MMLDU Chapter 1

The night sky roared with thunder as dark clouds churned and tumbled low. Rain and wind lashed violently, shattering glass and scattering shards.

Rain fell like shattered glass, pounding down with a relentless pitter-patter as if trying to overturn and upend the bustling Nanfeng City. Decorative lights on trees swayed in the storm, pedestrians dashed in twos and threes, and the occasional blare of anxious car horns cut through the chaos. The temperature dropped sharply. The rain soaked the city in noisy turmoil. Yet, amidst all this clamor, one place remained untouched by the chaos.

In a remote detention center on the outskirts of Nanfeng, silence reigned within the soundproofed walls—eerie and unsettling.

Pei Lang opened his eyes. A sharp, acrid stench invaded his nose, making him frown deeply. The smell came from none other than himself.

“Where is this place?” Pei Lang muttered in confusion. Using the faint light to inspect his body, he found no injuries, miraculously. However, he hadn’t bathed in what must have been days. His skin felt sticky and the unpleasant odor clung to him.

He was originally the youngest Best Actor in the entertainment industry, having won the title several years in a row. His acting skills and character were universally praised. The last thing he remembered was attending an awards ceremony. On the way back to the hotel, a car accident occurred—the screech of brakes and the sound of shattering glass flashed through his mind. Then, everything went black. Now, he woke up here.

Pei Lang suspected he’d been kidnapped but couldn’t make sense of the situation yet. Slowly, he stood up and began to survey his surroundings. Having acted in a prison drama before, he quickly realized he was in a detention center. His eyelid twitched involuntarily.

Over the years in the entertainment industry, he’d made enemies, sure, but he hadn’t outright offended anyone, nor had he committed any crimes. So why was he here?

“Welcome to the world of the book «The CEO’s Beloved Wife is an Actor». Greetings, Host! I am System 007, here to serve you.”

Just as Pei Lang was puzzling over the situation, a cheerful mechanical voice suddenly rang out. His body froze, his pupils contracting in shock.

That name… it sounded all too familiar.

Frowning, Pei Lang mentally rifled through his memories until he finally remembered. This was the title of a BL novel his assistant had practically shoved into his hands. As a man as straight as an arrow, 27 years old and yet to experience love, Pei Lang’s overly concerned assistant had taken up the role of a matchmaker. She’d introduced him to several women, but none had piqued his interest. This led her to suspect he might be gay.

Pei Lang had explained countless times, but she wouldn’t believe him. Not long after, she handed him a BL novel, claiming, “If you finish reading this and still aren’t into guys, I’ll believe you don’t like men.”

Fine. He only filmed two movies a year, and with time to kill, Pei Lang had picked up the book and read it.

Coincidentally, there was a cannon fodder character in the novel who shared his name, so he forced himself to finish reading this book that wasn’t remotely his cup of tea. Naturally, reading it didn’t “bend” him—he was still as straight as ever.

So now…

“You’re saying you’re a system?” Pei Lang asked, his expression calm, though inwardly he was panicking. He had a very bad feeling about this.

007: “That’s right, Host!”

Pei Lang furrowed his brow. “This is the world inside the book?”

007: “Exactly, Host! Friendly reminder: in the real world, you already died in a car accident. Don’t even think about going back.”

Pei Lang was speechless. He hadn’t even started thinking about that yet. “I wouldn’t happen to still be… Pei Lang, would I?”

This Pei Lang was not the same as the real-world Pei Lang.

The system didn’t reply, but Pei Lang understood. A dirty, faint smile tugged at the corners of his lips. Taking a few steps back, he sprinted forward and threw himself headfirst toward the wall.

In the book, Pei Lang is a vile cannon fodder character. He had plenty of screen time, but it was all centered around causing trouble. He schemed incessantly, seducing his younger brother’s boyfriend, the male lead, and committing all kinds of misdeeds. Ultimately, he met a miserable, gruesome end.

Instead of being tortured to death by the male lead, he figured it would be better to just end it all now.

However, just a centimeter before his head hit the wall, an invisible force yanked him back.

System 007 dropped its cheerful facade and wailed desperately.
“Host, boohoo, don’t kill yourself! I accidentally messed up this book’s world balance, causing cannon fodder Pei Lang to die prematurely. If he’s dead, the plot won’t progress. If that’s discovered, I’ll be erased! Since you’re already dead in the real world, I… uh… I may have been slightly out of line pulling you here without permission. But if you die again, where will I find someone else perfectly suited to replace the cannon fodder and keep the plot moving? Uh… I mean, um… well…”

The system, having accidentally let slip too much, suddenly didn’t know how to smooth things over. Pei Lang, however, had pieced it together. He’d been dragged into this world to act as a stand-in and push the plot forward. Didn’t that mean he’d have to endure the male lead’s torment? No way was he agreeing to that.

But dying wasn’t as easy as he thought, with the system holding him back.

“Fine, just stop pulling me. I won’t try to die anymore, okay?” Pei Lang sighed deeply, giving up on ramming the wall. The force holding him back vanished. But just as the system relaxed, Pei Lang suddenly threw himself at the wall again. This time, the system reacted too late, and his head slammed into it with a loud thud.

A sharp, searing pain left him dizzy and nauseated. His stomach churned. He dry-heaved, but ultimately… he didn’t die.

Turns out, the wall-death scenes in TV dramas were all lies.

The pain silenced Pei Lang for a while.

007: “…Uh… Host, are you calm now? Actually, as long as you’re alive, you don’t have to follow the plot 100%. You can just be yourself, as long as you don’t disrupt the main storyline. So, Host, will you help me out?”

In other words, as long as the official couple ended up together in the end, everything else didn’t matter. Hearing this, Pei Lang felt a bit better. Sensing the shift, the system pressed its advantage, continuing its MLM-style persuasion.

“In your original world, you’re already dead. Isn’t getting a second chance to live a good thing? Here’s the deal: I’ll even break protocol and give you a golden finger as a trade-off. How does that sound?”

Pei Lang fell silent for a moment, weighing his options. If he refused, he’d likely be forced into reincarnation. But with the system still keeping him from dying and no way to escape, he figured he might as well stay.

A golden finger, huh? Hmph—at least this system had a shred of decency left.

“I want teleportation,” Pei Lang said after seriously deliberating. Out of all the supernatural abilities he could choose, this one seemed the most useful. However, his request was met with prolonged silence from the system. Pei Lang frowned. “Then how about an indestructible body? Or a physique that lets me eat as much as I want without gaining weight?”

Once again, silence. Just as Pei Lang was beginning to feel like he’d been duped and his patience was wearing thin, the system finally offered a shaky explanation.

“Host, um… since this is a special exception, you can’t choose. The golden finger is randomized. Plus, the ones you want are high-level abilities. I… I can’t get those…”

The system’s guilty tone grew quieter as it spoke.

What kind of promise was that if it couldn’t deliver? Still, having something was better than nothing.

“Fine. I won’t make things difficult for you,” Pei Lang sighed, reluctantly compromising.

The system perked up, its voice cheerful again. “According to the plot, Host, you’ll be leaving here tomorrow! I wish you a pleasant life. The golden finger has already been given—please pay attention to the first person who makes physical contact with you. Alrighty, bye-bye~”

With that, the system went silent. Pei Lang could feel it was gone. It didn’t say what the golden finger was, or if it even really gave him one. A lingering sense of being swindled weighed on him. Sitting down, he began recalling the story of this book.

The male lead, Yan Xiuyuan, was flawless in every aspect—his manners, knowledge, appearance, and wealth were unmatched. Most importantly, he was deeply devoted and unwavering in his affections. As the president of a leading entertainment company, he was the most desirable man in the country, for both men and women alike.

Yan Xiuyuan fell in love at first sight with the company’s rising star, Pei Ziqing, and from that moment began his relentless spoiling and pursuit. He showered Pei Ziqing with money and resources, sparing no expense to pave the way for their success. Touched by Yan Xiuyuan’s persistence, Pei Ziqing eventually brought him home to meet his parents, though they had yet to formally establish a romantic relationship.

However, Pei Lang—Pei Ziqing’s elder brother—also set his sights on Yan Xiuyuan. He shamelessly flirted, both openly and subtly, even going as far as to ask Yan Xiuyuan for acting opportunities and professing his feelings without an ounce of shame.

Because of Pei Lang’s relationship with Pei Ziqing, Yan Xiuyuan avoided outright conflict and gave him a few ordinary roles in films. But Pei Lang had no acting talent. While Pei Ziqing’s star rose rapidly, Pei Lang became a notorious blight on the entertainment industry. Labels such as “pretentious”, “sissy”, “talentless”, “hot-tempered”, and “diva” became attached to his name. Taking advantage of his connection to Yan Xiuyuan, he acted tyrannically and offended nearly everyone in the industry.

This illogical cannon fodder character existed solely to drive the plot forward. Once the entertainment reporters exposed the relationship between Pei Ziqing and Pei Lang, the comparisons began. Pei Ziqing was the pure, shining “white moonlight”, beloved by all, while Pei Lang was the reeking pile of garbage. Scandals surrounding Pei Lang kept surfacing, one after another.

When Yan Xiuyuan and Pei Ziqing publicly announced their relationship, Pei Lang’s reputation plummeted further. The revelation of his attempts to seduce his younger brother’s boyfriend made headlines, sparking public outrage. Online, people clamored for his banishment from the entertainment industry, ridiculing and denouncing him without end.

From that point on, he spiraled even further out of control.

A few months later, he learned about an elite social gathering that Yan Xiuyuan would attend. He prepared a drug with the intention of using it on Yan Xiuyuan, but his plan was exposed. To make matters worse, his younger brother, Pei Ziqing, was also present. When his scheme failed and jealousy overwhelmed him, the confrontation escalated from a verbal spat into a physical altercation. Pei Lang’s nails were long and ended up scratching Pei Ziqing’s face. That was the final straw for Yan Xiuyuan, who immediately called the police.

After his arrest, Pei Lang’s history of bullying Pei Ziqing from a young age came to light. Their half-brother relationship was uncovered, further cementing his reputation as malicious and vile. This time, Pei Ziqing refused to show any familial leniency and did not plead on his behalf. In the end, Pei Lang was sentenced to 15 days of detention. Tonight marked the last night of his sentence.

Taking over this infamously tarnished identity, Pei Lang sighed deeply. Once he left this place, he would have to face another storm of public outcry and chaos.

Pei Ziqing had an enormous fan base, while Pei Lang was universally despised online. It was likely that reporters and fans were already lying in wait outside.

This body hadn’t had proper rest in a long time. Though his mind was burdened, exhaustion overtook him, and he fell asleep quickly.

The next morning, he was awakened by a police officer. Still drowsy and disoriented, Pei Lang stood up under the officer’s disdainful gaze. It took him a moment to adapt to his new identity and regain clarity. After collecting his personal belongings, he was escorted only as far as the detention center’s entrance.

No one dared act out directly at the gate, but a crowd had gathered about fifty meters away. Thankfully, this body had excellent eyesight. As Pei Lang walked, he took out his phone and quickly booked a ride to a random destination. The driver, unaware of his passenger’s identity, arrived within five minutes.

Sharp-eyed entertainment reporters spotted Pei Lang’s intended escape route, shouted, and charged toward him with a growing mob in tow.

For the first time, Pei Lang found himself in such a pathetic state, stumbling into the car and shouting at the driver to start driving.

Equally bewildered, the driver floored the gas pedal, speeding off and successfully shaking off the crowd.

Some people behind them continued to run after the car, making it clear that if Pei Lang had been slower, he might have been torn apart by the mob.

“That was terrifying,” Pei Lang muttered, patting his chest to calm himself.

Taking a deep breath, he pulled out his phone, unlocking it with a fingerprint to search for his home address. While Pei Lang vaguely remembered the plot, he hadn’t inherited the original owner’s memories and didn’t know the way home. However, he recalled a few keywords related to the residential area. Sure enough, he found the address in the ride-hailing app’s history. After notifying the driver, he updated the destination.

The original owner of this body was, in fact, already married.

This was a secret that no one in the outside world knew.

After the official couple publicly announced their relationship, the original Pei Lang was devastated. Around that time, a man approached him with a contract in hand, and he ended up marrying that man.

The man’s name was Yan Han, the male lead Yan Xiuyuan’s uncle. In the original novel, Yan Han wasn’t described much, other than that he had lost the use of his legs for the sake of the “white moonlight” and relied on a wheelchair for mobility. His legs had undergone treatment but with no success. His father, who was also Yan Xiuyuan’s grandfather, placed his hopes in feng shui and superstition. A fortune-teller suggested that Yan Han needed to marry someone with a compatible fate to bring good fortune and help him regain the ability to walk.

By coincidence, Pei Lang’s astrological chart was a perfect match. The old man, indifferent to Pei Lang’s bad reputation, pressured Yan Han to agree to the marriage by using his advanced age and limited time left to live as leverage.

The original Pei Lang had his own motives for agreeing—marrying Yan Han would bring him closer to Yan Xiuyuan. After all, being part of the family would mean more opportunities to interact with the male lead.

They moved in together after the marriage but lived entirely separate lives. The contract stipulated a five-year term, after which Pei Lang would receive a significant sum of money. From his perspective, it was a deal with no downside, so he agreed.

There was no wedding ceremony, no family witnesses—just a simple, anonymous marriage. Not even Yan Xiuyuan was aware of it.

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