The Celibate Male Lead Broke His Persona - Chapter 8

Chapter 8

After I fled Xu Sinian’s place.

The System was completely baffled. “What is going on? Why does Huo Zhui give me the feeling that he wants to sleep with you?”

Seeing that I couldn’t hide it anymore, I had no choice but to come clean.

“Actually, I’ve been meaning to tell you. The night before yesterday, I accidentally slept with him.

“I thought he was just some stranger I’d never see again after we slept together. Who knew he was the male lead?”

The System immediately let out a shrill explosion of a scream. “What! You slept with the male lead!”

A few seconds later, it calmed down again.

“But nothing on my end shows that you’ve gone out of character. It seems like this can still be salvaged. But how exactly did you sleep with him?”

I analyzed it. “Mm, probably by pretending I mistook him for Xu Sinian.”

The System said, “You little punk, you reacted pretty fast.

“Since it’s come to this, you need to keep your distance from him from now on and act like nothing happened.

“He’s probably just playing around with you anyway. He won’t take you seriously.”

That was how we comforted ourselves.

But a few days later…

Huo Zhui took the initiative to message me: [Can we live together?]

The System had a hysterical meltdown. “Don’t take me for a fool! I can tell at a glance that he wants to live a shameless, doing-this-and-that kind of life with you!”

Wait. Wouldn’t that mean returning to the kind of life I had in my smut novels?

I was actually the tiniest bit tempted.

It really was nice to go back to my old line of work. No need to use my brain. Just lie there and be done with it.

The System reminded me, “Ahem. Don’t forget your character setting.”

So, with a pained heart, I replied to Huo Zhui: [Did a donkey kick your brain in? I won’t agree to that.]

I didn’t expect him to threaten me: [You wouldn’t want Xu Sinian to find out we slept together, would you?]

The System sighed. “Well, if you’re being threatened, then there’s nothing we can do.”

I replied to Huo Zhui: [Don’t you dare. Don’t do anything stupid.]

Huo Zhui: [Liao Qing, don’t be scared. If you don’t want to, I won’t touch you. I just want to pursue you properly.]

I sighed too. “So he only wants to pursue me.”

The System said, “Bro, what are you disappointed about?”

In order to keep Xu Sinian from finding out that Huo Zhui and I had slept together…

I was forced to move in with Huo Zhui.

But what I hadn’t expected was that Huo Zhui really did want to pursue me.

And from the looks of it, he was quite serious.

I had a mild eating disorder.

Maybe it was because, back in the smut novels, I had never eaten proper meals very often.

So Huo Zhui cooked for me every day, changing the dishes all the time.

I had never imagined Huo Zhui would be such a good cook.

Every time we ate, Huo Zhui would prop his face in his hand and watch me, seeming to really enjoy the way I ate. “Is it good?”

I wiped the corner of my mouth and stubbornly said, “It’s all right.”

I slept badly. By morning, the blanket was basically never on me anymore.

Because of that, I caught colds easily.

Now, whenever it was the middle of the night, Huo Zhui would habitually come to my room and tuck me in.

I hated blow-drying my hair after a shower. I liked letting it air-dry.

Huo Zhui told me, “That’s a bad habit. It can give you migraines.”

He took the hair dryer, and the warm air blowing through my hair was actually pretty comfortable.

I stood with my back to him. In the mirror, he was a good bit taller than me, his face full of indulgent affection.

The way his hand stroked my hair felt very nice.

He made me drowsy.

Then he suddenly lowered his head and kissed my neck.

The nape of my neck had always been sensitive.

The place he kissed felt as if an electric current had run straight through it, leaving it tingling and numb.

My heart actually skipped half a beat.

My ears quietly turned red.

It was a kind of feeling… I couldn’t quite put into words.

Just then, my phone rang.

It was Xu Sinian’s exclusive ringtone.

I answered decisively and said in my gentlest voice, “What is it, Sinian?”

Xu Sinian’s first sentence was, “Liao Qing, could you hurry up and return the clothes you borrowed from me before? I actually like them quite a lot.”

Me: “…Sure. I’ll wash them and return them to you.”

He sounded a little nervous. “You didn’t do anything with my clothes, did you?”

I was silent for a moment. “Don’t worry. I won’t.”

He hung up.

Huo Zhui got anxious with me. “He’s already like that, and you still like him!”

Actually, I didn’t.

But because of my character setting, I had no choice but to nod. “Mm. I like him.”

Huo Zhui stormed off in a rage.

I thought he wouldn’t come back anymore, which left me feeling a little regretful.

Then I tidied up and went out to work.

When I came home that night, I saw him washing my underwear with an icy expression.

I was a little surprised. “You didn’t leave?”

He glared at me.

And then, I got plowed into next week.

When I woke up in the morning, my legs were still shaking.

After that, whenever I answered a call from Xu Sinian.

And then he would repeat the whole process all over again.

It felt like he was trying to train me like Pavlov’s dog.

He wanted me to develop a physiological fear response whenever I heard Xu Sinian’s ringtone.

I never imagined that maintaining my character setting as the second male lead and keeping the plot from collapsing would end up clashing this badly.

If I resisted, he threatened to tell Xu Sinian about what had happened between us if I didn’t behave.

Sigh. There was nothing I could do. Since I couldn’t resist, I could only lie back and enjoy it.

Except today, he went even further.

Xu Sinian had just called me.

Before I could even answer, Huo Zhui snatched my phone away.

This time, he couldn’t even wait until night.

He shoved me down onto the sofa and kissed me.

Xu Sinian’s call kept ringing.

Huo Zhui pinned both my hands above my head, pressing them into the sofa, refusing to let me answer.

“Ignore him.”

He bit my earlobe, his voice tangled with his ragged breathing. “Liao Qing, you can only have eyes for me.”

Before I could argue back, there was a soft click from the entryway.

The sound of the passcode lock opening.

My whole body went rigid. Huo Zhui’s movements paused too, but he didn’t pull away. Instead, he pressed even closer against me.

Xu Sinian walked in. When he saw the two of us tangled together on the sofa, he froze completely.

As the backup second male lead, of course I had given Xu Sinian the passcode to my place.

Xu Sinian had always known my passcode. He had just never come over on his own before.

So even I had forgotten about it.

I thought that after seeing Xu Sinian, Huo Zhui would at least rein himself in a little.

I never expected him to kiss me right in front of Xu Sinian.

Xu Sinian’s face went deathly pale. “You… you two…”

I shoved Huo Zhui away with all my strength, trying to salvage the situation. “Sinian, listen to me explain.”

Xu Sinian couldn’t bring himself to take his anger out on Huo Zhui, so he vented it all on me instead. “Liao Qing, you’re disgusting.”

I froze.

Huo Zhui’s expression darkened.

“Hey, Xu Sinian, I’ve been wanting to say this for a long time. Aren’t you kind of an ingrate?

“Yes, I like Liao Qing. So what? It’s not like I’m obligated to like you.

“That night, you willfully called him out to a bar in the middle of the night, then willfully made him take you home. He was drunk and mistook me for you, and accidentally slept with me.

“He’s been terrified of you finding out ever since.

“I knew he liked you, so I used the fact that we’d slept together to threaten him into being with me.

“Speaking of which, I should be thanking you.

“But he’s done so much for you. He’s tolerated all your bad habits and your terrible temper. Even your current quality of life is maintained entirely by him. Has it never occurred to you to thank him?

“At least I know to feel sorry for him. What about you? He bought you an apartment, transfers money to you on time every month, and even hired the housekeeper at your place. Everything you have right now is being propped up by him.

“Have you ever truly looked at him even once? Have you ever thanked him at all?”

Xu Sinian’s face flushed red, then went pale. Tears fell from his eyes in big drops as he stomped his foot and cried out,

“That’s all what he deserves! He did it willingly!

“Huo Zhui, I like you so much. How could you treat me like this? How could you take his side and lecture me!”

He was devastated, and he ran off crying.

The System said, [It’s over. I think the plot has completely collapsed.]

I asked, [Is there any way to fix it?]

The System said, [It feels pretty difficult. Why don’t we just go straight for it and kill ourselves to exit?]

Me: […That works too.]

Usually, once the plot collapsed past the point of no return, we would choose to exit voluntarily.

After all, sunk costs shouldn’t factor into major decisions.

It was the most convenient and efficient solution.

But before that, I still had to keep up my character setting.

I chased after Xu Sinian.

At the intersection, I grabbed him.

“Sinian, listen to me explain. I didn’t mean for this to happen.”

Xu Sinian cried and cursed at me, “I won’t listen! I hate you! I hate you the most!”

He had no sense of restraint when he lashed out. In his agitation, he reached out and shoved me hard.

I lost my balance and stumbled backward.

Behind me was a road full of passing cars.

Just then, a speeding car came racing straight toward me.

A thought flashed through my mind.

It’s over.

Now I don’t even need to kill myself.

Xu Sinian’s eyes flew wide open, and he stood there frozen in terror.

I closed my eyes, waiting for the pain that was about to come.

But at the critical moment, a pair of hands shoved me away with all their strength.

In the next second, the color of blood seared my eyes crimson.

I had never imagined that Huo Zhui could ever be associated with words like lying in a pool of blood, utterly lifeless.