After I Started Hearing the Black Lotus's Inner Thoughts

Zhao Junyan awakened one day and was bound to a System, only to learn that he was the vicious antagonist in a palace novel, the protagonist Tu Moyi's sworn enemy in the early chapters. He threw his weight around, made life miserable for everyone, and nearly killed the protagonist with a single arrow.

His final fate was a grim one: he died without a proper burial.

The System's verdict: Serves him right! He abused the protagonist. He deserves to die.

In the study of the Marquis of Changning's estate, the young marquis Zhao Junyan was dozing over the Thousand Character Classic. He refused to waste time blaming himself: I don't bother people who don't bother me. He must have been an idiot looking for trouble.

System: ??? This kid is asking to die.

The System couldn't stand by and watch someone seek their own death. It told Zhao Junyan that if he won over the protagonist and completed the plot, he could escape his death sentence.

Zhao Junyan thought the System was crazy. He was supposed to abuse the protagonist to follow the plot while also winning him over? What kind of bizarre request was that? After turning it over in his mind with no answers, Zhao Junyan gave up. "Then I might as well just die."

The System panicked. How could he just give up? It blurted out, "No, don't! My dear dad, how am I supposed to live if you die? Let me explain the plot first. You can change your mind afterward. Please!"

Zhao Junyan, who had somehow become a dad, was amused by the System. He didn't interrupt its nonstop chatter, just sat back and listened as it told him about an old-fashioned, melodramatic novel.

The irresistible protagonist was stunningly beautiful and brilliant, drawing in a crowd of devoted, deranged admirers who all staged their own forceful, possessive romances, hoping to imprison him in a gilded cage.

As the protagonist's sworn enemy in the early chapters, Zhao Junyan was cast in the role of someone who loved without realizing it. At first, he hurled cruel insults and humiliated the protagonist in every way. Later, unable to have him, he turned that love into hate and resolved to destroy the protagonist and sever his own ties of affection.

The System timidly looked at Zhao Junyan, who was resting his chin in his hand, and asked strangely, "Do you still want to hear this?"

Zhao Junyan looked innocent. "Of course. Why wouldn't I?"

He had no idea that an idle, good-for-nothing young master like him was capable of obsessively pursuing a man.

The System carefully continued. "No one expected the protagonist to be a black-hearted lotus. Everything was part of his plan. He used killing to stop killing, and all those admirers who thought they were the chosen ones were ultimately destroyed by his hand. You were the most special of them all."

The System sounded resigned to its fate. "He'll keep you chained to the bed, locked inside Yunluo Palace day and night, keeping you as his precious captive, forever hidden from the light... In the end, you'll die from being drained dry."

After finishing, the System felt guilty. It glanced timidly at Zhao Junyan. "Young Marquis, you don't want to die in such an undignified way, do you?"

Zhao Junyan fell silent for once. He gritted his teeth, about to curse, when a strange voice suddenly sounded in his mind, cool and clear as ice washed in snow.

"Someone is lying!"

-

Tu Moyi, the moody young master of Yunluo, has a mysterious, unfathomable background and is known for killing without mercy.

At midnight, as fiery streaks filled the sky and corpses littered the land, amid the sinister, ever-shifting hellscape of the mortal world, he heard a jumble of thoughts chattering away.

[Little mute, what are you doing in the middle of the night? Don't keep everything to yourself. You're so noisy!]

[Little mute, you're doing this on purpose, aren't you? You keep quiet all day, then choose the middle of the night to keep people awake!]

The thoughts kept chattering on. For some inexplicable reason, Tu Moyi's mind eased. He looked down at the running water as it washed the blood from his fingertips, then replied slowly in his mind, turning the accusation back on the other person.

"So noisy!"

-

Tu Moyi has a secret he has never spoken of: he can hear another person's thoughts, and that person can hear his.

But what the other person doesn't know is that he can also hear the so-called System.

It has been this way for years.

[Possessive, calculating black-lotus protagonist top x irreverent, fake wastrel cannon-fodder bottom]

P.S. 1. I've only come up with a few elements so far. This is a brief first-draft blurb.

2. The bottom is a spoiled, vicious cannon-fodder character. The System comes to him with a mission to be the protagonist's devoted admirer and show him warmth. The bottom gives up and keeps playing the wastrel.

3. The top and bottom can hear each other's thoughts anywhere, anytime. They could hear each other even before they met, a bit like passive online friends.

4. [Chinese-style cosmic horror court setting + mutual mind-reading, including conversations between the bottom and the System + cannon fodder awakens after binding to a System + vicious cannon fodder gives up treatment and keeps up his nasty persona + sworn-enemy romance]

5. Zhao Junyan's thoughts are marked with [], and Tu Moyi's with "".

Concept noted 2024.4.5, blurb noted 2024.4.23, screenshots saved.

Theme: Those who show compassion for others love themselves