Wait, I'm a Legitimate NPC!

(The full novel costs less than 8 RMB.

Wu Qiu works as a professional NPC, constantly courting disaster in all kinds of melodramatic stories to drive the villains toward darkness. But her acting is so terrible that she almost always fails. The System gives her one last chance: she will repeatedly transmigrate into the same novel.

The first time, she becomes an elementary school security guard. She takes advantage of the villain's young age to threaten and boss him around, only to discover that not only is he ill-tempered, he also keeps watching her from the shadows.

The second time, she is a classmate at his school. Following her instructions, she causes trouble around the villain, going so far as to verbally humiliate him and trample on his dignity... But although she clearly sees him turn red with fury and tremble, the mission progress bar remains stubbornly still.

Then one day, Wu Qiu accidentally finds an undelivered love letter tucked inside a textbook. It's signed with the name she has now. Before she can take a closer look, she sees the progress bar, which has been stuck for ages, suddenly jump forward.

She looks up in confusion. A hand suddenly clamps around her shoulder, icy cold.

Sang Xu is like a ghost who has never seen daylight. A dense web of gazes stabs into her back like needles. His face is calm as he says, “Open it.”

Her troublemaking plan proceeds slowly, but eventually reaches its limit and succeeds. Wu Qiu fakes her death, leaves the story, and has her memories erased, retiring after a job well done.

When they meet again, the villain she used to torment every day, even as he worked three jobs, has become a rising star in the business world whom everyone wants to curry favor with.

In the examination room of a veterinary clinic, the man is dressed all in black, cold and haughty. His gaze sweeps over her, carrying a hint of resentment that may or may not be there.

Thinking she must have misheard, Wu Qiu asks as usual, “What's your name?”

The man's eyes flicker. His fingertips tremble as he says, “Sang Xu.”

Wu Qiu falls silent for a few seconds. “I mean the dog's name.”

“...”

The strange pet owner becomes her new neighbor, but he isn't friendly.

One day, after a dinner with her colleagues, Wu Qiu gives a colleague's younger brother a ride home.

The elevator doors open, revealing a man with an impassive expression. His gaze, cold and nearly out of control, meets hers.

“Liar...”

In the silent apartment, Sang Xu pins her wrist from behind and pulls her tighter and tighter, as if he wants to fuse her into his very bones. His voice is filled with resentment. “You hate me. You loathe me?”

“Then you can only look at me.”

She once said that even as a ghost she wouldn't let him go, that she would recognize him even if he were reduced to ashes. Yet when they meet again, she has forgotten him completely. How could he accept that?

Even as ghosts, they should be bound together.

Coming next: Back to My Ex-Husband's Teenage Years

(If you're interested, feel free to add it to your reading list!)

Her husband is a rigid, empty shell of a man. Before they'd even been married two years, Cheng Ran asked for a divorce. Then, on that very day, her plane crashed, and in the blink of an eye, she was back in high school.

Cheng Ran leaves school in a bad mood. She unexpectedly sees a group of thugs running off in a panic. She turns away to avoid them, but catches sight of a familiar figure.

A boy brimming with menace stands across from her. His sharp features are streaked with blood, and his face is gradually coming to resemble her future husband's, except for the winding old scar on his left cheek, which she has never seen before.

“Yin Xu?”

Cheng Ran's breath catches. She steps closer and asks instinctively, “Did they beat you??”

The boy stiffens and abruptly turns his head, showing her only the uninjured half of his face.

A moment later, several friends finally catch up, only to witness this unsettling scene.

Not long ago, he'd been pummeling those thugs without mercy, not even blinking. Now a girl has hold of his coat hem, and he hasn't moved a single step.

Seeing how things look, Cheng Ran's legs tremble, but she forces herself to sound calm. “Leave now or I'll call the police!”

After several seconds of silence, Yin Xu finally speaks, lowering his head. “Forget it. They didn't mean to.”

The group that came running to help, armed with whatever they could find: “...??”

Young Yin Xu seems indifferent, but he's kind at heart. Perhaps they'd be better as friends than as a married couple. Yet whenever thugs come looking for trouble, he always lets them off lightly, leaving himself covered in bruises.

After helping him apply medicine for the Nth time, Cheng Ran gets angry and decides to have a talk with him.

The next day, she goes to Yin Xu's home. The door is open, so she walks in.

The room is dim and damp. On the table sits an exquisite wooden box that looks completely out of place here. Its lid is open, as if its owner only just stepped away.

Lightning flashes one after another outside, revealing the contents of the box for an instant: the ugly notebook she'd casually tossed aside, a hair tie, her ID photo...

Suddenly, she hears measured footsteps behind her.

Cheng Ran turns around in a panic. Reflected in her eyes is the boy's face, flickering between light and shadow. His knuckles are clenched and white, and the air around him is dead still.

“Didn't you want to talk to me?”

Yin Xu's face is as expressionless as a pool of stagnant water. His cool breath brushes her ear as he calmly says, “Go ahead.”

Yin Xu has always been cold-hearted. He's just had a habit since childhood of walking an extra two kilometers every day, just in case he happened to run into her, just in case their paths happened to coincide.

Until one day, she suddenly turns around and calls his name.

Theme: Love is oxygen