Chapter 3: The Mission Begins

[Hello, Host. I am System 111. Please change the fate of the target, Lu Jianglian, who is destined to be framed and killed. After completing the mission in each world, you will be rewarded with 50,000 points. Failure will result in a deduction of 60,000 points. The host currently has zero points.]

Jiang Mian heard a voice beside his ear, but he didn’t see the man in front of him speaking.

He froze for a moment, then looked left and right in confusion, even turning around in circles.

Lu Jianglian raised an eyebrow.

‘What is he doing now? Dancing?’

[Host, stop looking. I’m inside your head.]

Jiang Mian froze when he heard that.

Once he understood what the voice meant, he immediately ran to the wall like a cat whose tail had been stepped on and slammed his head against it.

“Come out quickly. My brain doesn’t taste good. I can give you flowers instead, okay?”

He frantically tried to make a sales pitch.

“There are lots of flowers outside. They smell sweet and they’re really tasty. I also have lots of pretty stones. I can give you half…”

“And my name isn’t Host. My name is Jiang Mian.”

He didn’t forget to correct it, either.

[…]

Jiang Mian had only knocked his head against the wall twice when a large hand covered his forehead.

‘What is he muttering about? He’s been acting strange ever since he came in. Are young people this energetic nowadays? If he keeps hitting his head, it’ll start bleeding, won’t it?’

Lu Jianglian didn’t particularly want to meddle in someone else’s affairs, but he couldn’t just let someone get hurt in his house.

He lowered his gaze, looking down at the fluffy crown of the boy’s head.

A few strands of hair brushed against his arm, bringing with them a faint, ticklish sensation.

“Does your head hurt?” Lu Jianglian asked.

Jiang Mian looked up and met the seemingly fierce face in front of him.

He pouted.

He grabbed Lu Jianglian’s hand and pulled it down.

His forehead had been knocked red, and he complained as though reporting an injustice.

“There’s something bad trying to eat my brain.”

His eyes were red and moist as he looked at Lu Jianglian, full of grievance.

His voice was soft and delicate, as though he were about to cry.

“?”

‘What kind of nonsense is he talking about? Has he mistaken me for Lu Fu? Does he have a fever?’

Lu Jianglian couldn’t pull his hand free.

He could only use his other hand to touch Jiang Mian’s forehead with the back of his fingers.

Apart from being a little swollen, it wasn’t hot.

By the time he realized that their current posture was far too intimate, Jiang Mian had already become completely familiar with him and rubbed his cheek against his hand.

“It hurts…”

Lu Jianglian couldn’t help taking another look at Jiang Mian.

‘This is their first time meeting, right? And he isn’t afraid of me at all. He’s also quite good at taking advantage of an opening.’

Even Lu Zhixia and Lu Fu had never dared to act so intimate with him.

Unable to bear watching any longer, the system lied to Jiang Mian.

[Stop shouting. I’ve already come out. I don’t want to eat your brain. I just want you to complete your mission properly.]

‘Eat, eat, eat. He hasn’t gone a single second without talking about food.’

A thought suddenly struck it.

With a cheerful, coaxing tone, it said:

[You can use the points you earn from completing missions to buy food. When the time comes, forget flowers, even immortal herbs can be bought! And all those roast chickens, roast ducks, roast fish, and so on can be bought too!!]

It had noticed it from the beginning.

Its host seemed to be an ignorant little glutton.

How could that not be easy to manipulate?

Sure enough, Jiang Mian was completely overwhelmed by its words.

He repeated blankly, “Roast chicken, roast duck, roast fish…”

He was practically drooling.

[If you want to have endless food to eat, you have to complete your missions properly, understand?]

[Oh, oh.]

The system was practically exhausted from explaining things.

[You don’t need to speak out loud when talking to me. Just think it in your head. I’ll know what you’re saying. And you absolutely cannot let anyone else know that I exist.]

The system didn’t even know whether Jiang Mian understood what it was saying, but it continued nagging anyway.

[The person in front of you is your mission target. From now on, you need to build a good relationship with him, get close to him, and earn his trust. When he encounters danger, protect him. Basically, just don’t let him be framed and killed. Otherwise, you won’t get any points at all and you’ll even end up owing points. Then you’ll have to go hungry… Also, your identity in this world is that of an orphan. This identity was automatically completed and generated from the moment you entered this world. Your background is completely clean and legitimate. Even if someone investigates you, they won’t find anything suspicious.]

Jiang Mian slowly said:

[Can you speak more slowly? I can’t remember.]

[…]

It finally decided to simplify things as much as possible.

[You’re an orphan. Don’t let Lu Jianglian die. That’s it. You may retire.]

After saying that, the system went offline.

There were too many newcomers this round.

It was practically drowning in work.

It still had to go check on its other hosts.

While Jiang Mian was distracted, Lu Jianglian pulled back the hand that had grown warm from being held.

He then had someone take Jiang Mian upstairs to apply some medicine.

Before leaving, Jiang Mian kept turning his head back every few steps to look at Lu Jianglian.

After the boy disappeared from his line of sight, Lu Jianglian somehow understood the message Jiang Mian had conveyed through his eyes.

He also happened to remember to tell the maid to prepare dinner.

As he was leaving the kitchen, he hesitated for a moment before turning back and telling the maid the dishes Jiang Mian had mentioned earlier.

After giving the instructions, he called Lu Fu.

The phone rang for quite a while, but nobody answered.

‘Who knows where he’s gone off to play now.’

Lu Jianglian rubbed his throbbing temples.

He had been extremely busy with work lately and hadn’t gotten enough rest.

Then, the moment he came home, Lu Fu had given him such a huge surprise.

‘What a wonderful little brother I have.’

After Jiang Mian finished having the medicine applied, he rubbed his empty stomach.

He yawned and soon fell into a deep sleep.

‘If I’m asleep, I won’t be hungry.’

Jiang Mian hadn’t been asleep for long when a servant woke him.

He groggily rubbed his eyes and slowly sat up.

“What is it?”

The knocking stopped.

“The head of the household asks Young Master Jiang to come downstairs for dinner.”

Jiang Mian instantly became alert.

His voice rose considerably.

“Okay! I’m coming right away!!”

Putting on his shoes, opening the door, and going downstairs took him no more than a minute.

The servant stood by the door and watched Jiang Mian disappear in a flash, smiling.

‘He really is still just a child.’

Jiang Mian looked at the enormous spread of food in front of him.

He sat properly in his chair, his eyes sparkling as he looked at Lu Jianglian.

“You’re a good person too.”

The good person in question, Lu Jianglian, expressionlessly glanced at Jiang Mian, whose face was covered with several red marks from sleeping on it.

He gave a faint hum.

“Did you wash your hands?”

Jiang Mian froze for a moment, then shook his head.

“No, I didn’t wash my hands.”

Lu Jianglian said, “You have to wash your hands before eating.”

Jiang Mian pursed his lips and looked at Lu Jianglian innocently.

The outer corners of his eyes were round and soft, making him look utterly guileless.

“Oh, oh. I have to wash my hands. I just forgot.”

With that, he obediently ran off to wash his hands.

‘Being human is so troublesome. You can’t eat everything in one giant bite. You can’t eat too much. And now you have to wash your hands before you can eat. Today is another day of working hard to pretend to be human!’

After washing his hands, Jiang Mian hurried back and sat down impatiently.

He swallowed his saliva and asked Lu Jianglian with impeccable manners, “Can I eat now?”

Lu Jianglian looked at Jiang Mian for two seconds, almost as though he had sighed.

He pulled out several tissues and handed them to Jiang Mian.

“You need to dry your hands after washing them. Doesn’t it feel uncomfortable when they’re all wet?”

‘He’s so stupid. He has absolutely no ulterior motives. Everything is written all over his face. It feels like someone could lure him away with a single piece of candy. No wonder my brother managed to bring him home.’

After Jiang Mian dried his hands, Lu Jianglian didn’t wait for him to ask again.

“Eat.”

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