Chapter 1

Chapter 1

In front of me, in a tastefully decorated hall, a velvet sofa acted like an axis of symmetry, mirroring the black-suited bodyguards on either side.

On the sofa sat a man and a woman. The man was in his sixties, dressed in a suit and looking vigorous; the woman appeared to be around thirty, wearing a deep red dress, dignified and elegant.

Shen Gali slowly formed a mental question mark.

Did I... ascend to heaven?

Slowly getting his brain working, he recalled the scene from a moment ago.

From birth, Shen Gali had been constantly in and out of the hospital with a hereditary heart condition, taking endless leaves from school.

He was sick of the endless pills and treatments, just wishing for it all to end.

Until the caregiver, a fan of trashy danmei novels, babbled in his ear nonstop about the plot she had just read. Reaching the climax, Shen Gali's lips turned purple, and he gasped, "Stop..." Then the heart monitor screeched, and he quietly closed his eyes as footsteps rushed in.

Next thing he knew, he was in this bizarre scene.

A middle-aged woman walked over, carrying a tray with two celadon ice-crackle cups, filled with fragrant, steaming tea.

"A new bride has to offer tea to her parents-in-law on the first day to show filial piety," the woman said flatly, setting the cup in front of Shen Gali.

A new bride?

Shen Gali was puzzled.

Me? A bride?

He was such a sickly wreck—a dog would shake its head at him, let alone any matchmaker.

As he was mulling it over, the woman on the sofa said with a smile: "I know Liu Jing—he's never been one for formalities. We won't wait for him. As for you, Jiali, since you and Liu Jing are married now, you need to be patient with him in all things to have a harmonious marital life."

Shen Gali: ?

This talk is a blast from the past—like 2005.

But wait, Liu Jing? That name sounds familiar.

He thought back carefully. Before his critical illness, in the novel the caregiver was greedily reading, the main villain, a twisted and sinister guy, seemed to be named that too.

Shen Gali: ...

I've... time-traveled into a novel...

His mother had the same hereditary heart condition and died at forty-seven. But, worried about him suffering the same pain, she asked a distant cousin's daughter to look after him before her death.

The cousin was young, loved trashy novels, and wasn't the brightest—she had to read aloud to stay focused.

Lying in bed, Shen Gali had to listen to his cousin recount all sorts of dramatic plots: heart ripping, lung gouging, kidney harvesting; he runs, she chases, he can't escape.

And recently, his cousin had found a trashy rich-family danmei novel called *Under the Business Sea*, featuring a true vs. false young master story. She read it every day by Shen Gali's bed. Sometimes conscious, sometimes drowsy, he caught the gist of it.

Coincidentally, the fake young master—the swapped-at-birth cannon fodder—shared the same name as him.

In the original text, the fake young master, Shen Gali, was arrogant, mean, and petty. He thought money could fix anything, bullied others, and made enemies left and right.

Later, the true young master, Shen Lanqing, was recognized by the family. The fake young master, fearing he would take away everything that belonged to him, openly bullied and secretly framed the true young master. This infuriated his parents, who had some lingering affection for him, so they cut him off and threw him out to the suburbs, leaving him to live or die.

Later, the Shen family faced bankruptcy. To save the company, they groveled for a marriage alliance with the top domestic financial group, the Nan family. But the groom wasn't Nan Feiyao, the younger son, but the eldest son, Nan Liujing, rumored to be old, ugly, twisted, and disabled.

The Shen family couldn't bear to send the true young master, who had suffered outside, so they swapped them—sending the fake one to the bed of the twisted villain.

The fake young master refused to accept his fate. He plotted to kill the villain and inherit all his wealth. But he got caught, and instead, the villain tortured him within an inch of his life.

Meanwhile, the true young master, Shen Lanqing, and the protagonist gong, Nan Feiyao, beat up the cannon fodder and the villain, took over the company, and got their happy ending.

Shen Gali recalled the general plot of the original text. Though he couldn't remember the details, he understood that he had time-traveled into the mean cannon fodder fake young master, and now he was about to be tortured within an inch of his life by the villain.

Shen Gali: ...

Can I re-transmigrate? Just drop me in the chapter where I kick the bucket.

"Offer the tea. Why are you so dazed?" The middle-aged woman, seeing Shen Gali lost in thought, pinched his back hard with her fingertips.

"Why should I offer tea?" Shen Gali asked, puzzled.

"After offering tea, from today you'll have to call them Mom and Dad."

Oh.

Shen Gali took a step, casually stepping on the middle-aged woman's foot as he passed, causing her to cry out "Ouch" twice.

He could have gone around, but the straight line between two points is the shortest. It wasn't out of revenge for that hard pinch.

Wanting to finish quickly, Shen Gali lifted both cups of tea at once, handed them to the "parents-in-law" like distributing gifts to kindergarten children:

"This is yours, hold it tight. This cup is yours, don't fight over it."

Then he straightened up: "Grandpa, Auntie, drink up. I'm tired and want to lie down for five minutes."

Distinguishing titles was too troublesome. All men were "Grandpa," all women were "Auntie."

Parents-in-law: ???

Everyone: ???

Presumably, upscale members of a financial group had never seen such rude and unruly behavior. For a moment, they were stunned.

Who wouldn't kneel to polish the tycoon's leather shoes to show loyalty? And he says he wants to lie down for five minutes?

The man on the sofa gave a fake smile: "What did you just call me? Grandpa?"

Shen Gali was puzzled. He looked the old man up and down, then hesitantly parted his lips: "An... ancestor?"

At his age, even calling him "Uncle" would be embarrassing for him.

In one day, the antagonist's father had been elevated two generations. His molars ground creakingly, and veins bulged on his neck.

But the woman still smiled calmly, like a placid sea.

"It seems the new bride is nervous entering the family and can't bring herself to change her address. Never mind, we're not old-fashioned sticklers. We can skip the formalities," she said, standing up. Her pearl earrings swayed as she smiled. "New bride, come with me first."

Shen Gali, feeling dizzy from standing—his muscles were jelly—just wanted to find a place to lie down for five minutes.

Although the woman before him seemed easygoing and unconcerned with trivialities, Shen Gali had no favorable impression of her.

She was obstructing his great plan to lie flat, and if he remembered correctly, she was the stepmother of the villain Nan Liujing and the biological mother of the protagonist gong Nan Feiyao.

The villain's birth mother was originally a young lady from a prominent family who married into the Nan family. She died mysteriously at the age of thirty, and before the seventh day of her death had passed, the villain's father married his current second wife.

When she married into the Nan family, the second wife was just a twenty-year-old college student. She was stunningly beautiful and a master manipulator, taking control of the family's finances as soon as she entered the household.

Tsk.

Shen Gali followed her to the kitchen. As soon as the door opened, six or seven servants inside were bustling about with great energy.

"You can all leave now," the woman dismissed the servants, leaving Shen Gali alone.

She rolled up her sleeves, washed her hands meticulously, and opened a cabinet. Inside were neatly arranged boxes of various traditional Chinese herbs, each labeled with their name, dosage, and efficacy.

"As you know, Liujing is now confined to a wheelchair. No one knows when this treatment will finally end, but we have to at least give it a try," she said.

With that, she grabbed several herbs, weighed them one by one on an electronic scale, and placed them into different small bowls. Then she smiled at Shen Gali:

"Perhaps Liujing is still not happy with this marriage. So you’ll have to go along with his whims, take care of him, and let him see your sincerity. His attitude will gradually change."

Shen Gali: So?

"So brew this tonic and bring it to him when you go back. And don't forget to mention that you made it yourself, okay?" the woman said with a smile, her eyes curving like crescent moons.

There were also strict requirements for the order of adding these herbs, and the woman rambled on, introducing them one by one.

Shen Gali was speechless.

So troublesome. Really, so troublesome. Why brew this Chinese medicine? Will drinking this bowl of Chinese medicine make the villain immediately stand up from his wheelchair? Then represent the region in a marathon?

Why bother with something so meaningless?

Without giving Shen Gali a chance to refuse, the woman left the room: "I have to attend to the guests. Turn off the heat in three hours. Good luck."

From the corner of her eye, she stole a glance at the small bowls of herbs, and her red lips curled into a smile.

This family can only have one heir, and this Shen Gali's arrival couldn't be more perfect.

After the woman left, Shen Gali stared at the herbs in contemplation.

What was the order for adding them again...

The only thing he remembered was that the last herb was some kind of root.

Can't remember. No point thinking about it. Don't be hard on yourself.

He grabbed a few root-like medicinal herbs and threw them into cold water, gave it a single stir with chopsticks, then went to a corner, slowly sat down, hugged his knees, and closed his eyes.

The pot held nothing but clear water with a few unrecognizable plant roots floating in it. It looked like something you'd find during a famine.

The blue-green flame danced under the pot, and from the corner came the steady rhythm of Shen Gali's breathing.

Just then, the kitchen door quietly opened, and a middle-aged man with a square face and graying hair slipped inside.

The square-faced man quietly walked over to Shen Gali, looking down at him.

The sleeping boy was leaning crookedly against the wall. The soft strands of hair on his forehead hung delicately over his porcelain-like eye corners, like the delicate patterns traced on a blue-and-white porcelain vase.

The square-faced man couldn't help but sigh inwardly: What a rare beauty. Eyebrows like paintings, long lashes casting soft shadows on his cheeks, even his fingers were perfectly shaped—translucent as jade, with skin so thin you could see the blue veins on his neck.

Overly beautiful things always make people linger for a long time. After staring for quite a while, the square-faced man finally recalled why he had come. After one last reluctant look around, he walked over to the small pot boiling the plant roots and turned off the heat.

"Mr. Shen, wake up. How can you sleep here?"

*

Shen Gali was shaken awake. Opening his eyes, he came face to face with a stern square face.

Who's that?

Whatever. It doesn't matter who it is. It's best if the other person doesn't actively introduce themselves. Remembering names is a pain, and getting them wrong is embarrassing.

"Hello, allow me to introduce myself. I am the butler for the eldest young master. My surname is Li. You can call me Uncle Li," the square-faced Uncle Li introduced himself warmly.

But things never work out the way you want. There's always someone who doesn't care about how others feel and forces a greeting under the guise of politeness.

"I inquired with the madam. She said you were in the kitchen brewing tonic for the eldest young master. I turned off the heat for you since it was about time. The eldest young master will be home shortly. Please get yourself together a bit and come with me back to the house," Uncle Li spoke with an earnest tone.

Shen Gali took the insulated bottle Uncle Li handed him. It contained the "tonic" he had just brewed using mystery plant roots.

Sitting in the luxury car, Shen Gali clutched the insulated bottle in the back seat. The sun was shining brightly outside the window, so he casually drew the curtain, and even pulled the one on the opposite window.

Having spent half his life in a hospital room, he had long been used to a dim, sunless environment. Sunlight was a burden to him.

Uncle Li glanced at Shen Gali in the rearview mirror as he drove, smiled, and said, "It's been overcast and rainy in Jinhai for days, making everyone feel clammy and uncomfortable. Today the sun's finally out. Mr. Shen, why not open the curtains and enjoy some sunshine?"

Shen Gali leaned slouched against the seat, eyes downcast, and said nonchalantly, "No."

Uncle Li was startled, but still kept a polite, gracious smile. "Why not?"

"Moldy smell and a downer mood go together perfectly."

Uncle Li: ?

Uncle Li had no idea that Shen Gali was now a different person. He thought Shen Gali was in a mood because he had to go pay respects to the elders alone on his first day of marriage. So he rambled on by way of explanation:

"The eldest young master just took over as CEO of the company. It's his busiest time, so he went to the office early this morning. I hope you can cut him some slack."

Shen Gali gave him a faint glance.

So what's there to cherish in a world full of self-absorbed people who talk to themselves?

And in the original novel, the villain was described as old, ugly, and a sinister, twisted creep.

Fondness: -10086.