Lu Chi left close to dawn.
The housekeeping staff came to clean up the mess on the floor. Lu Chi transferred half a month’s salary to them, then packed up his own clothes. By the time everything was over, Liang Jiashu, who had been moved onto the bed, was still unconscious, his eyes closed.
He had struck hard, hard enough to knock out a grown man.
This was something Lu Chi had learned from an action coordinator back when he was filming dramas. He hadn’t expected that in the end, it would be used on Gong No.1.
Under the lights, the young man’s handsome face was slightly twisted, and even in unconsciousness, his brows were tightly furrowed. His arms and palms were tensed far too hard, impossible to relax, as if still trapped in the terror of watching Lu Chi leave.
It looked… ferocious.
Lu Chi crouched down and looked at his face. After a moment, he reached out and rubbed the space between Liang Jiashu’s brows.
He didn’t apply medicine to his bruised knees because he understood Liang Jiashu’s way of thinking too well. In Liang Jiashu’s eyes, those were marks Lu Chi had left behind. If they were erased, who knew, Liang Jiashu might personally take a knife and carve them back into himself.
Stubborn and twisted to the point of giving people a headache.
Lu Chi laughed inexplicably, then, after laughing, let out a light sigh.
He stood up, dragged his suitcase, and got into a taxi. After leaving the past far behind, his mind was still unnaturally quiet. Lu Chi tried calling the system twice, but got no response.
It looked like Liang Jiashu could affect the world severely.
Lu Chi watched the damp streetscape flashing past the window, his beautiful, sharp face showing no expression. After a while, he took out that phone again, pondering the best way to end this world.
Four years was too long, not to mention that the solution the system had designed was far too idealistic. In reality, if four years of entanglement piled up, given Liang Jiashu’s rate of growth, unless one of the two of them died…
Otherwise, for every second Lu Chi remained in this world, he would be unable to escape Liang Jiashu for that same second.
And Liang Jiashu was the true protagonist, so he definitely couldn’t die. Lu Chi, out of selfishness, also didn’t want things to end that way.
Love wasn’t something that happened in an instant.
It was being wrapped up again and again, being properly cared for, being surrounded day after day, until that bit of reliance emerged unconsciously. Even Lu Chi, who was capable of anything and always composed, would land in someone’s broad, stubborn embrace, and tentatively reveal a trace of vulnerability meant only for that person.
And Liang Jiashu had caught him.
In every gaze. In every embrace.
The taxi quickly arrived at a five-star hotel.
The doorman held an umbrella and smiled as he helped with the luggage. Lu Chi thanked him politely, went up to the top-floor presidential suite, washed up, and quickly fell asleep. When he opened his eyes again, daylight was already bright, but the heavy rain outside hadn’t stopped.
Rain slapped against the windows, spreading and seeping into the seams.
Lu Chi changed into a thick navy-blue jacket embroidered with a subtle flying-bird pattern on the back, making him look especially striking.
He had class today, and he still needed to keep working. However, the moment he opened the door, Lu Chi met a pair of familiar, pitch-black eyes.
Liang Jiashu stood right outside the suite door. No one knew how long he had been there.
The corridor lights made his already deathly pale face look even more sinister. He had clearly cleaned himself up, changed into fresh clothes the moment he woke, tracked Lu Chi down, and waited here.
Lu Chi met his gaze. After a long moment, he heard him say hoarsely but calmly: “You didn’t leave A City.”
You didn’t flee like someone escaping a clinging evil spirit, didn’t abandon me, throw me away, disappear as fast as possible.
Lu Chi hummed and asked instead, “Why would I leave?”
Liang Jiashu stared at him. Perhaps the words soothed him somewhat as his tightly wound body relaxed a little. But his voice was still hoarse.
“The hotel bill you paid was charged to my card.”
Lu Chi raised an eyebrow leisurely, asking, “Isn’t that allowed?”
After saying that, he opened his phone and, right in front of Liang Jiashu, booked another half-month at a luxury hotel, a full season of a certain high-end brand’s new releases, all the limited exhibition pieces from nearby galleries…
Every charge went on Liang Jiashu’s card. The purchase list kept adding and adding until Lu Chi got bored.
The phone in Liang Jiashu’s pocket began vibrating nonstop as banks sent transaction alerts. In less than ten minutes, Lu Chi had spent over a million of his money. Then he folded his arms and leaned against the doorframe, looking at him with complete justification.
“It’s just a breakup. Your function as an ATM hasn’t disappeared, has it?”
Liang Jiashu froze. Then, in those dead-cold eyes, a spark of life suddenly appeared. He stared at Lu Chi, as if trying to determine whether he was lying, whether that was just a way to temporarily placate him. But Lu Chi had already pushed past him, impatient to leave.
Liang Jiashu immediately grabbed Lu Chi’s hand, his long fingers closing around his wrist bone. Pressing down his breathing, he asked, as calmly as he could:
“Lu Chi, why break up?”
If all he could be was an ATM, then he must have done something wrong elsewhere, something that made Lu Chi angry.
Give him a hint.
Let him crawl out of this cold, damp swamp and crawl back to Lu Chi’s side.
Please.
Lu Chi looked at Liang Jiashu’s stubborn, twisted eyes. After a moment, he lowered his gaze to where their hands met.
“Liang Jiashu, I need love,” he said. “I need a lot, and I mean a lot of love.”
“……”
Liang Jiashu fell silent. He looked at the phone with which Lu Chi had just casually spent millions, then at his red lips, white teeth, and radiant face, beautiful from having slept so well last night.
After a long while, he said hoarsely: “I can give you a lot, a lot of love.”
That kind of love. Every kind of love.
After speaking, he broke free from the hold without allowing refusal, turned away, and fixed his gaze tightly on Lu Chi’s retreating back, his expression unreadable.
Lu Chi let out a breath of relief and got into the car.
By the time he reached the classroom and set down the day’s teaching materials, a familiar, cheerful mechanical voice suddenly sounded in his ear: [Baby, good morning! You look especially good today, too!]
Lu Chi hummed and asked casually: [What was I doing last night?]
The system replied: [Smashing the villa. Host, don’t work so hard, just wait four years, and I’ll take you away!]
The idiot system had had its memory wiped again. Who knew whether that would affect its little cyber bladder?
Lu Chi thought nonsense thoughts and told the system to go to sleep. Today’s class was sketching. He ignored Liang Jiashu as he entered the classroom, calmly opened the PPT, and began teaching as usual.
………………..
For half a month straight, Liang Jiashu never missed one of Lu Chi’s classes.
They were like they hadn’t broken up at all. Although they no longer shared a bed at night, they still saw each other almost every day. But Lu Chi rejected Liang Jiashu’s invitations, rejected his waiting outside the door, rejected his flowers and money.
Ask why, and the answer was always:
Clubbing. Lack of love. Needs a lot, a lot of love.
Liang Jiashu’s expression grew more sinister by the day, and the classroom atmosphere followed suit.
[What’s Wrong With Teacher-Student Romance]: Holy shit, I can’t take it anymore! Who let the wacho roll in here with that dead face?? Who’s he showing it to?!
[LC❤️LC]: If he hates Teacher Lu so much, he can just not come to class, why torture us??
[What’s Wrong With Teacher-Student Romance]: If he hates him that much… Do you think he’d gouge out his eyes if he saw those videos of the teacher dancing? Idiot, get lost ahhhhh!
Everyone thought Liang Jiashu hated Lu Chi because the way he looked at Lu Chi could no longer be described as conspicuous.
It was pure hatred.
So intense that people almost hallucinated that in the next second, that wacho would pounce onto the podium, chew up the aloof-looking Teacher Lu and swallow him whole, bones included, not even spitting them out.
…Wait.
Why does that description feel a little strange? The top of my head feels itchy… a bit like I’m about to… grow a brain.
Among the crowd of low-IQ students dazzled by beauty, only Gu Yanyan clenched his fingers tightly, his heart pounding as he stared at the two people at the front.
Lu Chi hadn’t driven his old car for half a month. And for half a month, he hadn’t deliberately worn high-collared sweaters to cover his neck anymore.
…have they broken up?
He finally waited until they broke up!!!
Gu Yanyan almost screamed out loud, but he forced the excitement down, patiently restraining himself once more. Like a malicious supporting character peeping at the protagonists from the gutter, he carefully observed Liang Jiashu and Lu Chi for another full week.
Then he confirmed it. Lu Chi was really single!!!
By the end of December, he would leave A University and no longer be his teacher in name. Gu Yanyan could confess to him. He could tell him his feelings without restraint, then wait for Lu Chi to nod in agreement!
Just thinking about it made Gu Yanyan wake up laughing in his dreams. So much so that even when he ran into Liang Zhiyu, now sporting a buzz cut and a muscular style, he could greet him mildly, then ignore the other party’s ghost-seeing expression, walking away while pulling out his phone and opening Lu Chi’s chat window.
Gu Yanyan carefully chose his words.
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Teacher, are you free tomorrow night?
After a long while, the other side finally replied: [?]
Gu Yanyan jumped in place excitedly, not noticing the faint strangeness on the other end, nor the increasingly narrowed gaze behind him from Liang Zhiyu.
He typed again rapidly.
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Did you break up with Liang Jiashu?
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Teacher, don’t misunderstand… I didn’t deliberately ask around. I know you hate being harassed. But I still have to say this: dumping Liang Jiashu was an especially correct decision! A mad dog who bites people, a perverted obsessive like him, how could he ever be worthy of you?!
“…”
The bedroom wardrobe door slid open with a clatter as Liang Jiashu sat in the living room, his pitch-black eyes calmly fixed on the conversation rolling on the screen.
[Eat, Sleep, Dance]: Is that so?
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Yeah! Actually, I don’t want to call you “Teacher.” I want to call you what I used to call you in the beginning… Brother Chi.
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Brother Chi, I met you earlier than both Liang Jiashu and Liang Zhiyu! At FOM, I was the first person to ever see you dance. If possible, please give me a chance.
[AAA VIP Booth Booking – Xiao Yan]: Tomorrow night at eight, the west gate by the campus lake. Please allow me, on the day you resign, to meet you once!
A cold smile surfaced at the corner of his lips as Liang Jiashu typed slowly, icily.
[Eat, Sleep, Dance]: Sure.
The next second, the bedroom door opened. Lu Chi walked out and tossed a shirt he had mistakenly taken from the wardrobe at Liang Jiashu, saying, “Your clothes are here. You can leave.”
That was the excuse he’d used to come over. Liang Jiashu hummed, expression unchanged as he caught it and turned to leave. When he reached the door, he suddenly stopped. Without turning back, he asked:
“Lu Chi, do you hate obsessives?”
Lu Chi didn’t even lift his head, answering, “I hate stingy men.”
Liang Jiashu laughed softly. He didn’t say anything else and actually just left like that.
Lu Chi raised an eyebrow, then heard the system suddenly remind him: [Baby, Gong No.1 just looked at your phone.]
Lu Chi paused, picked it up, and unlocked it.
…What the hell.
Liang Jiashu hadn’t even deleted the chat. Lu Chi frowned at the conversation box, then suddenly thought of something, and his beautiful eyes slowly lit up.
Lowering his eyes, he told the system: [Your brain capacity… I mean, does losing your memory so often affect your intelligence?]
System: [Memory loss? Baby, you’re mistaken, I’ve never lost my memory once! Besides, I’m just a string of data. I don’t have “intelligence” to begin with. It won’t affect my underlying code~]
Its voice was absurdly confident… like a senile old cat. Warm. Comforting even.
Lu Chi hummed, said nothing more, showered, and went to sleep.
The next day, he only had two classes. After finishing them, he went to the Academic Affairs Office to handle his resignation procedures, and happened to run into Liang Zhiyu, who was there to cancel his medical leave.
Liang Zhiyu had been beaten pretty badly by Li Sheng earlier; his leave only expired today.
The upheavals during that period had forced the young man to grow rapidly. He’d cut his long hair, and beneath the buzz cut, his brows and eyes carried a strong sense of aggression. In the dead of winter, he wore only a sports jacket, but when he saw Lu Chi, the ferocity on his face vanished, replaced with surprise.
“Teacher Lu!”
Then his gaze shifted to the resignation papers in Lu Chi’s hands, and his voice abruptly stalled.
“Teacher… you’re leaving?”
Lu Chi hummed, casually patted his slightly prickly head, and said, “Study hard. Try to get your sister’s ice cream brand to open stores nationwide.”
Liang Zhiyu opened his mouth. After a long while, he silently watched Lu Chi leave. The tall figure of the man quickly disappeared around the corner. Ignoring the shocked, excited looks of the classmates beside him, Liang Zhiyu suddenly remembered Gu Yanyan and the disgusting, familiar smile on his face yesterday…
“Fuck!”
With that, he grabbed a friend next to him and demanded viciously, “Where’s Gu Yanyan?!”
……………
Gu Yanyan was preparing to confess.
He’d been rehearsing all afternoon, standing beneath the trees at the west gate of the campus, repeating it over and over. By the time Liang Zhiyu, belatedly aware of what he was planning to do, went through hell to check surveillance and track him down, moonlight had already climbed to the treetops.
At the end of December, breathing at night produced white mist.
Lu Chi wore a down jacket. Beneath his black hair, his face was beautiful and sharp, and his vivid brows and eyes were lit by moonlight, revealing a faint, cool glimmer.
As he approached the woods, the system’s morally bankrupt code kicked in, gloating cheerfully: [Baby, Gong No.2 brought classmates from the group chat and is squatting behind your left rear! You arrived too fast, they didn’t have time to drag the Protagonist Shou away yet.]
[Also, Gong No.1 is standing to your right. He’s already run into the Protagonist Shou at the lake… how strange, today was also their confession-famous-scene in the original work.]
Why did reality always align with the original plot in such bizarre, crooked ways?!
The system’s kink flared up as it excitedly said: [Baby, hurry and break up Gong No.1 and the Protagonist Shou! Those two absolutely cannot be together!]
Lu Chi smiled, raising an eyebrow. [I arrived half an hour early,] he said. [Liang Jiashu actually got here before me?]
The system made a muffled sound. [He came at noon. Listened to the Protagonist Shou rehearse his confession script for ages, then couldn’t help sneering!]
So that was how they ran into each other. Lu Chi couldn’t say that he didn’t do it on purpose… letting them meet and all that.
He walked all the way to the agreed lakeside spot. Moonlight spilled coolly over the water, and in the usually deserted woods, two figures now stood, one tall, one short.
Gu Yanyan, dressed in brand-new clothes, looked coldly at Liang Jiashu and spoke just as coldly: “Liang Jiashu, what are you doing here?!”
Compared to the nervous cowardice of their first confrontation, Gu Yanyan had clearly grown a great deal. With his bangs swept up, his brows and eyes were sharp. He stood his ground without retreating, like a knight protecting a princess, sword drawn in challenge against an evil dragon.
But the evil dragon, Liang Jiashu, said nothing.
He didn’t even look at Gu Yanyan. His pitch-black gaze rested on the rippling lake surface, expression indifferent and cold, as though waiting for someone.
A remote grove. An eerie silence.
Until the sound of calm, familiar footsteps rang out.
At the end of the path, the tall, beautiful man finally emerged slowly.
He seemed a little afraid of the cold as his pale, delicate chin was tucked into his collar, revealing only a pair of upturned, moist, and affectionate eyes. Light brown pupils slid through the moonlight; when his gaze fell over, it was like feathers, like a gentle breeze.
Carrying an illusion of warmth and cold intertwined.
Liang Jiashu knew Lu Chi would come. He was always like that: careless, yet never belittling any genuine feeling offered to him. Countless passionate loves surrounded him, letting him pick and choose at will, but Lu Chi merely passed through, smiling as he walked away on his own, ignoring every voice.
So the moment he met those affectionate eyes, Gu Yanyan, too, understood instantly: tonight’s confession, rehearsed hundreds of times, was ending in yet another failure.
But strangely, he wasn’t too heartbroken.
Because Lu Chi was already very good.
He shouldn’t be too greedy, shouldn’t push too hard. At the very least, he shouldn’t allow Liang Jiashu, that mad dog, to block Lu Chi’s path, to keep interfering with Lu Chi’s privacy even after breaking up, not letting anyone else confess to him…
Gu Yanyan was always fierce at critical moments. So the next second, he suddenly rammed hard into Liang Jiashu, lunged forward without warning, and firmly grabbed Lu Chi’s hand, declaring: “Brother Chi, you and Liang Jiashu have already broken up! Don’t worry, starting today, no one will be able to restrict your freedom to make friends!”
“With me here, you’ll always be free!”
The words hit the ground with weight.
The group-chat students hiding behind the trees froze, eyes vacant, staring in disbelief at the scene before them.
Who broke up with whom??!
Who?!
With who?!!
Who1?!
No one knew what Gu Yanyan had been fed growing up, but when he went feral, he was harder to catch than a pig at New Year. Liang Jiashu was knocked off balance for the first time in his life, stumbling back several steps without any guard up. When he looked up, he met Lu Chi’s slightly shocked gaze.
As if it were saying: How embarrassing, he actually knocked you over?!
The man blinked, quickly withdrew his gaze, and continued allowing Gu Yanyan to cling to his hand and pour out his feelings. Liang Jiashu’s pupils shrank, and an indescribable fury surged up in his chest.
Fuck!
For some reason, every time he saw Gu Yanyan, he felt an almost uncontrollable disgust and killing intent. Like protagonist seeing protagonist: if he didn’t exist in this world, then the one who would win Lu Chi’s attention would definitely be the other party.
That thought alone made Liang Jiashu’s pupils constrict violently, and he really, truly wanted to kill someone!
But because he was certain Lu Chi would reject him, he forced it down… for now.
However, Lu Chi didn’t push Gu Yanyan away as Liang Jiashu expected. Under the moonlight, the man lowered his long lashes and smiled lightly at him. After a moment, he raised an eyebrow and asked gently, “You want to protect me?”
Gu Yanyan froze, and his grip trembled. Excited like a bull seeing red, he nodded frantically, words tumbling out: “Yes! Brother Chi, I’ll definitely protect you! I like you!”
Lu Chi frowned, seeming troubled. “But I’m a bit love-deprived,” he said. “Do you mind?”
Gu Yanyan froze again. “…Huh?!”
He had never associated the words love-deprived with the confident, composed Lu Chi. Then his expression twisted in sudden rage, almost screaming, “Did Liang Jiashu PUA2 you?! Fuck, I knew he wasn’t a good person! He doesn’t even have good intentions when acting like a dog!”
“Brother Chi, don’t let him fool you! You’re especially, especially good! All of us really, really like you! At A University alone, you have twelve group chats, I’m in all twelve! Though I quit Group Six a couple of days ago, those rats only know how to fantasize about you… Heh, a bunch of idiots, besides daydreaming about licking you, they don’t do anything else!”
“But I’m not like that! I’ve already started preparing for certifications! In the future, whether you lack love or money, I can satisfy you! In bed, I accept anything too, as long as you’re willing to let me kiss you once, preferably with tongue…”
Bang!
The youth was slammed to the ground without warning, a fist smashing down hard.
Everything went silent. The person restraining him with one hand looked cold, and before anyone could react, he kicked Gu Yanyan, his face already covered in blood, straight into the lake.
With a huge splash, the students behind the trees went stiff with shock.
“Liang Jiashu!”
Liang Jiashu grabbed Lu Chi, who was about to rush over and save the drowning chicken. Three months of inexplicable clubbing lies, breakup notices, cold violence handling methods flashed through his mind… and now, even worse, someone grabbing Lu Chi’s hand right in front of him, saying they wanted to kiss him!
With tongue!!!
And Lu Chi had smiled at the person and said he lacked love!
…Ha.
Like a dog finally driven mad, Liang Jiashu forcefully pinned the beautiful man in front of him, his tone calm, but his voice hoarse.
“Lacking love?!”
“Lu Chi, what kind of love do you lack?!”
“You go to nightclubs in the morning, at noon, at night!”
“At dawn, you say you wanted to break up with me, you say you needed lots and lots of love!”
“Lu Chi, have you ever gone to a hospital?!”
The system was so frightened by the near-fatal Shura field that it went completely silent. As for Lu Chi, he simplyblinked, still having the leisure to ask it: [Does this count as stopping Gong No.1 and the Protagonist Shou from getting together?]
The pants-wetting little system was clearly unable to answer.
Suddenly, Lu Chi’s jaw was seized as Liang Jiashu leaned in close. After a long moment, he said hoarsely:
“Lu Chi, have you never seriously listened to what I said?”
“I said, I love you.”
“I love you!”
No matter how much Lu Chi lacked, he could give it!
So don’t go looking for anyone else!
Under the moonlight, the young man’s pitch-black pupils were half-contracted. Painful, yet calm, he stared at Lu Chi, almost pleading. Lu Chi paused, then suddenly asked out of nowhere: “If I turned into a chicken, would you still love me?”
Liang Jiashu answered without hesitation: “I would!”
Plop!
Gu Yanyan, who’d often gone into the water as a kid, suddenly paddled up from the lake, coughing out mouthfuls of water. Panting as he looked at Lu Chi, he still tried desperately to profess his love:
“I love you too, Brother Chi!”
“My family raised chickens! When I was little, I fed chickens really well! Brother Chi, I love you!”
Everyone: “……”
Two seconds later, encouraged, Liang Zhiyu suddenly burst out from behind the trees, also clenching his fists and shouting:
“I love you too, Teacher Lu! I was born in the Year of the Rooster3!”
Lu Chi, who had only asked casually: “……”
The next second, in that utterly chaotic situation, where Gong No.1, Protagonist Shou, and Gong No.2 were all competing to confess to Lu Chi, the system in his mind finally dinged, delivering the sound Lu Chi had been waiting for.
[New protagonist group relationship achieved! Gong No.1, Protagonist Shou, and Gong No.2 are mutually hostile, each taking “stabbing the other to death” as a life goal!]
[Congratulations, Host! Detachment-from-world plan updated! Pending load!]
[Load time: one week!]
Finally! It fucking worked!!!
Lu Chi instantly lifted his gaze, eyes sparkling brightly as he looked at Liang Jiashu. The joy in those beautiful eyes was too intense, too genuine. so much so that Liang Jiashu’s heart…
Sank instantly.
Unsurprisingly, Gu Yanyan clearly thought the same. The youth, his face covered in blood and lake water, shivering with cold but still wildly excited, screamed:
“Brother Chi is happy! Liang Jiashu, did you see that?! Let go of him!”
“You already broke up, we’re competing fairly, fairly!”
Liang Zhiyu was even more direct. Without saying a word, he stepped forward to snatch Lu Chi from Liang Jiashu’s arms.
Lu Chi smiled helplessly. “Wait…”
A cold palm suddenly grabbed the back of his neck, mercilessly squeezing. Lu Chi had no guard against Liang Jiashu, and his breath went light instantly. The next second, he lost consciousness, his head tilting into a familiar, broad chest.
The woods fell deathly silent.
The tall young man stood there indifferently, holding Lu Chi in one arm. Behind him, a group of black-clad bodyguards had arrived at A University at some unknown time. They poured into the woods silently, restraining the struggling Gu Yanyan and Liang Zhiyu, covering their mouths, completely expressionless.
Moonlight spilled down.
The students hiding in the woods swallowed hard, not daring to speak. Liang Jiashu lowered his head without expression as he carried the man in his arms into a black car, kissing the unconscious man’s lips.
The car window rose, and the well-trained bodyguards withdrew swiftly.
Three days later, the A City police department received a report.
A 27-year-old man named Lu Chi had suddenly gone missing.
- This bunch of owls :)) ↩︎
- PUA initially stands for Pick-up Artists, those who study and practice techniques to attract romantic partners. But in recent years, it has become a Chinese slang, meaning a person who shows manipulative or emotionally abusive behavior, psychological manipulation in a romantic relationship. ↩︎
- I can’t :))) help! ↩︎
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