Chapter 108

Chapter 108

Qiao Yuexun hadn't been having an easy time lately.

After Su Lan died, the Security Bureau called Qiao Yuexun in multiple times for questioning.

He knew he hadn't been officially listed as a suspect, but being repeatedly scrutinized and interrogated still made him feel like he was sitting on pins and needles.

To clear his name completely, he voluntarily confessed to the Security Bureau: he was the Omega son the Su family had lost years ago, and he'd secretly reconnected with Su Lan a while back. For his safety, he'd kept his identity under wraps, waiting for the right moment to formally reclaim his place in the Su family.

After learning that Qiao Yuexun had voluntarily revealed his identity to the Security Bureau, Su's mother just went ahead and made his identity public.

After Su Lan died, his old position opened up, and Su's mother needed a new heir to steady the ship, and her newly reclaimed youngest son was the perfect pick.

Qiao Yuexun also quit the entertainment industry and started studying subjects he'd never touched before: financial statement analysis, family trust management, and so on. Su's mother threw him into the deep end, making him learn on the job.

Luckily, with the True Love System's help, he could just barely keep his head above water, and he showed way more ability than anyone expected. Su's mother grew more and more impressed with him.

But the True Love System wasn't happy about it.

"The mission's about to fail, and you're off playing heir? What's the point?"

The True Love System was very impatient. "I bound myself to you to complete the true love mission, not so you could inherit a family business. Why are you wasting your time and energy on this? What the hell are you thinking?"

Qiao Yuexun had just asked the True Love System to look over last year's annual audit report. Hearing the system's griping, he set the report down and said, "Su Lan is dead now. The plot's gone off the rails because of Wen Jueqian, and it's way past the point of no return. If we stick to the original script, do you really think Wen Yanxu would fall for me just because he watched one of my movies?"

"So what are you gonna do?" The True Love System was extremely anxious.

He'd been fed up with this useless system for a long time, but he couldn't let it show—he still needed it.

So Qiao Yuexun explained patiently: "The end goal of the true love mission is for the leads to get married and live happily ever after, right?"

"Correct."

"Then as long as I end up marrying Wen Yanxu, the mission's complete. We'll just skip some intermediate mission checkpoints and get a bit less World Essence."

"That's easy for you to say!" The True Love System's voice turned shrill. "Barely scraping by on the mission only covers what we owe the company! What about all the energy I've already sunk into you?"

"No problem, I'll pay you back." Qiao Yuexun pacified him perfunctorily.

The True Love System snorted and pressed on, "So what does becoming the Su family heir have to do with any of this?"

Qiao Yuexun: "The Su family is one of the Federation's seven major families—just as big as the Wen family. Once I inherit the Su family, when Aegis and the Wen family hit a crisis, the Su family will back Wen Yanxu to the hilt. Then I'll propose a marriage alliance to seal the deal."

"You really think Wen Yanxu would go for that?"

The True Love System poured cold water on that idea: "I don't think he'd ditch Wen Jueqian just to pick you."

Qiao Yuexun's face darkened, and he said with heavy sarcasm, "Right, they're the real deal. Wen Yanxu won't abandon Wen Jueqian."

"And what about Wen Jueqian?" he shot back coldly. "Would Wen Jueqian just stand there and watch Wen Yanxu fall from grace because of him? When Wen Yanxu needs the Su family's support to get through a crisis, if Wen Jueqian really loves him, he should know what's best for him."

Just as he finished speaking, a message pinged on his optical brain. The meeting request he'd formally sent to Wen Yanxu through the Su family's official channels a few days ago had been approved.

It was a reply from Wen Yanxu's secretary's office, confirming the time and place.

Qiao Yuexun looked at the message and finally smiled.

On the day of the meeting, Qiao Yuexun had a proposal ready—a deep cooperation plan for the Bio-Mech project.

He knew this proposal carried serious weight. Its value and strategic significance were worth dozens of times more than the Aegis 7th-Gen Inhibitor endorsement.

He was confident Wen Yanxu wouldn't say no.

But Qiao Yuexun's smile froze for a second when he saw Wen Jueqian standing next to Wen Yanxu.

"President Qiao, have a seat." Wen Jueqian's tone was polite and flat, like he was receiving any ordinary business partner, as if their past clashes had never happened.

Once he sat down, Qiao Yuexun caught Wen Yanxu and Wen Jueqian exchanging a look.

A sudden, strong sense of dread rose in his chest.

At the same time, the True Love System's urgent alarm blared: "Get out now!"

Wen Yanxu's presence was suffocating: "Have your system come out."

Qiao Yuexun was greatly alarmed. Fortunately, his years of honed acting skills came into play at this moment. In just an instant, he suppressed the turmoil in his heart and only showed just the right amount of confusion: "What are you talking about?"

Wen Yanxu's gaze turned colder, and he warned, "Don't play dumb. While I still have patience."

Qiao Yuexun still intended to resist to the end and was about to continue denying it, but it was the True Love System that cracked under pressure first.

A pink heart trembled out from his body, like prey being stared down by a predator. "Hello." It even greeted them politely.

Wen Yanxu reached out and grasped the pink heart, examining it for a moment.

It was still the same pink heart shape as in the previous timeline—looking quite adorable on the surface, but in reality, it was a thoroughly black heart.

Wen Yanxu didn't waste time and directly had Wen Jueqian summon 99.

A small orb of light emerged from Wen Jueqian's optical brain, eyeing the pink heart in Wen Yanxu's hand with eager anticipation.

Qiao Yuexun stared at this scene in shock. After a long moment, he asked incredulously, "How do you have a system too? How can the Child of Destiny possibly have a system?"

Wen Yanxu extended his hand, and 99 obediently flew over to land in his palm. He gently stroked the small orb's glow: "Nothing is impossible."

Upon receiving this answer, Qiao Yuexun connected all the confusing points from the past few months.

"So everything was your arrangement. You two have been playing me!"

Wen Yanxu neither confirmed nor denied, simply watching him quietly.

He needed to deliberately mislead Qiao Yuexun into truly believing that the system was on him.

The True Love System sensed an existential crisis. It struggled desperately in Wen Yanxu's palm, but no matter what, it couldn't escape his grip. It screamed hysterically at Qiao Yuexun: "Host, save me!"

Qiao Yuexun snapped back to reality.

He thought of how his soul had been brought to this world by the True Love System. If the True Love System were destroyed, would he disappear along with it?

He forced himself to pull himself together and said to Wen Yanxu, "Wait! There's no need to fight to the death here. We can cooperate!"

Wen Yanxu watched him flailing in his death throes, and the memories of the previous timeline surfaced clearly in this moment.

He had been thoroughly deceived and used by this pair—the man and the system. They made him believe they could resurrect Wen Jueqian, and he had worked diligently to gather World Essence for them, even helping them devour another system. It had all been lies.

Wen Yanxu suddenly stopped what he was doing and had 99 stand back for now.

He asked the True Love System a question completely unrelated to the current situation: "How many hosts have you had before Qiao Yuexun?"

True Love System thought it had a chance to survive and immediately answered, "The eighth one."

Wen Yanxu looked at Qiao Yuexun, a cold, mocking smile curling at the corners of his mouth. "Do you know why you're the eighth?"

Qiao Yuexun's pupils contracted.

"This system took your soul away, tricking you into believing it saved your soul. In reality, it was precisely because your soul was taken that your body died in your original world."

"It didn't save you. It killed you."

"Did it also tell you that once you finished the tasks, it would send you back to your world for a fresh start?"

Qiao Yuexun had already gotten to his feet, but he froze, then slowly sank back down.

His voice came out low and hoarse. "What do you mean?"

Wen Yanxu didn't answer him directly.

"True Love System, tell your host the truth about this so-called contract yourself."

Wen Jueqian's gaze also shifted to the pink heart.

He had no idea that this heart, which supposedly represented "true love," was actually utterly malicious.

He could clearly tell that Wen Yanxu was dead set on destroying the True Love System. When they'd first come up with the plan, Wen Jueqian had suggested cooperating with Qiao Yuexun, using him to lure out the other system, but Wen Yanxu had flatly refused.

And he had seriously warned Wen Jueqian that neither Qiao Yuexun nor the system behind him could be trusted, and that cooperating with them would be like asking a tiger for its pelt.

Wen Yanxu seemed to know things that neither he nor 99 did.

Wen Jueqian was lost in thought.

The True Love System knew it was doomed—if Qiao Yuexun found out the truth, its last lifeline would snap.

It shouted directly into Qiao Yuexun's mind, "Host, don't believe him! He's trying to drive a wedge between us. The mission's a lost cause—take me and run, let's get out of this world—"

Wen Yanxu's voice echoed in Qiao Yuexun's ears. "After completing the tasks, the True Love System will never take you back to your world to live another life. It'll leave you in this world, letting your soul slowly waste away in a body that isn't yours. As for itself, it'll go find the next poor soul to trick into becoming its host and doing its tasks."

Wen Jueqian watched the color drain from Qiao Yuexun's face and added, "Its contract with you is built on nothing but lies. The contract only ties you down—the system doesn't have to give up anything."

He paused, and the pity in his expression was the final straw for Qiao Yuexun. "You've been through enough. I'll ask Axu to let you off."

The one thing Qiao Yuexun couldn't stand was being pitied by Wen Jueqian.

He'd rather be humiliated to his face or killed on the spot.

Qiao Yuexun looked at the pink heart. "Is what they said true?"

The True Love System fell silent.

Just moments ago, it had been urging Qiao Yuexun nonstop to run away with it.

But when Qiao Yuexun asked it straight out, it went quiet.

Qiao Yuexun got his answer from the silence.

His body seemed to have all the strength drained from it, and he collapsed all at once.

Wen Yanxu didn't give him another look and handed the pink heart to 99.

The small orb of light cracked open and swallowed the heart whole.

After a while, 99 grew bigger, its glow getting even brighter.

Once it finished devouring, 99 withdrew the heavenly barrier and tucked itself back into Wen Jueqian's optical brain.

But after watching the True Love System crawl out of Qiao Yuexun's body, a question popped into Wen Jueqian's head.

"Why can't you just go straight into my body instead of into some electronic device?"

99 replied, "Systems are made of high-dimensional energy. Going straight into your body would cause permanent damage. I'm not one of those shady systems."

99 glanced at Qiao Yuexun, who had been watching it devour the True Love System with cold eyes, and said proudly, "I'd never hurt my host."

Qiao Yuexun finally stirred, his face blank. "What are you going to do with me?"

Wen Yanxu looked at Wen Jueqian too, leaving the call entirely up to him.

Wen Jueqian thought for a moment. "From now on, you'll live in this world as the real Qiao Yuexun."

With that, he and Wen Yanxu left together.

Qiao Yuexun was left alone in the empty room. He hung his head, his face lost in the shadows, and stayed silent for a long time.

----------------

Inside the flying car.

Wen Yanxu leaned back in his seat and turned to Wen Jueqian. "You're just letting him off that easy?"

Wen Jueqian shook his head. "It's not really letting him off. Without the True Love System, none of that would've happened, and he's already paid the price."

After 99 devoured the True Love System, it got all the data stored in the system's database.

That information painted a brutal picture.

Just as Wen Yanxu had said, Qiao Yuexun hadn't died of natural causes in his original world.

The True Love System had ripped his soul out while he was perfectly healthy, which made his body drop dead in the original world.

All because the True Love System thought Qiao Yuexun was a good fit for its tasks.

He lost his life, his family, his friends—and got dragged into this strange world.

He never had a choice.

What made it even more ironic was that when the True Love System brought Qiao Yuexun's soul here, it messed up: the identity it had set up for him—"the Su family's missing Omega son"—had already died in an accident, and the body was burned to ash.

The True Love System had no choice but to shove Qiao Yuexun's soul into a Beta's body, then get him to volunteer for a gender modification experiment and use its powers to turn him into an S-grade omega with a 90% compatibility rate with Wen Yanxu.

And now, without the True Love System, the side effects of the gender modification would slowly start to show, and the Su family would find out who he really was.

Everything Qiao Yuexun had gotten through the system would eventually disappear now that it was gone.

Wen Jueqian didn't feel sorry for Qiao Yuexun. The True Love System had definitely screwed him over, but Qiao Yuexun was in on it too—he wasn't innocent.

"I just think that without the True Love System, he should've lived his own life back in his original world, instead of becoming Qiao Yuexun."

"And we wouldn't have had to go through all that mess between us."

Wen Yanxu squeezed Wen Jueqian's hand.

From an angle Wen Jueqian couldn't see, a fierce hatred flickered deep in his eyes, but he quickly suppressed it, without letting a hint of it show in front of Wen Jueqian.

99: "Qianqian, it's just the True Love System that's bad, there are still good systems like me."

Wen Jueqian looked at the message from 99 and the holographic flower-sending emoji, and his heavy mood lifted slightly. A faint smile curled at the corners of his lips as he replied on Xinwei: "Right. The Redemption System 99 is a kind system, unlike those heartless ones."

Wen Yanxu watched the chat history between Wen Jueqian and 99, and his gaze unconsciously softened.

No matter how difficult those higher-dimensional systems were to deal with, no matter how many unknown dangers lay ahead on this path, he would protect Wen Jueqian well and safeguard their happiness.

==========Author's Note:==========

Fixed a bug.

What's keeping me going until the end is my determination to give Wen Yanxu and Wen Jueqian a happy ending.