Weren't You Supposed to Be a Straight-Ahead Dragon-Proud Protagonist?

Yan Xie has known since childhood that he is the villain in a novel.

The protagonist is his junior apprentice, a wretched boy with a tragic past. At first, he is a pitiful nobody whom anyone can bully. But later, he rises from being a good-for-nothing, levels up with cheat-like advantages, gathers three thousand beauties, and becomes a swaggering, overpowered hero.

Yan Xie's role is to bully the protagonist as much as he can, giving him hardships, experience, and material for the saying, "Don't look down on a poor young man." Once his role is complete, the Heavenly Dao will take him away from this world.

But the plot laid out by the Heavenly Dao is far too vicious (and, most importantly, his junior apprentice is just too handsome).

Yan Xie has a conscience (definitely not because that face is too powerful), so he can't bring himself to do it.

In the end, he decides to trip his junior up in public, while doing everything he can to help him behind the scenes.

His junior apprentice comes across an opportunity? Steal it right out from under him! Then secretly send people to compensate him.

He does something shady? Frame him! Then secretly help him clear his name.

A major sect competition? Rig it! Then put in a good word for him in private.

Finally, after kicking his junior apprentice into the bottom of a cliff where a mysterious old man awaits, the hero's bloodline awakens.

Yan Xie is taken away by the Heavenly Dao, just as he wanted, and nearly weeps with joy.

At last, he can clock out!

But then! Before he can enjoy his happiness for long, his corrupted junior apprentice, now wielding boundless divine power, actually tears Yan Xie right back out of the Heavenly Dao's hands!

Yan Xie's vision goes black: It's over!

When he wakes up again, he finds himself completely naked, with shackles on his hands and feet.

The young man he once trampled into the mud has now become a hero who looks down on the world.

The man gazes down at him, his eyes cold, and asks softly, "Before you ran away, did you get my permission, Senior Brother?"

Yan Xie accepts his fate with a snap: Oh no, I'm going to be tortured.

Yan Xie: Wait.

Yan Xie: Torture is one thing, but why strip me naked?

Yan Xie: Oh, right, what about all those beauties of his? Why have I never seen any of them all these years?

Yan Xie: ...

Yan Xie: ?

Yan Xie: Gay?????!

–

Xiao Wenxun once thought that deep-seated hatred was the only feeling he had for Yan Xie. Almost all the suffering he had endured was the other's fault, and he wanted nothing more than to personally grind him to dust.

But when that man finally fell into his hands, fragile, quiet, and at his mercy... what surged up in him was the desire he'd buried beneath his hatred for years, a longing he couldn't let see the light

...I love you.

Please, love me too, okay?

Kind, sunny little sweetheart vs. gloomy, steadfast overpowered hero. Some handsome-cute vibes.

They switch roles.

I have a soft spot for doting on and cherishing the protagonist, but my tastes also include a power imbalance between the strong and the weak (with them switching roles). This may end up being a product of my two brain hemispheres fighting each other.

Blurb dated 2025.8.9

Theme: ovo