Chapter 2: Absolutely Not, Absolutely Not
Song Mingzhi had a unique cold fragrance, which Dong Ling couldn’t identify as any particular perfume or scent. It was light and crisp.
Those full red lips were very close. Dong Ling stared, her mind a battlefield of conflicting thoughts. She wanted to escape, but her legs wouldn’t move, and the unfinished line from the script was stuck in her throat.
Just as Dong Ling couldn’t help but want to retreat, she saw those red lips move away following their owner’s actions, a pair of dark eyes looking at her with an amused glint.
She’s teasing me.
These words jumped into Dong Ling’s head, making her simultaneously relieved and even more socially dead. She wanted to run away overnight, move out of the city, and start a new life.
[Main storyline progress: 0.3%]
The voice in her mind successfully rescued Dong Ling from her current embarrassment. With incredible speed, she retracted her wall-slamming hands and smoothly gave Song Mingzhi a 45-degree bow, apologizing.
“I’m sorry for offending you, I’m really sorry. I lost a dare with my friend and had to do this, I apologize.”
Dong Ling apologized repeatedly. She really wasn’t crazy, nor a pervert, nor did she want to sexually harass anyone, she was just forced to save the world.
“It’s alright.”
Song Mingzhi straightened up, lightly brushing the corner of her clothes that had just been pressed against the wall.
Dong Ling smiled at her, savoring Song Mingzhi’s voice. She hadn’t heard the first sentence clearly, but this time it was much clearer.
Her voice wasn’t cold, but rather charmingly low, like the mellow aroma of hidden wine, as noble and reserved as the impression she gave.
Dong Ling didn’t stay put, quickly leaving the corridor that witnessed her embarrassment, and entered the elevator with a vacant expression.
A doctor, having changed out of her white coat and into casual clothes, came out and saw her waiting friend seemingly in a good mood. She curiously followed her gaze, but saw nothing.
“What are you looking at?”
“An interesting little girl.” Song Mingzhi withdrew her gaze, restraining the hint of a smile between her eyebrows as she walked forward. “Let’s go, they’ve agreed to sign the equity transfer agreement.”
Wang Buli beamed with joy, thanked Song Mingzhi, and followed her pace.
On the other side, Dong Ling arrived at Wen Han’s ward, sat down on a chair, and looked resentfully at Wen Han’s sleeping face.
“Me, madly jealous of the female lead because I’m in love with him? Who wrote this novel?!”
Dong Ling pointed at herself, then at Wen Han, her expression full of disbelief.
This plot shocked her entire family for a hundred years.
It was absurd enough that she was living in a book, but the plot was even more absurd.
She, Dong Ling, although not a princess, was still pampered and raised by her family. Why would she go crazy over someone else’s man?
Dong Ling looked Wen Han up and down, but didn’t find him particularly captivating. How could he make her so infatuated that she would go crazy, and even break the law?
Even if she admitted that her childhood friend was indeed a good and high-quality man, she wasn’t attracted to him.
021: [The plot shouldn’t be wrong according to the normal course of events! You just don’t like him now. Later, because the male and female leads get together and the male lead doesn’t cater to you anymore, you become jealous and want to steal him away!]
Dong Ling gave a mental middle finger, too lazy to refute something she believed would never happen, and started to sort through the plot the system had initially crammed into her head.
The plot was in the form of a novel outline, so Dong Ling easily finished reading the beginning, but couldn’t read the rest.
She remembered that when the plot was crammed into her head, she could see it, but it flashed by too quickly for her to remember, only recalling her own malicious actions and tragic ending.
Dong Ling: [System, why is the rest grayed out?]
021: [Because the timeline hasn’t progressed to that point yet. This is what should have happened in these two months. If you were the male lead, you could unlock it all, but you’re just a temporary stand-in, I don’t have that authority.]
021 wanted to beat its chest and stamp its feet. Why did the male lead go offline? This was something it had never encountered in its system career.
Dong Ling looked at the comatose Wen Han and asked: [Why did he go offline? What happened? Is the person supposed to do the task the Wen Han I know? What kind of system are you exactly?]
Dong Ling also read web novels in her spare time, which was why she was able to calm down quickly, hence the question.
Because she had read some quick transmigration novels, the souls doing the tasks weren’t the original ones. Wen Han was her childhood friend after all, so she had to figure out the whole situation.
021 sighed wearily: [Girl, you really have a lot of questions.]
Dong Ling’s expression was wooden: [You’re really super greasy.]
021: [Since we’re now collaborators on the same boat, I won’t hide it from you. I’m Plot Assistance System No. 21, dedicated to maintaining the stability of various small worlds. This world has been detected to be at high risk of collapse.]
[Different novels are built on different themes, and thus have different world foundations. This is a romance novel, so its foundation is love. But there’s been a deviation between the male and female leads in this world, with an 80% chance they won’t end up together, which is high risk. So I came here, bound to the male lead, hoping to salvage the main storyline.]
[Just after the binding was successful, a data turbulence hit, and the male lead’s consciousness followed the turbulence and left here. I lost contact with headquarters, and could only hibernate in the male lead’s body to maintain energy. But two months have passed, and he’s still in this state, the main storyline has made no progress, and the world’s foundation is about to collapse.]
021 sighed with a frown: [Because I can’t contact headquarters, I don’t dare to just abandon this small world. If it collapses and I still can’t return to headquarters, I might also cease to exist.]
After understanding, Dong Ling’s eyes widened in shock: [So you mean I have to keep substituting for the male lead until the end? Doesn’t that mean I have to date and marry in his place? Absolutely not!]
Dong Ling thought she wasn’t gay, but thinking of Song Mingzhi’s face, she suddenly felt she wasn’t entirely straight either.
021 was rather optimistic: [It shouldn’t take that long, maybe headquarters has already noticed I’ve lost contact and is repairing the channel. Our headquarters is super powerful!]
Then it changed its tone: [Anyway, it’s come to this, girl. You can’t escape even if you want to, so just lie down and accept it.]
Dong Ling thought this was just playing rogue, this little thing had two faces.
Dong Ling wasn’t someone who overthought things, always three steps ahead. Since things had already come to this, she didn’t want the world to collapse. Even if this was a book, for her and the people living here, this was the real world.
She looked at Wen Han on the bed, and felt he was also unlucky.
“Look, this is what happens when you don’t focus on your relationship. Wake up soon.”
Dong Ling sighed. She didn’t want to play the male lead role for even a minute longer.
Dong Ling poured herself a glass of water and recalled the known plot she had seen.
This was a rich family plus entertainment industry romance novel. The male and female leads met on a rainy night. The female lead wasn’t in a good situation at the time. When the male lead took her in, he heard her answering a phone call and learned that she was a newly debuted small-time artist who was supposed to have a role but had it snatched away by unfair means.
The male lead didn’t pay attention at the time. Later, due to some circumstances, he interacted with the female lead again. The female lead hadn’t appeared on screen for a long time and seemed to be having a hard time with her work. The male lead then made a decision, asking the female lead if she wanted to sign a business agreement with him, and he would make her famous.
The female lead originally wanted to refuse, but agreed after the male lead’s domineering CEO speech. The line Dong Ling had just said was actually from the female lead’s script, and the male lead was rehearsing with her.
As for what came next, it was all grayed out.
Dong Ling asked 021 doubtfully: [It’s just a line, why would it increase the main storyline progress?]
021 scoffed: [Clearly you’ve never been in love. Is this just simple rehearsal? This is pushing forward the development of the relationship between the male and female leads!]
Dong Ling quietly clenched her fists. It could just explain, why the personal attack?!
But then she became puzzled again. If Song Mingzhi was really an unknown artist in the entertainment industry, how could she afford a 1.2 million bag?
Thinking this, she naturally asked the question in her mind.
021 was silent for a moment, then said vaguely: [Access denied, I can’t view the subsequent plot either. It might be due to other reasons. Anyway, you can completely trust me! The later plot may be uncertain, but at least the identity part is definitely correct!]
Dong Ling hesitated for a moment, then dismissed her doubts.
To dispel the awkwardness, 021 cleared its throat and continued: [Host, what I’m about to say is very important, you need to remember it clearly.]
[There’s a very important matter for the main storyline progress, which is the beginning, that business agreement. You need to sign this with the female lead as soon as possible. The main storyline progress can be increased by 20%. And the main storyline progress isn’t fixed, there’s a certain amount of consumption and deduction. This needs to be estimated at the time, you can’t slack off, and you must continue completing tasks.]
021’s tone was serious and formal. Dong Ling understood what it meant. Simply put, if she didn’t continue doing tasks, the whole world would go kaput.
But how could she sign that business agreement with Song Mingzhi? She couldn’t just suddenly run up to the beauty and say ‘I think you’re good, I want to make you famous.’ There had to be an opportunity.
021 quickly pulled up the contents of the business agreement for Dong Ling to see, and told her to print it out accordingly.
After reading it, Dong Ling looked at Wen Han’s face, shocked.
Good heavens, what a player. Was this a business agreement? This was practically a pampering and keeping agreement!
All resources given for free, future profits split 20/80, Wen Han 20 and the female lead 80. No restrictions except for no dating and no gossip or scandals.
Dong Ling sighed for a moment, then suddenly thought of a big problem.
[021! I don’t have money!]
She couldn’t even afford a 1.2 million bag! How could she be a sugar daddy?!
She wasn’t worthy of being Party A to this agreement, wuwuwu!
The person and the system fell silent, both frowning.
Dong Ling racked her brains in Wen Han’s ward for a long time, looking at him dejectedly and saying: “You gave me the script, why couldn’t you let me inherit the money along with it.”
Wen Han couldn’t answer her, because he was a vegetable.
Dong Ling decided to think about the things she had no clue about later. She glanced at the time. She had promised Chen Shang Shang to go to Dong Nuo’s party at 8 pm. She wasn’t someone who liked to break promises, and she should go home and get ready.
As she was leaving the ward, Dong Ling suddenly thought of something else and asked the system: [There won’t be any more of those weird lines, right?]
021 replied: [Yes, there are. You have to pinch her chin and say, ‘Girl, I really want to do you hard.’]
Dong Ling imagined herself saying this to Song Mingzhi, her scalp tingling.
She asked tremblingly: [Really?]
021 replied airily: [Of course it’s fake, just a joke to lighten the mood, girl, don’t take it seriously.]
…………Ahhhhhhhhh! What a broken system!
Help! She was just a vicious female supporting character, why did she have to endure so much!
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