Chapter 13
Hearing that, everyone raised their heads almost in perfect sync and looked toward the entrance of the cafeteria.
Cheng Li and the other five were dressed very stylishly, as though they had just come back from outside, chatting and laughing with the people around them.
The sudden silence seemed to make Cheng Li realize something. He turned to look behind him, then froze for a moment.
Cheng Xia naturally saw Cheng Li too. He frowned slightly, turned on his heel, and was about to leave, clearly having no desire to run into him face-to-face.
But Cheng Li suddenly called out, “Brother Cheng Xia!”
Cheng Xia’s figure paused. The hand hanging at his side unconsciously curled into a fist.
Cheng Li stepped forward, seeming like he wanted to say something. Yet after hesitating for a long time, all he finally managed to ask was, “Have you been doing okay recently?”
Cheng Xia gave a low hum in response and turned to leave, but Cheng Li quickly caught up and blocked his path.
Cheng Xia pressed his lips together. His expression looked terrible. “What do you want?”
“Do you have time sometime? I want to talk to you,” Cheng Li asked. His attitude was unexpectedly gentle.
Cheng Xia lowered his eyes and said coldly, “No. There’s nothing for us to talk about.”
He tried to leave after saying that, but Cheng Li reached out directly and grabbed his arm.
“Cheng Xia, you don’t want things to get even worse, do you?” Cheng Li lowered his voice, speaking so quietly that only the two of them could hear. A trace of mocking malice flashed quickly through his eyes.
Cheng Xia’s gaze flickered for a moment. Perhaps he really had been threatened by Cheng Li, because he no longer seemed in such a rush to leave.
“It was Mom and Dad who told me to come find you,” Cheng Li said. “Even though back then you… still, they asked me to tell you that so much time has passed since that incident, and actually, they stopped minding it a long time ago.”
His expression was sincere, even carrying a hint of pleading, as if that brief flash of malicious threat just now had only been Cheng Xia’s imagination.
But Cheng Xia knew it had not been his imagination.
“After all, we’re still blood relatives. Blood is thicker than water—that’s an undeniable fact,” Cheng Li said. “When you have time, you should go back and see them. They miss you a lot.”
Only after Cheng Li finished speaking did Cheng Xia slowly say, “Are you done?”
As if he had not expected that kind of response, Cheng Li stood there in a daze for a moment before nodding. “…Mm. I’m done.”
Before the last word had even fully landed, Cheng Xia flung off Cheng Li’s hand and strode away, leaving Cheng Li standing there alone, looking rather lost.
Cheng Li’s teammates immediately gathered around him, comforting him all at once:
“Are you okay, Lili?”
“Forget him. Someone like that isn’t worth you feeling bad over.”
“Next time, we’ll go back with you together and make uncle and aunt happy…”
Cheng Li tugged at the corner of his mouth and forced out a smile. “I’m fine. Thank you, everyone.”
His lowered lashes hid the fleeting flash of satisfaction in his eyes—
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
The cameraman carried the camera on his shoulder and recorded this whole little episode from beginning to end.
‘Damn it, my heart aches for our Lili’
‘Honestly, what a rare species exhibit. How can someone be this shameless when people are already trying to save his face? [shocked cat head.jpg]’
The cafeteria had thoughtfully prepared fruit for after the meal, and Lin Zhiqiao was currently holding a slice of watermelon and crunching away on it.
[Sure enough, melon tastes best when you eat it live on the spot.]
Ji Ran and the others were also holding their own melon, nodding in wholehearted agreement.
[But why do I feel like something’s off?]
Everyone’s melon-eating movements paused as they quietly pricked up their ears.
Lin Zhiqiao glanced again in Cheng Li’s direction, but there were too many people over there and he could not see clearly, so he had no choice but to look away.
[Why does Cheng Li sound kind of… green tea? The acting traces are a little too obvious, aren’t they?]
Lin Zhiqiao was all too familiar with this flavor. It was practically exactly the same as Lin Mubai.
But compared to Lin Mubai, Cheng Li’s level was not just a little lower. And to be honest, he was not pretending all that well.
Could it be because the field did not match his specialty?
After all, Lin Mubai came from an acting background, so it made sense that his acting would be more natural and more polished.
Lin Zhiqiao pondered silently.
And he did not know whether it was just his imagination, but Cheng Li seemed to have glanced in their direction—more precisely, at the cameraman carrying the camera.
‘???’
‘Our Lili is just that kind of little angel, okay?!’
‘Damn, got hit by this while passing through’
‘What did our angel Cheng Li ever do to deserve this? Having a cousin like that is already unlucky enough, okay? How can people still have the heart to smear him!!!’
Just as Lin Zhiqiao was mulling it over, the noisy sound of footsteps gradually drew near.
Cheng Li and the others had bought their dinner, and by sheer coincidence, they sat down not far from them, with only Ji Ran and one aisle separating Cheng Li from Lin Zhiqiao.
Lin Zhiqiao quickly poked 888. [Quick, quick, quick!]
[It’s him.] 888 replied at once. [Let me see… the system Cheng Li is bound to is called “Born Idol.” This system allows its host to light up idol skill points by collecting popularity value…]
[But this system’s energy field is so weak. It’s kind of intermittent and fragmented. It’s hard to get more complete information from it.]
888 tried hard for a long time, but in the end only managed to detect some scattered fragments of information.
888 said, [Cheng Li is a transmigrator from a novel. Before entering the book, he had been a trainee for ten years, but remained unknown the whole time and never managed to debut.]
Lin Zhiqiao: [!!! So Cheng Li is actually an alien species from another world?!]
Too shocking!
He nearly dropped the watermelon rind in his hand onto the floor!
888 continued, [Cheng Li’s current identity in the original novel was only that of a cannon-fodder villain. The real protagonist is actually someone else.]
Lin Zhiqiao nodded. [Classic transmigration template. People who transmigrate into books usually don’t transmigrate into the protagonist. Supporting characters, villains, cannon fodder… or even nameless passersby all have a much higher probability than becoming the protagonist.]
[Based on my many years of novel-reading experience, the original protagonist usually has some kind of connection to the transmigrator’s original body.]
Lin Zhiqiao suddenly thought of Cheng Xia.
…Could it be him?
Unfortunately, 888 had not managed to investigate more specific details, such as the original protagonist’s identity, how they were doing now, what direction the original plot was supposed to take, and so on.
[The system Cheng Li is currently bound to did not originally belong to him.] 888 said. [It was actually the protagonist’s system in the original novel. But when the transmigration happened, it caused a strong magnetic field disturbance, and the system ended up binding to the wrong person.]
[We’ll have to leave it for next time.] 888 sounded deeply regretful. [That system’s energy field is probably this weak and chaotic precisely because it bound to the wrong host.]
Since they had failed to dig up more gossip, Lin Zhiqiao felt just as sorry about it. [If it binds to the wrong host, can’t it just switch?]
[Very difficult.] 888 said. [Only when the current host dies, or when the mission is judged impossible to complete, does the system have a chance to bind to someone else.]
[That’s way too tragic for you guys.] Lin Zhiqiao complained. [You don’t even get room for trial and error.]
888 nodded again and again. [Exactly, exactly.]
From ahead came the faint sound of Cheng Li and the others talking. Lin Zhiqiao tilted his head slightly and looked over past Ji Ran’s side.
As the center of the group, Cheng Li was naturally exceptionally good-looking, one in ten thousand.
But his refinement was different from Cheng Xia’s. Cheng Li’s features were softer and more androgynous, the kind of beauty that made people feel he was difficult to categorize as purely male or female.
As if noticing Lin Zhiqiao’s gaze, Cheng Li suddenly turned his head and looked back, revealing a very faint smile.
Lin Zhiqiao felt a little tempted.
After so much time had passed, his bad-luck hand should have worn off by now, right?
“Ji Ran,” he leaned over to whisper by Ji Ran’s ear, “can I borrow your hand for a second?”
Ji Ran looked puzzled. “Huh? My hand? What do you want it for?”
Puzzled as he was, he still obediently stretched out his hand, palm facing upward.
Lin Zhiqiao did not say anything. He grabbed one of Ji Ran’s fingers and lightly brushed against it, as gently as a dragonfly skimming the surface of water.
The chestnut-haired boy wore a serious expression, his movements so careful and solemn that it was as if he were handling some incredibly precious treasure.
Ji Ran’s breathing hitched. The itch at his fingertip felt like an electric current, making the tips of his ears flush red with a whoosh.
W-what, what, what was this for?!
Lin Zhiqiao: [I heard people with simple minds usually have especially good luck, so I’m here to rub off a little good fortune, hehe.]
Ji Ran: “…?”
What did that mean?
Was he saying Ji Ran had no brain???
Before the anger in his heart could fully shoot upward, Ji Ran suddenly heard a familiar shrill mental scream—
[Holy crap! Cheng Li’s dad—Cheng Xia’s uncle—actually, actually—]
[He’s a gambler!!!]
