Chu Weirang had braced himself thoroughly. He had still not been prepared for this particular form of psychological torment.
He was even starting to question himself — had they really, at some point in the past, been involved? Because the ease with which this person said these things to him was completely unnatural.
Although, he had to admit, the voice sounded genuinely pathetic.
He recalled what the housekeeper had told him, pieced it together with what Su Si had said, and a series of images assembled themselves unbidden in his mind.
A small Omega, perched in front of a computer, pouring everything into writing. Starting off full of excitement. Giving it hours of effort. Submitting — only to be rejected immediately, then insulted on top of it.
He pictured the scene. Pictured the expression that would have gone with it. Pictured the small, deflated figure with even his hair drooping in defeat.
Then he thought about the part where said deflated figure had immediately threatened to run to his grandfather, and the mental image gave him an abrupt headache. Chu Weirang was increasingly convinced that their compatibility rating — reported to be ninety-nine percent — must be some kind of cosmic misprint. Negative ninety-nine was closer to the truth.
"What do you want," he said.
The little Omega: "Kiss my hands better first."
Chu Weirang: “…” The man's pupils contracted slightly. Holding the phone, his expression cycled through several variations of stunned disbelief.
He… he could not physically bring himself to do it.
Su Si made soft, aggrieved noises for a while, and when no response came, he upped the stakes.
"Fine, then I'll just have to go find Grandfather~ He promised me he'd always take my side no matter what."
He had absolutely no intention of dragging the old man into this. But right now, the grandfather's name was the only lever that worked on this particular villain.
Chu Weirang pictured the scene — Su Si marching up to the old master, putting on a whole performance, getting his grandfather to kiss hands better — and felt his toes curl. He was entirely capable of believing Su Si would do exactly that.
That was the truly terrifying part.
He tapped a pen lightly against the surface of his desk, expression unchanged, weighing the situation.
In the end, under the relentless soft assault of those small, pitiful sounds, his lips barely moved as he stiffly — grudgingly — shaped the words: "Blow… blow."
If Su Si had not been obliged to keep up appearances, he would have burst out laughing on the spot.
"Darling, you're not done yet. One more line."
"Say it with me — 'all the hurt will fly far, far away~'"
Chu Weirang listened to that deliberately lilting, upward-curling tone, and felt his dignity ascend with it — rising cleanly off his shoulders and vanishing into the atmosphere, never to be recovered.
The great CEO was on the verge of a breakdown.
"All the—" The first syllable barely made it out before he choked.
It wasn't Su Si's pain that was the problem. He was in agony. The suffering was his, and it was immense.
Su Si: "You're doing so well, darling, you're almost there — once you finish, all the hurt really will go away~"
Chu Weirang: “…” He believed that approximately never.
"—hurt will fly away."
He said it. Right there on the edge of total psychological collapse.
He had been corrupted.
His heart and his mouth had both been corrupted.
If it weren't for his concern about what the old man's bones could withstand being put through, he would have hung up without a second thought.
Chu Weirang sat back and mentally lit a cigarette. He was beginning to think the current Su Si was actually worse than the previous version. At least before, this person had never done anything quite so cosmically unhinged.
Su Si, having received exactly what he wanted, felt completely restored.
And now he proceeded to reveal his true ambitions.
"Darling, I need your help with something."
Chu Weirang assumed it had to do with getting the manuscript through editorial. He was wrong. The little Omega's ambitions were considerably broader.
"Go on," he said.
Su Si: "The editor said my story doesn't reflect reality, so I want to prove that it can be done."
The CEO had not read the manuscript. But it was a novel — how far outside the bounds of reality could it really be?
After a brief hesitation, he agreed.
And so…
Su Si launched, with great enthusiasm, into an explanation of his grand creative vision.
It was a story about an Omega who became a muscular powerhouse — and then proceeded to aggressively pursue and dominate a delicate, fragile Alpha.
Chu Weirang, having heard the first part: “…”
He lowered the phone, his expression blank and his movements precise. When he spoke, his voice was ice-cold.
He hung up.
Click.
Su Si, listening to the dial tone: "?"
The little Omega felt a flicker of pure, unhurried amusement. He leaned back lazily and smiled to himself.
Just wait. He'd come around.
Su Si calmly wiped his face dry, then looked at the housekeeper hovering nearby. "I'd like to go to Weirang's company. Could you have a car brought around, Uncle Housekeeper?"
The housekeeper stood there blankly for a moment, genuinely struggling to identify who Weirang was.
It took him an embarrassingly long time to remember that his master's name was Chu Weirang.
Weirang was the master.
He suppressed a small internal collapse and answered with all the professionalism the position demanded. "Of course, madam. I'll arrange it immediately."
The car was ready in under five minutes. Su Si got in and was driven toward Chu Weirang's company.
As the novel's primary antagonist, Chu Weirang's background was formidable by any measure — heir to an elite dynasty, who had then gone on to carve out an empire of his own after inheriting the family's assets.
Honestly, Su Si had never quite bought the idea that someone like this could be defeated by the male lead.
He thought back to how the antagonist had eventually been written out of the story. Something about the male lead's company gaining control of a critical asset from Chu Weirang's enterprise — developing it into something uniquely their own — which had carved away more than half of Chu Weirang's market share.
Chu Weirang had retaliated. And, inexplicably, lost. Again and again.
Final outcome: disgrace. Disappearance.
A core asset…
Su Si looked at himself. Then at the luxurious car beneath him.
Several beads of cold sweat had materialized on his face. He looked distinctly guilty. He didn't quite know what to do with his hands.
He knew exactly how that asset had ended up traveling from Chu Weirang's company to the male lead's. How could he not? He was the author.
It had been the original owner's doing. Obviously.
He pulled a few tissues from the seat compartment and blotted his face, attempting to regain his composure.
Relax, Su Si.
He wasn't the original Su Si. He would never be that foolish.
At that moment, his phone chimed with a new message.
He glanced at it, read it, and let one corner of his mouth curl into a contemptuous little smile.
So the male lead had finally worked up the nerve to add him. Took long enough.
No rush. Let him wait a little longer.
On the other end of the city, An Zhiyue ground his teeth and submitted the contact request. Staring at that gleaming golden ingot profile picture practically vibrating with cheerfulness, he said several unflattering things about its owner in the privacy of his own head.
Ever since his idiot half-brother had shipped him off abroad, he'd been systematically cut off from every channel that might have connected him back to the family. Even his father — the man who had supposedly loved his mother, who had been warm and attentive in the beginning — had gone from frequent, affectionate letters to complete silence over the years. That told him everything he needed to know about how thoroughly his brother's plan had succeeded.
He'd been too young back then. He hadn't grown up in these elite circles. He hadn't known that even an illegitimate son could fight for an inheritance.
But watching his half-brother accumulate more and more shares with every passing year, the alarm had grown impossible to ignore. When this window of opportunity finally opened — a chance to come home — he'd taken it without hesitation. And back in the country, he needed someone to help him.
The problem was: there was no one.
He'd cast a wide net and waited.
And someone had actually responded. Someone who remembered him, and was willing to help — and who, crucially, had connections that could give him real standing.
He had been quietly thrilled.
Because finding a private investigator within the country to look into people was technically illegal, he'd hired one abroad to do the research for him. The results had been interesting. The person helping him and the man who appeared to be pursuing him from a distance were almost certainly acquainted — and it seemed highly probable that the pursuer was the one putting in more effort.
That had sat uncomfortably with him.
He could feel it — that Qi Su liked him.
He had no memory of the man. But Qi Su was currently his only ally, and that generated a certain amount of goodwill.
The thought of someone who genuinely cared for him being tangled up in all of this while he had to smile and play a part and extract what help he could — it made him feel twisted up inside.
Hence this particular gambit.
But now…
He stared at the unanswered request and went crimson with fury. He pulled open Qi Su's conversation window, ready to complain.
