NANSO Chapter 7

TL: Hua

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Low blood sugar attacks are uncomfortable, but once sugar is replenished, they resolve quickly.

Shen Ci pressed his temples. After a brief dizziness, he propped himself up on the soft cushion and sat up. “Thank you.”

He still had the candy in his mouth, so his words were muffled, with a slight nasal tone, completely different from his usual cool voice. Xie Yu glanced at him, put the key in the ignition, and said, “Don’t you have a meeting? Get out. I’ll come find you next time.”

With that, he closed and locked the door, started the engine, turned the steering wheel, and drove onto the main campus road.

Shen Ci watched him leave, only lowering his eyelashes and taking the lollipop out of his mouth after the Bentley disappeared from sight.

This inconspicuous little thing was an expensive imported product, with a vanilla milk flavor and a soft, creamy yellow color. Both the milk and vanilla used excellent ingredients.

Shen Ci held the stick, examining it for a moment, unable to guess its price.

He hadn’t eaten much candy when he was little. His family was always poor then, and the town’s convenience store was several hours from their village. Even if he wanted it badly, no one would get him these delicate treats. Later, when his grandmother fell ill, Shen Ci’s meager salary was entirely poured into the hospital. He usually ate at the cafeteria, and even adding toppings to his noodles made him hesitate. He had never tasted these expensive, useless snacks of Young Master Xie, nor had he ever thought of trying them.

But now…

Shen Ci looked at it for a moment, then put it back in his mouth.

It was indeed very sweet.

He drifted off, lost in thought with the candy in his mouth, and then started thinking about the lab work for the evening. There was still over an hour until the meeting started, so Shen Ci planned to go back to the lab first to get his experimental data and then go eat and change. He walked back, pondering, and without realizing it, he had already swiped his card and entered the lab.

The lab lights were on; Li Yue and Han Yunyun hadn’t left yet.

Han Yunyun was copying experimental data. Hearing the sound, she looked up: “Brother Shen, you’re finally back. This is our experiment for today… huh?”

She suddenly froze.

Shen Ci hadn’t thought anything of it, but when Han Yunyun was startled, he suddenly realized something and paused.

“Bro-Brother Shen?”

Shen Ci hummed, feigning calmness, took the data, glanced at it, picked up the report, and left.

Han Yunyun didn’t speak for a long time.

It wasn’t until Shen Ci had walked far away that Han Yunyun, as if waking from a dream, said, “Li-Li Yue, what’s Brother Shen eating?”

Li Yue: “…”

He looked suspicious: “A lollipop?”

The usually stern and humorless Senior Shen entered the lab with a lollipop, its roundness plumping out his cheek. The two of them stared blankly as he walked away, not daring to utter a word.

Han Yunyun stammered, “Did he get possessed, or did I?”

*

On the bypass expressway, the system silently reappeared before Xie Yu.

The glowing blue dots trembled: “Congratulations, important plot point [Race Track Incident] has been completed. Key dialogue completion 100%, character retention 80%, protagonist felt emotions such as [humiliation], [pain], [dizziness] during the time. Emotional match 50%.”

“According to system judgment, this performance has a 75% match.”

Xie Yu: “Pretty high.”

He only aimed for a passing grade; 60 points was fine, but he ended up with an extra fifteen, which was a pleasant surprise.

“Do I have more scenes tonight?”

System: “No main storyline. The next plot is [Weekend Gathering], where you will take the protagonist to He Zhiyuan’s dinner party.”

“Can I act freely?”

The system flipped through the novel: “However, there’s a background plot. Hmm, your father will ask you to go home.”

In the original text, “Xie Yu” was greatly displeased by the protagonist’s defiance. He tormented the protagonist half to death in the car and even wanted to drag him to a hotel to continue, but Xie Yuanshan called, demanding his son come home, which is how the protagonist escaped.

Xie Yu asked, “What kind of personality does this Xie Yuanshan have?”

He was playing the original owner’s son, so he needed to know his “father’s” temper to avoid revealing any flaws.

System: “Xie Yuanshan is a minor supporting character in the novel, with little description. Keywords extracted by the system are ‘irritable, easily angered, strong desire for control.’ But he has little contact with the original owner, so you don’t need to worry about being exposed.”

Xie Yu was adjusting the radio. He repeated the description and chuckled, “Irritable, easily angered, strong desire for control? How is that so similar to my own father?”

The system explained: “As the chosen host, you and the original owner have a certain degree of similarity. This similarity includes name, height, appearance, family background, childhood experiences, and so on. So, if you feel that the ‘father’ in this world resembles your original world’s father, it is possible.”

Just as they were talking, Xie Yu’s phone rang three times. The caller ID showed Xie Yuanshan.

The original owner’s cheap father.

Xie Yu pressed accept: “Hello?”

Xie Yuanshan’s voice came through: “Xie Yu, where are you?”

The voice was low and serious, subtly hiding anger, not like a father talking to his child, but more like a superior disciplining a subordinate. Xie Yu didn’t respond for two seconds, and then the other side said in a deep voice, “Speak.”

Xie Yu paused, then chuckled, adopting a full playboy demeanor: “Out playing, something wrong?”

Xie Yuanshan coldly said, “Come home tonight; I need to talk to you.”

Xie Yu: “What’s the matter at home?”

“Company matters.”

“…”

After a moment of silence, Xie Yuanshan’s patience ran out: “I don’t care what you’re doing tonight; at eight o’clock, I want to see you at the dinner table.”

With that, he hung up without any explanation.

Xie Yu casually tossed his phone into the slot. He held the steering wheel for a long time without speaking, then leaned forward and turned the radio knob, landing on a live opera broadcast. The male performer dragged out a long aria, his singing winding and twisting. Xie Yu hummed along for a few lines, then set the navigation: “Location: Hotel.”

System: “Host? The original owner’s father asked you to go home; aren’t you going back?”

Xie Yu retorted, “Why should I go back?”

System: “Of course you don’t have to go, but the original owner was afraid of his father and tended to obey him. Logically, it would be better for you to meet him.”

Xie Yu’s performance had always been around the passing mark. If he could avoid losing points off-stage, it was best to avoid it.

Xie Yu was silent for a moment, then suddenly scoffed, “Still haunting me.”

The voice of the original owner’s father was exactly the same as Xie Yu’s own father’s.

—

At exactly eight o’clock that evening, Xie Yu entered the Xie family home.

This was Xie Yuanshan’s residence in Jiangcheng, a large riverside apartment. The living room’s floor-to-ceiling windows faced the river, and in recent years, due to urban planning, the high-rise buildings on both banks had been fitted with neon lights, creating a vibrant, dazzling cityscape.

The lights inside were off, making the room dark and cold, with only the distant lights from outside. Xie Yu pushed open the door, and Xie Yuanshan, at the dining table, lifted an eyelid: “You’re back? Turn on the lights.”

Xie Yu turned on the lights. The cold white glow spilled down, illuminating the dark gray marble countertop, making it even more desolate.

Xie Yu sat down at the dining table and finally got a clear look at Xie Yunshan’s face.

His cheekbones were prominent, but his cheeks were sunken. His eyebrows were thick and bushy, and his eyes were set very close together, making them look like two bricks pressing down on his eyes from a distance. A deep frown line, like a canyon’s fissure, was etched between his brows.

He gave a silent, cold laugh, thinking, “He really is 80% similar.”

Xie Yu didn’t believe in fortune-telling or physiognomy, but just looking at Xie Yuanshan’s face suggested a violent temper and an extreme personality.

The system displayed a small line of text, silently prompting: “The original owner and his father had a mediocre relationship and spoke very little. Please keep that in mind.”

Xie Yu lowered his eyebrows and nodded, asking faintly, “Why did you call me back?”

Xie Yuanshan scrutinized him for a moment, then tapped the table. This was his gesture to command his secretary to pour him water, but Xie Yu didn’t move a muscle. Xie Yuanshan frowned slightly: “You’re over 20 now, aren’t you?”

Xie Yu: “24.”

Xie Yuanshan glanced at him: “You’re 24, at this age, and you’re still out there messing around all day, making a mess of yourself.”

Xie Yu just smiled without speaking.

He was indeed 24 this year, but the original owner was only 22. He deliberately added two years to his age, but Xie Yuanshan didn’t notice at all.

Xie Yuanshan frowned: “What are you laughing at?”

Xie Yu scoffed, “Nothing, you’re absolutely right.”

As a renowned entrepreneur in the city, Xie Yuanshan’s time was precious, and he had no intention of wasting it on Xie Yu. He merely said, “You are my only son. You’re 24 now; it’s time you started learning about business. I’ve prepared a sum of initial capital for you to test your investment skills.”

Xie Yu raised an eyebrow, watching Xie Yuanshan push a black card across the table.

Xie Yu picked up the card with one hand and examined it. The card had a gold edge, reflecting a fragmented, diamond-like sheen under the light. He scrutinized it for a long time, then suddenly laughed: “Then it’s fine if I use this money to invest in a grave for Mom, right?”

As he said this, Xie Yu was squinting at Xie Yuanshan, his eyelids half-closed, the light in his eyes flickering, deep and cold like a frozen pond.

Xie Yuanshan was visibly stunned: “What?”

“Nothing, just joking.” Xie Yu smiled again. He pinched the card between his fingers and asked, “How much money is in it?”

“10 million.” Xie Yuanshan clearly detested his son’s flippant attitude, resulting in a tight frown on his face. “Xie Yu, you know my temper. If you can’t show me results in six months…”

Xie Yuanshan liked to speak in riddles, leaving people to guess the rest.

Xie Yu smiled: “Alright, I know.”

The original owner didn’t achieve anything academically in the end and was packed off by Xie Yuanshan to study abroad.

Studying wasn’t a big deal for Xie Yu, but for the original owner, it was indeed a punishment. His cronies were all in Jiangcheng, accustomed to being the center of attention. Suddenly going abroad to study, without a crowd of sycophants fawning over him, and with his living expenses cut off, the original owner was very unaccustomed to it.

Of course, before he could achieve anything, Xie Yuanshan died suddenly from a serious illness. Young Master Xie was brought back by Shen Ci, who had already become a big shot, had his fingers broken, and was locked in a mental hospital. Of course, there was no need to tell Xie Yuanshan these things.

They sat opposite each other, a strange silence hanging over the table. With the main topic concluded, the father and son couldn’t even manage a single casual greeting.

Xie Yuanshan had arranged a family dinner, probably intending to lecture his son while they ate, but Xie Yu didn’t want to listen to him. He simply pushed back his chair: “Alright, do you have anything else? If not, I’m leaving.”

Xie Yuanshan also didn’t want to say more, waving his hand: “Go.”

Xie Yu then chuckled, slipped the black card into his pocket, and strode quickly down the corridor, closing the front door behind him.

Once the Xie family’s main door clanged shut, the system bafflingly displayed a question mark: “Do you dislike him very much? I feel like he’s quite good to you.”

The system ticked off on its fingers: “He gave you money, let you study abroad, and come back to join the company. Isn’t that great?”

Xie Yu said, “That’s because Xie Yuanshan has fertility issues, and I’m his only son.”

Otherwise, he wouldn’t even be able to get through the door.

The host clearly didn’t want to say more, so the system had to stop and ask, “What about that black card? What are you going to do with 10 million? Are you really going to invest?”

Six months isn’t even enough time for fundraising. Xie Yu knows nothing about business; six months isn’t enough for him to even get started. What reliable projects could he invest in?

Xie Yu propped his chin: “I wasn’t planning any serious investments anyway.”

He’d be in a mental hospital in a few years, so what was there to invest in?

He pondered, “I remember at the end of the novel, I was locked up in a mental hospital by Shen Ci for over twenty years, right?”

The system was confused: “Yes, but what does that have to do with investing?”

Xie Yu: “Alright, let’s invest in a mental hospital then.”

System: “???”

Huh?

“Although I don’t need to be there for the entire twenty years I’m locked in the mental hospital, and Shen Ci was also very sick at that time, he often came to the mental hospital to see if I was ‘doing well.’ When the time comes, I have to be there to act, right?”

“Right…”

Xie Yu spread his hands: “It’ll be my home for the latter half of my life, after all. Spending a few million to upgrade the infrastructure, get a comfortable bed, and fix up the yard—that way, I’ll be more comfortable when I live there.”

“…”

“Host.” The system honestly evaluated, “You are the most bizarre host I have ever seen.”

Xie Yu cupped his hands: “You flatter me.”

He drove back to the hotel and actually opened his computer to start looking up information on mental hospitals in the city.

The original book didn’t mention the name of the hospital where the original owner was eventually confined, so Xie Yu had to check them one by one.

There were three mental hospitals in Jiangcheng. The largest one was a public hospital, with a complex flow of people. Locking a normal person there would easily leak information, so Shen Ci definitely wouldn’t choose that one.

The remaining two private ones were in the distant suburbs. Their hospital websites looked nice, making it hard to tell their quality. Xie Yu planned to invest a little in each and see which one it was.

He wrote down the mental hospital hotlines, planning to call them during business hours tomorrow to ask if they needed investment. But as he saved the number to his phone, he paused, raising an eyebrow slightly.

The original owner’s phone already had this number saved.

Xie Yu clicked on the note: 1734******, Doctor Xu Qingshan.

And this mental hospital was called Qingshan Mental Hospital.

Xie Yu clicked on the number and linked it to WeChat. The original owner and Doctor Xu were still friends. Within six months, the two sent dozens of messages to each other, all of which were made by the original owner to make an appointment and report the time to each other.

They should be in a doctor-patient relationship, and a long-term, stable one at that.

Xie Yu scrolled up. There were no chat records from before six months ago. The original owner seemed to have changed phones, so he couldn’t see more messages.

Xie Yu: “System, what’s going on?”

System: “The novel doesn’t have similar content. It should be content automatically supplemented by the world.”

Xie Yu nodded. He imitated the original owner’s tone and tentatively sent a message: “Doctor Xu, appointment.”

Ten minutes later, Doctor Xu: “Saturday night?”

Xie Yu: “Saturday night won’t work; I have a gathering.”

According to the novel, Saturday was an important plot point. He Zhiyuan was reorganizing a gathering at the bar to make up for tonight’s absence. He enthusiastically invited Xie Yu and specifically told him to bring Shen Ci, followed by a long section of censored plot.

Xie Yu: “Sunday afternoon?”

The other side sent “OK.”

The conversation ended.

Judging by the fluency of their replies, the original owner and Doctor Xu were very familiar with each other, understanding each other’s meaning without detailed explanations and being straightforward and efficient.

 

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