Cheng Ran, whose thoughts had been pierced, fell silent for a few seconds, looking at Ye Zhou’s nonchalant demeanor. He took a deep breath and suddenly smiled at Ye Zhou.
“You’re right, I initially thought you were just Yu Qiuze’s stand-in, but…” Pausing here, Cheng Ran licked his lips and looked at Ye Zhou with pity in his eyes.
“If I am Yu Qiuze’s stand-in, then you are even worse than I am.”
Ye Zhou’s movement paused momentarily, and he calmly looked at Cheng Ran. Although he didn’t speak, his taunting intention was quite obvious – he was deliberately trying to provoke Cheng Ran.
Compared to this sarcastic Cheng Ran in front of him, the previous weakling1“战五渣” (zhàn wǔ zhá) is a colloquial term derived from the manga “Dragon Ball,” where it was used to describe a character with a power level of only five. It has since evolved to describe someone who is incompetent, weak, or useless, especially in a confrontational or competitive situation., who would get so angry that he could hardly stand up straight, was obviously more adorable.
This time, however, Cheng Ran had learned his lesson. Not only did he not get angry, but he also reached out and patted the seat next to him, saying in a soft and gentle tone, “Please have a seat first. Otherwise, I’m afraid you won’t be able to handle the truth later.”
If Ye Zhou wasn’t sure that the door couldn’t be unlocked from the inside, he wouldn’t have bothered to bicker with Cheng Ran here. But since Cheng Ran dared to conspire with the screenwriter he had worked with to set up this grand feast, he must have come prepared.
Knowing that he couldn’t leave without listening to Cheng Ran’s nonsense, Ye Zhou didn’t bother to be polite either. He pulled out the chair farthest from Cheng Ran and sat down. “Cut the crap, just get to the point, don’t waste our time.”
Seeing Ye Zhou’s calm and composed demeanor, Cheng Ran’s hand hidden under the table clenched involuntarily. Shouldn’t Ye Zhou be panicking and pleading for the truth after knowing such a thing? How could he be so calm?
Cheng Ran suppressed the unease in his heart and tried to appear casual as he reached into the bag next to him and pulled out a document, pushing it in front of Ye Zhou. “Take a look, it’s quite interesting. Consider it a gift from me. It should give you a surprise.”
“Mr. Ye, you may not believe it, but after reading this, you might even have to thank me. After all, people can be foolish for a moment, but they can’t be foolish for a lifetime. Money may be able to buy temporary happiness, but it can’t buy life, right?”
Ye Zhou didn’t even glance at the document in front of him. He tapped the table and said impatiently, “My eyes aren’t good. If you have something to say, just say it directly. If not, open the door for me. Leave your email address, and I’ll take a look when I have time.”
Cheng Ran’s hard-won calm was once again disrupted. If he hadn’t brought this up, it would have been fine, but as soon as he did, Cheng Ran instantly remembered the countless emails he had sent to Ye Zhou over the past two days, all to no avail.
It was obvious that those emails, which had sunk like stones in the sea, were never even seen by Ye Zhou. Cheng Ran even suspected that, given Ye Zhou’s maliciousness, it was very likely that he had been given a fake email address.
Seeing that Ye Zhou was not taking the bait, Cheng Ran was so angry that his teeth were itching, yet he was powerless against Ye Zhou. After hesitating for a while, he stood up and took back the document, opening it in front of Ye Zhou.
As he opened it, he spoke, “Have you heard of the Yu family? The Yu family used to be a wealthy household that rivaled the Jiang family. However, ten years ago, due to taking the wrong side, the Yu family suffered a great disaster. The old master of the Yu family barely lasted three days before passing away. A once-thriving family went from its peak to decline in less than a year.”
“Yu Qiuze is the old master’s own grandson, and the one he loved the most during his lifetime.”
As he spoke, Cheng Ran looked at Ye Zhou, trying to discern something from his expression. But aside from the increasing impatience on his face, Ye Zhou didn’t show much other reaction.
Cheng Ran wasn’t bothered by this. A playful arc lifted the corner of his lips as he softened his voice, “The Jiang and Yu families were old friends. Yu Qiuze and Mr. Jiang grew up together since they were young.”
“Mm-hmm got it, got it.” Ye Zhou responded with extreme indifference, then tapped the table again and emphasized, “Are you done? If you have nothing else, just open the door for me. I still have a lot of things to do!”
Seeing that Ye Zhou was completely indifferent to what he had said, Cheng Ran’s grip on the document tightened, crumpling the originally smooth paper.
“Yu Qiuze was born with congenital heart disease. As he grew older, the burden on his heart became greater and greater. What’s even more fatal is that this young master of the Yu family has the extremely rare Rh-null blood type. Do you know how rare this blood type is? As of 2029, there are less than 60 people in the world with this blood type.”
“When Yu Qiuze was 15 years old, the Yu family went to great lengths to find a heart for him. However, during the surgery, an unexpected accident occurred, forcing the surgery to be abruptly terminated. And that precious heart was just wasted.”
As he said these words, Cheng Ran kept his eyes firmly fixed on Ye Zhou’s face, afraid of missing any subtle expressions from him. “Has Mr. Jiang ever told you that his mother has serious mental illness and a tendency towards violence, almost strangling him to death multiple times when he was young? And Yu Qiuze…”
“Saved his life.”
There was a hint of emotion in Cheng Ran’s voice as he placed the opened verification report in Ye Zhou’s hand. “Have you ever wondered why Jiang Tingyuan would approach someone as ordinary as you?”
“It’s true that you have a decent face, but good-looking people are a dime a dozen in this world. There are many who are more attractive and more outstanding than you. Why you? Why would it be you?”
There was undisguised pity and a tinge of barely concealed schadenfreude in his eyes as he leaned in close to Ye Zhou’s ear and whispered, “Do you remember donating blood at the school blood drive in your senior year? Think carefully, wasn’t it soon after that when Mr. Jiang appeared in your life?”
“He coldly watched you fail and struggle, and only reached out to you when you were finally about to give up.”
“You thought he was attracted to your face, your body, but in reality, what he valued… was your blood, your heart.”
If Cheng Ran’s intention in saying these words was to shock Ye Zhou, then it was undeniable that the sheer amount of information overwhelmed Ye Zhou, leaving him dumbfounded.
Given that this book was a dogblood mini-tragedy, Ye Zhou was somewhat prepared for the author’s various ridiculous manipulations. Even so, he was still stunned by Cheng Ran’s revelation.
But once he calmed down and pieced together the information Cheng Ran had provided with the plot of the story, he found that while the situation was indeed absurd, it did, in fact, match up.
As for the fact that Yu Qiuze had congenital heart disease and a rare blood type, Ye Zhou was not particularly surprised, because this plot point had been mentioned in the book before. The only difference was that the person who shared the same blood type was not him, but Cheng Ran.
In the plot, the protagonist Jiang Yu initially kept Cheng Ran as a kept man because he resembled Yu Qiuze, whether in looks, build, or even demeanor. Jiang Yu even mistook Cheng Ran for Yu Qiuze the first time he saw him in the bar and, in his drunken state, took Cheng Ran home that night.
After they became intimate, Jiang Yu found Cheng Ran to be clean and pure, with a face similar to his white moonlight, which prompted him to propose a financial sponsorship contract with Cheng Ran.
For a long period after establishing their relationship, with the added allure of Cheng Ran’s face that resembled the white moonlight, the two had gone through a honeymoon phase where they had genuine feelings for each other. Jiang Yu himself was unsure whether he liked Cheng Ran because he resembled Yu Qiuze, or if he had finally let go of Yu Qiuze and fallen for Cheng Ran as a person, though he leaned more towards the former.
Later, when Yu Qiuze returned to the country, the conflict between Cheng Ran and Jiang Yu finally erupted. Cheng Ran wanted to let go but couldn’t bear to, wanting Jiang Yu to cut ties with Yu Qiuze but knowing it was impossible. After a confrontation, Cheng Ran left in a daze and was soon after involved in a car accident.
The examination results showed no major issues, but it was through this accident that Jiang Yu learned Cheng Ran and Yu Qiuze had the same blood type.
On one hand, there was the gradually deteriorating white moonlight, and on the other, the kept substitute who had accompanied him for years. Jiang Yu was torn in his heart. Before he could make a choice, the clear-headed Cheng Ran, who had just gone through a car accident, ran away.
Jiang Yu searched for him frantically and, in the process, realized the importance of Cheng Ran to himself. He temporarily clarified his own feelings, and after a series of attempts to win Cheng Ran back, not only did he successfully get his lover back, but with Cheng Ran’s help, the couple worked together to take down the biggest villain, Jiang Tingyuan, eventually achieving a happy ending.
With these plot points strung together, many things that had previously confused Ye Zhou now made sense. The aspects that had seemed strange to him now had explanations.
Just as Cheng Ran said, someone like Jiang Tingyuan, if he wanted to, could have countless people better than the original owner. Why would he choose to keep someone who, aside from their face, was virtually useless at the time?
When Jiang Tingyuan’s childhood friend Sun Hanbai first met him, despite his efforts to hide it, Ye Zhou still saw a hint of pity in his eyes. At the time, Ye Zhou was puzzled, but now he understood the meaning behind that look.
In the later stages, the original owner chose to take such a big risk to conspire with the protagonist couple against Jiang Tingyuan instead of just living a comfortable life. Was it really just because he was spoiled and arrogant, and had lost his mind?
Ye Zhou guessed that the original owner might have developed genuine feelings for Boss Jiang, but from the moment the protagonist couple laid bare the relationship between Yu Qiuze and Jiang Tingyuan, he began to gradually turn to the dark side under their manipulation and protagonist aura, leading to the final tragedy.
Additionally, Ye Zhou had been puzzled by what happened to the white moonlight, Yu Qiuze, whom Jiang Yu had loved to the point of being willing to dig out his own lover’s heart to save him.
After the two got together, the white moonlight Yu Qiuze basically disappeared from the plot, only mentioned in the extra that Jiang Yu, after recognizing his own feelings, sent Yu Qiuze back abroad, and at the cost of finding him a healthy heart, ordered him never to return.
Coincidentally, Ye Zhou realized that the time when Jiang Yu found a heart for Yu Qiuze was exactly the same as the period when… the original owner died.
Ah, it turns out the original owner was not only a cannon fodder, but a downright tool, charging into the battle between the protagonist couple and Boss Jiang, and even after death, helped the protagonist save his white moonlight.
With this level of dedication, if he were to participate in the Best Cannon Fodder Lifetime Achievement Award, he would undoubtedly win it!
After painstakingly sorting out his train of thought, Ye Zhou finally lifted his lowered head and looked at Cheng Ran. Before the latter could react, Ye Zhou grabbed his shoulders and shook him vigorously, using an overly dramatic tone reminiscent of Qiong Yao2Qiong Yao style refers to the distinctive romantic storytelling style associated with the Taiwanese writer and producer Chiung Yao (also known as Qiong Yao in Chinese). It is characterized by intense emotions, idealized love, and dramatic narratives.‘s style.
“I know, I know, I know everything, but I just love him, what should I do! Don’t say he just wants my heart, even if he wants my life, what of it, I’ll give it to him!”
“I’m only losing a life! But my Mr. Jiang, my poor Mr. Jiang! What he’s losing is his love! You don’t understand at all!”
After saying this, Ye Zhou released the dazed and disoriented Cheng Ran, striding to the door and kicking the wooden frame with several powerful blows, quickly creating a large hole.
Ye Zhou reached out and unlocked the door from the outside. Before leaving, he looked back at the panting Cheng Ran clutching his chest, his voice cool and detached.
“Instead of worrying about me here, you’d better go get your own blood tested first.”
“Life is full of surprises, what if you hit the jackpot?”
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