[Han Juyou stood on the roof of the eighteenth floor, the autumn wind rustling the strands of her hair. Tears welled up in her narrow, deep fox-like eyes, trailing past the heart-shaped tear mole under her left eye.
Her eyes were filled with profound exhaustion, as though she had lost all hope in this world, an exhaustion mixed with a hint of disgust and hatred...
She hated this world; she hated why her fate was so tragic, why she always had to be the loser!
Han Juyou bit her crimson, thin lips, her high, well-defined nose twitching slightly.
She leaped off without a moment's hesitation.
"Bang—"
In the distance, fireworks bloomed in the sky. No one would care about her death.
On this autumn day of blooming fireworks, this pathetic yet detestable vicious female supporting character brought her life to an end...
(The End)]
Liu Muye's fingers flew across the keyboard as he finished writing the final chapter of the novel, depicting the vicious female supporting character jumping to her death. Typing the words "(The End)" at the very end of the chapter, he uploaded the novel to the author dashboard.
"Phew~"
After publishing the chapter, Liu Muye stood up and let out a long sigh of relief.
Liu Muye, pen name: Tianwai Muge. He was a college graduate from a small county town. After graduating with a major in Chinese language and literature from Sunan University, he spent half a year interning as a odd-job worker at a bookstore, and later worked at a major tech company. Driven to the point of severe burnout, he voluntarily resigned. Hearing that writing novels could make money, he opened an author account and began writing fiction.
Nowadays, the male-oriented fiction market was fiercely competitive, with all sorts of bizarre tactics emerging endlessly. Lacking the prowess and without anyone to guide him, he wrote for half a year without making any money, so he switched to the female-oriented genre to write "dominant CEO romances," only to find out that writing dominant CEO stories didn't make any money in the female-oriented genre either.
Being so poor that he had been eating instant noodles for a week straight, he simply couldn't afford to "write out of pure passion" anymore.
With rent day fast approaching, if he couldn't make money soon, he would end up sleeping on the streets.
Writing novels was out of the question—writing novels would sooner or later starve a person to death.
Rushing to wrap up his final failing book on the platform, Liu Muye took out his cracked, old smartphone—which he couldn't bear to replace—and began checking out job openings at electronics factories in Sunan City.
He still retained a shred of conscience; even though he was so broke he couldn't afford a meal, he still insisted on finishing his novel before heading off to the factory to work on the assembly line.
It was just a pity that this terrible book would ultimately never have any readers.
"Bzzzt—crack—bzzzt—"
As Liu Muye was browsing the job listings, he suddenly heard a crackle of electrical noise. Looking up, he saw that the old computer he used for writing had inexplicably turned into a blue screen, and smoke was beginning to rise from the keyboard.
Liu Muye screamed, "Damn it, my precious computer that I just finished paying off the loan for!"
Panicking, Liu Muye rushed over to unplug the power cord...
In an instant, sparks flew across the room, and Liu Muye lost consciousness on the spot.
...
"I hate it, I hate this world! Why is my fate so tragic? Why am I always a loser? Why?! This is unfair! Unfair!"
In his dream, Liu Muye heard a hysterical female voice. The frantic shouting gave him a feeling both familiar and strange.
When he opened his eyes again, he found himself lying on an unfamiliar beach. The dazzling sunlight overhead was so blinding that he could barely open his eyes.
"What kind of performance art is this?"
"Hey, is this the police? There's a naked man at Crescent Beach, no joke."
"Zhanbo, let me tell you, I just saw someone completely stark naked on the beach..."
Crescent Beach?
Isn't this the place where the male and female leads confess their feelings in my novel?
Listening to the noisy chatter around him, Liu Muye slowly sat up from the beach.
Looking at the strange looks people were casting his way, Liu Muye wore a blank expression.
What are they looking at?
Wasn't I at home?
How did I end up on a beach?
Rubbing his throbbing temples, he muttered to himself in confusion.
Just then, two people in police uniforms walked up to Liu Muye. "Indecent exposure in a public place. Come with us!"
"Huh? I'm not wearing—what the hell!"
Liu Muye looked down and was almost scared out of his wits.
Fortunately, the kind police officers wrapped a piece of clothing around him, preserving a tiny shred of his dignity.
Getting into the police car, looking through the window at the unfamiliar scenery outside, Liu Muye's expression grew increasingly grave, and his brows furrowed tighter and tighter.
He cautiously asked, "Officer, let me ask, where in Sunan City is this?"
The police officer looked at Liu Muye in utter bewilderment and said, "Sunan? What Sunan? This is the international metropolis of Shangjing City."
"Shangjing City... Ah!"
Liu Muye let out a cry of shock.
He was all too familiar with the name Shangjing City, because it was a city he had fabricated in his dominant CEO romance novel.
How could a place from a novel appear in reality?
While Liu Muye was lost in puzzlement, the police car stopped at the entrance of the police station.
He was escorted into a private interrogation room.
A moment later, a young man in a police uniform walked in and locked the door behind him.
The young man smiled and said, "Hello, great author Liu Muye. My name is Luo Ji, and I am the order officer of this fictional world."
"What did you just call me? Great author?"
"That's right, great author," Luo Ji repeated.
Hearing the other person's address, Liu Muye felt a thrill of secret delight, the corners of his mouth curling almost up to his ears.
Having written novels for two and a half years, this was the first time anyone had ever called him a "great author." It felt simply amazing.
Liu Muye tried hard to suppress his smile, but the corners of his mouth still lifted wildly. He asked, "You know me?"
"Uh, your smile looks so creepy." Looking at Liu Muye's expression, Luo Ji said with a sweatdrop, "Not only do I know you, but I also know you wrote a novel called 'Young Master Nangong's Pampered Pet'. I need to tell you something, and you mustn't be too surprised..."
A moment later.
A cry of shock echoed from the interrogation room.
"What! You're saying if I can't save the vicious female supporting character, I won't be able to go back?"
"Ahem, don't get too excited," Luo Ji placated Liu Muye, continuing, "It's mainly because the resentment of the vicious female supporting character you wrote is too deep. If you don't clear her resentment, you'll be trapped in the novel's world for the rest of your life."
Liu Muye asked, "Didn't I already write her to death? What kind of resentment could she possibly still have?"
Luo Ji said, "Precisely because she was written to death, her resentment is so immense after dying."
"..."
That made so much sense that he actually had no way to refute it.
Liu Muye asked with a gloomy face, "Then... what stage has the plot reached now?"
"There's no plot yet. Today is the freshman opening day at Silia Royal Business School, and all stories begin today," Luo Ji said, causing a set of clothes and a wallet to appear out of thin air in his hand, which he handed over. "Your current identity is the biological son of the chairman of Silia Royal Business School. Put on these clothes and go report for duty."
Liu Muye said, "Silia Academy is indeed the school I invented in my novel where the male and female leads study, but does this school even have a board chairman? How come I didn't know about it?"
Luo Ji explained, "Just because you didn't mention it doesn't mean the fictional world doesn't have it; it just wasn't relevant to the main plot, so it never appeared. When an author writes a book, the people and objects inside gain life. Everything you can't see also generates its own logic and rules, otherwise how could this world operate?"
"That's true."
Liu Muye felt that Luo Ji's words made some sense. Since he had already traveled into a book, what could possibly be more unreasonable than that?
Besides, he was the son of the school's board chairman—did that make any sense either?
"Wait... Who did you just say I am the son of? I'm the son of the board chairman of Silia Academy? Doesn't that mean I'm super rich?!"
"Yes. Although you only briefly glossed over this university in your book, you did mention that it is a cradle for cultivating the world's top business tycoons. Logically speaking, the chairman of the board should also be a top-tier billionaire..."
"Then wouldn't I be able to walk sideways through college?"
Luo Ji said, "Logically speaking, yes."
A brilliant gleam flashed in Liu Muye's eyes, and he shouted excitedly, "Then why on earth should I bother saving any vicious female supporting character? Who wants to go back to the real world when they can be a rich person inside a book? I'm about to take off!"
With that, Liu Muye threw on his clothes in a flurry and bolted out of the interrogation room.
"Hey, wait... Hold on a second... If you forcibly linger in the world of the book..."
Luo Ji's words trailed off, but Liu Muye had already vanished without a trace.