After I Stopped Calling the Villain My Brother

After Chi Qiao was kept imprisoned by his nominal elder brother, Ji Fengchun, for over ten years, he could no longer endure the torment and threw himself into a lake. Afterward, he became bound to the Correction System and learned that he was a short-lived cannon fodder character in a cultivation novel, someone who should never have had much to do with the world-destroying villain who oppressed the protagonist group right up to the end.

Fate had other plans.

The great villain Ji Fengchun was cold-hearted and ruthless. In the original novel, he had only been determined to possess the protagonist, the one he truly loved, yet by some twist of fate he used every means of control and coercion on his adopted younger brother, Chi Qiao. Chi Qiao suffered miserably, while the original novel's devoted fans were left utterly stunned.

To fix the bug without breaking up the popular couple, the System decided to start over.

Chi Qiao's original storyline would be taken over by a mission-taker. Their background, name, appearance, and voice would all be changed. The System gave Chi Qiao a new identity, making the real Chi Qiao vanish from the villain's sight from then on, far from the center of the plot, left to fend for himself.

And so, Chi Qiao disappeared.

Ji Fengchun would no longer force him to call him husband one moment and big brother the next in bed. He would no longer wake at midnight to be met with a storm of intimacy, nor endure, again and again, that man's reprimands that were only a pretense for his mounting desire.

After he stopped recognizing Ji Fengchun as his brother, he was finally free.

One sunny morning, Chi Qiao packed his things and worked up the courage to seek out the Daoist priest who had treated him best and cherished him most in his previous life. He decided to follow the priest into seclusion in the mountains, and stay by his side for the rest of his life.

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Everyone said Ji Fengchun was an evil heretic who cultivated the Ghost Dao and practiced dark arts, and that one day he would meet a gruesome end. He scoffed and paid them no mind.

It was only when his ever-obedient younger brother threw himself into a lake to avoid being implanted with a fertility-gu worm that he finally came to his senses, shedding tears of blood and tasting heart-piercing pain.

The ghosts turned on him, and countless gu worms attacked his heart. Ji Fengchun went mad overnight. In a daze, he killed himself before Chi Qiao's grave, cursing Chi Qiao with the most venomous words imaginable: wherever Chi Qiao was reborn, he would follow him there.

One day, he returned to his childhood. Little Chi Qiao had gone to pick lotus flowers and fallen into a pond. He called Ji Fengchun his brother and begged him to save him, just as they had first met. This time, Ji Fengchun did not choose to watch coldly as he had in his previous life. He jumped in and pulled him out.

The mission-taker, wearing Chi Qiao's face, clung to his neck and softly thanked him. Ji Fengchun felt as if he had fallen into an icy abyss, his smile freezing on his lips.

That was not Chi Qiao.

And that was not all. One year, two years, many years passed. No matter how thoroughly he searched every corner of the old Immortal Capital, Chi Qiao never appeared. It was as if he had evaporated, vanishing without a trace.

His younger brother was gone.

How could he find him and make him come home, obediently?

Ji Fengchun pondered it for years. After exhausting every method, from summoning spirits to divination, he finally let out a laugh and came up with the perfect idea.

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Every day of dating the Daoist priest, Chi Qiao was so happy he could burst. He cheerfully spent his days growing flowers and vegetables.

One night, the priest stood beside the bed curtains, gazing at his sleeping face. He stroked Chi Qiao's belly with a dark look in his eyes and murmured in a husky, pleased voice,