NOVEL NEXT chapter 8 - The First World (8)
Yun Mingchen’s blunt words caused the atmosphere to fall into complete stagnation.
Yun Old Master’s face immediately darkened, and he slammed the table, shouting at the video, "How are you talking to your parents like that? We’ve spent so much energy and resources raising you, and this is what we get in return, a thankless brat!"
Yun mother’s gentle smile also faded slightly. "Mingchen, you’re still as headstrong as when you were a child. Sigh, it’s my fault as your mother, I didn’t educate you properly."
"A loving mother spoils her son. I told you to punish him back then, but you wouldn’t listen. Look at what you’ve done now. If we didn’t discipline him, he wouldn’t turn out like this. I’ll fly over right now and give him a good spanking with my sword."
"Alright, alright, the child’s already grown."
The two of them argued in the video, with Yun Old Master becoming red in the face, picking up a sword to leave.
Yun mother’s eyes reddened, tightly holding onto his waist, her voice beginning to choke with emotion.
Yu Tong squatted on the side, watching with cold indifference.
First they make him cry, then cause a scene, and finally threaten him to get married.
The people at the top of the pyramid actually resort to such lowly tricks to force their son into marriage.
It’s over. The cultivation world is finished.
As a seasoned actor playing multiple roles, Yun Mingchen could clearly tell they were just acting.
He seemed to be used to it, gently rubbing his brow, letting out a helpless sigh.
The system peeked in, "What are you so happy about? This mess isn’t something worth watching. If you look at the original text, the male lead later sees the villain as an irreconcilable enemy because he marries the second Miss Wen, Wen Yingying."
Yu Tong froze, "So he was eventually persuaded by his parents? But he’s gay..."
"He’s the villain. Of course, he has to do something disgusting."
The system checked the background, "Hmm… In the original text, it’s about this time that the male lead sees Wen Yingying, the female supporting character, crying in a corner. He goes to ask her what’s wrong, but she just cries without answering."
Yu Tong furrowed his brows, lost in thought.
From the moment the video call started, Yun Mingchen had rejected the marriage with every word he said. But his parents seemed determined to persuade him tonight.
Their overly urgent attitude felt odd, as if something was going on behind the scenes.
When Yun Mingchen once again stated that he couldn’t marry a woman, Yun Old Master snorted coldly.
"I know you like men and don’t want to touch Miss Wen, you don’t have to. On the wedding night, we’ll arrange for someone else to handle the bride. You can go be with your little boyfriend. As for the child, we can find a substitute..."
Before he could finish saying "pregnancy," Yun Mingchen couldn’t take it anymore and reached to end the video call.
Just then, Yun mother’s tears suddenly fell.
She pressed her hand on Yun Old Master’s arm, wiping her tears while choking out, "Forget it, don’t push him anymore. It seems the Yun family is destined to... sigh. Mingchen, I’m sorry, your dad and I were too hasty. Don’t take it to heart."
"Let’s not talk about those unpleasant things anymore. Mingchen, is your living allowance enough? I’ll send you two million more. Do you have someone you like? Buy them some gifts."
Yun Old Master also stopped being aggressive and sat back down in his chair, looking much older all of a sudden.
"Mingchen, you understand the situation of the Yun family. But since you were young, you’ve never lacked any elixirs or magic items. You’re a very sensitive and smart child. You can feel how your mom and I treat you."
"Forget it, since you don’t want to, we won’t force you. You’re right, this isn’t fair to the young lady. Don’t dwell on what happened today. If you need any pills or magic tools in the future, just tell me. I’ll take care of it for you."
Yu Tong and the system were both stunned.
First, they pressured Yun Mingchen more and more, making his resistance grow stronger. Constantly using provoking language, they made him argue with his parents.
Then, they waited for the right moment to play the emotional card, starting to comfort him and make him feel guilty.
The system couldn’t help but curse, "Wow, are they training a son? Hit him with a stick, then give him a sweet date. These two old bastards are treating him like a dog."
Yu Tong wasn’t in the mood to chat with the system.
Guilt, regret, anger, and unwillingness—such strong and complicated emotions from the antagonist flooded Yu Tong through the prop.
The villain's parents were still speaking with the gentlest tone, showing concern for their son, but their words subtly revealed a few key points.
First, to cultivate Yun Mingchen, they had already drained the family’s savings.
The Yun family only appeared grand on the outside, but it had long become an empty shell, unable to sustain itself for much longer.
Second, when Yun Mingchen was a child, his health was poor, and his parents had searched everywhere for medicine to save him. They had even resorted to killing and robbing in secret realms.
They had made many enemies, and once the Yun family collapsed, former enemies would certainly team up to take them down.
As time passed, Yun Mingchen began to lower his head and rub his brow.
Yu Tong could sense that the villain was feeling lost, wavering.
"Don’t push yourself too hard. You should rest more and have some fun at your age. We won’t disturb you anymore. Mr. Su has always liked Ling’er, we’ll go talk to her."
Yu Tong froze.
In the original text, Yun Mingchen’s younger sister was named Yun Zhongling, and her nickname was Ling’er.
They were threatening Yun Mingchen.
If he didn’t marry Miss Wen and form an alliance with the Wen family, they would send his sister away.
Yun Mingchen paused in his movements, "Young Master Su is married."
Yun mother smiled, "The Su family has another son, who is about the same age as Ling’er. Don’t worry about it, we’ll handle it."
Without waiting for a response, she quickly reached to hang up the call. This time, it was Yun Mingchen who stopped her, and once again, they found themselves in a tug-of-war.
Yu Tong curiously leaned in to watch the two of them in the video.
In the original plot, it would still take over a year for the male lead to be found by Mr. Su.
But from what Yun’s family said, they seemed to already know about Su Feng’s existence.
Even a dying camel is bigger than a horse; the Yun family wasn’t that easy to topple.
The old couple was using psychological tactics to scare Yun Mingchen.
Their status gave them a significant advantage, and Yun Mingchen was carefully thinking about his words, trying to change their minds.
But in this moment, he wasn’t calm enough, and his thoughts were being pulled by his parents. The more he thought, the easier it was to fall into their trap.
With the "Telepathic Connection" prop active, Yu Tong could sense Yun Mingchen’s emotions.
He had already started to feel guilty when his parents mentioned his childhood, and his mental defenses were weakening. Yu Tong couldn’t let him continue the video call.
Determined, Yu Tong wagged his tail and walked over. Sitting in front of the phone holder, he began scratching the phone screen wildly, meowing as he did.
Yun Mingchen felt the kitten was scolding his parents as "bastards," urging him to hang up the call quickly.
The sudden appearance of the kitten made both people in the video pause in confusion.
Yun Mingchen reached to grab the kitten by the neck, but Yu Tong tightly clung to the phone, not letting go.
In their struggle, he seemingly pressed the power button by accident, "Little Eight, is the phone off?"
The system rushed in, "No, the phone needs to be held for ten seconds to shut down forcibly."
Yun Mingchen snatched the phone from the kitten’s hands, taking only half a second to end the call.
As he saw the video call ending, he realized that if it kept going, he would be forced into a terrible engagement with Wen Yingying. Yu Tong gritted his teeth and meowed, biting the phone’s screen.
With the "MOD ‘Kitten Strikes’" installed, he bit the phone so hard a chunk of the screen was torn off.
The phone screen flickered quickly, and the faces of the two in the video grew dim and bright, the voices warbling and distorted.
The video became increasingly warped and eerie.
Yun Mingchen, holding the kitten in one hand, quietly watched the scene unfold.
Only when the phone was completely ruined did he turn his gaze away, sitting motionlessly in his chair, as if he had lost his soul.
Yu Tong was left on the table, head down, trying to spit out the shattered tempered glass.
It took a good two to three minutes for Yun Mingchen to return to his senses.
Seeing the kitten still gagging, he grabbed its head, pried open its mouth, and helped clear the foreign object.
With his calloused fingers, he reached into Yu Tong’s mouth. The sensation felt too strange, and Yu Tong desperately tried to pull away but couldn’t move an inch.
The system, watching, couldn't help but comment, "Tsk, like a hamster eating a banana."
Yu Tong: …?
Is this even human language?
Once the villain cleared the object from his mouth, Yu Tong was left a shell of a cat.
He lay limply on the table, watching Yun Mingchen pacing around the room.
Even after the villain withdrew his finger, Yu Tong still felt something in his mouth, and it was incredibly uncomfortable.
Yu Tong sighed miserably.
Being a cat is so hard. It’s easier to be human—at least he can dig out the stuff from his own mouth.
He purred a few times, "Big Eight, check the deviation value. Did it increase?"
The system checked the background, "No, still 0. Why are you asking?"
"You said before that all factors influencing the antagonist’s choices will be added to the deviation value, right?"
"Yeah, but you’ve only «N.o.v.e.l.i.g.h.t» been in this world for two days. You haven’t had time to educate the villain yet."
Yu Tong spoke calmly, though his tail swished proudly.
"The villain said at the start of the video call that the marriage wouldn’t benefit the Yun family and would only hasten its downfall. He definitely knows something but can’t say it."
"He hesitated just now because his parents’ emotional manipulation confused him. Initially, he was considering the consequences of the marriage, but after his parents played the emotional card, the marriage changed from saving the family to repaying his parents’ kindness, easing their burdens."
Yun Mingchen was still wandering aimlessly in the room, his confusion and anxiety openly transmitted to Yu Tong.
At this moment, to Yu Tong, the villain seemed like a trapped beast in a cage.
He looked a little pitiful.
But pitiful people—Yu Tong had seen so many of them growing up. Honestly, he was starting to feel numb.
The system was still sighing about the villain’s misfortune, and Yu Tong felt like he should say something to seem less indifferent.
He furrowed his delicate brows and sighed lightly, "Being manipulated like this by your own parents... it seems that being born into a big family isn’t all it’s cracked up to be."
Yu Tong didn’t want to keep discussing his misfortune in front of the person involved.
Before the system could respond, he changed the subject, "Big Eight, let’s make a bet. Do you think the villain’s deviation value will increase before dawn tomorrow? If it does, you owe me one favor. If it doesn’t, I owe you one."
"...I’m not betting. Do you think I’m stupid?"
Yu Tong sighed in regret.
He knew the system knew something about how he died.
Perhaps the stimulation from the night was too much, and Yun Mingchen didn’t cultivate through the entire night.
It was just past eleven when he turned off the lights and went to bed early.
The phone that had been chewed up by the kitten had already been thrown into the trash.
Just when Yu Tong thought he was going to sleep directly, Yun Mingchen pulled a new phone from the drawer.
Noticing the little kitten staring blankly at the phone, Yun Mingchen chuckled softly and started pulling out one phone after another.
He placed over ten phones on the bed, hiding the exhaustion in his eyes. Then, he put on his bratty persona again and reached over to tap Yu Tong on the head.
"You like biting phones, don’t you? Come on, little rascal, bite them all you want."
Yu Tong: ...
Poor dog-man, so tired but still putting on a show.
From the kitten’s gaze, Yun Mingchen could sense disdain.
He chuckled softly, put the phones away, and lay back down, staring blankly at the ceiling.
Yu Tong knew their relationship had moved a step closer.
Ever since he bit the phone and forcibly interrupted the villain’s video call with his parents, Yun Mingchen had allowed him on the bed.
Tomorrow, Yun Mingchen would start school again, and Yu Tong knew that to go out with him as the little kitten, he had to get closer to him quickly.
Yu Tong braced himself, meowing a few times, and climbed over. He began rubbing against the villain’s face while kneading the pillow with his paws.
Yun Mingchen glanced at him coldly and turned over, facing away as he fiddled with his phone.
Yu Tong, worried that he might get brainwashed by his parents again, climbed onto his shoulder and peered at the phone screen.
The screen was paused on the browser, with the search bar displaying, "Does a kitten sleep next to its owner because it likes them?"
Yun Mingchen looked at the search results, then clicked on the search bar, revealing recent search history.
"Does a kitten kneading express that it likes its owner?"
"What does it mean when a kitten purrs?"
"How can you tell if a kitten likes its owner by its tail?"
"How do you know if a kitten truly likes its owner or is just flattering?"
Yu Tong: ...
Does he really want the kitten to like him? I didn’t notice that.
Yun Mingchen thought for a moment, then typed a new question in the search bar.
"What age child’s intelligence does a kitten’s IQ roughly equal? Can it understand human speech?"
"How to tell if a kitten is a hidden cat demon."
Yu Tong: ...?