Arc 1: Face Blindness
Chapters 1-45
The urban cluster of the Federation’s District Six was experiencing a more severe heat island effect than ever before.
It was raining again in the evening.
Xin Hexue paid no attention to the noisy middle-aged man across from him.
He turned his head, his gaze shifting, and his dark eyes looked toward the glass window.
The restaurant had an entire wall of glass facing the orange-yellow street outside.
At the end of the street, a neon streetlight was malfunctioning.
Xin Hexue noticed that the light flickered on and off.
It was hard to imagine that a city in 2048 still had such dilapidated scenes.
But that was indeed the case. Among the Federation’s thirteen districts, ninety percent of the wealth was concentrated in the core First District, while the remaining areas were submerged in poverty and chaos.
The broken light caused the raindrops on the glass window to shimmer and then slide down in winding paths.
Xin Hexue frowned.
The air humidity had been maintained above ninety-five percent for a week.
Such weather was quite hard to endure.
The sticky moisture felt like dark clouds, heavily pressing down on the body.
He was in a bad mood, as if he was choking on air, with a bloated and uncomfortable feeling in his chest.
To suppress this abnormality, he picked up the teacup on the table and took a few sips of the green tea.
Xin Hexue’s fingernails were rounded, and at this moment, he gripped the rim of the cup tightly, showing a kind of bloodless pallor.
His long eyelashes cast faint shadows under the light, and the furrowed brows revealed a hint of irritation.
The incessant chatter of the person opposite made Xin Hexue’s mood even worse.
“Are you listening to me?”
“I’m your father! Is this how you treat your father?!”
“I picked you up from the garbage dump in District Twelve…”
The middle-aged man with a balding head stared at his adopted son with cloudy eyes.
As he spoke, one could vaguely see spittle spraying onto the untouched food.
Xin Hexue knew that Xin Bao was about to start talking about how he had raised his adopted son with great hardship.
In fact, according to the information provided by the system, the character “Xin Hexue” was already seven years old when he was pulled out of the garbage dump by his adoptive father, fully capable of taking care of his own physiological needs.
Moreover, Xin Bao did not raise the child with the hardship he claimed.
One should not imagine that a middle-aged man scavenging in the garbage dumps of District Twelve would be a good person.
After being taken back, the seven-year-old “Xin Hexue” faced violence from his adoptive father, who kicked him in the stomach, and insults that never left out derogatory terms.
He was even threatened with having his legs broken to force him to pretend to be a disabled child, begging from well-dressed passersby to fund his adoptive father’s gambling.
Even Xin Bao’s ability to come to District Six was the result of extracting and exploiting “Xin Hexue”.
In the plot, although “Xin Hexue” was an ordinary Beta, a genetically inferior pure-blood human with face blindness, he had a good looking face.
At the age of fourteen, he was noticed by a director and starred in a movie set in District Twelve.
The high remuneration for a child from the slums and the care from the film crew allowed “Xin Hexue” to enter District Six and complete high school smoothly.
However, the director who had promised to collaborate again after “Xin Hexue” reached adulthood never contacted him.
The movie shot at that time became a hit, and people on the Star Network even spontaneously created threads to find the fourteen-year-old boy actor from the film.
Later, some low-budget films and TV dramas sent invitations, all of which Xin Bao accepted on behalf of his adopted son. However, these productions ultimately did not make any splash.
“Xin Hexue” fell out of favor, and seeing no hope, Xin Bao took all the money when his adopted son came of age.
But the accumulated film earnings over the years were not enough to satisfy Xin Bao’s gambling habits.
He owed a huge gambling debt to an underground organization and could only rely on this adopted son to repay it…
“The thugs hired by Black Snake had a knife to your father’s neck last night! You’re not an ungrateful person; can you bear to watch your father die?”
The middle-aged man’s tone did not sound like he was seeking help from his adopted son. Instead, he glared angrily, more like issuing orders to a slave.
Even in his previous life, when he was the ignored fifth prince in the cold palace, no one dared to speak to Xin Hexue like this.
After ascending to the throne, even more so, those who dared to speak loudly in front of Xin Hexue had to consider whether they would be killed by the mad dog “Jiu Qiansui” beside the emperor and thrown into a mass grave.
**Jiu Qiansui is a title. It translates to “Nine Thousand Years” to reflect one’s close power to the throne as “Wan Sui” (Ten Thousand Years) was a greeting/blessing reserved for the Emperor.
The pads of his fingers on the rim of the cup turned white from being pressed.
The system reminded him in his mind, [Pay attention to your character setting.]
Xin Hexue put down the teacup.
He retained his previous etiquette, placing his pinky finger between the bottom of the cup and the table when setting it down.
The cup touched the table silently.
Xin Bao didn’t know why, but he felt that his adopted son seemed particularly unfamiliar.
He even felt for a moment that this bastard was terrifying?
It had only been two years since he last saw Xin Hexue.
Xin Bao suddenly recalled the day his adopted son turned eighteen. He had taken all the money and, before leaving, looked back at the adopted son standing quietly in the corner of the house.
At that time, he thought that Xin Hexue didn’t resist when he took the money because he was scared of being beaten and had finally learned to be sensible.
But looking back at that glance, Xin Bao felt puzzled…
‘Did this bastard always look like this?’
Xin Bao was sure that his adopted son had a decent appearance; otherwise, he wouldn’t have been so successful when forced to beg as a child.
But was it this appearance?
Xin Bao’s cloudy eyes scrutinized Xin Hexue.
He was so good looking it was beyond what words could describe.
His hair was black and soft, hanging neatly beside his neck, and his skin was as white as frost covering plum branches on a moonlit night.
Under the shadow of his left eyelash, there was a small mole.
Did Xin Hexue have a mole?
Xin Bao was dazed for a moment. He searched his memory but couldn’t recall his adopted son’s appearance no matter how hard he tried. His mind was a complete blank.
The system dutifully went to work.
The blank image in Xin Bao’s memory was completely replaced with the young man in front of him.
His doubts disappeared, and Xin Bao felt more confident to throw his weight around and intimidate his adopted son.
Xin Hexue took a light breath, as if he had reached the limit of his endurance.
But very quickly, he adjusted his posture to one of submissiveness and cowardice in the face of a stupid and toxic adoptive father.
Like a lamb.
His pale hand showed bluish veins beneath the thin skin.
His fingers curled slightly as he handed over a bank card.
Xin Bao got what he wanted. He snatched the card and asked, “Is it the same password as before?”
Seeing Xin Hexue nod obediently, Xin Bao said in a tone that made one’s skin crawl, “Good child.”
The young man across from him gave no reply. He merely pulled a napkin and, hidden under the dining table, wiped his fingertips.
Just now, when Xin Bao grabbed the card, his oily, blackened fingernail had touched Xin Hexue’s hand.
Xin Hexue pursed his lips. The light red lips were squeezed into a seductive color.
He neurotically rubbed his fingers over and over with the napkin, already calculating the time of Xin Bao’s death in his mind.
After two years of getting along, System K often felt his host was like a proud and troublesome cat.
As for what breed exactly, System K wasn’t sure, just that it was a completely snow-white cat.
Considering that Xin Hexue had been a crown prince of a small planet in his first life and the fifth prince who inherited the throne in his second life, System K searched the database.
‘Hmm. Probably the type of cat the royal court painters loved, Linqing lion cats.’
With pale pink ears and nose, soft white long fur that was hard to care for.
A quiet personality, with arrogance hidden well, giving off a gentle and scholarly impression.
But when in a bad mood, it would bite the humans it lived with without any hesitation.
That kind of cat.
System K concluded.
Xin Bao had gotten the card, but he didn’t plan to leave. “How much money’s in it? Where’d it come from?”
He was suspicious whether the adopted son he had abandoned had gotten back into the entertainment industry and started filming again.
Xin Hexue paused.
In his past experiences, he was someone who never needed to worry about money. Naturally, he didn’t know how much was in the card or where it came from.
System K provided the number.
Xin Hexue said, “Fifty thousand star coins.”
Then added, “From waiting tables.”
Some restaurants in District Six paid waiters two thousand star coins a month. Two years of waiting tables would roughly add up to that amount.
Xin Hexue had transmigrated into this small world when the character turned eighteen.
According to the original plot, “Xin Hexue” had indeed worked as a part-time waiter near his residence for two years before meeting the protagonist gong Pei Guangji.
System K faintly felt that making Xin Hexue wait tables was a waste of his talents.
More importantly, putting someone who had lived two lives as either a crown prince or an emperor into such a job…the gap was inevitably too great. Out of humanistic care programmed into the system, System K replaced those two years with host training.
The training mainly helped him adapt to life in the current world and introduced him to various literary and artistic works from the big world.
After all, whether it was the planet crown prince or the ancient emperor, both were far behind the times of the big world.
Xin Hexue had died of illness in his first life and been poisoned in his second. He had never lived past twenty.
System K had promised that as long as he gained enough love values and heart-break values from the mission targets in these small worlds, he would be allowed to enter a new world, get rid of illness, and live a long life.
Even immortality was possible.
After all, the big world was a perfect world where everyone lived forever.
But when everyone lived forever, life inevitably became boring.
That was why System K’s entertainment company came into being.
They bound hosts, threw them into so-called small worlds to act out scripts, and turned the footage into dramas for audiences in the big world to enjoy.
Xin Hexue felt that his two previous lives had been small worlds just as System K had described.
But he was definitely not the protagonist.
Otherwise, he wouldn’t have died so early.
Though System K had spent two years analyzing popular film and drama genres in the big world with him, he hadn’t yet explained the plot of the current script in full.
Xin Hexue only knew his role was a face-blind Beta, a pure-blooded human, a has-been actor, with a gambling-addicted adoptive father who leeched off him.
The protagonist gong was Pei Guangji.
The rest of the plot, he knew nothing about.
Xin Bao suddenly contacting his adopted son after two years seemed to mark the beginning of the plot.
So System K finally sent Xin Hexue the complete plot.
“…”
Xin Hexue was silent for a long time.
[Big world.]
For once, he was too stunned to speak.
[You guys are into this kind of domineering CEO-style…genre?]
System K: […… It’s been trending these past two years.]
It was a dog-blood drama script.
Xin Hexue was a Beta. A face-blind Beta with good looks. He even had an adoptive father who owed a huge gambling debt.
With a setup like this, it was easy to guess what would happen next.
After some fated encounter with the protagonist gong Pei Guangji, the eldest son of the Pei family…
To repay the debt, Xin Hexue signed a two-year lover contract with Pei Guangji. He had to fulfill the young master’s physical needs.
This wasn’t even some Cinderella marries into a rich family kind of story.
Pei Guangji never cared about Xin Hexue. He was merely a tool that could relieve his Alpha rut and wouldn’t cause any trouble with markings.
The Pei family’s main branch was in the Core Zone, one of the three major conglomerates of the Federation…an undoubtedly elite family.
The Federation’s elite families were very particular about maintaining connections and monopolizing all avenues of advancement.
So Pei Guangji had a few childhood friends from similar backgrounds. When they found out their good brother was keeping a Beta, they became very curious.
When Pei Guangji was injured in a spacecraft accident and transferred to a hospital in the Core Zone for long-term treatment, those friends finally had their chance.
They all shared the same flaw common to all Federation “Dragons”…they didn’t see people as human beings.
A Beta meant they could avoid the problems of marking.
A face-blind Beta who wasn’t sensitive to voices either…
Meant that anyone could pretend to be Pei Guangji and make the young man fulfill the terms of the lover contract.
Even if it meant biting his neck cruelly, pressing canine teeth against his snow white skin, and repeatedly marking him, it was fine.
Letting him be soaked in the aggressively dominant pheromones of an Alpha was also fine.
After all, he was just a Beta. A pure-blooded human from the lowest class.
Once the Alpha’s pheromones faded, everything would return to normal.
Their despicable acts were actually done with Pei Guangji’s tacit approval.
But when Pei Guangji returned after his treatment, he coldly said to Xin Hexue, “Get lost. You’re so dirty.”
Xin Hexue was driven out of that exquisite cage. And because of the eldest young master’s contempt, others also kicked him while he was down. He could no longer stay in the Federation and was forced to live in exile on the fringes.
Eventually, he was accidentally caught up in a riot of a resistance organization and died as cannon fodder on the front lines.
[…]
Xin Hexue was silent for a while again.
He said to System K: [Are you joking?]
[This kind of script with no bottom line and no value should be shredded and thrown into the trash.]
[Instead of getting filmed to hurt the public’s eyes.]
System K didn’t deny it.
Nor did he respond. He was afraid the cat would bite.
Since the script was already cursed out, he figured he wouldn’t be cursed as well.
System K admitted he was unlucky to have drawn such a script.
Maybe because of emotional fluctuations, Xin Hexue started coughing suddenly.
His body had been a chronically ill one in both lives. Now was no different. The entertainment company from the big world certainly hadn’t provided him with a new healthy body.
Though compared to the worst days of his second life, where a gust of wind or three steps would make him cough up blood, his current condition was much better.
Still, once he started coughing, it was hard to stop.
A faint bloody taste rose in his throat. As he covered his mouth to cough, his wrist trembled badly.
Xin Hexue was shaking all over.
Xin Bao was scheming something, looking at the coughing young man with malice in his eyes.
After Xin Hexue finally recovered and took a sip of the cold green tea to suppress the blood in his throat…
He found Xin Bao was gone.
Probably rushed off to spend the money on the card.
Xin Hexue didn’t care.
He never intended to follow the plot step by step.
In the script, this was the opening.
Xin Bao, using the excuse of bonding with his son, invited Xin Hexue to a restaurant, drugged him, and planned to send his adopted son to the private booth of the Pei family’s eldest son.
But now, Xin Hexue hadn’t touched the food on the table.
Not because he knew the plot ahead of time, but because Xin Bao was simply too disgusting.
Xin Hexue’s fingers curled slightly, fingertips tinged with pink.
His ears were burning, steaming into a beautiful hue, and the stuffiness in his chest also turned into emptiness.
All the strength in his body faded like silk pulled by the wind, quietly but swiftly.
Xin Hexue pursed his lips tightly together.
Xin Baolian also put drugs in the tea!
It had already been fifteen minutes since he took the first sip.
Xin Hexue felt feverish all over and extremely weak.
Sure enough, a waiter who had taken money from Xin Bao came forward, enthusiastic and attentive, but forcefully helped Xin Hexue up, “Sir, are you feeling unwell? Our restaurant has a private resting booth. Let me help you over to rest.”
The waiter was an Alpha, and not a weak pure-blooded human either. His arm showed signs of mechanical enhancement.
Xin Hexue noticed because the mechanical arm was pressing painfully against his back.
His sense of pain was several times more sensitive than normal.
His head hurt, his back hurt.
It was irritating.
As the waiter forcibly led him to the booth at the end of the corridor, Xin Hexue said to the system: [My physical condition can’t even handle sex.]
Xin Hexue smiled faintly: [Congratulations, gege. You can start applying for funeral leave for my corpse soon.]
Just when Xin Hexue thought System K wouldn’t reply to his dark joke, he suddenly said: [Your mission is only to collect enough love value and heartbreak value.]
[The plot…]
[Does not need to be followed exactly.]
Xin Hexue knew System K had compromised.
As K finished speaking, he thought he had heard a gunshot from inside the booth.
The waiter trembled slightly, but his movements didn’t hesitate for a second.
In the next moment, Xin Hexue was shoved into the dim booth.
