Chapter 49

Translator: Abo Dammen

Feeling Chen Lu relax upon hearing Qin Guchuan’s words, Fang Qizhi raised an eyebrow. That feeling of Chen Lu being a lovestruck fool surfaced a bit again. However, with Qin Guchuan present, Fang Qizhi naturally wouldn’t press Chen Lu on the topic. 

“Fine, you talk.” Fang Qizhi crossed his arms over his chest, leaned back in his chair, and looked at Qin Guchuan with an ‘I’ll see how you try to fool me’ attitude.

Although he struck this pose, Fang Qizhi was quite curious about what Qin Guchuan would say. After all, no matter what, the facts from his previous investigation were right there. No matter how Qin Guchuan tried to explain, those facts couldn’t be changed.

For Fang Qizhi, the issue was simply whether it was solely Qin Guchuan’s problem, or if Chen Lu was also beyond saving.

The reason he stayed was to seek an answer for himself. 

And then he heard Qin Guchuan say to him, “This world is actually a book. We are all characters in this book…”

Fang Qizhi’s mouth twitched. He glanced at Chen Lu, only to see Chen Lu looking at Qin Guchuan with wide-eyed shock, his expression seeming to say, ‘How can you just blurt out everything?’

He seemed quite sharp during his livestreams, but right now, this guy seems a bit… not too bright.

“So this is the story you used to fool Chen Lu?” Having only heard Qin Guchuan’s first sentence, Fang Qizhi immediately let out a cold laugh, feeling that Qin Guchuan’s brain must be broken to use such a ridiculous thing as an explanation. 

Did he, Fang Qizhi, really look like a complete fool?

Actually, both Chen Lu and Qin Guchuan had considered telling others about the world being a book to get everyone to maintain the plot together, but in the end, they both agreed it was better not to.

If they hadn’t genuinely had the plot inexplicably pop into their heads and personally experienced the terror of the world collapsing, they too would find it hard to believe they had to follow the plot to save the world. They might even think the person telling them was insane and might deliberately oppose them.

It felt more reliable for the two of them to work secretly and then stun everyone. 

But since Qin Guchuan had suddenly chosen to confess to Fang Qizhi now, Chen Lu, though he didn’t understand why, definitely wouldn’t hold Qin Guchuan back in serious matters.

So Chen Lu also said to Fang Qizhi, “It’s not a lie. Three months ago, information about this world’s plot suddenly appeared in my mind.” Chen Lu had no intention of revealing the time-traveling aspect.

People living in the same world were always more easily accepted by others.

After saying this, Chen Lu told Fang Qizhi some settings related to him and a bit about things that would happen later. 

Fang Qizhi listened seriously to what Chen Lu said. After Chen Lu finished chattering, he looked at Chen Lu with love in his eyes. “Cha Cha, focus on playing games properly from now on. Spend less time mixing two-dimensional worlds.”

“Pfft.” Qin Guchuan laughed out loud. Looking at Chen Lu, who was glaring at him annoyingly because of his laughter, Qin Guchuan handed the file folder next to Fang Qizhi to Chen Lu. “You look through this for fun. Let me handle this.”

Chen Lu pursed his lips, but he recognized the folder as the one Fang Qizhi had given Qin Guchuan in the morning—the ultimate path to him reaching the top of the streaming world. He immediately stopped minding Qin Guchuan’s behavior and, seeing Fang Qizhi didn’t object, promptly opened the folder.

Once Chen Lu fell silent, Qin Guchuan asked Fang Qizhi, “Did you hear everything Chen Lu just said to you?” 

“Of course I heard it.” Fang Qizhi found Qin Guchuan’s question utterly baffling and even began to suspect if Qin Guchuan had brain issues.

Ignoring Fang Qizhi’s attitude, Qin Guchuan said, “Then repeat it.”

Fang Qizhi looked at Qin Guchuan appallingly, but he glanced at Chen Lu and didn’t say much, proceeding to repeat it to Qin Guchuan.

He had already assigned a new bloody script to Chen Lu in his mind: Chen Lu was just a chuunibyou teenager who had been completely fooled by Qin Guchuan’s flashy script settings. 

A working adult taking advantage of a naive college student who hadn’t seen the world—this was scum!

He would expose Qin Guchuan’s true face right in front of Chen Lu.

After listening to Fang Qizhi’s repetition, Chen Lu, who had been looking at the documents, raised his head and glanced at Qin Guchuan. Receiving a confirming look from the other, he lowered his gaze again and continued reading Fang Qizhi’s file.

Fang Qizhi’s repetition did not include the information about the future that was in Chen Lu’s original words. 

Just like when the plot deviated with Zhu Yi, and only Chen Lu and Qin Guchuan sensed the premonition of the world collapsing, Fang Qizhi clearly couldn’t hear any plot information that hadn’t happened yet.

This made things a bit tricky.

Chen Lu couldn’t help but think about whether there were any other ways to prove it, while Qin Guchuan hadn’t even considered proving it from the start.

As the saying goes, absolute force can overcome any cunning. It would be best if Fang Qizhi could believe it, but if he couldn’t, it wasn’t actually very important. 

“Whether you believe it or not, this is the reality. You can treat everything I said as false, it doesn’t matter. I’ve given you the reason. I’ll tell you what to do next, and you just need to follow along.” Qin Guchuan, fully in domineering CEO mode, looked indifferently at Fang Qizhi and lightly issued what sounded like a villain’s speech. “The choice is whether your family can continue living comfortably even after your company goes bankrupt, or if the Fang family continues to exist.

“I believe you’re not that naive and you know my capabilities. If you hope the Fang family can continue to exist, obeying my arrangements is your only choice.”

Fang Qizhi’s face instantly turned red with anger. But thinking about the results of his investigation, he really couldn’t gamble on whether Qin Guchuan could actually do it.

Who would have thought Qin Guchuan could previously force Zhu Yi, the leading figure of the new generation from a family of doctors, to flee overseas? The Zhu family was no less formidable than his own Fang family. 

After his expression shifted several times, Fang Qizhi once again looked towards Chen Lu.

Could words spoken by such a person really be trusted?!

And then Fang Qizhi saw that Chen Lu had no reaction whatsoever to Qin Guchuan’s ‘the weather has turned cold, let the Wang family fall’ statement. He remained motionless, still looking at the document planning his career.

Chen Lu’s cold reaction stunned Fang Qizhi. But a few seconds later, he saw Chen Lu, having finished the last page, look up and fix him with a murderous gaze. 

Fang Qizhi: “?”

“No need for such trouble.” Having finished reading about his 007 path, Chen Lu revealed a murderous smile to Fang Qizhi. “I have a very simple way to prove to you that you are just a character set up by the plot.”

Seeing Chen Lu’s expression, Qin Guchuan immediately fell silent. But Fang Qizhi, obviously, wasn’t intimidated by Chen Lu. Having been repeatedly told he was just a paper character, he felt extremely angry and slammed the table. “A ghost plot character, my ass!”

Chen Lu’s eyes didn’t waver despite Fang Qizhi’s anger. Imitating Qin Guchuan’s manner, he opened his mouth and said, “Fang Qizhi, you like Qin Guchuan, right?” 

Fang Qizhi’s heart jumped. Hearing this familiar question, he immediately sensed disaster. But his body gave him no chance to salvage the situation. He opened his mouth and answered, “…Yes.”

“Fang Qizhi, is the person you love most Qin Guchuan?” Chen Lu continued asking.

“I %￥#￥%… Yes.” Fang Qizhi cursed a stream of profanity but ultimately couldn’t help but affirm with a ‘yes’.

“Fang Qizhi, what is the name of the person you like?” 

“…Qin Guchuan!!!” Fang Qizhi roared loudly. This time, he turned to look at the person in question. The tone of his answer seemed to carry a ‘Can you please control him?!’ message. But Qin Guchuan, who already knew what Chen Lu was doing, lowered his head, one hand supporting his forehead, looking utterly pained, clearly not receiving the message Fang Qizhi was trying to send.

After this series of questions and answers from Chen Lu, where he could only answer ‘Yes,’ ‘Like,’ ‘Qin Guchuan’ no matter what, Fang Qizhi finally lay flat on his back.

He too felt this abnormality.

“STOP!!!! I surrender, alright?!!” Fang Qizhi voiced his surrender, his expression turning melancholic. 

After being tossed by Chen Lu like this, he actually started to believe a bit that this world might be a book. Now, recalling what Chen Lu had said about his actual persona…

A villainous male supporting character who likes Qin Guchuan… No matter how he thought about it, it sounded really disgusting!!!

Fang Qizhi found it truly difficult to identify with this identity.

Covering his head, he took a moment to digest the information he’d been told earlier before he had the mind to consider other things. 

He was still somewhere between belief and disbelief. If this world was really a book, he was the villainous male supporting character, Qin Guchuan was the object of his affection, then Chen Lu…

“I am the absolute protagonist of this world!” Facing Fang Qizhi’s question, Chen Lu cupped his face with his hands, making a cutesy gesture meant to disgust people, and said to Fang Qizhi in a sticky, sweet voice, “Just like your setting is to like Qin Guchuan, my setting is to be the most beautiful person in the world, oh~”

Fang Qizhi: “…”

Fang Qizhi: “……..” 

“Get lost.” Fang Qizhi said expressionlessly.

After being forced to ‘like’ Qin Guchuan countless times, he already felt he couldn’t continue being a fan anymore.