not wanting to speak to Ye Qingyun, who seemed hopeless, and angrily walked away. Ye Qingyun stood there, feigning sorrow for a moment, before following him outside.

Ye Qingyun hadn’t walked far when he encountered the burly man who had brought him here. The man carried Ye Qingyun’s luggage and led him to a room.

This room was smaller than Gu Shenyuan’s, with a more ordinary environment.

“This is your resting place,” the burly man said, pulling out a boarding guide and some nutritional supplements for Ye Qingyun. “Dinner has already passed, so you can only have this for now.”

Ye Qingyun thanked him and casually flipped through the guide, soon spotting a map marking places he could go.

He memorized the general layout and then noticed that the area where Gu Shenyuan lived was marked with a red “No Entry,” while his living area was marked with “Free to Enter.”

Ye Qingyun: “…”

“You were supposed to stay in that area,” the burly man said, glancing at Ye Qingyun and then anxiously at the ground. “But when I went up to drop off your luggage, I ran into the boss, and he didn’t seem too happy, so he had me bring you here.”

Ye Qingyun: “…”

With a gentle expression, Ye Qingyun said, “That’s okay. I’m already very satisfied that he let me board the ship. It doesn’t matter where I sleep.”

The burly man looked astonished and walked away, looking back three times.

Once inside, Ye Qingyun closed the door, and the affectionate expression on his face vanished in an instant.

The system sighed: “If Pu Tian could see you like this now, he’d be smitten.”

Ye Qingyun didn’t care for Pu Tian’s affection. He gulped down the nutritional supplement, opened his suitcase, and took out paper, pens, and several books.

Although Ye Qingyun had been making things difficult for the protagonist Gu Shenyuan, he genuinely wanted to explain things to him well, so he needed to gauge Gu Shenyuan’s current understanding of the book.

The sound of writing filled the room as time passed, and soon it was late at night.

Having taken over the role of the side character, Ye Qingyun naturally went through all the tasks that the original side character was supposed to do, including writing the published book after conducting research, so he was very familiar with the material and could accurately handle questions of varying difficulty.
Ye Qingyun finished a test paper, washed up, and lay down on his bed.

It was only at this moment that he recalled the slight deviation in the plot that had occurred for some unknown reason.

Gu Shenyuan was being too polite to him. Although he was generally cold, Ye Qingyun, having read the entire original work, knew that Gu Shenyuan looking back at him even once was quite a high honor.

“System, does it matter if the plot has gone off course?” Ye Qingyun asked.

“Huh? What?” The system responded after a moment, “Oh, it doesn’t matter. What kind of plot does a melodramatic romance need?”

Ye Qingyun: “…… This is way too casual!”

“Character relationships are the core of melodramatic romance,” the system explained, “In other words, you need to maintain your status as a pursuer of the antagonist until your death and keep an antagonistic relationship with the protagonist. Just focus on those two points.”

The system paused for a moment, seemingly thinking of something, before continuing “Although the protagonist is very attractive and makes you happy, you can’t be friends with him.”

“Don’t worry, given my attitude when I met him,” Ye Qingyun had self-awareness, “he wouldn’t even consider being friends with me.”

The system: “……That makes sense.”

Ye Qingyun yawned; it was already very late, and he quickly fell into a deep sleep.

The next morning, Ye Qingyun took the test paper and stepped out.

Although he was seriously sleep-deprived, he was so excited about the upcoming meeting that his drowsiness had vanished.

The contents of his books were mostly theoretical and differed from current scientific theories. Most people couldn’t understand what he wrote at all, and a small portion that could grasp some of it scoffed at his theories, dismissing them as nonsense.

So, having someone who could understand a bit and seemed to acknowledge his theories made Ye Qingyun wish he could immediately become best buddies with that person.

Unfortunately, due to the constraints of his poor character setup, Ye Qingyun could only hide this fondness and express it in other ways.

For example, by giving Gu Shenyuan test papers every day.

“You’re calling him a little brat on the outside while secretly thinking of him as a little darling,” the system said languidly.

Ye Qingyun: “……Watch your words, little system.”

As they spoke, Ye Qingyun arrived at the door of Gu Shenyuan’s room, recalling the memory.

He put on an impatient and disgusted expression, raising his hand to knock on the door.

It was still quite early, and Ye Qingyun mentally prepared himself to wait for a while, assuming Gu Shenyuan hadn’t gotten out of bed yet. However, as soon as he knocked twice, the door opened.

The speed was so quick that it felt as if the person inside had been waiting for him.

Ye Qingyun was surprised to see Gu Shenyuan at the door. Gu Shenyuan still had a blank expression, fully dressed, with his hair neatly in place, looking nothing like someone who had just woken up. The bed behind him was neatly made, showing no sign that anyone had slept there.

Gu Shenyuan stepped aside to let Ye Qingyun in. Ye Qingyun adjusted his expression and strode confidently inside, slamming the test paper onto the table.

“I brought the test paper. Hmph, I want to see how many points you can score!” Ye Qingyun said in a sarcastic tone.

Gu Shenyuan didn’t speak. He closed the door and sat down at the table.

“Ha, no way, you want to look through the book, huh?” Ye Qingyun continued sarcastically.

Gu Shenyuan silently picked up the test paper.

Ye Qingyun leaned against the table, exerting the pressure of an invigilating teacher: “I’ll be standing right here watching you write. I won’t leave until you’re done. Don’t even think about pulling any tricks to cheat!”

At this, Gu Shenyuan looked up at him.

Ye Qingyun was startled and pretended to be calm as he met Gu Shenyuan’s gaze.

Is he… angry?

Gu Shenyuan had always been indifferent, not fond of talking or moving around, but that didn’t mean he was weak.

On the contrary, Gu Shenyuan was very strong, which was why Pu Tian had not dared to act recklessly and hadn’t even managed to touch a hair on Gu Shenyuan’s head until now.

Ye Qingyun did not doubt that Gu Shenyuan could forcefully kick him out and also give him a broken bone special.

Yet Gu Shenyuan looked at Ye Qingyun, who was still standing, without getting angry. Instead, he lowered his head, pulled out another chair from under the table, and pushed it over.