TCFGBH Chapter 128

The villa district in the city center.

The young man, dressed in the uniform of No. 1 High School, hesitated for a moment before pressing the doorbell. “Auntie, it’s me. He’s been sick for a few days and hasn’t come to school. I was a bit worried and came to check on him.”

“Yan Yan, come in quickly.”

The housekeeper opened the door and ushered him in, her expression full of concern. “Young master is much better today. He’s awake now and eating. But he had a high fever and was talking nonsense for the past few days—it really scared us.”

Sighing, she added, “Sir and Madam are away on a business trip abroad. They only called briefly on the day it started, and there’s been no news since. They haven’t even come back to check on him.”

“You’re the young master’s best friend. Seeing you will definitely make him happy.”

As in every clichéd drama, the protagonist always harbors some hidden fragility. Li Xiangze’s parents had a commercial marriage without any emotional connection. After his birth, they each started separate families outside their marriage, maintaining only a fragile semblance of their union.

Xia Yan handed the fruit basket to the housekeeper and made his way upstairs.

The setting sun painted the sky in hues of orange and red, its light streaming obliquely through the window at the end of the corridor, casting distorted shadows along the floor. Standing in front of the familiar yet strange door, the young man hesitated before knocking. “Senior, may I come in?”

There was no response for a long moment.

Huh?

Strange. The housekeeper clearly said he was in the room.

Xia Yan knocked again, twice this time. “Senior, are you there?”

Just as the words left his mouth, the heavy wooden door creaked open from the inside. Before the young man could react, he was pulled in abruptly.

A strong arm wrapped around him like an iron clamp, holding him firmly. The man’s hair brushed against his ear, bringing a faint tickling sensation. His body felt unusually warm, as if he still had a slight fever.

Stunned by the sudden “attack,” Xia Yan pushed against him helplessly.

“Senior, what are you doing? Let me go!”

Though the man was only half a head taller than him, his strength was inexplicably overwhelming, completely immobilizing Xia Yan.

Xia Yan: “…” He couldn’t push him off! Frustrated.

Refusing to give up, he kept trying until warm tears landed on his neck, accompanied by suppressed sobs. Xia Yan froze, as if burned, stopping his movements abruptly.

“Senior? What’s wrong?”

In his memory, Li Xiangze was always calm, courteous, and considerate. He had never seen him cry before.

But he hadn’t done anything. Why was he crying? Xia Yan awkwardly scratched his nose, feeling guilty. Could it be because he had called the wrong name earlier?

That incident happened three days ago.

Thanks to Li Xiangze’s help, the bank had agreed to give Xia Family some leeway, stopping the loan demands. Online rumors were also contained, giving the Xia family room to breathe.

In gratitude, Father Xia invited Li Xiangze over for dinner.

Everything had been going well, the atmosphere cordial, until Xia Yan, distracted for a moment, confused Li Xiangze with Tu Xi and accidentally called out the latter’s name.

His voice, clear and bright, carried an unmistakable tone of reliance on “Tu Xi.”

That single word hit a nerve.

Under the dazzling crystal chandelier, Li Xiangze’s face visibly darkened. He lowered his voice, questioning, “Who are you looking at through me?”

Being mistaken as a stand-in by someone he liked was not a pleasant feeling.

A shiver ran down Xia Yan’s spine, snapping him back to his senses. “N-no one!”

Li Xiangze didn’t press further, but his silence afterward was obvious. He left not long after, his mood visibly downcast.

The next day, Xia Yan went to school, anxious about how to explain, only to find out that Li Xiangze had called in sick. For the next three days, he didn’t show up at all.

Unable to sit still any longer, Xia Yan, under the pretense of a free Saturday evening without study hall, snuck over to Li Xiangze’s house to check on him, keeping it a secret from his current boyfriend.

And then… he was hugged.

Time seemed to blur. The setting sun slowly dipped below the horizon, leaving only its bright and dazzling afterglow. Finally, the man spoke his first words: “I had a dream where you died.”

“Ah?????”

Li Xiangze had never been so disoriented. Two entirely different sets of memories flashed through his mind, leaving him with a splitting headache.

In one set of memories, Xia Yan’s personality was completely different from his current self.

Yet somehow, he was certain they were the same person.

In those memories, they had met at a bar, fallen in love, and shared a blissful time together—until tragedy struck, taking Xia Yan away from him. The memories ended abruptly there.

He had no idea what happened after that.

But holding the person in his arms tightly was the only thing that gave him a sense of reality.

“Yan Yan,” he murmured his name with familiarity, his words muddled by the chaos in his mind. “I missed you so much. Why didn’t you wait for me? Why did you save Zhao Wenxiu? I promised I’d go act in that movie with you—why did you leave me alone?”

?

Hearing familiar names from his mouth, Xia Yan’s heart surged with turbulent waves. “How do you know about them?”

“I… I don’t know either.” Li Xiangze lowered his head, their faces now level, noses brushing against each other. The proximity made it hard to focus. “The memories… just surfaced.”

Xia Yan: “?”

He immediately called for his system: [System, come out now!!!]

999, who had been silently observing the entire time, was just as baffled. [I’ll report this bug to the higher-ups right away. Hold on! Ten minutes!!!]

Li Xiangze: “Yan Yan, what are you thinking about? Why aren’t you answering me? You used to be like this too… always spacing out.”

Xia Yan: “…” It’s because I’m talking to my system.

“Yan Yan.” Thankfully, the man didn’t dwell on the matter. Instead, he brought up something that mattered more to him. “Yan Yan, we haven’t broken up.”

“Ah???” Xia Yan couldn’t keep up with his pace.

“We haven’t broken up. You and I are still dating. You can’t two-time me.”

“…” Balding.

“We started dating first.”

“…”

“You’re my boyfriend, aren’t you?”

Completely dazed, Xia Yan found himself nodding in a stupor under the man’s repeated assertions. “Uh-huh, yeah, sure.” He answered perfunctorily, all while thinking, [Why are these ten minutes so long? Isn’t the system back yet?]

“That’s great, Yan Yan.”

Having reclaimed his position as the boyfriend, someone was very pleased.

At the same time, the system panel abruptly popped up.

[Task 2: Date the protagonist gong. (Completed)]

[Task 3: Cheat. (Completed)]

[Congratulations to the host for completing all tasks.

Task 1: Completed. 300 points earned;
…
All side tasks completed, earning 5,000 points.

Character role-playing completion: 100%, bonus 1,000 points. Congratulations, Host Xia Yan, for earning a total of 6,900 points.]

[You have accumulated over 100,000 points, fulfilling your wish. We hope you enjoy your life in this world.]

The system’s barrage of messages left Xia Yan dizzy. When 999 finally returned, he asked absentmindedly, [I’ve completed all my tasks. Does this mean you’re leaving, 999?]

[Huh?]

999 sounded utterly shocked, its mechanical tone laced with bewilderment. [Normally, the system would leave, but…]

Whenever there’s a “but,” everything changes.

[You’re different.]

[?]

[The main system just responded to me. It said: ‘He is watching us.’]

999’s voice grew increasingly excited. [Host, do you remember the 50,000 bonus points from the previous world?]

Xia Yan nodded.

[He enjoyed that world very much and gifted you 50,000 points as a token of appreciation. In his words: ‘Looking forward to meeting you again.’]

The system repeated the message. [What was different about that world compared to the others?]

In every world, Xia Yan played the role of a scummy lover, leaving after completing his tasks. Only in the previous world, due to mental energy damage and a unique identity, he was forced to stay. He ended up marrying the protagonist gong and living out his days until death.

Xia Yan hesitantly spoke: [The protagonist gong?]

System: [‘Looking forward to meeting you again. He’s watching us.’]

Both man and system fell into silence.

After several seconds, the system let out a mental scream: [So he played the protagonist gong dated you, and this world exists too???]

The sheer amount of information was overwhelming.

Xia Yan, dazed: [If the Senior is Ludwig, why does he have Tu Xi’s memories?]

[He is both Tu Xi, Ludwig, and Li Xiangze. And you, the host, have entirely different identities in the three worlds.] The system whispered quietly.

Xia Yan: […So what do I do now?]

[How about… you keep dating him? What if the Supreme God gets heartbroken and decides to destroy the world?] The system trembled, [Besides, you could rekindle your romance with Ludwig.]

Xia Yan: […]

Their conversation lasted too long. Suddenly, he heard the man’s voice in his ear: “You’re spacing out again, aren’t you?”

“?”

After holding him in a long embrace, the man finally sobered up a bit. He straightened his posture, his face flushed slightly, making him seem uncharacteristically endearing.

His deep, dark eyes fixed on the youth as he spoke softly, “Sometimes, I wonder if there’s something around you that I can’t see, keeping you company and talking to you.”

System: […]

Xia Yan: “…” What an accurate guess.

Panicking, he shook his head and mumbled a few excuses before fleeing the scene with the system.

–

Xia Yan was deeply troubled.

Now, because of the system’s tasks, he had two boyfriends.

Honestly, he wanted to break up with both of them. As a high schooler, his only focus should be the college entrance exams. However, considering that Li Xiangze might be his lover from the previous world and the incarnation of the Supreme God, he couldn’t bring himself to do it… Wait, no! He was mostly afraid of world destruction.

Having just been revived, he didn’t want to die again and end up transmigrating once more.

As the saying goes, choose the lesser of two evils.

Xia Yan decided to break up with Huo Hao.

Taking the initiative to be the bad guy, Xia Yan felt extremely guilty. He arranged to meet Huo Hao, and when faced with the boy’s love-filled gaze and sweet smile, he hesitated for half the day but still couldn’t bring himself to say the words “Let’s break up.”

Help!!!

Why does he have to endure this torment?

As time ticked by and the sky turned dark, Xia Yan finally gathered his courage and called out, “Huo Hao, I—I have something to tell you.”

The streetlights lit up, and an old love song played from a shop to the right.

Standing in the glow, the boy’s smile gradually faded until his lips pressed into a flat line. His expression turned cold and indifferent—an unfamiliar side Xia Yan had never seen before.

“I already know everything you’ve done, don’t think I don’t.”

“Secretly visiting Li Xiangze, meeting him, hugging him. Sneaking around behind my back and dating him in the dark.”

“I ignored it all, didn’t ask why you betrayed me.”

“Even today, knowing full well that you were planning to break up with me, I still came, trying to win you back and change your mind.”

His voice grew quieter, tinged with an indescribable sorrow. His upturned almond-shaped eyes glimmered with unshed tears as he questioned, “Why, in this world too, do you refuse to choose me?”

“???” Xia Yan’s guilt was instantly replaced by shock. “Wait… What did you just say? This world?”

System: [!!!]

Feedback again!!!

Huo Hao seemed equally startled by his own words, standing there in confusion: “What did I say? World?” Countless fragmented memories flashed through his mind, but he couldn’t grasp them.

“Anyway, I won’t break up with you.”

Throwing down this line, the boy fled in a hurry.

After a long silence, Xia Yan spoke quietly: [System.]

999 took a weary drag on an imaginary cigarette: [I’ve already reported this to the main system. Another five minutes.]

Xia Yan let out a deep sigh, running a hand through his hair. This little world he lived in had way too many bugs.