After Being Forced to Take the Role of the Scumbag Protagonist - Chapter 13

Wu Yunzhi flipped his phone over and pressed it face-down on the bed.

Xu Ying didn’t know what the gesture meant, but he shot Wu Yunzhi a nervous look, terrified that the Alpha might actually succumb to the temptation of easy money. Being a “Duck” might pay well, but it was a dead-end road.

Seeing the unshielded worry in the Omega’s eyes, Wu Yunzhi felt a wave of wordless exasperation. If it weren’t for Xu Ying, he wouldn’t have had to shoulder this ridiculous persona for two years.

Thinking of this, Wu Yunzhi reached out and pinched the soft flesh of Xu Ying’s left cheek, giving it a vengeful squeeze.

“Ah… it hurts…”

Xu Ying cried out, but he didn’t dare resist. He could only look at Wu Yunzhi with teary, aggrieved eyes.

“I’m serious,” he pleaded earnestly. “Being a Duck really ruins your body.”

Wu Yunzhi didn’t say a word. Instead, he redoubled his efforts, kneading Xu Ying’s face. He had to admit, the texture of Xu Ying’s skin was excellent—fleshy, soft, and quite stress-relieving to pinch.

Once Xu Ying’s heat cycle ended, Wu Yunzhi began focusing on the debt. According to the script’s setting, his father was dead, but the massive gambling debts remained, and he was the one expected to pay.

Fortunately, there was a way out. He sold his dilapidated family home to a buyer. It didn’t fetch a high price, but it provided enough cash for an emergency fund and to rent a small apartment.

Xu Ying, naturally, stuck to him like glue. Wherever Wu Yunzhi went, Xu Ying followed. When Wu Yunzhi was signing the lease, Xu Ying leaned over his shoulder, watching with wide, hopeful eyes.

“I only rented a one-bedroom,” Wu Yunzhi said pointedly. “There’s no place for you to sleep.”

“I’ll sleep on the sofa, or on the floor,” Xu Ying countered immediately. “I can’t go back to the Xu family… you can’t leave me.”

“Are you a three-year-old?” Wu Yunzhi sighed.

But despite his words, he didn’t throw Xu Ying out. The two of them moved into the rental. It was a new location, and the debt collectors didn’t know where he had moved yet, giving Wu Yunzhi a few days of much-needed peace.

During this time, he purchased an E-ink tablet, a laptop, and a keyboard. He intended to write novels. He didn’t have any representative works in this world yet; to become a screenwriter again, he had to start from scratch and produce results.

Xu Ying was confused by the tech purchases. “What are you buying a computer for? To play games?”

“To make money,” Wu Yunzhi replied, plugging in his keyboard without looking back. “Unless you want us to starve.”

“Making money online?” Xu Ying grew tense. “You’re not thinking of gambling, are you?”

Wu Yunzhi turned to him. “Do I look like the type of person who commits crimes?”

Xu Ying hesitated for a moment, then nodded.

Wu Yunzhi: “…” His fingers twitched; he really wanted to pinch that face again.

“Just stay out of it,” Wu Yunzhi said finally. “I’m making money.”

He didn’t plan on telling Xu Ying his specific plan yet. To Xu Ying, the idea of Wu Yunzhi writing novels probably sounded like a fairy tale—after all, in this world, Wu Yunzhi was a high school dropout.

When Wu Yunzhi wrote, he was completely immersed. Once he chose a genre and outlined the plot, he didn’t stop. Sometimes he’d lock himself in the room to write all night; other times he’d emerge at dawn looking for food, his biological clock completely inverted.

The path wasn’t entirely smooth. He spent a significant amount of time just trying to get signed by a platform. When Xu Ying eventually figured out what he was doing, he tried to comfort him, telling him not to worry and that someone would eventually want his manuscripts.

Wu Yunzhi didn’t respond. He just stared at the screen through a haze of cigarette smoke, his expression unreadable. Not wanting to disturb him, Xu Ying went to the kitchen to cook.

Xu Ying was still in university, but his course load was light, so he took on tutoring jobs to earn money to support Wu Yunzhi. Life seemed to have found a new rhythm: Xu Ying worked and came home to cook, while Wu Yunzhi stayed home as a “shut-in,” living off Xu Ying’s earnings.

But Xu Ying didn’t mind. In fact, he was happy to support him—as long as Wu Yunzhi didn’t go back to being an escort or a “kept man,” Xu Ying was willing to work hard to feed him for the rest of his life.

Perhaps things were going too well. One day after work, Xu Ying even bought extra meat, planning to make a feast.

But when he arrived at the apartment, he found the front door had been violently kicked in. The living room was a shambles, looking as if it had been ransacked. Furniture was overturned, and the floor was littered with shattered porcelain and… blood.

Xu Ying’s heart nearly stopped. He didn’t even put the groceries down before rushing in.

Near the bedroom door, several burly men were sprawled on the floor in pain. Wu Yunzhi was leaning against the doorframe, clutching a broken right arm. Blood trickled down his forehead, and shards of a broken beer bottle lay at his feet.

“Wu Yunzhi!”

Xu Ying rushed over, bracing the Alpha’s swaying body. “Are you okay?! Who are these people?!”

“I’m fine,” Wu Yunzhi said, his voice grim. “Debt collectors.”

“But I just paid them ten thousand the day before yesterday!” Xu Ying was on the verge of tears. “They said they’d give us more time!”

Looking at the tears shimmering in Xu Ying’s eyes, Wu Yunzhi felt a strange urge to laugh. He wanted to wipe them away, but his right arm was screaming in pain. He gave up and whispered:

“…There isn’t just one creditor. My father owed money to everyone.”

“Then what do we—”

“Wu Yunzhi!”

A raspy shout interrupted them from the doorway.

The man who entered was as thin as a monkey with a greedy glint in his eyes, but he was backed by several more thugs carrying clubs. One even held a meat cleaver that glinted coldly in the dim light.

Wu Yunzhi instinctively shoved Xu Ying behind him and stepped forward to face the “Monkey.”

“We agreed you’d pay today,” the Monkey sneered. “Not only did you not pay, but you beat my brothers into this state?!”

The Monkey clearly wasn’t a reasonable man. He looked Wu Yunzhi up and down, then shifted his gaze to Xu Ying, a slow, predatory grin spreading across his face:

“If you can’t pay with cash… I suppose we can find another way for you to settle the debt.”

“Well, look at that. A penniless loser like you actually has an Omega who loves him. It seems that face of yours really is popular.”

Before anyone could react, the Monkey stepped forward and whipped out a dagger. He pressed the cold blade against Wu Yunzhi’s temple and let it slide slowly down his cheek.

“Since you can’t pay the money, how about I ruin this pretty face of yours?”

Despite the threat to his face, the blade eventually came to rest against Wu Yunzhi’s throat. Wu Yunzhi remained silent, frozen, until the Monkey’s patience snapped. He grabbed Wu Yunzhi’s hand and slammed it onto the living room table.

Wu Yunzhi had just fought off ten men; his right arm was already injured. Being slammed onto the table sent a white-hot, bone-chilling pain through his nerves. Cold sweat drenched his forehead. He bit his tongue so hard it bled, forcing back the scream that threatened to erupt.

“Quite the tough guy, aren’t you?” The Monkey’s eyes flickered with a mix of mockery and twisted admiration. “More backbone than your old man.”

“How about this: beg me. If you let me chop off both your hands right now, I’ll wipe away the interest on your debt. Deal?”

The Monkey’s smile was grotesque. Wu Yunzhi didn’t believe him for a second; he knew the man was just trying to satisfy a sadistic urge to see him beg. He gritted his teeth and refused to show any sign of fear.

Seeing Wu Yunzhi’s unnerving calm, the Monkey’s composure wavered. He ground Wu Yunzhi’s hand into the wood with all his might until Wu Yunzhi finally let out a choked cry of pain. Only then did the Monkey look satisfied.

“You think I won’t really do it?” the Monkey whispered, leaning in. “Your dad owed me so much that I cut off his hands. He couldn’t take the shame and killed himself, leaving you behind to handle the mess…” He smiled thinly. “You can’t escape either.”

In an instant, the sneer vanished. The Monkey signaled his men to pin Wu Yunzhi down. He picked up a heavy cleaver and aimed it directly at Wu Yunzhi’s wrist.

“No—!”

From the side, Xu Ying’s eyes widened in horror. With a sudden, desperate surge of strength, he broke free from the two thugs holding him and lunged at the Monkey, shoving him back.

Caught off guard, the Monkey tumbled backward several meters, his cleaver clattering across the floor.

“You!” The Monkey scrambled up, his face contorted in pain. The first thing he did was deliver a brutal kick to Xu Ying’s stomach. “You little bitch!”

Xu Ying gasped, clutching his stomach as he doubled over. The Monkey wasn’t finished; he reached for the cleaver to finish Wu Yunzhi’s hand, but Xu Ying grabbed the hem of his jacket, panicking.

“Don’t cut his hands! Please, don’t cut his hands!” The pain in Xu Ying’s abdomen was blinding, and his vision was swimming, but he held on with a death grip. “I have money! I’ll pay for him! I’ll pay!”

He pulled out all the cash he had and his bank cards, shaking as he laid them out before the Monkey. “This is all my salary… and my scholarship. It’s… it’s 45,852 total.”

“Ha.” The Monkey knelt down, lifting Xu Ying’s chin with the tip of his dagger. “Do you even know how much he owes me?”

Xu Ying shook his head, tears streaming down his face as he struggled to breathe through the pain.

“One million,” the Monkey said. “One point two million with interest.”

“I’ll… I’ll help him pay,” Xu Ying stammered, swallowing hard. “I will.”

“Fine.” The Monkey seemed amused by Xu Ying’s desperation. He stood up, pocketed the cash and cards, and prepared to leave. Xu Ying thought they had survived the encounter, but the Monkey turned back with a predatory whistle.

“Next week, little beauty,” he sneered. “I want the full 1.2 million. If you don’t have it… you can use yourself to pay off your boyfriend’s debt.”

The moment they left, Xu Ying crawled to Wu Yunzhi’s side.

“I’m… fine,” Wu Yunzhi said. He had been hit with a glass bottle and was losing blood, looking ragged and pale. He reached out with his good hand and touched Xu Ying’s hair. “You didn’t have to get involved… Next time they come, go hide. I’ll find a way.”

Xu Ying wanted to cry, but he knew he couldn’t leave Wu Yunzhi. He helped the injured Alpha back to the bedroom, disinfected his wounds, and then quietly retreated to clean the living room.

As he swept up the glass shards and trash, a dull ache in his abdomen began to sharpen. He clutched his stomach and managed to make it down to the trash bins outside, but the pain was becoming unbearable.

He sat on a nearby bench, thinking it was just a stomachache from the kick. But the pain intensified, feeling like a serrated blade cutting through his nerves. Then, he felt a sudden, terrifying sensation of warmth—a liquid—spreading beneath him.

What is happening?

Before he could process the thought, the agony peaked. His ears began to ring, and the world tilted. Amid the startled cries of passersby, Xu Ying collapsed on the bench and lost consciousness.

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