Chapter 3.1

Chapter 3.1 \n<h1>Chapter 3.1 – The Party</h1>\n

 

After the banquet, Ji Ling returned to his chambers, collapsed on his bed, and didn’t want to move an inch.

Looking back on Carlos' unusual behavior tonight, he still felt a little uneasy. What exactly caused Carlos to respond so differently from before? 

Don't tell me…

 

Ji Ling suddenly sat up, and turned pale: [He couldn’t have been reborn, right? 】

System: [Reborn? 】

Ji Ling smartly analyzed: [This is a common theme found in novels. Usually, a male lead or villain finds himself reborn after his failures and death in a previous life. He wants to change his fate, and reach the pinnacle of life! That’s why nine times out of ten, he’ll do things he never did his previous life… Don't you also think Carlos was acting abnormally? ! 】

Actually, there was still one little thing Ji Ling hadn’t mentioned. In addition to changing their previous fate, these reborn characters would often dote on those who treated them well last life, but they failed to cherish back in return. But thinking on it, his relationship with Carlos last life shouldn’t fall into this category at all. At most, they were just a *black-bellied villain and a malicious cannon fodder! The only thing they had in common was colluding together to deal with Ning Yu. 　　

He never imagined that Carlos would fall in love with him after rebirth. That was ridiculous! Even thinking about it was scary!

The system was silent for a moment, and said: [As far as I know, this book does not contain the element of rebirth. According to your statement, a reborn character would try to change his fate by changing his actions… so do you think Carlos' behavior today was done to change his fate? Were you so critical to his successes and failures last life? 】

Ji Ling: […]\n

Thank you. If you hadn’t reminded me, I’d almost forgotten that I wasn’t that important.

At best, he was cannon fodder, and not someone worth Carlos’ attention. Even the whole Ji family wasn’t that important in the game played between Carlos and Emperor Sui.

Although in the last life, Emperor Sui and Brandon had gone off to kill Carlos together, Ji Ling did kind of help Carlos. In that decisive life and death moment, Carlos had miraculously fallen in front of him. Ji Ling had already been exiled to a remote location, and such an encounter was still thrown at him. Truly, an unexpected calamity from the heavens.

At that time, he looked into Carlos' cold eyes, and saw he was at death’s door himself in that moment. If he didn’t make the right choice, death would come in a matter of seconds. Carlos was really going to kill him… How could he let himself die so inexplicably when the completion of the mission was almost at hand?!

Life and death were just one move away!

So in a flash, Ji Ling pushed down his previous grudges with Carlos, and hid him without hesitation.  After worryingly dealing with the pursuers, he carefully sent off that vicious big baddie. No doubt Carlos was laughing at him then for refusing to face reality and helping a person who betrayed him and didn’t care about him. He must’ve been thinking that this boy was a big fool..

Ahem. Anyways, Carlos made a comeback soon after his escape, continued to fight with Emperor Sui and kidnapped Ning Yu to threaten the Emperor. Seeing that Ning Yu was in danger, Ji Ling couldn’t sit still anymore. Although he’d always made things difficult for Ning Yu, throwing all kinds of abuse at him, he absolutely couldn’t let him die, or else his mission would be a complete failure.

That’s why, despite the danger, Ji Ling went to see the imprisoned Ning Yu under the pretense of dishing out revenge and humiliation. He deliberately gave Ning Yu the opportunity to attack himself and escape disguised.

Ning Yu was quite smart. He hadn’t only disguised himself as Ji Ling, but also disguised Ji Ling as himself to stay in the cell, creating the illusion that he hadn’t escaped and prolonging his escape.

After Ning Yu got away, Jing Sui finally came. Carlos didn’t recognize Ji Ling disguised as Ning Yu and took him as hostage to threaten Jing Sui.

By that point, the plot was drawing to a close. At the critical moment, Ji Ling rushed out and stood in front of Jing Sui, buying him some time. Then he happily revealed his true identity and took his eternal lunch break (after he was finished off). At that time, he naively thought he could go home…\nIn short, although Carlos lost against the main character’s plot armor, Ji Ling’s final act obviously made him feel cheated.

Although he had such a vengeful personality, even if Carlos really was reborn, he wouldn’t come over specifically to crush him again, nor would he go through so much trouble to get him and his family on his side. After all, Ji Ling was a hardcore worshipper of Emperor Sui, and there was no way he’d betray Jing Sui! There wasn’t much value in trying to win him over. 

The only plausible explanation was that Carlos came for his father, and the butterfly effect caused by the collapse of the world just led him to make other choices in the process. However, his purpose was the same as before.

Ji Ling thought of this and finally breathed a sigh of relief. How could rebirth just happen so conveniently? He really scared himself.

I was just overthinking! 

　　………………

Ji Ling turned off his brain, and had a relaxing sleep. The next day, he woke up groggily to a room filled with gifts. He was washing his face expressionlessly, when he received an invite from Rhodes on his communicator.

This progression was exactly the same as it was previously. After the last coming of age banquet, Rhodes also warmly invited him out to a party.

The original often attended this kind of rich kid get-together.

As a wealthy and idle aristocratic rich kid, what else could he do but eat, drink and be merry? Going out and fooling around was his daily routine, as a sinful rich man.

Ji Ling didn't like these events very much, but he agreed after some thought. Ning Yu and Brandon hadn’t returned from the Nadeau galaxy yet, and Carlos’ intentions weren’t clear. It was better not to change the plot to avoid unnecessary trouble caused by deviations.

\n He raised his brow, glanced at several of the people contemptuously and hissed, “You dare send this kind of thing to me? I feel like you have less and less class."

Rhodes grimaced, "I paid a lot of money to get these beauties to come from Celestial Cloud Star. Give me some face… "

Ji Ling swatted away Rhodes' hand, raised his chin and snorted, "They can't even hold a candle to His Majesty's toes."

Rhodes: "…"

“You’re still not asking them to leave?” Ji Ling leered at him and said impatiently, “I’ve told you not to do all this. I only like His Majesty. You don’t understand that yet?!”

Rhodes: "…" I thought enjoying yourself with these beauties wouldn’t interfere with your feelings for His Majesty… 

But he saw Ji Ling’s expression wasn’t good, and dared not say more. He had no choice but to clap and dismiss the people.

Although Ji Ling still looked unhappy on the surface, he praised himself for being smart on the inside. Using Jing Sui as a cover at times like this was tried and true!

After all, he was so infatuated and only had His Majesty in his heart. The standard was as high as the heavens so how could he see others favorably?

The beauties were sent away, and they began to eat and drink indiscriminately. Eventually, Rhodes and several other rich kids began holding people in one arm and embracing another in the other arm. This made it very apparent that Ji Ling was the only one not like them.

Translator’s notes

 

*Black-bellied = evil manipulative character who appears nice on the outside