Chapter 3
I met the real male lead.
He ran a fried rice noodle shop near campus.
For some reason, a blast of powerful music suddenly played in my head.
Standing in front of him, I blurted out my lines.
“Boss, a hundred portions of fried noodles.”
The male lead didn’t even look up.
“Sorry. I can’t make that many in one go.”
“You really can’t?” I asked.
“I’d rather make less than break the rules.”
“All right. Could you make fifty first?”
“We’ll start there. If I can make more, I will. Steady does it.”
“Your noodles don’t give people heartburn.”
“Establish your principles first. Then you can go farther.”
The system sounded pleased. [Now that’s a male lead, shining with righteousness.]
Me: “…”
So he wasn’t a novel’s male lead. He was the lead in an AI-generated comic drama.
Xie Qingyao still wasn’t home.
I stared at his long string of check-in messages.
I hadn’t replied to a single one.
I asked the system what to do now.
[Start over with the actual male lead, of course. You and that extra were just a little detour. I’ll erase the memories.]
[After that, nobody around you will remember that you dated.]
When I stayed silent,
the system ventured, [You haven’t really fallen for him, have you? Host, wake up! He was only playing with you!]
I immediately came to my senses.
The humiliation of being played drowned out that faint, strange sadness.
I said fiercely, [You’re right, system. Not loving me is his loss!]
[Erase his memories right now!]
[You got it.]
Just then, a message from Xie Qingyao popped up.
[Baby, I’m almost home.]
A blinding white light flared before my eyes.
I briefly closed them.
[Memory erasure successful. Continuity automatically restored.]
Everything belonging to Xie Qingyao vanished from the apartment.
As if he’d never existed.
For a moment, my heart felt inexplicably empty too.
The system comforted me. [Don’t be sad, host. At least he put the apartment in your name when he bought it.]
Me: “…”
Looked at that way, I hadn’t done badly.
Xie Qingyao stopped halfway through opening the car door.
He lowered the window.
For a long time, he gazed with a frown at a lit apartment partway up the tall building.
How strange.
Why had he come here?
He’d probably had too much to drink and wasn’t thinking clearly.
He closed the window again and told the driver to take him home.
Throughout the drive, Xie Qingyao kept refreshing his chats.
The restlessness and emptiness inside him grew steadily worse.
As if he were waiting for a message from someone.
But there was no such person.
He pressed at the faint ache between his brows.
He thought he’d probably feel normal once he’d sobered up.
After a shower, he lay down in bed.
He closed his eyes and instinctively reached to gather something beside him into his arms.
Like an impulse written into his genes.
The warmth and softness he expected weren’t there.
His arm passed through empty air and landed on the cold silk quilt.
Xie Qingyao jolted awake, his heart pounding.
His bloodless lips moved slightly.
A name hovered on the verge of speech.
But his mind was completely blank.
Half asleep, he seemed to glimpse a hazy figure.
A white nightdress, a slender figure slowly approaching him.
In her hand was a silver pair of handcuffs, gleaming coldly.
He went to the floor-to-ceiling window.
In the deep night, shadows of trees swayed.
The glass reflected Xie Qingyao’s brooding face.
He held out both hands and looked at the rings of red marks still lingering on his wrists.
After a long silence, he called his third uncle, whose mystical nonsense he’d always scorned.
“…Give me the contact details for that feng shui master in Hong Kong you mentioned.”
The next day, he didn’t go to the office.
He decided to spend the day in the sun.
Yet as he wandered, he ended up back at last night’s apartment complex.
All along the way, he’d taken countless meaningless photos, as though he’d lost his mind.
Xie Qingyao thought he ought to scatter a few handfuls of glutinous rice when he got home.
He quickened his pace.
At a corner, he collided straight into a girl.
He caught her jasmine scent, both unfamiliar and familiar.
Feeling her warmth and the touch of her body, he went utterly still.
For that instant, time seemed to stop.
His heart raced wildly, and her presence abruptly lit up his gloomy world.
The girl seemed surprised for a moment when she saw him.
Then her face chilled, and she slammed into his arm as she walked away.
She was muttering curses at him too.
His third uncle called.
He said he’d sent over the master’s contact details.
Xie Qingyao stared intently after the girl, his lips curving.
“No need. I’ve heard there are strange omens before your destined partner appears.”
“I think I’ve met my true love.”
His third uncle: “…I’m telling your father. You really need a bowl of talisman water.”