Chapter 59 Awakening

Lu Chengwen kept a straight face while calculating in his heart:
[Offending all three at once seems difficult. I'll do it one by one.]
[Let's start with Leng Qingqiu. She has the strongest pride and is the easiest to break down!]
Lu Chengwen walked to the wine cabinet with a stern face, picked up a bottle of wine, and grabbed a wine glass: "Leng Qingqiu, things between you and me are over. I thought about using you before, but now it seems you don't have much utility value left anyway. Heh, ridiculous."
Lu Chengwen turned around, lifting his chin: "The past three years were actually an attempt to annex your Leng family's assets. But looking at it now, there isn't much left of your Leng family either. Take your pitiful little fortune and go do whatever you want."
Leng Qingqiu looked at Lu Chengwen.
She smiled with a pang of heartache.
This person speaks so gently even when trying to offend me.
I am not a fool; I know whether the past three years were real or fake. Although I used to hate your personality, your character, your way of speaking... everything about you.
There is just one thing that both my subordinates and I are completely certain of: you genuinely liked me.
I have never denied this, nor have I ever doubted it.
Leng Qingqiu smiled slightly: "Is that so? So you mean you've never liked me at all?"
"Haha!" Lu Chengwen poured himself a drink: "How could I ever like you, big sister? You wear a stern face all day long, looking like you repel everyone. Honestly, you make my stomach turn. Please, big sister, we are all wealthy people here, stop sexually harassing me! Shoo, shoo, go away."
Leng Qingqiu smiled and also walked over to the wine cabinet, taking out a glass for herself.
"Oh, oh, angry now, are you? Wanting to drink a toast of severance with me?" Lu Chengwen said: "Great! Drink this cup and get out immediately. From now on, we have nothing to do with each other until death. Go talk to Li Meiqin about business matters."
Leng Qingqiu poured a glass of wine, clinked glasses with Lu Chengwen, and said gently, "Thank you."
Lu Chengwen was stunned: "Well, so mad you're resorting to polite talk with me now? Fine by me. I'll drink it, and once I'm done, you leave. No more ties after today."
Leng Qingqiu drank her wine and suddenly smiled at Lu Chengwen.
Lu Chengwen looked at her vigilantly, feeling a bit creeped out by her gentle smile:
"I'm warning you, don't try any funny business! What... what else do you want?"
Leng Qingqiu suddenly hugged Lu Chengwen and kissed him on the cheek.
Lu Chengwen quickly pushed her away: "Big sister, what are you doing? What is the meaning of this?"
Leng Qingqiu tilted her head and said quite playfully: "You, instead of wasting time losing your temper with me, you should think about how to deal with Long Aotian. Besides, the more I look at you lately, the more pleasing to the eye you become. You're actually quite handsome."
Lu Chengwen wiped his face: "You... you're crazy."
Leng Qingqiu smiled: "Hey, having dinner together tonight? My treat."
"What dinner? Didn't we just agree to break off all relations?!"
Leng Qingqiu smiled and said: "I know, my old man can't decide my marriage anyway, you know that, so... as long as you dare to marry, I dare to wed."
Sweat beaded on Lu Chengwen's forehead: "Shut up! You're crazy! You're completely crazy!"
Chen Mengyun also walked over to the wine cabinet, took out a glass, blocked Leng Qingqiu, and poured herself a drink.
Leng Qingqiu glanced at her coldly without saying a word.
Chen Mengyun looked at Lu Chengwen: "Are you going to scold me next?"
"Huh?"
Chen Mengyun downed her drink in one gulp: "I'm telling you, Lu Chengwen, nobody else in this lifetime is allowed to marry you—you can only marry me!"
Lu Chengyun looked at her: "What do you even want from this? We broke up three years ago, big sister, won't you just let me go?"
Before Lu Chengwen could finish, Xu Xuejiao skipped over and bolted straight for the wine cabinet.
Lu Chengwen grabbed her, on the verge of a breakdown: "What are you doing?! What are you up to now?!"
"They both drank with you, so I want to drink too!"
"We are drinking a toast of severance! Think carefully before you drink!"
While Lu Chengwen was arguing with Xu Xuejiao, Chen Mengyun suddenly leaned in and kissed Lu Chengwen right on the lips.
Startled, Lu Chengwen let go of Chen Mengyun, took two steps back, and wiped his mouth: "What are you doing?"
Chen Mengyun didn't speak; she just looked at Lu Chengwen and smiled.
Over there, Xu Xuejiao had already come back with a glass. Lu Chengwen snatched the wine bottle away:
"Xuejiao, my dear grandmother, I surrender to you, just don't drink! There seems to be something wrong with this wine today!"
"No way, everyone else drank, why can't I!"
"This wine definitely has a problem, listen to me..."
"Are you going to give it to me or not? Should I call your dad?"
Lu Chengwen was furious: "Call, call, call, call, call!"
Seeing that Xu Xuejiao was actually about to make the call—heaven knows whether this master of acting was about to perform a scene of a mother teaching her son or a drama from Changbanpo.
Lu Chengwen snatched the phone back and handed over the bottle: "Drink, drink, drink it! Go ahead!"
Xu Xuejiao happily poured herself a glass, but halfway through drinking it, her entire face distorted.
Unable to hold back any longer, she stuck out her tongue, stamped her feet, and fanned her tongue with her hand: "What kind of wine is this, it's so spicy!"
Leng Qingqiu and Chen Mengyun couldn't help laughing.
Lu Chengwen also chuckled: "If you don't know how to drink, why do you have to crowd in and join the fun?"
Xu Xuejiao closed her mouth, stared fiercely at Lu Chengwen, and suddenly raised her cup as if she was about to chug it all in one breath.
Lu Chengwen quickly grabbed her arm to stop her: "You already drank it, no need to toast! Your tongue is meant for tasting all kinds of rare medicinal herbs, don't ruin your virgin craft."
To become a top-tier divine physician, looking, listening, asking questions, and feeling the pulse are only the basics.
In reality, a true master of divine medicine can taste herbs, smell plants, observe flames, tend furnaces, manipulate needles, use string diagnostics, scrape bones, concoct poisons... and much more.
These are supreme skills unseen among the common folk. Much like how medical standards in the US are advanced, but only the ultra-wealthy upper class can enjoy them, while the working masses and middle class must make do with private clinics.
Of course, anyone worthy of the title of a divine physician is undoubtedly far more mysterious and rare than Western medical technology abroad.
Xu Xuejiao hardly ever drank alcohol in her life because her tongue was unimaginably delicate and had to be used for—
Wait!
Lu Chengwen felt like he was being played with!
That night!
This dead girl had clearly been drinking with him for the better part of the night!
Lu Chengwen felt that Xu Xuejiao existed like a ghost.
If she hadn't drunk that day, how could she keep up with his heavy drinking?
If she had drunk, why was a tiny sip of wine burning her tongue so badly today?!
Do the male and female protagonists in this book have some backgrounds and special character settings I don't know about?!
Whenever Lu Chengwen thought about such things, the leading ladies couldn't hear a single word of it.
The system was a good system; Lu Chengwen had no way of telling anyone else the secrets he knew about this world, and they didn't even have the possibility of overhearing his inner thoughts.
The three women acted as if they had him completely figured out.
Lu Chengwen felt a wave of dizziness.
When all is said and. done, am I just a toy lab rat?
The main male protagonist, Long Aotian, has begun showing his true colors, doing things with fewer and fewer bottom lines!
The main female protagonists have all lost their minds and started falling in love with him.
The plot of the story has completely collapsed. Given the current interpersonal relationships, Long Aotian's desire to conquer these three women is sheer wishful thinking.
In their eyes, Long Aotian is already utter scum.
No, wait, Jiang Shihuan too!
He had already stolen four main heroines' favorability away from Long Aotian.
Will the system really not interfere with the progression of this world?
If the system didn't intervene, why had everything gone so far off track?
Was it really just because I wanted to survive and lie low, leading to this current situation?
Lu Chengwen pulled out his mobile phone. After the Iron Lump King gave Long Aotian a severe beating, he had kept the Iron Lump King's number under Long Aotian's identity.
He sent a text message containing only four words: Come out to work.
Lu Chengwen's complexion was abysmal to the extreme.
The truth was about to be revealed!
At this very moment, only one thought echoed in his mind:
[If you live on the streets, you must pay your dues. The path I take, I choose for myself!]
Chen Mengyun asked with concern: "Brother Chengwen, are you alright?"
With a dazed mind, Lu Chengwen walked straight ahead with a hollow stare.
Xu Xuejiao said: "Hey, hey! What on earth is wrong with you these past two days? You look so terrifying!"
Leng Qingqiu also said: "Chengwen, you..."
Lu Chengwen suddenly turned around and pointed authoritatively: "Don't follow me!"
All three women were stunned simultaneously, standing frozen in their tracks, unable to utter a single word or move an inch.
Lu Chengwen looked at everyone like they were ghosts now.
In this book—no, in this world—he couldn't trust a single soul!
Were his mother and father real?
Did the three main heroines genuinely have feelings for him, or were they demons wearing human skin? Were they fatal spirits?!
Why did Long Aotian repeatedly suffer losses in front of him?
What was the true purpose of the system bringing him to this world?
Was it trying to toy with him to death step by step, with the outcome being the same no matter how much he struggled?
Or were they just leaving him in a killing battlefield to see if he could survive?
If the system truly didn't interfere with anyone or anything...
If the system truly didn't obstruct him and let him play freely...
If everything in this world was real...
Then where the hell did the protagonist come from?!
Or rather, anyone could be their own protagonist!
No! One could even say that *he* was the protagonist!
Long Aotian was just a character named "Long Aotian", wearing a "halo", draped in various "buffs", and labeled as the "main male lead"—right?
And what about me?
What do I have?
The system's irregular rewards!
An understanding of this world that surpassed ordinary people!
A rough grasp of future characters and plots!
These were his weapons!
You have your halo; I have my hidden skills!
You have your buff enhancements; I have my heavenly eyes!
You are the child of destiny!
I am the chosen one who has died seven times and been resurrected in this world to fight you to the very end!
Who is the protagonist?
That's still not entirely certain!
When the child of destiny and the chosen one clash, it's hard to tell who is truly stronger!
Thinking of this, Lu Chengwen gritted his teeth and stepped hard on the gas pedal. His sleek business sedan sped directly toward a certain location in the suburbs.
...
Inside an abandoned factory.
Long Aotian sat on a chair like an elegant gentleman, crossing his legs while reading a newspaper.
Next to him was a small square table holding a bottle of fine whiskey and two glasses.
Standing behind him was Hua Xueining, looking expressionlessly toward the direction of the main entrance.
Clang!
The sound of the iron door being pushed open echoed through the empty factory.
Lu Chengwen's tall, slender figure stood at the entrance, the setting sun casting his shadow deep into the interior.
Behind him hung the fiery red sunset.
It silhouetted Lu Chengwen's frame like a pitch-black curtain, obscuring his facial features.
Long Aotian put away the newspaper and smiled faintly: "You asked me here—is it to beg me to spare you?"
Lu Chengwen stood at the entrance, slowly raising his eyelids, his fierce gaze locked onto Long Aotian.
Hua Xueining tightly furrowed her brow, sensing that this man's aura was completely different from before.
That pitch-black silhouette revealed nothing, save for those glowing, ferocious eyes, which shone blindingly bright.
Lu Chengwen's voice was slightly hoarse: "Long Aotian, starting today, Snow City belongs to me, Lu Chengwen."