Chapter 43#
World 1: The Tragic Supporting Male Lead Changes the Script Online#
Two years passed in a flash, and the company jointly founded by Qin Qing and Zhou Linlin was about to go public. The newly released game was a huge success, and the celebration party was held tonight.
Zhou Linlin, wearing a pure white suit, stood on the stage giving a speech to colleagues and guests. Since Qin Qing cut her long hair, she had kept the short hairstyle from that night.
On that night, she regained her dignity, found herself, and received a crown adorned with fresh flowers.
At this moment, her parents sat below the stage, looking at her with proud eyes. But she didn’t care anymore.
Her nemesis Zhou Yurou also sat below the stage, looking at her with eyes red with jealousy, which was also irrelevant to her.
Only Qin Qing, only Qin Qing standing in the corner, holding a bouquet of flowers, looking at her with gentle and approving eyes, could make her feel the joy of the moment of success.
“…Finally, I want to thank my most important partner, Qin Qing. Without him, I wouldn’t be here today. Thank you for your company. It’s been hard work all the way.” Zhou Linlin reached out to Qin Qing standing in the dark corner below the stage.
So Qin Qing walked onto the stage and handed over a bouquet of fake flowers made of crepe paper. Others liked to send fresh cut flowers, but he was unique.
Zhou Linlin held the fake flowers and pretended to smell them, jokingly saying they smelled good. However, when hugged by Qin Qing, she felt that this person was more fragrant than the most beautiful flowers in the world.
People sitting in the auditorium began to applaud, from slow to enthusiastic.
Zhou Yurou applauded reluctantly while looking at the tall man sitting in the center of the front row with flushed cheeks.
How ruthlessly can two years change a person?
In the past, Zhou Yurou never thought time could do anything to Cang Ming. That person was an insurmountable mountain in her heart.
But now, this mountain had collapsed. No, he even ceased to exist.
His hard short hair grew into a natural and casual medium length, gelled into a suave look. He wore a retro luxurious three-piece suit every day, and would put on rimless glasses when reviewing documents, covering his aggressive handsome face.
He was no longer unsmiling, nor reticent. He could talk eloquently, hide needles in cotton, and be hypocritical, all of which were things he used to hate the most!
Until now, Zhou Yurou still remembered the scene when she first saw Cang Ming three months after Xu Yizhi died.
He almost became another Xu Yizhi!
Why? He was clearly such an aloof and arrogant person! It wouldn’t be an exaggeration to say the whole world revolved around him!
Why did he abandon himself?
Until seeing Qin Qing…
Until seeing Cang Ming approach that person and take care of that person in Xu Yizhi’s way, Zhou Yurou gradually understood…
Such an arrogant Cang Ming was actually imitating a dead person for Qin Qing! Xu Yizhi was always remembered, but who would remember Cang Ming? He had lost himself!
Zhou Yurou covered her red eyes and wept sadly in the enthusiastic applause, under the shadow.
But the person she stared at kept his head up, silently and extremely gently watching Qin Qing on the stage.
The applause had died down, but he was still clapping gently one by one. Undoubtedly, he was the proudest and happiest.
“Heh, does Qin Qing deserve it? Does he deserve this love? Why did he choose Cang Ming as a substitute?” Zhou Yurou looked at Qin Qing on the stage with resentful eyes.
Qin Qing walked down with Zhou Linlin, and a group of people immediately gathered around, smiling and saying compliments.
Qin Qing raised his arm and made a wait gesture to Cang Ming. Cang Ming nodded silently and then left the auditorium. When Qin Qing needed him, he could be there anytime. When Qin Qing didn’t need him, he could also walk away silently.
Zhou Yurou’s tears fell again. She got up in a panic and chased out hurriedly.
“President Cang, President Cang!”
The celebration party was held in a metropolis in the north. It was midwinter, and it was snowing heavily outside. Zhou Yurou, wearing a small off-shoulder dress, ran in the heavy snow, her voice trembling from the cold.
A tall man wearing a black cashmere coat and holding a black long-handled umbrella walked in the pure white snow. He didn’t look back, as if he hadn’t heard the anxious footsteps and slightly trembling calls behind him.
Several bodyguards gathered around, trying to catch Zhou Yurou.
“President Cang, I am Qin Qing’s sister!” Zhou Yurou had to use Qin Qing’s name.
Then she discovered with great heartache that Cang Ming, who was striding forward, actually stopped just because of a name mentioned occasionally. Qin Qing was such an existence to him. He stopped and went, lingering in the mortal world, just for this one person.
Cang Ming turned his head, his cold gaze sweeping over.
Zhou Yurou mustered up courage and shouted: “President Cang, I like you! Please give me a chance to pursue you! Qin Qing doesn’t love you at all! He loves Xu Yizhi. I beg you to give him up, I beg you to find yourself back! You don’t need to imitate anyone, you yourself are worthy of being loved! In my heart, you are the best! Don’t forget yourself, okay?”
Zhou Yurou knelt in the heavy snow, crying out of breath.
She was so distressed. How could Qin Qing treat Cang Ming like this?
Cang Ming’s indifferent gaze remained unchanged.
He was silent for a moment, and then said in a voice as deep as a bell and drum: “In my heart, Qin Qing is also the best.”
After speaking, he turned around and continued to walk into the white snow. The fluttering pure white snowflakes almost swallowed his back.
He was disappearing.
He was losing himself bit by bit.
Zhou Yurou truly loved Cang Ming, so she could realize how heavy and irreversible Cang Ming’s words were. Just as she could never fall in love with anyone else, so was Cang Ming.
Zhou Yurou beat the snow fiercely and let out an angry scream.
In this sharp shout, a gentle call bypassed the snowflakes and sounded indistinctly: “Cang Ming.”
The shout was right behind Zhou Yurou, but she didn’t hear it at all.
However, Cang Ming, who had walked far away, turned his head at this time. His cold face melted like winter snow, suddenly revealing a smile full of tenderness.
“Cold? Come here quickly.” He reached out towards Zhou Yurou’s direction, a short sentence carrying deep concern and worry.
Zhou Yurou was stunned, and then stood up as if possessed, showing a dreamy smile.
A slender figure passed her and strode towards Cang Ming. That was Qin Qing, wearing a white suit, sprayed with rich perfume, bringing a trace of worldly turbidity to this empty and cold night.
Zhou Yurou thought it was turbidity, extremely filthy.
But in Cang Ming’s view, this rich and sweet fragrance, this warm and flexible body, was the most beautiful scenery.
He took off his black leather gloves, held Qin Qing’s cold hand with his warm hand, and then tilted the umbrella entirely towards Qin Qing, letting the snowflakes fall on his own shoulders.
“Hold the umbrella properly.” Qin Qing pushed the umbrella over a bit, his hoarse voice hiding many sour and unspeakable emotions.
He heard all of Zhou Yurou’s words.
It was time to end.
The two walked side by side for a long time, the snow on the ground getting thicker.
Qin Qing suddenly stopped, looked up at Cang Ming, “Why did you fall in love with me? In my memory, we don’t seem to have experienced anything soul-stirring.”
Before meeting Xu Yizhi and Cang Ming, he thought love was a test and tribulation. Without experiencing life and death together, where would undying love come from? However, even experiencing life and death together didn’t seem to guarantee that kind of love.
He looked at Cang Ming unblinkingly, his dark eyes reflecting Cang Ming’s equally dark eyes.
Cang Ming asked in a low voice: “In your opinion, what is soul-stirring?”
“Experiencing tribulations together, overcoming tribulations together.” Qin Qing gave the most common answer.
Cang Ming shook his head and laughed, disagreeing. He held the umbrella steadily with one hand and gently stroked Qin Qing’s cold face with the other.
“In the desolate and dead desert, without water source, without fertile soil, only ruthless scorching sun and sand everywhere, but suddenly a delicate and lovely flower blooms. Tell me, does this count as soul-stirring?”
He brushed the snowflakes off Qin Qing’s shoulder, his tone gentler and slower: “A person who lost his sense of taste suddenly tasted the sweetness of nectar. Tell me, does this count as soul-stirring?”
The north wind howled, blowing the snowflakes into chaos. A piece of pure white snow landed on Qin Qing’s pale pink lips.
Cang Ming lowered his head, spraying his hot breath on Qin Qing’s face, “Right at this moment, snowflakes fall on your lips, slowly melting into water droplets. This silent scene is also soul-stirring to me.”
He laughed hoarsely and low, and then wiped away the cold water droplet on the full lip bead with his fingertip.
Actually, he wanted to kiss it away with his own lips, but he knew he couldn’t yet.
Before truly becoming Xu Yizhi, such intimacy was absolutely forbidden.
A snowflake fell into Qin Qing’s dark eyes, turning into wet mist. He looked intently at Cang Ming’s tender and romantically smiling face, an indescribable sadness slowly welling up in his heart.
“You looking at me with eyes as if you fell in love with me is also soul-stirring to me.” Cang Ming stroked the corner of Qin Qing’s slightly red eye, his words full of extravagant hope and longing.
Qin Qing’s slightly red eyes suddenly curved into crescents, gentle and relieved light soaking in the hazy tears.
“Then if I kiss you now, does it count as soul-stirring?” He asked hoarsely.
“That might take my life.” Cang Ming dared not imagine such a scene, but his heart beat rapidly.
Qin Qing curved his lips into a smile, then stood on tiptoe, and gently kissed Cang Ming’s lips with his wet lips.
Falling snow was silent, and this kiss was equally silent.
However, a loud bang rolled in Cang Ming’s mind, followed by strong wind and sudden rain. He was stunned, and the umbrella slipped from his hand.
Qin Qing extended the tip of his tongue, pried open Cang Ming’s lips, and passed his sweetest, most cloying, warmest, and hottest nectar over bit by bit.
A buzzing sound oscillated back and forth in his ears, and a heat flow surged up and down in his heart. Ending this hasty kiss, Qin Qing pursed his wet and slightly red lips, smiling and whispering: “It seems quite soul-stirring.”
Only then did the stunned Cang Ming come back to his senses, hugged Qin Qing fiercely, and kissed him again.
Urgent, fierce, constantly demanding. He was like a beast hungry for a long time wanting to eat people.
Qin Qing pushed Cang Ming hard.
Cang Ming didn’t resist, fell into the snow, his dark eyes slightly closed, showing a sad expression of “sure enough, still can’t”.
Qin Qing leaned down, holding Cang Ming’s face, and led a lingering and passionate kiss in the heavy snow and howling north wind.
“Give me your life, okay?” In the gap of breathing, Qin Qing laughed hoarsely and low, and then said: “I’ll give you mine too.”
“Okay.” Cang Ming didn’t hesitate at all, raised his head, and couldn’t wait to hold Qin Qing’s lips.
Breathing again, Qin Qing ordered: “Go cut your hair short tomorrow.”
“Okay.” Cang Ming pressed the back of his head, letting his lips press against his own. The heavy snow didn’t stop, and this kiss wasn’t allowed to stop either.
Qin Qing laughed muffledly, kissed for a while longer, and then said breathlessly: “Don’t wear this style of suit tomorrow, wear your previous black suit.”
“Okay.” Cang Ming could even give his life to his little flower, what couldn’t he agree to at this moment?
The kiss continued, and the gap for breathing lengthened.
“Throw away those glasses tomorrow.”
“Okay.”
“Don’t imitate Xu Yizhi anymore.”
“Okay.”
Cang Ming had lost the ability to think, agreeing to whatever Qin Qing asked, giving whatever he wanted.
“Even if you are not like him at all, I will love you. For the rest of my life, I will always love you. Change back to yourself, Cang Ming.” Qin Qing supported himself with his arms in the snow, gazing at Cang Ming’s black eyes ignited by hot fire, saying word by word.
“What?” Cang Ming was stunned.
“Cang Ming, I want you to change back to yourself.” Qin Qing lowered his head and pressed his hot lips against Cang Ming’s cold ear.
Cang Ming’s Adam’s apple rolled many times before he slowly found his voice, “Okay, I’ll change back! I’ll go cut my hair right now.”
Snowflakes fell on his face one by one, turning into water droplets. This biting cold repeatedly reminded him that everything at this moment was not a dream.
“What else did you say just now?” Cang Ming raised his arm, tightly grasped Qin Qing’s shoulder, faint light lighting up bit by bit in his dark eyes.
“I also said, even if you are not like him at all, I will love you. I don’t want a substitute, I want you. I want Cang Ming.” Qin Qing lowered his head and kissed away the snowflakes on Cang Ming’s face.
Forehead, nose bridge, cheeks, lips. Drops of snowflakes, drops of kisses.
What moment could be more soul-stirring than now?
Bright light burned in Cang Ming’s dark eyes, love surging. He hugged Qin Qing tightly in his arms, wrapping this person tightly with his open black trench coat. A sincere heart beat unreservedly in his chest, constantly emitting heat.
The heat flushed Qin Qing’s face and wet his eyes. His lips, nose tip, and eye corners were all dyed with peach pink color, delicate and charming like a flower waiting to bloom.
Cang Ming could no longer hold back, kissing his little flower fiercely and eagerly.
Outside, heavy snow was flying and cold wind was howling, but between the lips and tongues of the two, in this broad embrace, it was warm as spring.
Qin Qing, whose eyes were dyed red by spring passion, sighed gently and slowly: “Cang Ming, I missed you.”
Two years later.
996 climbed up to the second floor of a villa along the drainpipe.
The second-floor balcony was full of climbing roses and pure white Chinese roses. A pair of men hugging and kissing lingeringly were hidden in the flower clusters as passionate as flames.
“Meow, almost blinded my eyes. Can you find a more private space next time you are intimate? Every time it’s so inappropriate for children, making me a bit spring-hearted too. How about you find me a little female cat here?”
996 crawled under the rocking chair, chattering.
Seeing Qin Qing still ignoring it, it coughed and said pretending to be reluctant: “Or a little male cat is fine too. You’ve seen the Ragdoll cat next door, right? Introduce us someday?”
Qin Qing pushed Cang Ming away and laughed low twice.
Cang Ming glanced at 996 inadvertently, hugged Qin Qing from behind, his thin lips kissing the other’s fragrant neck.
“Go take a shower.” Qin Qing patted Cang Ming’s arm holding his waist suggestively.
Cang Ming’s eyes darkened, pinched Qin Qing’s jaw and kissed deeply for a moment, then hurried back to the bedroom.
Qin Qing picked up the watering can beside him to water the roses and Chinese roses, and said casually: “You went to see Qin Zishi again?”
996 crawled out from under the rocking chair, conjured a lit cigarette out of thin air, and took a puff vicissitudinously.
“He’s living quite terribly. You don’t know, the conditions in that mental hospital are very poor. There is no special person to take care of him, and they are afraid he will commit suicide, so they have to tie him to the bed. When I went there, he had shit and pissed all over the bed, and kept saying God I was wrong, God I was wrong.”
“God I was wrong?” Qin Qing narrowed his eyes slightly.
“Yeah.” 996 pouted, twitching its whiskers, and blew a round smoke ring.
“He wants to commit suicide every day?” Qin Qing asked again.
“Yeah. Just fell into a manhole and starved for three days and nights, not enough to cause such a big psychological shadow, right?” 996 couldn’t understand, so it could only shake its head.
Qin Qing put down the watering can and asked: “Is his health okay? Did he get a terminal illness?”
“He is as strong as an ox! A team of experts has stationed in the mental hospital specifically to study his self-healing ability. It is said that even if beaten to the last breath by patients in the same ward, he can recover quickly. Damn it, this world is weird everywhere!”
996 put out the cigarette butt irritably.
“The protagonist gong and the bitter male supporting character are together, the second male lead with heaven-defying ability was easily killed by the protagonist shou, and the protagonist shou himself became a mental patient. What kind of mess have you changed the script given to me by the Heavenly Dao into! Why haven’t you been struck by lightning yet?”
996 complained indignantly.
“Wait slowly, I’m going to sleep.” Qin Qing turned back to look inside the house.
Cang Ming walked out slowly with a bath towel around his waist. Broad and solid chest, strong and powerful waist, distinct abdominal muscles… all these indicated a crazy night.
996 wanted to chase in to see, but was blocked by a sliding door, and soon the curtains were drawn.
“Pah! Wait until the day the world restarts, let’s see if you can still laugh!” 996 stuck to the glass door and looked for a long time without seeing anything, so it had to run next door to find that beautiful Ragdoll cat.
Anyway, the world could restart at any time, might as well enjoy the moment.
However, 996 waited for one year, two years, ten years, twenty years… Unknowingly a lifetime passed, and this world did not restart.
Qin Qing and Cang Ming lived safely and smoothly to old age.
On the day the soul naturally left the body, the white-haired Cang Ming held the hand of the equally white-haired Qin Qing and said word by word: “Will you follow me?”
Qin Qing nodded without hesitation: “I will.”
Cang Ming smiled with satisfaction, and whispered slowly in Qin Qing’s ear: “Some of me haven’t awakened yet, please give them a little more time, okay?”
Qin Qing seemed to understand this inexplicable sentence. He shed tears while smiling, nodding seriously: “Okay, I have endless time to give you.”
Cang Ming hugged his little flower and closed his eyes in a happy smile.
White light appeared suddenly, the scenery faded, and the old Qin Qing slowly returned to his youngest and most handsome appearance, disappearing from this world.
“Meow meow meow, we are back?” 996 stood at the gate of a cloud-shrouded heavenly palace, shouting in disbelief.
Qin Qing looked up at the plaque on the beam of the heavenly palace gate and smiled with amusement.
Power Generation Bureau for Love. Until now, he understood how this strange name came about. Experiencing the red dust, isn’t it just to realize emotion and Dao?
One person and one cat walked into that pure white space and stood in front of the miniature universe.
996 looked at the intellectual brain and said sympathetically, “You didn’t even get 200 points, you can’t do tasks anymore. Crossing requires energy, 200 points can exchange for energy to cross once. The main god will send you back to the original world.”
It paused, and suddenly laughed gloatingly: “Go back and keep company with that scumbag, hee hee hee!”
The meager points were submitted, and 996 fully expected to wait for the main god’s cold and ruthless denial.
However, it didn’t happen.
The intellectual brain stuck for a moment, and then a line of golden characters popped up: [Task perfectly achieved, please submit two origin fragments.]
“Damn it, what does this mean? What are origin fragments?” 996 was confused.
Qin Qing looked down, seemed to think of something, actually opened his palm, and summoned a black gold lighter and a pure gold cigarette case out of thin air.
As soon as the two things appeared, they were sucked away by that huge miniature universe and turned into two flickering stars. Qin Qing looked up at those two stars, his eyes full of attachment.
He reached out his hand, gently pressed on this pitch-black but star-studded universe, closing his eyes to experience. Warm temperature was transmitted, as if he was touching a flesh and blood body.
He stroked the universe and walked around slowly. Those stars also rotated around his palm, and then emitted a momentary brilliant light.
Thousands of stars were responding to Qin Qing’s touch, as if he was the brightest star once cherished but lost in this universe.
Qin Qing laughed in a low voice, then opened his eyes and gazed affectionately at this universe.
996 suddenly screamed: “Hey hey hey, what’s going on? Qin Qing save me! The main god wants to kill me!”
Qin Qing turned his head to look, only to see 996 sucked into mid-air by an invisible force, tightly attached to the eggshell of the miniature universe, its round cat face squeezed into a big pancake.
Qin Qing immediately walked over and pulled 996 back, but its paw wearing the intellectual brain was still stuck firmly to the eggshell of the universe.
“Take off the intellectual brain quickly.” Qin Qing realized something.
But before 996 could take off the intellectual brain, a milky white, slightly glowing seed floated out of the different dimension of the intellectual brain, was absorbed by the egg-shaped universe, and wrapped in the center by clusters of nebulae.
“The main god snatched your main body!” 996 asked in horror: “What exactly is going on?”
Qin Qing looked up at his main body suspended in the center of the universe like a star, curved his lips and smiled: “Sorry, I don’t know either.”
“Pah! You must know!” 996 shouted with hands on hips.
Qin Qing walked forward slowly, extended his arms to hug this giant egg, his cheek against that warm shell, and sighed with satisfaction and attachment.
“Before you, I had nothing; after you, I have a universe.”
This inaudible soft whisper made the stars in the miniature universe emit burning bright light together.