Seize the Throne

Chapter 5: Reasons And Deceptions.

Bian Yi had a dream. It was about the last straw that broke the camel’s back, during the last hours he had left in his previous life.

That was also the first time the System, behind that space, had communicated with him. At that time, it had called itself the ‘Antagonist Self-Saving System’.

In that space, the System had answered the question Bian Yi had asked himself countless times: “Why did you have to kidnap me? Why did you imprison me here? What did I do wrong?”

The System replied; “Because you’re the Antagonist side character in this book. The Protagonist has to transmigrate as you, to solve your problems, save your life, and live as a better, wonderful Bian Yi.”

‘Save my life? Live as a better, wonderful Bian Yi?’

Bian Yi was so angry from these words that he abruptly woke up.

Whether his life was like flowers floating in the sky or a sludge on the ground, it still belonged to him. What right did others have to change it?

It was this ridiculous, shameless, and extremely cruel reason that sent his soul, which still had a remaining glimmer of hope, to its death.

When Bian Yi opened his eyes, he gasped violently and started to cough because of the excessive haste in waking.

After sitting up, he leaned against the bedpost and tried to calm the emotions that were weighing on his heart.

“Don’t worry, don’t worry! Bian Yi, I’ll definitely take revenge!” Bian Yi whispered to himself. The messy hair on his forehead was wet with sweat and it was stuck to his pale face. Coupled with his neurotic eyes, he looked more and more like a madman.

But…

“I can’t go mad.” Bian Yi comforted himself. “I can’t go mad right now. Think about Xiao-Shu, think about Xiao-Shu…. This time, you have to grow up with him.”

What Kou Li said wasn’t wrong. Bian Yi didn’t want Xiao-Shu to have to visit him in prison in the future, so he must calm down.

If Bian Yi did anything crazy, he would drag himself into hell again. His prison will simply change from a dark room to a cell. He will, once again, be separated from the people he once loved and who loved him back.

He doesn’t want that to happen ever again.

Bian Yi stared at the bright orange lamp on the wall for five minutes before he could calm down.

As he glanced at his surroundings, Bian Yi put aside the fruit fork he held onto.

It wasn’t difficult to discover the new phone placed beside his pillow. After all, it was very conspicuous and easy to see at first glance. When Bian Yi put down the fruit fork, he used his sore hand to pick up the phone.

This phone looked very new, meaning that no one had used it before. But, of course, someone had taken it.

Bian Yi stared at the fingertips on the phone’s case and expressionlessly wiped it.

When Bian Yu said that Guan Xi had escaped…

It wasn’t too surprising for Bian Yi. After all, he was able to see everything Guan Xi did in that space.

Although the Antagonist Self-Saving System revealed its voice to Bian Yi in the end, Guan Xi was always shouting ‘System!’ when he was alone. After that, Guan Xi would always come up with something that was beyond common sense.

“Love At First Sight, First Class Perfume”, “Make-up Removal Mirror”, “Advanced Disguise Technique”, etc, were things used by Guan Xi. Even though these things weren’t permanent, Guan Xi could use the points he obtained to buy more from the System.

As for where these points came from, Bian Yi could speculate based on what Guan Xi has done.

Bian Yi doesn’t know what the System told Guan Xi, but he was sure that Guan Xi, a fool, was deceived.

Every man who got in contact with Guan Xi, regardless of their character, would have a good reputation in the eyes of the public. On the surface, all of them would become fascinated by Guan Xi, to the point where they only wanted to flirt and make love to him. These men would make big and small professional mistakes, while Guan Xi would feel overly satisfied with his own charm.

But, as a viewer, Bian Yi knew that those people were only good at disappearing, one after the other.

Bian Yi suspected that Guan Xi was just a medium, used by the System to absorb the abilities and talents from those strategic targets.

When the System finally extracted enough, Guan Xi would no longer be of use. When there’s no more use for someone like him, who would care about him? When that time comes, without the System, and no more Golden Fingers, the men who were obsessed with Guan Xi, would be more than enough to tear him to pieces.

Kou Li was the person Guan Xi got closest to, and he was also the one Guan Xi observed the most.

Which meant that Kou Li had something the System desperately desired to obtain.

If that was the case, it made sense for Bian Yi to be the one getting replaced. Was that the ‘actual’ reason for his kidnapping? The System seemed to enjoy deceiving humans, so that meant it thought humans were stupid and inferior creatures?

Bian Yi laughed self-mockingly.

Bian Yi was Kou Li’s legal lover, so wasn’t his identity way too convenient?

How ironic.

Bian Yi married Kou Li because he was in love with him. But Bian Yi’s life was also stolen because he was married to Kou Li…

The thief who took away his life, as well as the System behind him, even dared to say to him: ‘You’re just the Antagonist side character. I am here to make your life more exciting. I’m actually saving you!’

Bian Yi could no longer suppress the feeling of nausea, and as he held onto the edge of the bed, he threw up.

Probably because the noise he was making was too loud, someone knocked on the door. However, before Bian Yi could respond, the door was opened. 

It was Kou Li.

Kou Li’s movements were also a bit much, as the door was opened violently, heavily banging against the wall. Such rude actions weren’t quite in line with his outside gentle appearance, just like what happened when Bian Yi came back home.

As soon as he entered the room, Kou Li’s eyes were glued on Bian Yi. He looked over Bian Yi from top to bottom at least three times, before walking to his side. As Kou Li handed him a tissue, he placed his other hand behind Bian Yi’s back, as if he wanted to comfort Bian Yi.

Bian Yi stretched out his hand and stopped him.

When Kou Li looked at Bian Yi’s embarrassed appearance, as well as the extreme fierceness and hate in his eyes, Kou Li withdrew his hand. He didn’t say anything, and soon left the room.

Bian Yi’s eyes were clouded by tears produced by the action of throwing up, so his vision was a little bit blurred. Due to his blurred line of sight, Bian Yi thought he saw Kou Li’s hands trembling a bit when he walked away.

However, whether it was an illusion or not, it didn’t matter.

After Kou Li left, Bian Yi took a moment to calm down before getting up and cleaning himself.

When he came out of the bathroom, the room had already been cleaned. Seeing this, Bian Yi paused, sat on the bed again with the phone in his hand, and clicked on the browser app.

He hadn’t been in contact with an electronic device in so long, so Bian Yi was a bit rusty as he typed. The name he was typing though, was hard to forget.

Ivan, the internationally renowned pianist and musician.

In order to type out these words completely, Bian Yi had to take several deep breaths.

However, the information that popped up actually surprised Bian Yi.

The top of the searches wasn’t filled with Ivan’s shining stage performance, nor was it about the praise he always received from his fans and the world of music. Instead, it was filled with news and pictures of this talented genius being arrested at an award ceremony.

The contrast between the dazzling trophy and the nasty stench of a criminal was extremely dramatic.

Ivan was sent to prison six months ago. Every video and article that could be searched on the internet were all against him.

As Bian Yi flipped through the news, one after the other, he read all the curses people were directing to Ivan. One of them caught Bian Yi’s attention.

The netizen said that Ivan had actually died a month ago, and that his death was very bloody. While other netizens thought this was just another way of cursing at him, when Bian Yi looked at it, he somehow felt that what this person said was actually the truth.

‘He went to prison six months ago, and suddenly died a month ago. Was this done by Kou Li?’

After thinking about it for a second, Bian Yi gave up. ‘So what if he did it? As a father, this is what he should’ve done back then. Besides, even if Kou Li did it, it won’t cure the damage Xiao-Shu suffered in his previous life.’

Bian Yi hated himself for not being able to kill that demon with his own hands.

After taking another deep breath, Bian Yi turned off his phone and closed his eyes.

Kou Li can’t do anything to him now. The first reason was because of Xiao-Shu, while the second one was because of Guan Xi. 

Even though Guan Xi had escaped, either Guan Xi himself, or the System behind him, would force Guan Xi to return to Kou Li’s side. After all, after enjoying the benefits of a Young Master and a Big Star for more than a year, who would be willing to give it up? Especially when someone suddenly appeared to take it away from him?

That greedy fool must have already forgotten that this life didn’t belong to him in the first place.

What Bian Yi had to do now was to stay close to Kou Li, so that he could get a chance to catch that despicable thief and his System.

When it was almost time for dinner, and Bian Yi thought that he would soon see his Xiao-Shu again, he suppressed his emotions to make himself look like a normal person.

As he opened the door of his room, Bian Yi looked around, and another feeling of unreality came to him.

This was Kou Li and Bian Yi’s house. They had been buying things for the house even before they got married, so every object in front of his eyes was stored deep inside his memory. However, Bian Yi didn’t want to remember any of it.

As Bian Yi walked along the corridor, looking at every furnishing, he finally arrived at the stairway.

The top of the staircase was designed to be very spacious, while the inclination of the stair was designed to be more smooth. The height of each step was also very low and covered with a carpet, specially prepared for Xiao-Shu. Since this part was quite spacious, there were some decorations placed here and there, as well as a beautiful vase standing in a corner.

Although Bian Yi wasn’t deliberately trying to remember the moment Kou Li and himself had arranged these objects, there were some memories he couldn’t suppress.

In his previous life, he watched through the screen, how Kou Li pressed Guan Xi against this exact corner to kiss him. At that time, they were so passionate that they forgot about the vase and accidentally knocked down the vase, which smashed into pieces on the ground.

Right now, when Bian Yi looked at this vase, he tilted his head to think. At the beginning, he seemed to like this vase.

But now, he wanted to smash it against the ground and throw it away. Or knock it hard against Kou Li’s head.

“Daddy One!” Suddenly, the sweet cry of his son came from downstairs.

Bian Yi came back to reality startled. As he blinked several times, he clenched his fists, pinching his palms with his fingernails. He almost went mad in front of Xiao-Shu.

When he looked downstairs, Bian Yi’s eyes showed only a cheerful smile, and there was nothing wrong in the sound of his voice as he said: “Xiao-Shu, my good boy.”

When Bian Yi finally came downstairs, Kou Sen trotted towards him and Bian Yi hurriedly squatted down to pick him up.

The kid wasn’t strong enough to collide with him and stopped his feet right in front of Bian Yi. Yet, he still fell into Bian Yi’s arms, as he gave him a big hug with his soft and warm little body.

Bian Yi’s nose ached instantly

“Is Daddy One hurt? Xiao-Shu will help. It won’t hurt if you blow the wound.” Kou Sen put his small hands around Bian Yi’s neck. When he saw the gauze taped on Bian Yi’s neck, he came closer to gently blow on it a few times.

‘Father said that Daddy One is injured, so he needs hugs. If I hug him, his injury will soon get better.’

The child thought, even though he didn’t understand why Kou Li wouldn’t allow him to go near his other father.

Bian Yi didn’t dare to hold the child too tightly in his arms, and had to open his mouth to breathe properly. He felt as if his throat and nose were blocked, scaring him to the point of thinking that if he couldn’t breathe right this moment, he’d die.

As if feeling the light trembling coming from his father, the small child soothingly patted Bian Yi’s back with his small hand: “Don’t be afraid, Daddy One.”

Bian Yi blinked his eyes, but the tears still accumulated in his eyes. With a blurred vision, Bian Yi saw Kou Li walking towards him.

That man didn’t stop until he smoothly took the child from his arms, as if he had done it many times. Even the child seemed to have adapted to his sudden behaviour, because as he was being carried away, he looked so naturally obedient.

Bian Yi felt the empty feeling in his arms, as he looked up blankly at the eyes of the man in front of him, who were looking back at him with a defensive warning.

With such a cold attitude, Kou Li stood high and mighty, examining Bian Yi up and down, as if trying to prevent himself from going mad.

This, instead, made Bian Yi collect his tears and calm down as fast as possible.

As the family finally had dinner, Kou Sen was the only one who spoke. Occasionally, Kou Li would reply to the child’s odd questions.

It wasn’t hard to see that the father-son relationship between these two was very good.

Bian Yi couldn’t tell if this was Kou Li trying to compensate the kid out of guilt. But, at this point, he didn’t want to think about it. He didn’t want to ruin his first dinner back at home.

After having eaten in peace, Bian Yi watched cartoons with the child for a while, until Kou Li took the kid away.

Bian Yi wanted to see Xiao-Shu a bit more, but Butler Hua suddenly arrived with the psychiatrist. As soon as Bian Yi saw him, Bian Yi let Kou Li take the child away.

After all, Bian Yi didn’t want Xiao-Shu to hear the doctor say that his father was mentally ill and wasn’t a normal person.

Since Kou Sen was already used to having dinner with his two dads once in a while, he didn’t pester Kou Li as he was taken away.

When Kou Li took the child upstairs, he glanced at the vase in the corser of the staircase.

In his previous life, he almost couldn’t resist the urge to smash that vase on Bian Yi’s face.

Kou Li smiled as he looked at the other decorations, thinking about the many things he would have to throw away at home.