Gu Yan and the other two roommates sat on the sofa, watching the two people at another booth in front of them, their expressions indescribable.

Warm golden light poured through the coffee shop’s glass. The man who had just given a speech on the stage leaned slightly forward, his 1.98-meter frame casting a gentle shadow over the young man’s head.

The muscles under his shirt rose and fell with each breath, making one almost want to exclaim, while his smiling peach-blossom eyes looked down, focusing intently on the person in front of him, eyelashes casting tiny shadows under his eyes.

His arm rested naturally on his leg, long fingers unconsciously clenching slightly, appearing a bit tense, a section of his strong honey-colored forearm showing beneath the cuff, veins faintly visible.

There was no denying he was a man full of charm, especially having just appeared on the stage as an elite, sharing experiences with his juniors as an outstanding alumnus.

And as a man who had just graduated and landed an executive position in a major corporation, he indeed had the qualifications to give a lecture.

In the past, if someone like this had appeared, Li Qing and the others would not have made such awkward expressions even if they hadn’t intended to cozy up to him.

—But what if this man, earlier in front of them, had called Ye Wangxing his patron?

Li Qing trembled as he lifted his coffee cup, nearly spilling the delicate latte art. He took a sip, set it back on the table, and didn’t dare to make a sound as he stared at the two across from them.

The second roommate had the same expression.

Gu Yan’s expression was far more expressive, like a mother-in-law seeing her son-in-law cheat, or like seeing a friend unexpectedly turn out to be a “player.”

One could see he had a thousand things on his mind, but in the end, he said nothing.

Although they already knew that Ye Wangxing was not actually the man’s patron—he had merely asked his family for help in high school to support the senior’s studies, and the senior had only been joking.

—but the senior didn’t admit it, claiming Ye Wangxing was his first client, so that counted as a patron.

Afterward, the outstanding senior took Ye Wangxing to an off-campus coffee shop, saying they had something to discuss.

Li Qing and the second roommate had originally planned to return to the dorm, since Ye Wangxing and the senior had something to talk about, it had nothing to do with them. But they didn’t know if Gu Yan had taken the wrong medicine—he insisted on dragging them along to “follow” them.

When asked, it was because he feared Ye Wangxing would cheat.

This immediately silenced Li Qing. Recalling the “fiancé” and “childhood betrothal” stories Gu Yan had mentioned earlier, he couldn’t resist the temptation of gossip and followed Gu Yan to the coffee shop, leaving the second roommate bewildered.

Luckily, Li Qing wasn’t the type to keep secrets—he immediately revealed the stories about the childhood betrothal and fiancé, instantly making the second roommate forget his previous confusion and focus entirely on watching the conversation between Ye Wangxing and the senior.

While they were hesitating, the handsome young man continued teasing the senior about the “patron” issue.

“…My Brother Jiu! What you just said, if my mom or my godmother knew, they’d hit me again. I was immature in high school, and you really intend to hold this over me forever?”

The handsome young man spoke with a pained expression.

The man named Shen Jiu listened to the young man’s almost coaxing words, his mouth curling into a smile several degrees, his hand twitching slightly. But thinking better of it, he put his hand back and said with a smile,

“What? Didn’t you shout this cheerfully back in high school? I don’t mind if we keep joking about it when we’re older.”

He spoke in a suggestive tone, but his actions didn’t cross any lines, he only said it.

This made the nervous Li Qing and the others breathe a sigh of relief—luckily, it wasn’t a homosexual or cheating situation, just playful teasing between friends.

The second roommate even muttered: “That’s it? I’ve said things like that to my friends. Seems like nothing’s really different from how we interact.”

Gu Yan felt something was off, but he was relieved Ye Wangxing hadn’t cheated.

He thought to himself, a faint feeling of satisfaction as a family member observing the situation appearing on his face.

—Then they saw the handsome young man seemingly provoked, stretching out his arms and directly hugging the man’s neck.

Gu Yan: “…”

The young man’s arms wrapped around the man’s neck, honey-colored skin pressed against his healthy, blood-tinged arms. The man’s neck instantly turned bright red, as if burned by the warmth of the arms.

The tall man’s previously smiling peach-blossom eyes widened, his body stiffening in the seat, looking as if he were stunned, forced to let the young man “threaten” him.

“If you keep joking about this, I’ll hug your neck like this and announce in front of everyone that you are my patron!”

The handsome young man said, somewhat triumphantly.

“Anyway, Brother Jiu, with your current wealth, only a few people would believe you when you call me your patron, but if I call you my patron, everyone will believe it.”

As he spoke, the handsome young man locked his beautiful black eyes with the man’s peach-blossom eyes.

The man looked back, the redness on his neck spreading rapidly up to his face. Soon, his entire face looked as red as a ripe tomato.

Li Qing and the others at the neighboring table: “…”

“…Why do I feel like Ye Wangxing and this senior’s relationship is a bit off?”

The second roommate finally couldn’t hold back. He lowered his voice and whispered to the two roommates beside him, while Li Qing also nodded in agreement.

“I think so too, but I couldn’t tell which one of them had feelings first,”

Li Qing said quietly.

—After all, they all came from high school, where they had done even more outrageous things with other friends, so Ye Wangxing’s behavior didn’t seem problematic.

At this moment, they had to rely on the only person present with actual experience in relationships.

Gu Yan saw Li Qing and the second roommate looking at him for guidance, and his expression froze for a moment.

…Could he admit that he didn’t understand either?

After all, if he could tell who developed feelings first, he wouldn’t have been scolded by Mu Bai for two days just because a senior girl gave him her phone number.

However, Gu Yan wouldn’t let his image in his roommates eyes decline, so he pretended and said: “There shouldn’t be anything like that. After all, the second roommate said it—friends teasing each other is normal, it’s just that they went a little too far.”

Gu Yan finished speaking with a mysterious air, and Li Qing and the others nodded half-believingly, then turned their attention back to the senior.

At this moment, the senior seemed to notice his own awkwardness reflected in the young man’s eyes, and as if finally realizing it, he quickly averted his gaze and tried to pull away from the young man’s arms.

The eloquent mouth of the senior now seemed stuck like a tape, only repeating: “You go down first.”

“Then stop joking about this already. It’s so awkward. We’re close friends, but you insist on making it look like I support you financially.”

The handsome young man mumbled, finally lowering his arms. The man immediately relaxed, and the heat on his face subsided a bit.

Gu Yan also breathed a sigh of relief. It seemed his guess was correct—Ye Wangxing was just playing around with the senior.

He turned to Li Qing and the others, lifted his coffee cup, and raised an eyebrow, as if to prove, See? I was right.

But before Gu Yan could put down his cup, he heard the handsome young man spoke matter-of-factly: “Even if we were in that kind of relationship, we’d still get a certificate, right? Don’t say it so humbly. ‘Support’ or not, we’ve met each other’s families properly—if money is involved, it still counts as true love!”

“Pfft—cough cough cough!”

Gu Yan sprayed his coffee all over the table.

The same thing happened to Shen Jiu, who had just relaxed.

The man sprayed his coffee on the table, awkwardly set down his cup, and scrambled to find paper to wipe the coffee stains off himself.

Seeing this, the young man hurried over to help, his tone full of surprise.

“What’s wrong? Brother Jiu, did I scare you? If you dislike it, I won’t say it next time.”

The handsome young man helped wipe the coffee off the man, his hands brushing over the man’s chest and abs, making the man cough even more violently.

His chest rose and fell violently, the flushed muscles making one wonder if those fragile buttons on his shirt would pop right then and there.

“Cough, cough… it’s nothing, just choked on the coffee. And I don’t dislike what you said, it’s just normal teasing between friends.”

The man finally finished coughing, speaking without daring to look at the young man, keeping his eyes fixed on the coffee stains on his shirt.

Luckily, his tone was relaxed, as if he truly felt that way.

The young man exhaled and said: “Good, I thought the joke went too far. By the way, Brother Jiu, do you want to change your shirt? I washed it yesterday, and it should be dry by now.”

“…You really don’t need to do chores. I can wash it myself.”

The man’s ears turned red again as he spoke, his voice unsteady.

“It’s easy, and Brother Jiu, you’re so busy with work. Occasionally, I take your food deliveries as a way of being ‘supported’ by you. Helping with laundry or cooking is nothing, I didn’t even wash your underwear—why be so shy?”

The handsome young man laughed, patting the man’s shoulder, nearly making him fall off the sofa.

Even though he managed to stay seated, his flushed face and the nearly bursting buttons on his shirt revealed his embarrassment completely.

It even looked like if the young man said one more word, the man might explode on the spot.

Luckily, the young man didn’t continue. After confirming the man was okay, he looked at him with a puzzled expression, letting him wear the coffee-stained shirt while talking.

While they discussed software chips and the young man’s system research, the three roommates at the neighboring booth sat there, expressions progressively more bewildered.

Finally, when they regained their senses, their first glance landed on Gu Yan, who had just said the two were only teasing each other as friends.

The eldest son froze for a long moment, then ground his teeth and spat through clenched teeth: “…I misjudged it, but it was the second roommate who misled me first, otherwise I wouldn’t have thought the wrong way. And in my heart, there’s only Mu Bai—I would never have imagined Ye Wangxing would say something like that to someone else!”

Gu Yan spoke with increasing confidence, and hearing him, Li Qing thought he made sense. He nodded and then turned his gaze toward the second brother.

The second brother almost banged the table and jumped up, but seeing the two next to him, he swallowed the scream that had formed on his lips.

“…Don’t look at me. I would never do that with my best friends! Among true friends like us, we only want to act like the other’s father, never like their wife!”

The second brother said firmly.

Li Qing looked at him deeply but ultimately let him off.

However, it was clear that Ye Wangxing’s relationship with that person was a bit unusual.

Having figured that out, Gu Yan’s expression turned grim.

He immediately told his roommates about Ye Wangxing and his uncle and cousin.

“…If I hadn’t seen that lunchbox, I wouldn’t have realized those two were my relatives.”

Gu Yan said through gritted teeth.

Li Qing nodded solemnly. Though they had only spent a little over a year together, their relationship was good, and they needed to ask Ye Wangxing about this, to see if they could get him back on track.

Gu Yan nodded too, though he felt like he had forgotten something. He couldn’t remember what, but it probably wasn’t important. So he began discussing with them how to question Ye Wangxing that evening.

That night, the second brother, already knowing the situation, confronted the handsome young man who had just returned from off-campus.

“—So, Young Master, what exactly is your relationship with those three? Are you deceiving them?”

Gu Yan’s face darkened.

He absolutely would not allow his family to be hurt, not even by Ye Wangxing.

The handsome young man froze for a moment when he heard their questions. After understanding the situation and realizing the roommates already knew, he blinked in confusion.

“I didn’t deceive them?”

Seeing the young man’s expression, Li Qing couldn’t help but say: “Then how did you get that fiancé and betrothal…”

“The parents all knew, right? And Gu Yan, I already told you those two statuses were decided by their families,” the young man said, looking at Gu Yan, who had previously looked ready to interrogate him, scratching his head.

Gu Yan, looking blank, said: “…I forgot. It probably isn’t important anyway.”

He only remembered that he wanted to get angry.

Li Qing and the second brother: “…”

They now understood why Mu Bai got angry at Gu Yan every day.

They felt like hitting someone.

Seeing Li Qing and the second brother looking like they were about to, Ye Wangxing quickly stopped them. He moved his chair and began explaining to his roommates while counting on his fingers.

“The Pei family situation is a bit complicated. I won’t go into specifics. In short, because of some contract matters, I had a fiancé. It was also for inheritance purposes, so the family knew. I took care of him because his company happened to be close to our school. He hadn’t been eating properly recently, and I noticed when talking to him.”

As he spoke, he raised a finger. Li Qing and the second brother finally understood.

“Then Gu Yan’s cousin’s betrothal was arranged by my mom and Pei Shi’s mom. They were close friends, so it counts as an arranged engagement, but it was all adults joking around.”

He raised another finger.

“Finally, it’s just Brother Jiu, as I said before. He really was just a brother my family helped out in the past. Those words were just to teste him.”

The handsome young man’s face showed a hint of excitement.

“I’m telling you, Brother Jiu is really shy. Even small things make him blush.”

The other three recalled the intense aura that young man had when the misunderstanding hadn’t been resolved.

They decided to reserve judgment on Ye Wangxing’s words.

But Li Qing and the second brother felt a bit guilty seeing Ye Wangxing’s innocent expression.

Hearing this, all the relationships were actually normal, yet their dirty thoughts had twisted them. But it wasn’t entirely their fault—someone nearby had misled them!

Thinking this, Li Qing and the second brother again cast death glares at Gu Yan.

Gu Yan knew he was in the wrong, but he still felt somewhat aggrieved. He had made mistakes, but didn’t Ye Wangxing also made any?

His stubborn temper flared, and he said to Ye Wangxing: “Can you guarantee you don’t have improper thoughts toward those three?”

“Ye Wangxing, I heard that every few days you go deliver meals to them!”

Li Qing and the second brother immediately thought Gu Yan was being aggressive. But delivering meals wasn’t wrong. Ye Wangxing could just reply, yet this unnecessarily angered him.

Just as Li Qing and the second brother were about to intervene to prevent a dorm argument…

The handsome young man sat silently, his mouth tightly closed.

…Even a fool could see he felt guilty.

The dorm fell into awkward silence. That night, the night talk session was unusually absent. Everyone silently waited for the embarrassment to fade.

Ye Wangxing, however, was the only one not embarrassed. He looked at the system task panel, happily counting his Attention Value.

[Task Panel]
Name: [Ye Wangxing]
Gender: [Male]
Age: [24]
Current Role: [University Student]
Attention Value: [705,294]
Mini World Currency: [[51,239,635]
Gold (transferable to real world): [48,100 g]
Main Quest: [Capture attention of the protagonist couple]
Progress: [10%]
Reward: [500,000 Attention Value]

Side Quest:
Quest 3: [Disrupt protagonist couple’s quarrel plot]
Progress: [50%]
Reward: [Attention 10000, 10 000 000 Mini World Currency, 8000g gold]
Quest 4: [Disrupt protagonist rooftop confession plot]
Progress: [0%]
Reward: [Attention 10000, 11 000 000 Mini World Currency, 8000g gold]

Although the last world’s task didn’t double salary, the main system still added attention bonuses. Ye Wangxing planned to finish this world’s tasks, then use his record to request a salary increase.

System template upgrades and 17 database weren’t cheap. He needed to save some money for 17 to level up.

Ye Wangxing thought about this while watching his Attention Value and started calculating how to allocate them.

When he drafted a temporary plan and looked at the task list, he frowned and sighed deeply.

Just seeing the list made him fear the upcoming tasks.

Stopping the couple from arguing was normal, but preventing Gu Yan from going to the rooftop?

He now knew the system’s “prevent” meant to avoid attracting too much attention to the plot. Most taskers couldn’t oppose the fate line, but…

How was he supposed to prevent Gu Yan from attracting attention?

He couldn’t exactly have four people hold hands and jump into a lake!

One on the rooftop, one in the lake—completely separating attention.

But he knew that wasn’t feasible. It violated the system rules and would ruin the plan.

Ye Wangxing groaned and collapsed on the sofa.

19, as usual, protected his host from falling.

[…What now? Should Shen Jiu stand nearby? No, that wouldn’t fit his character and wouldn’t help future plots.]

Ye Wangxing thought for a while, decided nothing worked, and finally resolved to improvise.

After confirming this, he sighed again and rolled on the sofa. The tasks were difficult, but he hadn’t expected this level of difficulty.

He hugged his arms tighter.

—Wait, what was he hugging?

He realized he was hugging 19 arm. 19 skillfully operated the data stream with one hand.

Ye Wangxing stiffened like a frightened goat, frozen while holding 19 arm, barely breathing.

He had none of his usual casual flirting ability.

Especially when 19 seemed to notice and turned toward him. Ye Wangxing didn’t know how to let go and his mind went blank.

He only heard 19 sigh softly, then shift his upper body, almost in a hugging posture.

The next second, Ye Wangxing felt an electric shock in his neck, his whole body went limp, but his eyes stared at 19 face closely.

19 withdrew his hand from behind Ye Wangxing’s neck, carefully supported him so he could lie safely and comfortably on him, then placed him on the sofa, while Jiu turned back to handle unfinished data streams.

—One arm firmly covered Ye Wangxing’s waist to prevent slipping.

“Host, you are too tense. Rest a bit. Don’t worry, if needed, I’ll let those creatures debut and switch to Magic Mic Show.”

19 glanced at the still-red alert in Ye Wangxing’s mind, trying to lighten the mood.

But Ye Wangxing gave no reaction.

‘Seems the joke wasn’t funny. The host hasn’t relaxed.’

19 frowned at the fully red alert.

Ye Wangxing didn’t relax either. His mind was full of 19—and the way he had been put down with one hand.

‘Good thing 19 laid me down.’ he thought. ‘Otherwise, I’d have tackled him, then it’d be a race between his hands and my mouth.’

‘—Although I think the main system’s lightning is faster.’

Ye Wangxing thought about this all night until the next morning, when he realized he had slept. But he wasn’t woken naturally, Li Qing and the second brother woke him.

“—Mu Bai and Gu Yan jumped into the lake!”

Ye Wangxing, who had just seen the task last night: “…”

Wait, this way of attracting attention even copies others?

 

 

Support translation: