Chapter 70: Nian Yuzhuo
2042, X Secret Research Base.
The supervisor wrote in the report: All members of the first batch of testers are dead.
When the higher-ups saw it, they only frowned, then calmly continued preparing for the third batch, just in case.
Given the fatality rate of the first batch, they believed the second batch wouldn’t last long either.
The one in charge of test data was a mixed-race beauty named Anna. “Chief, do you really think Dr. Yu’s willingly working for the boss?”
“What do you think?” Zhou Jing, whom Anna called Chief, asked back.
“I don’t know.” Anna frowned, thinking it over.
After all, if Dr. Yu wanted to deceive them, he could do it in minutes. When it came to falsifying data, no one could outdo that young and mysterious Dr. Yu.
He was known as Asia’s prodigy in both biology and electronics. He was only twenty-five this year, full name Yu Jiqing, born to a prestigious family, a graduate of one of the world’s top ten universities. He’d been inventing since the age of twelve, obsessed with electronic intelligence, and specialized in building coded locks and thermal weapons.
“How would I know?” Zhou Jing said.
So whether Dr. Yu’s reports were genuine or not, only Dr. Yu himself knew.
“Forget it.” Anna shook her head. “I’ll go check the corpses of the first batch.”
“Make sure you check for any signs of life,” Zhou Jing said. “It wasn’t easy for the boss to find volunteers willing to risk their necks for money.”
“Got it,” Anna replied.
But if a tester somehow survived yet was no longer useful for the experiment, the boss wouldn’t let them live anyway. Everything had to stay confidential.
“Dr. Anna.” The guard at the door was a young man named Yi Yang.
“I heard everyone inside’s dead. Have you been in there?” Anna stood at the entrance, peering through the glass.
“No.” Yi Yang said, though he was looking at the gorgeous Anna. “I don’t have clearance.” He was just the guard; robots handled everything inside.
“Right, I almost forgot. You’re just a temp hire.” Anna picked up the badge hanging from his neck and glanced at it lazily. “Open the door. I want to take a look.”
“Yes, ma’am.” Yi Yang’s gaze darted away from her chest.
There were twelve people in the first batch of testers.
Anna stopped in front of the first pod. “Even you’re dead, huh? What a waste.”
Inside lay a tall, well-built man with handsome features and powerful, defined muscles.
She looked at the info card beside the pod. Li Dong, 28 years old, retired soldier.
“How’re we handling the bodies of the first batch?” Anna asked when she got back to the office.
“Cremation,” Zhou Jing said as he took off his glasses.
“Fine.” Anna shrugged. Still, she couldn’t help feeling it was a pity. That handsome ex-soldier lingered in her mind.
Meanwhile, in his private office, Yu Jiqing was bent over a magnifying glass, repairing a malfunctioning nutrition pod.
“Sir, Number 1’s about to wake up. Are you done yet?” the smart butler asked for the third time in five minutes.
“Shut up.” Yu Jiqing wiped the sweat off his forehead. “Whose fault do you think this is? You broke the core when you swapped the pods. Lucky for you I caught it in time.”
Otherwise, Number 1’s body could’ve suffered irreversible damage.
“You’re amazing, sir,” the system said. “But why did you steal Number 1’s pod?”
“…” Someone please smash this talkative piece of junk.
“If I may analyze,” the system went on, “human silence usually indicates two possibilities. One, disdain for answering: your emotion in that case is likely pride. Two, embarrassment: meaning you’re probably shy.”
“Ha…” Yu Jiqing picked up the remote and switched the system off.
Honestly, he didn’t even need the system to issue commands; he could run everything manually. The system wasn’t there because it was capable, it was there because it could talk.
In a sealed lab, alone for years on end, that kind of silence could drive a person insane.
But sorry, system. From today on, the good doctor had Number 1 to keep him company.
Even if Number 1 could only “live” inside the pod right now, it was obvious he was the doctor’s new favorite.
Just look at the pod itself. After Yu Jiqing’s upgrades, its performance had improved drastically, even if the user inside couldn’t tell the difference.
“All right.” Yu Jiqing pressed the start button, then turned to the largest screen in the room.
After thirteen hours of black, the monitor flickered back to life. The first image to appear was a warm, sunlit bedroom.
“Hey, Can-can?” Jiang Liannan cracked one eye open and nudged the man beside him. “Someone’s ringing the bell. Go answer it.”
It was winter, freezing cold. Who the hell came this early?
“…” Normally, Li Dong would wake up at the slightest nudge and do whatever he was told, but this morning, he didn’t move.
“You’re kidding me, sleeping this deeply?” Jiang Liannan grumbled as he got up. “It’s only nine in the morning, on a weekend at that. Who shows up this early?”
Still wearing his slippers and pajamas, he shuffled to the door. “Who is it?” he asked through the peephole.
It was a girl who looked exactly like one of the employees from the flower shop nearby.
Jiang Liannan’s heart skipped a beat, and he opened the door right away.
“…” Sure enough, a massive bouquet filled his view.
“Good morning, Mr. Jiang. Today’s your anniversary,” the girl said cheerfully. “Mr. Li ordered these for you.”
“Thank you.” He signed, grabbed the bouquet, and ran back inside, grinning.
Ahhhh, their fifth anniversary!
“Hubby!” The older man leapt onto the bed with the flowers in his arms. “I’m so happy!”
“Do you even know how heavy you are?” Li Dong pushed the flowers off his face. “It’s freezing! Get off!”
“Okay, okay.” The uncle bounced up, carried the flowers to the living room, and started arranging them. “The most romantic thing I can think of is growing old with you~” he sang, swaying his hips. After five years, he’d long since fallen past the fertilized-egg threshold. He was probably a happy little sperm by now.
“Darling, where’re we eating tonight?” Jiang Liannan poked his head out from the living room, a green rose leaf balanced on his lips.
“I already booked the place,” Li Dong mumbled under the blanket. “You’ll find out later. If you’re not tired, go play on your own. Let me sleep.”
“So it’s a surprise, huh?” Jiang Liannan opened WeChat and typed:
“@Can-can, it’s our anniversary! Can-can says he’s already booked the restaurant. Everyone, guess where we’re eating this year!”
Jiang Xiaonan: “Whoever guesses right gets a red envelope! Can-can made a lot this year, he can afford a big one~”
Fu Changyin: “Lao Si, you’re 40, not 4.”
Over the years, they felt increasingly unable to handle the once-proud, reserved, disdainful-of-showing-weakness Lao Si.
Jiang Xiaonan: “Nonsense, I’m only 18.”
Being spoiled into a fertilized egg felt like being eighteen forever, so pampered you couldn’t even twist off a bottle cap, the type who might get hit by a car crossing the street alone.
Yu Jiqing worked on formulas while watching the screen, two hours slipping by before he knew it.
He reactivated the system. “Analyze the data. Summarize the second batch’s first-world results. Flag any testers who seem interesting.”
“Yes, sir. Though technically, that’s your job.”
Ever since Yu Jiqing started binge-watching Number 1’s daily life, he hadn’t been serious about work.
“I’m assigning it to you,” he said, glancing at the nearest camera. “Any objections?”
“No objections.” The system immediately folded. “There were twelve testers in the second batch. Three died in the first world, leaving nine. Four used the ‘prophet’ ability to scam money, three used wealth to indulge themselves, and two went into politics.”
“Tsk tsk.” Yu Jiqing looked at the smaller screen. Every face there, some cocky, some indulgent, was its own brand of pathetic.
“The most interesting is Number 13,” the system continued. “He scored about the same as Number 1. He’s in politics but seems to genuinely care about the people.”
Yu Jiqing looked at Number 13. “Hm.” Probably the kind the higher-ups would be curious about. “Keep watching.”
He looked for only a few seconds before switching back to Number 1’s screen.
“What’s Number 1 doing right now?” the system asked.
“Living his life,” Yu Jiqing said, sipping hot water. “You want to watch too?”
“I’ll pass,” the system said after a pause. “I’m busy analyzing.”
“Figures.” Yu Jiqing hadn’t meant the invite anyway. Watching a romance with an emotionless AI? No thanks.
While running its analysis, the system occasionally sneaked glances at the Number 1 feed. “Number 1’s so gentle.”
That tester fell in love with the protagonist in every single world.
“The higher-ups said my first world was too twisted,” Yu Jiqing said with a small smile. “Now all the worlds are normal, and people still die.”
“That’s not your fault,” the system said. “Character determines fate. Look at Number 1, he’s doing fine.”
If every tester were half as careful, instead of acting like I know the plot so I’m untouchable, way fewer would’ve died.
“This world’s about to end,” Yu Jiqing said softly.
“Number 1’s so gentle,” the system repeated.
On-screen, Li Dong sat in a sunlit garden, gently closing Jiang Liannan’s eyes. “Uncle Lian.”
The image froze at that moment.
“What a beautiful shot.” Screenshot-addict Yu Jiqing dragged it into a folder full of Li Dong images. “I’ll make them into an album for him someday.”
“Someday?” The system didn’t understand. In its data, Number One had no “someday.”
“The next world,” Yu Jiqing said, ignoring it.
After an unusually long sleep, Li Dong’s sadness eased a lot.
Every time he woke in a new world, he remembered everything that came before, but he could let it go, holding on only to the good.
And lately, he’d started to feel faintly that something he truly wanted was waiting for him at the end.
That thought burned in his heart like a small, warm flame.
“Number 1…”
Li Dong’s eyelashes trembled. He woke with a start in confusion.
Number 1?
He sat up, rubbing his sore head. “Ow… sh*t…” He winced and hissed. “It hurts.” There was a big bump on his forehead.
Holding his head, he looked around. “…” Everything looked old-fashioned. Not a single modern thing in sight.
So this time’s world was ancient. No doubt about it.
He lay back down, squinted for a moment, then muttered, “What the f*ck world’s number one beauty…”
That was his current identity.
A wuxia world. Zixiao Sect. Third disciple Su Lingya. Highly skilled, devastatingly beautiful, famously titled the most beautiful man under heaven.
Su Lingya’s real nature though, was manipulative and scheming, a hypocritical villain plotting to seize both the sect master and alliance leader positions.
The male-lead shou of this world was named Nian Yuzhuo. When he was young, he came from a fallen family and was sold into a brothel at eleven.
Tragic didn’t even cover it. The first time he took a client at twelve, it was a deranged old man.
Terrified to madness, he killed the man that very night.
From there, he never came back from the path of blood. By chance, he learned a demonic technique that could absorb others’ internal power. His first act was to hunt down everyone who’d sold him and take revenge.
His killing methods were so vicious that heroes across the martial world were terrified.
Soon after, he joined the number one demonic sect, Xuanyin Sect.
By 18, he was a hall master. At 20, Left Protector. At 24, the new sect leader.
When Nian Yuzhuo was still an unknown disciple, he became pen pals with someone via carrier pigeon.
Because Nian Yuzuo’s childhood experiences led to a gloomy, violent personality, he had almost no friends inside or outside the sect.
This same-age person communicating through carrier pigeons slowly became Nian Yuzuo’s cinnabar mole, his only soft spot.
The dog-blood twist? That pen pal was the novel’s scummy gong Zixiao Sect’s senior brother and future heir, Zhang Junluo.
A “central air-conditioning.” type. Warm to everyone, indecisive, and a total scumbag.
When Zhang Junluo found out his pen pal was actually the demonic sect leader, his first reaction was to cut all contact before anyone could find out.
But before he could destroy the letters, third junior brother Su Lingya found them.
In a panic, Zhang Junluo wrote to Nian Yuzhuo and “accidentally” exposed Su Lingya’s whereabouts.
Nian Yuzhuo, thinking Su Lingya had wronged his beloved, went to kill him immediately.
In the original story, Su Lingya fell off a cliff but survived, rescued by a reclusive woman, who happened to be Zhang Junluo’s long-lost fiancée.
After that, when Nian Yuzhuo tried to meet his pen pal, the man disappeared. Then came the alliance conference, where Su Lingya exposed the whole thing.
Scummy gong Zhang Junluo naturally didn’t admit it. To prove his innocence, he challenged Nian Yuzuo to battle. Not only did he capture Nian Yuzuo alive, but he also called for a demon-slaying conference.
Heartbroken, Nian Yuzhuo’s men rescued him.
Zhang Junluo finally realized Xuanyin Sect’s power. He couldn’t beat them, but he could play smart.
He went to Xuanyin Sect alone, laid down his weapon, and said, “Leader Nian, Junluo’s here to atone.”
And Nian Yuzhuo fell.
He kept Zhang Junluo by his side, talking by day and… “harmonizing” by night.
Over time, even the scummy gong caught feelings.
He couldn’t bring himself to kill Nian Yuzhuo, so he convinced him to cripple his own cultivation and leave the sect.
Would a demonic overlord really be that naïve?
Yes, he really was.
After crippling his cultivation, Nian Yuzhuo moved down the mountain with Zhang Junluo.
For a year or two, they lived peacefully and Zhang Junluo treated him well.
Then came the wedding.
As sect master, Zhang Junluo married both his fiancée and Nian Yuzhuo, without telling either of them.
When his eldest son was born, Nian Yuzhuo finally found out.
By then, he had no power, no money, no friends. Even random Zixiao disciples could kick him around.
Zhang Junluo knew, but turned a blind eye. “Endure it,” he said.
And when the master ignored it, the disciples grew worse.
After his wife gave birth, Zhang Junluo spent more time with her and their son, and only occasionally visited Nian Yuzhuo.
He still felt guilty but kept doing it.
When Li Dong read this, it made him sick. He hated men like Zhang Junluo, wishy-washy trash who couldn’t even end things cleanly.
If you don’t love someone, just say so. Let each go their own way. Nian Yuzhuo wouldn’t have clung.
But no, he had to play the tragic lover, neglecting him while pretending to care.
And Nian Yuzhuo, how did he stand it? His lover ignored him for weeks, and he still stayed?
That wasn’t love, that was brain damage.
Anyone else would’ve left the moment he married and had a kid. “Sharing a husband”? Get real.
Don’t say “that’s how it was in ancient times.” Spare me.
Whatever Zhang Junluo had, Nian Yuzhuo could’ve had too.
Li Dong thought it was simple. Nian Yuzhuo loved with his heart. Zhang Junluo lived by his desires.
Desire drove him to scheme, to marry, to chase titles, to betray. Everything came from lust and ambition.
Sure, it was realistic human nature. But on the page, compared to Nian Yuzhuo, it made him utterly loathsome.
Li Dong sighed at the memory of it all.
“Third Senior Brother.” Someone shouted outside. “Senior Brother says to bring his sword to the bamboo grove. He says hurry!”
When there was no answer, the voice called again more softly.
“I got it,” Li Dong replied.
He got up, still not used to the long hair and wide robes of ancient times.
“Third Senior Brother…” The young disciple outside froze when the door opened.
Gulp.
His face turned bright red.
“Uh…” Third Senior Brother was so good-looking. “Here’s the sword, I’m going!” He shoved the sword into Li Dong’s hands, covered his face, and ran.
Li Dong touched his face. “Sigh…”
The bamboo grove wasn’t easy to reach. If nothing went wrong, the Xuanyin Sect leader Nian Yuzhuo was already there waiting for him.
Li Dong went back to grab the stolen letter Su Lingya had taken from Zhang Junluo and tucked it into his robe.
As he walked the stone path, passing by other Zixiao disciples, everyone stopped to greet him politely.
If you looked closely, every single man’s face was red.
Li Dong didn’t mind. “Mm.” His expression calm, he nodded slightly, looking like warm jade in human form.
His brows were like distant mountains, lips rosy without rouge, black hair cascading over a sky-blue robe. No wonder every time he went down the mountain, they had to guard against “harassment.”
The bamboo grove behind the temple was quiet. When Li Dong entered, the air seemed to grow colder.
“Senior Brother.” he called, knowing perfectly well Zhang Junluo wasn’t here.
Rustle.
He turned toward the sound of swaying bamboo just as a sharp gust of air sliced through.
As a modern man, Li Dong didn’t react fast enough. The strike landed square on his chest.
Nian Yuzhuo’s palm tore open his robe. The letter burst free, pages scattering through the air. “Ugh!” Li Dong’s body flew backward.
Nian Yuzhuo caught one of the falling pages, his fingers trembling when he saw the words. “Rongqing?”
His figure blurred as he dashed forward, catching the falling man before he hit the ground, then pushed off a rock to land safely.
“Rongqing!” Nian Yuzhuo called, but the man in his arms was already unconscious. He didn’t hesitate, he lifted him and used his lightness skill to rush back to Xuanyin Sect.
Author’s Note:
【Thank you all for your concern. Love you all~ Aunt Flo this paper tiger is about to be knocked down by me】
Handsome Yao: Impostor Dong, so this is your despicable tactic?
Impostor Li: I didn’t say anything. I didn’t do anything.
Handsome Yao: What if you get exposed? That’d be… unthinkable.
Impostor Li: Someone I’ve slept with would really still have the heart to kill me?
Handsome Yao: “…You’ve got guts.”（thumbs up for Brother Dong, so hardcore）
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