Can a Background Character Butler Get Caught in a Love Triangle Too?

Upcoming: The Mute True Young Master Is the Big Shot's Ex, and The Beta Who Cross-Dresses to Infiltrate an Alpha Academy. Please add them to your reading list.

Synopsis

*Brooding, possessive, lovesick rich college student gong x older, slow-to-catch-on, softhearted office worker

Song Yu transmigrates into a melodramatic, messy novel with a disastrous ending.

In the novel, three gongs fiercely compete for the aloof shou, Xie Chi, and the story ends with a painful, tragic breakup.

The plot is full of bitter love and dramatic twists, but none of that has anything to do with Song Yu.

He is merely the passerby butler at the overbearing CEO gong's side, whose job is to tell the protagonist shou, "It's been so long since I've seen Young Master Chi smile like that."

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People can hardly relate to their former selves.

Song Yu once swore he would never be an office drone again. Now he diligently plays a background character, doing his best to avoid every tangled love-triangle scene so he won't be sacrificed as cannon fodder.

But life rarely goes as planned.

First, the daddy-type CEO gong keeps making him put on a maid outfit, then sits with his hands folded behind a redwood desk, watching him grind ink with a dark look behind his glasses.

Then the volatile childhood-friend gong keeps kicking a soccer ball into the garden while Song Yu waters the plants, ordering him to return it. He uses the excuse to pin Song Yu down next door, keeping him from coming back all day.

Finally, Song Yu discovers that the second-ranked viewer in the livestream room he uses to earn extra money is none other than the top-tier star gong three, who appears gentle and refined but is poisonous to the core.

Staring at the screen full of the third gong's shameless comments, Song Yu falls silent.

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Things get stranger and stranger. Song Yu can't avoid the tangled love triangle, and gradually becomes its center.

The three men go so wild they can barely control themselves. Sometimes, someone even sneaks into his room at night, strokes his neck, and murmurs, "How many people touched you today?"

Song Yu thinks the story's plot has gone off the rails. Why is a mere background-character butler like him caught in a tangled love triangle too?

Only the protagonist shou, Xie Chi, remains normal, kindly offering him comfort and care.

Song Yu wants to leave with Xie Chi, but one day he accidentally discovers that the person who has been sneaking into his room at night all along isn't one of the three gongs.

It's Xie Chi.

*The main story includes a noble academy setting, which I love.

The original protagonist shou becomes a gong.

One-on-one, both are pure, each other's first love in every lifetime.

Also on my upcoming list: The Mute True Young Master Is the Big Shot's Ex

Older daddy-type gong, rekindled romance after a breakup.

The real young master the Ye family takes back, Ye Shuwen, is mute.

Aside from dancing, he's hopeless at everything. He wears a scowl all day, making the charming and sociable fake young master seem perfect by comparison.

A big shot attends a banquet one day. The Ye family goes on high alert and tells Ye Shuwen to be polite.

They push him in front of the man, who is the center of everyone's attention. Their eyes meet, his as calm as still water.

"Shuwen, hurry up and say hello to Mr. Lu."

"In Cantonese, like I taught you."

Ye Shuwen avoids his gaze and pretends to stumble over his words as he opens his mouth. He wants to act calm and unconcerned, but familiar muscle memory won't let him remain so composed.

The hall is packed with honored guests, and the crowd is deafening. No one knows that once upon a time, he lay naked beneath the man before him, coaxed by his gentle yet forceful touch into calling him "Mr. Lu" again and again.

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Ye Shuwen spent three years as an underground idol in Hong Kong. Lu Yancheng was his biggest supporter.

He was lavish with money and loved a grand entrance. Whenever he arrived, he would clear the room so Ye Shuwen would dance for him alone.

Ye Shuwen dreaded his visits, yet dreaded even more that he might not come.

At last, the young man could no longer stand the powerful man's intense gaze. He stopped dancing and said seriously, "Mr. Lu, I sell my art, not my body."

Lu Yancheng smiled.

It was the first time Ye Shuwen had seen him smile, like a key opening a forbidden box.

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Years later, they meet again. His former lover is still elegant and composed, with power to spare.

And Ye Shuwen is even more wretched than before.

In the end, Ye Shuwen still doesn't manage to say hello to Mr. Lu.

The Ye family members' expressions shift, but the man barely reacts. He gives a slight nod and leaves, as if the young man before him is no different from anyone else in the crowd.

Someone nearby sneers, "A mute is still a mute."

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Ye Shuwen hides alone on the balcony to get some peace. Someone comes in and locks the door.

Before he even gets a chance to turn around, warm fingertips slip between his lips and touch his tongue.

Ye Shuwen breaks free and stumbles back, his spine striking the railing. He watches the man calmly take out a handkerchief and wipe his hand.

"What are you doing, Mr. Lu?"

Ye Shuwen's voice is hoarse and trembling. He hears Lu Yancheng scoff. "Checking whether your tongue is still there."

"You can talk, can't you?" A trace of helplessness suddenly crosses the man's handsome features. "You only ever talk back to me, Shuwen."

Theme: Everyone has a reason to exist.