After Failing to Reverse the Plot, I Made My Escape - Chapter 4

“Who are you?”

Perhaps because Yu Fuqiu had remained frozen there for so long, Chang Tingzhi knit his brows and rubbed his temples with his fingertips, looking utterly exhausted. “You must be my assistant. Tell me, what happened to me? Talk to me.”

Assistant?

Yu Fuqiu’s knuckles turned white as he gripped the water glass. His voice trembled as he asked, “You, you do not remember me?”

This question clearly exceeded the scope of what Chang Tingzhi believed an assistant should care about.

The movement of rubbing his temples stopped, and he finally looked up. However, his gaze held no trace of inquiry or curiosity regarding the other person’s abnormal reaction. There was only the displeasure of being disturbed and a sense of loathing, as if he were being entangled by something sticky and unpleasant.

He detested this kind of boundary-crossing, especially trials involving personal emotions right after he had woken up from a serious illness.

“Remember you?” Chang Tingzhi curled his lips, his voice filled with icy mockery and unquestionable alienation. “What should I remember about an assistant?”

“Or rather,” he met Yu Fuqiu’s tearful eyes. His expression shifted as his fingertips clutched the fabric over his chest. He knit his brows. Why did his chest feel so uncomfortable? It was even harder to endure than the pain he felt when waking up from the car accident.

He disliked this feeling of losing control.

He stared at Yu Fuqiu’s face and raised an eyebrow, seemingly coming to a conclusion about their relationship. “Are you the mistress I keep?”

“Your face, though,” Chang Tingzhi’s gaze lingered on Yu Fuqiu’s beautiful but pale face for a moment, scrutinizing him like a piece of merchandise. “It is indeed to my taste.”

His tone turned cold. “However, even a mistress should know what they should and should not do. Do your job instead of asking me such meaningless questions. It only wastes my time.”

The word “mistress” felt like a final death sentence, pinning Yu Fuqiu to a pillar of shame. His whole body trembled violently, and his vision went dark. He could hardly hold the glass in his hand as he staggered back two steps.

He had raised Chang Tingzhi for ten years. After Chang Tingzhi found his biological family, Yu Fuqiu had been brought back, and they had been married for five years. Fifteen years of companionship had resulted in such a degrading label.

Slap!

A crisp sound echoed through the hospital room. Chang Tingzhi’s head jerked to the side, and his left cheek instantly turned red. Stunned, he slowly turned back, frowning at the elegant woman standing at the foot of the bed.

He did not understand why this woman, who had suddenly appeared, had hit him.

“Do you remember me now?” Chu Baoli looked at him coldly, her chest heaving with rage. She raised her hand and slapped him again. “I am your eldest sister.”

“An eldest sister is like a mother.”

These two slaps left clear marks on Chang Tingzhi’s handsome face, making him look somewhat ridiculous.

After the slaps, Chu Baoli took a deep breath to suppress her fury. She reached out to support the pale and swaying Yu Fuqiu. Her voice was cold but powerful. “He is not your mistress.”

“He is your lawfully wedded wife, recognized by the law and with a marriage certificate to prove it.”

“Wife?” Chang Tingzhi let out a light laugh. “Setting aside him for a moment, even if you are my eldest sister, is it not too presumptuous to slap me indiscriminately in a hospital setting?”

His gaze slowly drifted back to Yu Fuqiu, his eyes like knives as he looked him up and down. “Him? A man?”

As if he had heard a hilarious joke, he ignored the swelling and pain on his face and clutched his stomach while laughing.

“If you are going to make up a story, make it plausible. Is this for money or something else?” He tapped his temple with his fingertip. “I am not a fool. You have gone to great lengths to put on this show. It must have been hard to find someone who is so much to my taste and willing to be my mistress.”

He deliberately emphasized the words “to my taste” and “mistress” with insulting intent.

“However,” he pivoted, his cold eyes sweeping over Yu Fuqiu before settling on Chu Baoli. His words were like sharp icicles stabbing into Yu Fuqiu’s already battered heart. “Even if he had his methods in the past and I was truly blind enough to choose him, it must have been just for fun. A man being called a wife? It is absolutely ridiculous.”

“I like women, not men. I find homosexuality disgusting.”

“Of course, I am not discriminating against that group; I just will not be part of it. Also, please do not cling to me.”

Yu Fuqiu stood there, listening to these poisonous words coming from the person he loved most. Seeing the blatant loathing and mockery in those eyes, he felt the world spinning and collapsing. A sharp, unbearable pain radiated from his heart, making it nearly impossible to breathe. Even his fingertips went numb.

He opened his mouth but could not make a sound. He could only see his own pale, trembling reflection in those icy eyes.

How could this be? He is back.

Yu Fuqiu took a deep breath, forcing his emotions down.

In his original world, while he was in the mental hospital, he had borrowed a book from a young nurse out of boredom. It was titled The CEO Regrets After the Secret Pregnancy: The Pursuit of the Wife in the Crematorium.

He had transmigrated here to turn a tragic story into a sweet one. He wanted to resolve the misunderstandings between the “Protagonist-Shou” Ke Qi’an and the “Protagonist-Gong” Chang Tingzhi so they could be together, avoiding the “crematorium” ending.

In the story, Chang Tingzhi was a cold, ruthless person who resembled a machine. He lacked emotional perception; only the Protagonist-Shou could stir his emotions. Everyone else was just a commodity to be measured by money.

The Chang Tingzhi before him was not his lover at all, but the original Protagonist-Gong of the book. The plot, delayed by fifteen years, had finally begun.

Facing the original Protagonist-Gong, Yu Fuqiu could not remain silent. He had to take a stand.

He closed his eyes, forcing back the tears. He walked over to Chang Tingzhi. He pulled out his phone, opened their public marriage announcement on Weibo, and zoomed in on the marriage certificate. He made sure Chang Tingzhi saw every detail and every word clearly before speaking softly.

“This is our marriage certificate. Today is the month and day of the year XX. It is our fifth wedding anniversary.”

“You are Chang Tingzhi, the CEO of Changqiu Group. I am indeed the wife you officially announced to the media. Also, let me introduce myself. This is my profile. I am Yu Fuqiu.”

Chang Tingzhi frowned, half-believing as he took the phone. He skimmed the text. When he saw his own name listed as the husband in the relationship section, his eyes froze.

The face in the photos was clearly his own, and those intimate moments did not seem fake. However, as he looked at the Weibo posts where he was tenderly kissing Yu Fuqiu with eyes full of love, a sudden, surging wave of anger and resistance reached a peak in his heart.

Chang Tingzhi subconsciously attributed this feeling of being controlled to the other man’s clumsy deception and calculation.

He looked at the fragile youth before him, noting the red eyes and the struggle to hold back tears. The inexplicable irritability in his heart grew even stronger. He was used to arming himself with coldness and aggression.

“What are you trying to say?” Chang Tingzhi tilted his chin up. This was the posture and aura he typically used at the negotiation table. He tried to use this condescending energy to seize control of the situation. He believed there was no situation he could not handle as long as he held the initiative.

He did not realize that his arm, hidden beneath his hospital gown, was trembling slightly from an indescribable emotion.

“What? Do you want to beg me not to get a divorce so you can keep playing this boring game of house?”

The forgotten time they spent in love was contemptuously dismissed by him as a “game of house.”

“Even if what you say is true, tell me, what benefits can the current you bring to me?” His eyes were like an instrument evaluating the residual value of a product.

Chang Tingzhi sneered. “A man who cannot continue my bloodline? A parasite who needs to rely on me to survive? Or perhaps a useless burden who only knows how to use tears and so-called memories to hijack me morally? Besides this face that happens to be to my taste, what else do you have? Is it worth me giving up the entire forest to continue wasting my time on you?”

“Save yourself the trouble. Perhaps the old me favored you as a mistress, but once you take what you deserve and leave with dignity, that will be the extent of my mercy.”

“Do not crave results you cannot obtain, otherwise,” he paused, his eyes narrowing dangerously, “I cannot guarantee what you will have left in the end.”

Yu Fuqiu bit his lip and lowered his gaze. His long eyelashes trembled like butterfly wings, creating a heartbreaking silhouette.

The pain in Chang Tingzhi’s heart grew more severe. He turned his head away, refusing to look at Yu Fuqiu. “Do not think playing the victim will make me change my mind.”

“I am not asking you to change your mind,” Yu Fuqiu said softly. “Our public persona is that of a loving couple. If we announce a divorce now, how will the world look at us?”

“Furthermore, many of my endorsements are tied to Changqiu Group. If we announce a divorce at this time, I believe President Chang knows how much turmoil it would cause in the stock market.”

When he used that formal title, Chang Tingzhi’s hand tightened on the bedsheet.

“I will have the agreement printed. Once I have handled these matters, we can get a divorce. If you have someone you like, let me know in advance. I, I will understand.”

He lowered his voice, almost pleading. “At least, at least in front of the public, please maintain the persona of a loving couple, okay?”

I beg you. I beg you.

Pretend to love me.

Even if it is fake, it is fine.

Even if it is only for a little while, I want to have you. Please do not fall in love with someone else so quickly.