01
It was a hot summer day and the classroom’s electric fan blew around the room. It was lunch hour and there weren’t many people in the classroom yet. Sitting in his seat, Ji Ning covered his mouth and yawned. He lazily spread out his maths paper and answered two short questions. Just as he was beginning to doze off, he heard footsteps approaching and a sudden coolness against his cheek.
“Here you go.”
Jiang Che handed the ice cream he’d just bought to Ji Ning and sat down in the empty seat in front of him.
The two of them had been classmates since kindergarten, and high school was no exception. By coincidence this year, their seats had been assigned very close to each other which made it easier to talk.
“Thanks.”
Ji Ning didn’t need to act too politely and took the offered ice cream. He tore open the packet and took a bite. The chocolate flavoured cone broke with a crisp sound.
The rich sweetness filled his mouth, making his eyes curve in satisfaction.
“Ah, class monitor, did you go to the canteen just now?”
In a seat further away from them, Li Yang, who had been playing on his phone, heard the noise and turned to look at Ji Ning, who was eating his ice cream. Immediately envious, he said a little annoyed, “If I’d known you were there, I would have asked you to bring me an ice cream too…”
Li Yang hadn’t seen which one of them had gone out, but because he knew the two of them so well, he was sure it must have been Jiang Che. Ji Ning hated the heat and was too lazy to move when the temperature got this high. At the same time, Jiang Che took care of him so much that there was no way he’d let Ji Ning go out, so he must have been the one to go.
“Go there yourself.”
Hearing Li Yang’s words, Jiang Che shook his head with a smile and said, “It’s only a few minutes walk, you won’t die.”
“But it’s so hot outside…and it’s five flights of stairs to the canteen.”
Li Yang sighed as he stood up. He glanced casually at Jiang Che’s desk and was surprised to find that there was nothing but books there. There wasn’t a single snack, not even a bottle of water. He immediately asked, “Where’s your food?”
Jiang Che looked at him, but didn’t reply, as if he didn’t understand his question.
“I mean, didn’t you buy something for yourself when you went to the canteen? You didn’t just go for Ji Ning?” Li Yang couldn’t help asking.
Jiang Che smiled and didn’t deny it. “I’m worried it’s too hot for him.”
Brother, who said just now that you wouldn’t die from walking for a few minutes? How can you have such obvious double standards…
There was a complicated look on Li Yang’s face as he watched Ji Ning eat his ice cream. He didn’t know why, but even though they weren’t a couple, he still felt like they were showing off.
He suddenly recalled a similar incident. When Ji Ning had collapsed after running the one thousand metres, it was Jiang Che who insisted on carrying him over to the nurse’s room.
And before that, when Ji Ning’s hand was injured and wrapped in gauze. He’d obviously hurt his left hand, but Jiang Che refused to let Ji Ning do anything. He took notes for him, fetched him water, and did his classroom tasks for him. If Ji Ning hadn’t protested so much, Jiang Che would have even insisted on feeding him.
And the time before that, even longer ago…
“Class monitor, it’s like you’re taking care of your wife, right?” Recalling so many incidents in the past, Li Yang couldn’t help but blurt out his thoughts to Jiang Che.
“What? I’m not his wife!”
Ji Ning, who had been peacefully eating his ice cream, finally raised his beautiful face to look at Li Yang. He raised his free hand and grabbed Jiang Che’s shoulder, saying triumphantly, “Jiang Che is my wife, so I must be the husband ah!”
Jiang Che paused for a second, then said with a smile, “If you want.”
“Get the hell out of here you little gays, I don’t want to look at you!” Li Yang shivered, pretending he had goosebumps. After laughing and complaining a bit more, he walked out of the classroom.
The classroom had large windows, so when Li Yang walked through the corridor, he could still see inside the classroom. Jiang Che was smiling as he talked to Ji Ning, his eyes soft. Although he was almost always smiling, Li Yang could see there was an obvious difference in the way he looked at Ji Ning.
Could he really be interested in Ji Ning?
We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.
Ktlr atbeuta oijrtfv yglfois atgbeut Ol Tjcu’r wlcv.
Tfjgr ijafg, rbwf alwf joafg Ol Tjcu tjv tfjgv Aljcu Jtf tjv yffc gfreggfmafv, tf gfmflnfv j kfvvlcu lcnlajalbc ogbw Aljcu Jtf jcv Al Rlcu. Efmjiilcu atf wfwbgs bo atja alwf, tf kjrc’a fnfc rilutais regqglrfv jcv j xcbklcu rwlif mgbrrfv tlr ojmf.
“What did you get?” His wife asked when she saw how happy he looked.
“It’s an invitation to the wedding of my two best friends from high school.”
Li Yang flicked the invitation in his hand as he said to himself with a smile.
“Now they just have to decide who is the ‘wife’ and who is the ‘husband’.”
02
Jiang Che was called into the office by the principal to talk about some class affairs. When he returned to the classroom, he found that Ji Ning wasn’t there.
He assumed Ji Ning had just gone to the bathroom, but when he hadn’t come back after five minutes, he couldn’t sit still any longer and asked a group of his classmates, “Do you know where Ji Ning went?”
“Pfft…hahahahahahahaha!”
The boys who had just been seriously doing their homework suddenly burst out laughing. Instead of answering Jiang Che’s question immediately, they started yelling at each other first.
“What did I say? The class monitor would definitely ask where his wife was in less then five minutes. Pay up now!”
“Don’t speak nonsense. Look at my timer, it took five minutes and thirty seven seconds from when he entered the classroom to when he asked for his wife. That’s more than five minutes and less than ten, I win.”
“How can you count from when he entered the classroom? Obviously it should start from when he sat down.”
“That’s still more than five minutes. How can it take him thirty seven seconds to get to his seat?”
“…”
Jiang Che crossed his arms and watched them silently. The boy’s laughter gradually faded away and they fell silent. No longer daring to joke around, they coughed a few times and obediently answered Jiang Che’s question, “He was called away by a few girls.”
Although Jiang Che was usually easy to get along with, when Ji Ning was involved Jiang Che became much less gentle. The fact that he was also the class monitor meant that they didn’t dare to make too much trouble in front of him.
However, they were a little surprised that after Li Yang’s joke had spread, Jiang Che had never argued when everyone referred to Ji Ning as Jiang Che’s ‘wife’. Ji Ning would argue whenever someone called him ‘wife’. Even if they were only joking, he claimed it should be Jiang Che who was the wife. Unfortunately for him, his classmates weren’t blind and could see the truth of the situation.
“Girls?” Jiang Che repeated.
“Yes, there were a couple of them. I think they were all from class three because one of them was Lin Xueyao. She’s very pretty, have you seen her before, class monitor?”
“No.” Jiang Che said bluntly.
“As expected of you. Anyway, all you need to know is that she’s extremely beautiful.”
Several of the boys grinned at each other, a suggestive tone in their expressions.
“Even though there were other girls with Lin Xueyao, she was the only one looking for Ji Ning. Her face was very red, so we think she’s going to confess to Ji Ning—hey, class monitor, where are you going? Ah? You’re going to find them?”
The group of boys watched in amusement as Jiang Che left the classroom in a hurry. Once he’d gone, they laughed loudly, “Is the class monitor really worried his ‘wife’ will be taken away?”
Jiang Che strode out of the classroom, but he didn’t know where Ji Ning and the girl had gone. He took out his phone and called Ji Ning. He didn’t answer the first time, so Jiang Che phoned again. After five or six consecutive calls, Ji Ning finally picked up.
Before Jiang Che could say anything, he heard Ji Ning’s voice faintly coming from the other end of the phone, as if he was talking to Lin Xueyao.
“I’m sorry, my friend’s calling. It sounds urgent, so I’ll speak to him first.”
Then Ji Ning’s voice came through louder, “Hey Jiang Che, did you want me?”
“Where are you?” Jiang Che pursed his lips, pretending to be unaware of the situation, “Am I interrupting something?”
“Ah, I am doing something at the moment…but it’s fine. Tell me, I’ll listen.” Ji Ning said, “You phoned several times, is there something urgent? What’s the matter?”
“It doesn’t matter. You’re busy, I’ll be fine.”
Jiang Che walked down the stairs and out of the teaching building. His expression didn’t change, but he deliberately let out a low groan.
Ji Ning’s voice became anxious, and he quickly asked him, “You can’t be alright. What’s wrong? Please tell me!”
“It’s just a foot injury. I wanted to go to the nurse’s room to get it checked.”
Jiang Che walked calmly to the administrative building. The infirmary was on the second floor. He stopped in front of the stairs and said, “It’s a bit inconvenient to get upstairs, but if you’re busy I can manage by myself.”
“Don’t move around by yourself! Is there no one around to help you? If you’re by yourself, can’t you call for someone else!”
Ji Ning’s voice became even more urgent. The next second, he seemed to have made up his mind and said to Jiang Che, “Forget it. Don’t call for anyone else, I’m coming for you right now. Where are you? Don’t move, or what would I do if you hurt yourself any more?”
The corners of Jiang Che’s lips raised in a silent smile, but he still deliberately lengthened his voice, as if he was enduring pain, “It doesn’t matter. I’m almost at the infirmary.”
“No, stop moving and wait for me!”
After he finished speaking, Ji Ning hurriedly hung up the phone. Jiang Che looked down at his phone and laughed softly. He then looked at his two, uninjured feet. He spread his hands slightly and said to himself, “Okay, now it’s time for me to get hurt.”
After saying this, he intentionally fell down the stairs and successfully sprained his foot.
“Why are you so careless?”
Inside the infirmary Ji Ning, who had accompanied Jiang Che to apply medicine to his wounds, looked at the bruises on Jiang Che’s face and said half distressed and half angry “And didn’t I tell you to wait for me? Why did you still go up by yourself?”
Jiang Che lowered his head, and said quietly, “Because I didn’t want to trouble you…”
“Come on.” Ji Ning said, “What kind of relationship do we have, your problems will never be troublesome for me.”
“…” Jiang Che stared at him for a long time, his eyes dark. Ji Ning almost felt a little uneasy. He was just wondering if he’d said something wrong when Jiang Che suddenly said.
“Thank you Ji Ning.” He smiled gently, “That makes me really happy.”
Ji Ning smiled back at him, “There’s no need to act so polite.”
“Right.” Jiang Che asked him casually, “What were you doing just now? Did I interrupt you?”
“Ah…it’s not a big deal.” Ji Ning waved his hand, “It’s already finished with.”
“That’s good.”
Jiang Che showed a sincere smile.
“Want to come to my house for dinner tonight?”
“Let’s go!”
Jiang Che woke up from his dream smiling.
He had an android body now, but unexpectedly he could still dream. He dreamt of the past, thinking of the nostalgia of the old days.
He sat up and turned on the small lamp on his bedside table. Under the dim light, he looked at Ji Ning, who was sleeping beside him, with a gentle expression.
Jiang Che held Ji Ning’s hand and pressed a light kiss to the finger that wore his wedding ring. He murmured in a very soft voice.
“You’re finally by my side, Ji Ning.”
The author has something to say: Here, the novel is finally over. I’m really excited, but reluctant to let it go. However, I’m happy to have finished another novel!
Here are some of my personal thoughts on this novel that I will share with you darlings =v=
This novel is the longest novel I have ever written. It made me happy but it was also painful because there were really too many male leads. There were ten people he’d already seduced, and Gu Chen from the entertainment industry who he was seducing. Then there was also Future and Jiang Che on top of that! Just thinking up the names took me two months. I stayed up until the early hours of the morning until my head went bald!
To answer why there were ten male leads, that is because that was the number I put in when I wrote the novel title. Ten is a good number, so I put in ten. I didn’t expect I would be pitted so badly, but it was too late to regret it, so I had to continue writing t^t
My favourite among the male leads (of course, my favourite character is Ji Ning), might be obvious to my little darlings. It is Huo Wuling, the infinite flow protagonist. Why do I like him so much? It’s because he has the name I’m most satisfied with, so I like him the most.
After all, the characters in the novel have no faces and everyone is handsome, so the only thing that would make me biased is the name.
My second favourite is Ozer, the interstellar protagonist, and Gu Chen the entertainment industry protagonist. Ozer’s story is made-up orthopaedics + wheelchair protagonist + taboo relationship + enemy turned lover. It really combines some of my favourite tropes, so how could I not love it!! I know some babies don’t like Ozer. I was a little sad when I saw those comments, but I really like Ozer 0 0
I like Gu Chen because he is the best actor…well, I just always love the best actor characters. In my imagination, movie emperors are always super sexy! As for the way I write him, I’m not sure, but I really like the movie emperor’s seduction! In the future, I will continue to write about movie emperors.
Of course, I actually really like all my protagonists. It’s shameless to say, but no matter how bad my writing is, I am still full of love for the characters I create. They are the manifestation of my love. If I didn’t love them, it would be too painful to write.
I also want to talk about the previous settings of this novel. The stories and identities of some of the protagonists are very different to how they were in the beginning~
For example, Huo Wuling. Ji Ning was always his ghost, that hasn’t changed, but Huo Wuling was originally meant to be the young master of a daoist family. Of course, death still followed him wherever he went, but his family was still alive so he wasn’t so miserable.
I first set Huo Wuling’s character as a sweet tongued person who liked to laugh. He wasn’t too old, maybe seventeen or eighteen and would call Ji Ning ‘Gege’, but of course he still had a ruthless side. Ji Ning would always be scared when he saw him kill ghosts because he worried Huo Wuling might kill him just as easily.
Ozer’s identity was originally meant to be the marshal of the Empire and Ji Ning was the beautiful tyrant Emperor (they were still both princes, and Ji Ning was a fake prince.) Ozer was born in a slum but became marshal by virtue of his military achievements. The people of the Empire were struggling due to Ji Ning’s tyranny, so Ozer attacked the palace and usurped the throne, killing Ji Ning.
Of course, because of Ji Ning’s seduction strategy, the story would change to Ozer imprisoning the beautiful tyrant day and night. However, I was more eager to write about pseudo-orthopedics, so the story changed to what it is today.
Yun Yuan was originally set up to be childhood sweethearts with Ji Ning, and his personality was much gentler than it is now. However, for some reason I changed him to being a husband with a grudge. After all, it’s difficult not to complain after waiting for two thousand years, right?
The setting of the apocalyptic protagonists, Ark, was also different in the beginning. Although he was still a powerful and ferocious fighting machine, he was more ruthless, similar to Yun Yuan. The story was also different, he didn’t have an angel’s appearance but was made from a combination of genes including animals and plants. He also had tentacles, you know.
Having said all this, I don’t seem to have much more to say. In short, thank you for your continued support. I love you. Your comments have given me a lot of motivation. I also like to communicate with you all. If possible, I’ll see you next time. Love you guys!
Author you were so quiet for all these chapters and now you’ve written me another novel!! Think of your cute little translator won’t you!!
Wow, I can’t believe I’ve finished this. It’s been so nice seeing everyone’s comments and thoughts on each chapter, you guys are so funny it really makes me happy!! Special thanks to my regular readers – thank you for staying with me to the end, your support was very important to me!! Thank you to everyone who gave me ko-fi, you didn’t have to, but I’ve really appreciated it!
I really love this story and I’m happy to have reached the end. Although there are some obvious Chinese web novel tropes it falls into, there is a real sincerity in the writing that you don’t often see. Every one of the protagonists was fleshed out and given a backstory, a redemption arc, and a final goodbye and I loved the fact that some of them (Huo Wuling, my angel) were so scared to leave, which is something I’ve never seen before in a ML fusing novel. The love each of them show for Ji Ning is so touching and so selfless (I’m never going to get over each one of them agreeing to give themselves up and fuse!)
Possibly the only other thing I’d ask for is a chapter where Ji Ning shows his love because while I love that little tsundere to pieces, it would be adorable to see him show Jiang Che some overwhelming love back!!
I have had a lot of fun translating this novel and would love to start another one, but my final year of university is coming to get me (QwQ) so I don’t want to commit to another novel as long as this one at the moment! If anyone has a shorter novel (20-30 chapters) that they love/would like to see translated, please write in the comments!! (no bad endings or naughty writing please – I am a respectable and upstanding translator!)
Anyway, (rambling here), thank you all for reading – I hope that you have had as much fun with this novel as I have, love you lots and goodbye!!
all of your hard work is very much appreciated!
I’m so sad that this novel is finished, but yay, the author and I have the same favorite!! I absolutely adored Huo Wuling, he was so sweet to Ji Ning + was possessive in a way that I liked, but he loved Ji Ning sm that he let him stay out of his range…? If you get what I mean…
I laughed so hard when Jiang Che fell down the stairs and broke his ankle on purpose. The contrast the translator pointed out had me cackling. I love ML’s who do stupid stuff like that just for attention, though it can get too much sometimes.
I like how the entire school even referred to them as husband and wife just because of how they acted. When can I get my own Jiang Che that gets me ice cream when it’s hot…?
This novel absolutely made me fall in love with the characters, even when my personal bias towards Huo Wuling had me getting jealous of the other MLs getting attention myself.
I’d say this was the first novel I read where QT + multiple MLs + the system being the main ML were all present, though I’ve read more since starting this one. Reading other novels similar to this made me aware of how unique the execution of this novel was. The other novels simply led me through the journey of QT, with everyone knowing the ML was simply the main person the entire time. Ofc, this was not the case for this novel, and I loved how it kept me guessing on who Ji Ning would end up with (though I did have a hunch on it being “Future” a while back when he was all, “Because you called me your friend.” 🤭…).
Thank you very much for translating this amazing novel, and I hope you take a well-deserved break after this, even for just a bit. Though, I am also inclined to guide you to a novel that currently doesn’t have a translator (😭)…but it’s unfortunately not short (though 100+ have been translated with only ~26 chapters left). Please, tell me if you’re interested though!!
That’s all I have to say. Have a great day, dear readers and translator!!
+1 I agree with everything you said!! Jiang Che really has risen up our standards!! 🤣
Thank you so much for translating this! I picked this up on whim for some good times but got emotionally wrecked instead (happily so). I actually spent a whole day crying after I caught up to the big reveal—I couldn’t imagine a happy ending, but I so desperately wanted it for every character. I was so invested in each story.
I really enjoyed reading your translator’s notes & I have to agree with what you wrote at the end here as well! The writing was sincere and I know this story (and all of the accompanying emotions) are going to stick with me for a long time.
Thanks again
💕
Jiang Che has a lot of courage actually falling down the stairs! 😭
But, woo!! What a journey! Went through blood sweat and tears reading through these chapters!! The author really did have the sincerity you talked about while writing these chapters; I could feel it through my screen! It’s definitely a novel with a plot I’ve never read before, and I enjoyed every minute of it! It’s given me a very long lasting impression.
You did a great job translating Translator!! 🫶🫶🫶 I hope your last year of university runs smoothly!
Thank you @Tigerlily for translating this novel! Omg, I can’t believe I’ve managed to finish this novel after waiting aaaa 💖💖💖
This novel is so fluffy aaa I’m a bit envious even tho I am not a single dog but I wish we could have a relationship as strong as this ☺️☺️
Meow, I hope I can read another novel like this soon 💕 (pls gib recommendations aaa I’m still new)
Wahhhh it’s done it’s done! Thank you so much for translating this story so quick and so well~! Ahhhhh >w<
Thank you so much for your hard work.
Thank you Author and translator for the hard work and bringing this wonderful story to us ❣️🥹
Now that it’s finished, all the joy and sorrow I went through these past few days can finally settle down and be at peace because of the good ending! I really really love the fact that all of the ml still co-existed (granted that they became Jiang Che). Anyways, I’m so glad about the conclusion that I don’t have any regrets left.
Thank you so much TigerLily-san for translating this novel! I’ve read the extras and you write really well. Keep up the good work and take care of yourself! 💙💙💙
Thank you for your hardwork translating this wonderful story. It was very complicated story with so many protagonist and world building and i love every one of them. Thank you
Wait… Ark should have tentacles in the first draft 🫥🫥
Thank you translator and author for this wonderful story. 🫶🫶
Thank you so much for translating! I don’t know why I didn’t read this earlier on when I saw it but I’m glad I eventually did, especially since it’s finished, because this was the only thing I could concentrate on since starting! This has to be one of my favorite novels now so thank you again for your hard work!
Thank you so much for the translation!! This novel is reallyy good, eventhough it’s kinda different with the usual QT novel, it’s still fulfill my craving for QT 😭❤
Also, Ozer storyline draft actually sounds good….
ARK WAS SUPPOSED TO HAVE TENTACLES??? 😦 (missed opportunity cough- I still like the wings though…)
Thank you for your hard work in translating this 💜💜💜💜 I really loved your translations! (my favourite part were the JJWXC comments （∩▽∩）)
Thank you for your hard work! This is one of novel that makes me cry and laughing at the same time. Thank you again.
I also liked Huo Wuling because of his name, I’m glad the author shares my thoughts
i can’t remember it.. what’s the meaning of his name?
Wow thank you so much for translating this. The novel was so well written and entertaining that I sacrificed my sleep and binged it. ~so tired now~. I enjoyed all of the protagonists – no wait I really hated two of them. But the main thing is that they were all distinct and interesting. The ending was well thought out as well. Really a hidden gem of a story. Thanks for all your efforts in bring this to us!
I’m so glad I found this novel, definitely worth the tears ಥ‿ಥ
Thank you so much for translating this. It was a great read. I hope you completed your uni exams with satisfactory results ❤️. In the end lots of love from me🎀
Domo arigatou
Thank you so much translator and author!!!! I’m happy to know that Huo Wuling is also author’s favorite hihi