Chapter 494: Mr. Shen's Interception!
Once the surrounding passersby saw there was no more excitement to watch and gradually dispersed, Tang Kun squatted on the ground, burying his face in his hands and wailing in pain:
"Yaoyao, my Yaoyao, I can't live without you, I can't live without you, what will I do without you, woo woo woo..."
Although his fierce and unyielding appearance just now was handsome, now, squatting on the ground with his face buried in his hands and wailing, he looked as pathetic as a stray dog no one wanted. The rough texture of the city pavement bit into his palms, each grain of asphalt a tiny, sharp reminder of his failure. The world around him faded into a blur of indifferent footsteps and the distant hum of traffic. All that remained was the gaping, raw wound in his chest where his heart used to be. He had let her go. He had let pride dictate his words when love should have screamed.
He regretted it, truly regretted it; he should have tried to win her back. He should have swallowed his pride, knelt on the grimy concrete if he had to, and begged her not to leave. What was dignity compared to a future without her? Nothing. It was ash.
Just as Tang Kun was about to scramble to his feet and chase in the direction Zhou Luyao had left, his phone suddenly shattered the suffocating bubble of his grief. The shrill, tinny ringtone was an assault on his frayed nerves. He fumbled for the cheap device, his vision blurred by tears. An unfamiliar number. He answered, his voice a broken croak.
A harsh, impatient voice cut through the line. "Delivery guy, I've been waiting for over an hour, are you delivering or not? If not, I'm complaining."
The mundane cruelty of the call was a slap in the face. His world was ending, yet somewhere across the city, someone was angry about a late meal. The disconnect was jarring, a stark reminder of his place in the world. He was just a cog, a replaceable delivery boy whose personal tragedy meant nothing. "Coming, coming," he choked out, forcing the words past the lump in his throat. "I'm on my way now."
With a final, shuddering sob, Tang Kun shoved his despair down. He had to work. He had to survive. He quickly got on his electric bike, the worn seat a familiar but cold comfort. As the motor whirred to life, a desperate, foolish hope began to bloom in the barren wasteland of his heart. 'If I save up some money from deliveries...' he thought, the idea taking root with startling speed. 'Just a little more. I can buy Yaoyao the latest model of that fruit phone she wanted. That will show her how much I care. She'll see I can provide for her. She'll surely come back to me then.'
Thinking this, Tang Kun's spirits lifted, a fragile smile touching his tear-stained face. He twisted the throttle, the little e-bike surging forward, carrying him toward a future he foolishly believed he could still salvage.
Just then, a sound tore through the city's drone—a demonic screech of tires protesting violently against asphalt. It was the last thing he heard clearly. A deafening BANG followed, and the world exploded in a kaleidoscope of twisted metal and shattering plastic. Tang Kun's body was launched from his bike, a discarded puppet flung into the air. Time seemed to warp, stretching into an eternity as he tumbled end over end. He saw the grey sky, then the indifferent faces of skyscrapers, then the ground—the hard, unforgiving ground—rushing up to meet him. In that final, lucid moment, a single, horrifying thought sliced through the chaos:
He didn't seem to be wearing a helmet...
With another sickening thud, his world ceased to be. Tang Kun crashed heavily onto the street. His skull met the curb with a wet, cracking sound. Blood, dark and hot, gushed from the wound, pooling beneath him like a crimson halo. He fell unconscious instantly, a broken thing on a busy road.
The silence of his departure was immediately swallowed by a cacophony of noise—screaming, gasps of horror, and the frantic, rising chorus of people calling for an ambulance.
...
"Tang Kun got into a car accident? Is the System coming?"
Miles away, Shen Anyu watched the scene unfold on a holographic projection only he could see, the feed relayed by an invisible nanometer monitoring robot. He raised a perfectly sculpted eyebrow, a flicker of mild interest in his deep, dark eyes. The accident was a convenient, if somewhat cliché, development. Still, it didn't alter his primary objective. He didn't change his direction, his long legs carrying him with unhurried purpose. He was preparing to win over Zhou Luyao first.
If Tang Kun is indeed the Child of Destiny, he mused, then stealing his woman will be more than just a simple pleasure. It will be a critical blow to his Fate, a direct attack on his very essence as a protagonist. Furthermore, her reaction will serve as the perfect litmus test. If she is the Destined Heroine, her favorability towards me will skyrocket when confronted with overwhelming status and wealth. It's time to verify the hypothesis.
Previously, when Zhou Luyao saw Young Master Shen's handsome face amidst the crowd, she hadn't developed any favorable impression. She had seen good-looking men before. But now, with her world freshly upended and her future uncertain, would a handsome face—attached to immense power—make a difference?
A cold, robotic voice echoed in his mind, confirming his suspicions with clinical precision.
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine Zhou Luyao's favorability +10, plundering +30,000 destiny value!]
...
Shen Anyu's eyes were filled with a triumphant smile, a glint of predatory satisfaction that he expertly concealed. 'As expected.' He approached the bewildered Zhou Luyao, who was still staring in the direction Tang Kun had left, a complex mix of anger and regret on her face. Shen Anyu adopted an air of effortless grace, his voice smooth as silk.
"Beautiful lady, your suitcase looks very heavy. Let me help you with it."
His unspoken offer was clear, a casual display of chivalry that hinted at something more. 'My main point is to be helpful,' he thought with detached amusement. 'Whether it's a heavy bag, a clogged drain, or a broken heart... Young Master Shen is here to provide a solution.'
"Hmph, no need."
Zhou Luyao snorted, turning her gaze on him. Although the sheer perfection of Shen Anyu's appearance made her eyes light up involuntarily, she quickly suppressed it. She prided herself on not being a shallow woman who only cared for looks. For her, the single most important quality in a man was his financial portfolio. Everything else—looks, personality, loyalty—was a distant, irrelevant second.
Besides, she recognized him. She had noticed him earlier in the crowd. A man that handsome was impossible to miss, standing out like a crane among chickens. She had also seen the subtle smirk on his face, heard his provocative words that had pushed Tang Kun over the edge, goading him into their breakup.
'And now he's coming over to flirt?' she thought with a surge of cynicism. 'Hmph. Men are all the same trash. No good comes from any of them.'
"Beautiful lady, you've misunderstood," Shen Anyu said, his lips curling into a half-smile that was both charming and condescending. He saw the gears turning in her head, the suspicion in her eyes, and found it quaint. Of course, he couldn't be a simp; even when targeting a Destined Heroine, he would never grovel. Groveling was for protagonists. He might act the part in very specific, calculated situations—like when facing a heroine with overwhelming strength like Susan, where he'd 'eat soft rice' but with a hard, unyielding attitude—but here? Here, he held all the cards. "I meant, your suitcase is blocking my driveway."
"Blocking your driveway?"
Zhou Luyao scoffed, the sound dripping with disbelief. She followed Shen Anyu's lazy gesture, her gaze shifting past him, and her world tilted on its axis. Her eyes immediately went wide, all the cynicism and disdain vaporizing in an instant.
Before her, parked silently by the curb, was a luxury supercar so breathtakingly cool, so outrageously extravagant, it seemed to belong to another plane of existence. Its rear-hinged coach doors were open, spread like the wings of a celestial butterfly. Its long, sleek body was coated in a black so deep it seemed to drink the light, shimmering like a polished black diamond under the afternoon sun.
As an aspiring and excellent gold-digger, Zhou Luyao had, of course, meticulously studied the various luxury car brands. The iconography was seared into her brain. She could spot a Bentley from a block away, differentiate a Lamborghini from a Ferrari by the sound of its engine alone. But this... this was different. The iconic silver statuette of the Spirit of Ecstasy perched on the hood was an unmistakable signal, a beacon of unimaginable wealth. It was a Rolls-Royce.
And it wasn't just any Rolls-Royce.
It was a Rolls-Royce Phantom, a custom-built model several orders of magnitude more expensive than a common Ghost. A car valued at two hundred million yuan. It wasn't a car; it was a luxury yacht cruising on land, a mobile palace of obscene wealth.
"Handsome guy... this, this, this... is this your car?"
Zhou Luyao's voice was a barely audible squeak. Her beautiful eyes were stretched wide on her pretty little face, and her rosy lips, usually set in a proud pout, were parted in a perfect oval of shocked disbelief. She stared at Shen Anyu as if seeing him for the first time, not as a man, but as a deity of fortune.
"It's the real deal."
Shen Anyu gave the key fob in his hand a nonchalant jingle. In response, the Rolls-Royce Phantom emitted a bright, crisp double chime, its lights flashing in elegant confirmation.
The sound was like a divine decree, and another notification rang through Shen Anyu's mind.
[Ding! Detected Destined Heroine Zhou Luyao's favorability +50, plundering +150,000 destiny value!]
...
'Well, well. A direct fifty-point increase?'
Shen Anyu raised an eyebrow, thoroughly amused. It was a fascinating case study. His handsome face, a work of art that was only marginally less attractive than that of his esteemed readers, had only managed to earn him a meager ten points of favorability. Yet, the mere sight of this Rolls-Royce Phantom had boosted it by fifty. That was five times the effect.
Generally speaking, such a massive increase in favorability was difficult to achieve even through a dramatic, life-or-death scenario like a hero saving the beauty. This was far more efficient.
One could only say she truly was a gold-digger of the highest caliber. And Shen Anyu welcomed this type of Destined Heroine with open arms. They were just so wonderfully easy to handle, their desires so transparent, their motivations so simple. They were practically walking, talking sources of destiny value, gift-wrapped for his convenience. Suzuki Natsuki, all the way over in Sakura Country, had been exactly the same type—easily dealt with, easily controlled.
At this moment, Zhou Luyao's gaze towards Shen Anyu became fervent, almost feverish. It was the look of a starving predator that had just stumbled upon a feast. It was the look a female demon from the ancient tales might give Tang Monk, a look of pure, unadulterated greed.
[Akarin's Note: Tang Monk (Tang Sanzang) is the central character in the classic Chinese novel Journey to the West. It was believed that eating his flesh would grant immortality, making him the ultimate prize for all demons.]
'I never thought... I never, ever thought...' Zhou Luyao's mind was racing, her thoughts a whirlwind of frantic calculations. 'This impossibly handsome guy isn't just rich... he's a top-tier, god-level rich and handsome man! So rich he can afford a two-hundred-million-yuan Rolls-Royce Phantom as a casual ride! How much money must his family have? Billions? Tens of billions? If I became his woman... forget becoming the main wife, that's a pipe dream. But even if I was just a mistress, a well-kept secret on the side, wouldn't it be easy to get tens of millions? A hundred million?'
Precisely because she was a gold-digger, Zhou Luyao was brutally realistic. She knew it was impossible for someone of her background to marry into a super-rich family. Even if she could completely captivate him, she would never get past the ironclad gate of his parents and family elders. It was far more practical to aim for a massive payday, secure enough money to live a life of absolute luxury for the rest of her days, and then disappear. She deeply envied a certain famous billionaire's ex-girlfriend, who had cleverly used their child to secure millions in child support every single year.
For a moment, as Zhou Luyao gazed at Shen Anyu, it was as if tangible silk threads were stretching from her eyes, attempting to ensnare him. If not for the last, lingering shred of her public modesty, and the absence of a concrete offer, she would have already thrown herself at him.
Tang Kun, lying unconscious in the back of a speeding ambulance, his life hanging by a thread, probably never dreamed that the goddess who was so noble and aloof in his presence, the woman he worshipped from afar, would reveal such a desperate and avaricious side in front of another man.
At this moment, Zhou Luyao's cold and proud expression was completely gone, replaced by a pretty face flushed with excitement. She spoke with a demeanor that was somehow both shy and deliberately awkward, her voice now soft and sweet. "Handsome guy, your car is so cool. I've... I've never seen such a beautiful car in my entire life. If I could just sit in it once, Yaoyao would have no regrets in life."
Shen Anyu's gaze swept over Zhou Luyao, taking in her feigned innocence and poorly concealed ambition, and he too said with a smile, "Yes, it's a very nice car. I really want to drive it right now~"
[Akarin Note:
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