Lin Qinyan was pushing Gu Zai'an into a stall when a pale hand caught his arm.
Gu Qingbai's gaze moved back and forth over their closely pressed arms. At last, he pulled Gu Zai'an in front of him and laced their fingers together, his eyes sparkling.
“Husband! I finally found you! You're so stylish! I love it!”
Gu Zai'an: “...”
Lin Qinyan looked up. Seeing a stranger, he immediately grew wary. “Who are you, man?”
Gu Qingbai blinked and held up Gu Zai'an's hand as though presenting a product. “Our family raised him from childhood to be my husband. Which makes him my husband now.”
Gu Zai'an was utterly bewildered. He warily pulled his hand free. Of course he recognized the kid from last night. Raising a finger to tap his forehead, he scolded, “You little brat, why are you going around claiming random people as family?”
“I'm not...” Gu Qingbai opened his eyes wide and straightened his collar and tie. “Let me introduce myself. I'm Gu Qingbai, the Gu family's second son.”
“You said you're who?!” Gu Zai'an's eyes widened in a look of unprecedented shock.
Wasn't Gu Qingbai the male lead? Why hadn't the system given him a single notification?
Just then, the system's voice sounded in his head.
[Gu Qingbai. Age: eighteen. Provincial top scorer in the college entrance exam. Graduate of Jingbei. Subsequently recruited into the National Research Institute.]
[Beep! A change in the male lead's future career has been detected. Initiating forced correction. Forced correction failed. Protagonist possesses a strong independent will and has escaped the main storyline's control.]
[Identifying second protagonist...]
Next, the little bee scanned everyone present like a CD player before finally stopping on Gu Zai'an.
[Second protagonist identified successfully. Male lead Gu Qingbai's affection for the second protagonist exceeds sixty percent. Match successful.]
Watching the rapidly changing text, Gu Zai'an couldn't make sense of any of it.
It was bad enough that this lousy system hadn't warned him when the male lead showed up. What was all this supposed to be now?
“Are you out of your mind?!” he bellowed at the little bee, leaving the other two completely baffled.
Gu Qingbai's eyes reddened instantly, like a delicate little flower. He retreated pitifully from Gu Zai'an, turned his back, and asked with theatrical fragility, “Does my husband not want me anymore?”
[Protagonist grievance +1, +1, +1...]
[Grievance has risen to forty-five percent. Male lead grievance exceeding forty percent detected. Warning! Warning! If grievance exceeds fifty percent, the counterfeit second protagonist will receive the death penalty!]
Gu Zai'an's face twisted. He hurried over to soothe him. “So you're my long-lost little brother! I wasn't talking about you just now. Be good, okay? Let's focus on school.”
Gu Qingbai gave him a sidelong look, cheeks puffed out. “Then who were you saying it to?”
“Him!” Without hesitation, Gu Zai'an pointed at Lin Qinyan. “He's so annoying. I barely know him, and he insisted on dragging me into the restroom.”
[Protagonist grievance -1.]
[Protagonist affection +1, +1, +1, +1...]
Wait, that was it? Only minus one?
What on earth was Gu Qingbai so aggrieved about? And what was with the rising affection score?
With his face turned partly away, Gu Qingbai looked so sweet and adorable, like a little cat sulking.
Gu Zai'an simply couldn't be harsh with that face. He stepped around in front of him and pinched his cheek. “Don't be mad at your big brother, okay? I just didn't recognize you at first.”
Meeting his eyes, Gu Qingbai took his hand. “How could I be mad at you, Brother? It's all someone else's fault. He's the one who seduced you. How could I blame my big brother? Isn't that right, Brother?”
There was an oddly pointed edge to his voice.
Lin Qinyan: “...” They really were brothers.
“Right, right, right.” Gu Zai'an missed the implication entirely. In his determination to stay alive, he didn't care what Gu Qingbai was saying. He only knew to agree.
“Huh?” Lin Qinyan certainly hadn't expected that from Gu Zai'an. With the strength of an ox, he caught Gu Qingbai by the shoulder and turned him around. “Man, I'm Gu Zai'an's buddy. Just his buddy. What's all this about seducing him?”
“And you marched right up and called my buddy your husband. That's seriously rude. Look at you—are you even eighteen yet, throwing that word around?”
“See, Brother? I told you he wasn't a good person. Seducing you isn't enough; now he wants to seduce me too.”
Gu Qingbai refused to let it go. Turning his chin aside, he shook off Lin Qinyan's hand, walked back to Gu Zai'an, and stuck out his tongue.
“Besides, my brother said he barely knows you! Why are you so shamelessly hanging all over him?”
Lin Qinyan flushed scarlet, looking ready to cry with rage.
Gu Zai'an hurriedly pulled the little tyrant away. “It's the first day of school. Don't stoop to his level, okay? Be good.”
He coaxed him out as though soothing a child. Just before leaving, he looked back and mouthed to Lin Qinyan, “I'll come find you once I've calmed him down!”
Lin Qinyan had been standing there with his fists clenched at his sides. Catching Gu Zai'an's backward glance melted away more than half his anger. When he saw him promise to come back after soothing the other guy, his mood improved considerably.
Only Lin Qinyan himself knew he liked Gu Zai'an.
He knew Gu Zai'an didn't care about him. He was always the one giving in this relationship, but he was willing! Because Gu Zai'an was the only person who ever included him.
Watching the two leave with their arms around each other, he curled his lips into a scornful sneer. “Gu Qingbai, you're just some country boy. I only look like a bumpkin. You're the real thing. You can't beat me.”
Having reached the classroom building, Gu Qingbai sneezed.
Gu Zai'an looked puzzled. “What's wrong? Caught a cold?”
Gu Qingbai shook his head. “Someone must be cursing me in some dark little corner.”
Gu Zai'an didn't respond to that, simply deciding it was a cold. “Did you catch a chill because you didn't sleep well last night? Sorry. That bed was so comfortable I fell asleep the second I lay down. I didn't take proper care of you.”
What he was actually thinking was: Can't even sleep well in a thousand-yuan bed. Rich boys really are hard to keep.
Gu Qingbai had no idea what he was thinking. He only felt cared for. His eyes shone even brighter, and he rubbed his fluffy head against Gu Zai'an's shoulder. “My husband's so good to me.”
“Why do you call me that?” Gu Zai'an was genuinely confused.
Honestly, as a straight guy, having another guy keep calling him that made him uneasy.
Gu Qingbai blinked. “Mom told me.”
“She told you I was your husband?!”
“Yes. She said you're my husband. The husband she raised for me from childhood.”
“What the hell???”
He had transmigrated into a real-heir-versus-fake-heir novel, hadn't he? Hadn't he?
In fact, Qin Shaofen's exact words had been: “From now on, you'll be the Gu family's only young master. Gu Zai'an is an ungrateful wretch who'll never be one of us, however long we raise him. Older brother, indeed! Even a girl raised in the family to be a son's bride wouldn't act like that!”
Add that to the gossip Gu Qingbai had heard in the countryside: “Qingbai's so frail and delicate, like a girl. Who knows? Maybe he'll grow up to be somebody's wife.”
And Gu Qingbai had arrived at his own interpretation: someone else's child raised in your family had to be either a future wife or a future husband.