Can I still be saved? [Transmigration] - Chapter 51.2

It clung to the edge of Su Yunjing’s chin. Under the bathroom light, it gleamed, clear and crystalline.

The man wiped that droplet away with a towel, then lifted his eyes to meet Su Yunjing’s.

“This room costs 1,888 a night. You owe me 1,888.”

Su Yunjing, who had thought he’d run into a kind stranger, let out a disbelieving laugh.

“If you just wanted money for the room, you could’ve said so directly. What’s with all this performance?”

The man took a cigarette and a lighter from his pocket and, with impeccable manners, asked,“Mind if I smoke?”

Su Yunjing glared at him coldly.

Moments ago, he’d been burning up; after being doused in cold water, now he was freezing. His body trembled uncontrollably, lips pale, limbs weak as water.

The man put a cigarette between his lips and lit it.

A pair of glasses rested on his tall, straight nose bridge, and during Su Yunjing’s earlier struggle, droplets of water had splashed onto the lenses.

He took off the glasses, the cigarette still between his full lips, and used his tie to wipe the lenses clean.

Su Yunjing had thought this man looked familiar. When he finally removed his glasses, recognition hit him.

It was… Xu Huai?

Unlike the arrogant, rebellious young man from before, the one standing before him now was wearing glasses, seemed restrained and composed, even with a trace of refined elegance.

But without the barrier of glass, the darkness lurking deep in his black eyes finally showed itself.

Like a beast that had been lying in wait, its feral nature suddenly bared.

After wiping the lenses spotless, Xu Huai put his glasses back on, looking every bit the shrewd, well-mannered upper-class elite.

All appearance, no soul— a perfect imitation of humanity.

Su Yunjing wasn’t sure whether the original body’s owner had any past grudges with Xu Huai—but regardless, his impression of the man was far from good.

Xu Huai exhaled a slow ring of smoke, the cigarette held between his long, slender fingers.

“The room costs 1,888. How do you plan to pay?”

Even someone as good tempered as Su Yunjing couldn’t help feeling his anger stir at being extorted like this.

If he’d had even a bit of money—or his phone—he would’ve paid the man on the spot and told him to get lost.

Holding back his irritation, Su Yunjing said, “I only used your bathroom. At most, I’ll pay you a 100.”

Xu Huai gave a soft laugh, the sound edged with mockery. “Saving you isn’t worth anything?”

Su Yunjing retorted sarcastically, “Why don’t you mention how you nearly drowned me just now? You call that saving me?”

Xu Huai didn’t respond. Instead his eyes swept over Su Yunjing from head to toe. “You can’t even come up with a 100 yen, can you?”

Su Yunjing fell silent.

He couldn’t. He didn’t have a single coin to his name.

His expression darkened. “Let me borrow your phone. I can call someone to bring the money.”

Xu Huai took a drag from his cigarette, his tone lazy and dismissive. “I don’t have time to waste over a hundred yuan. If you can’t pay, forget it.”

Su Yunjing didn’t believe for a second that the man would let him off that easily.

And he was right.

Xu Huai inhaled deeply, then suddenly pressed the glowing cigarette end against Su Yunjing’s neck.

Su Yunjing sucked in a sharp breath, and for a fleeting instant, an image flashed before his eyes—to the flames swallowing him whole, to the way he’d burned to death inside the wreck.

His face went pale. He clenched his fists and swung at Xu Huai.

Xu Huai caught his wrist with ease, then gripped Su Yunjing’s throat.

His fingers tightened gradually as he looked down at that pained, defiant face. His gaze shifted lower, landing on the round burn mark at Su Yunjing’s collarbone.

His fingertips brushed over it, making Su Yunjing hiss in pain. Xu Huai smiled, finally satisfied. “That’ll count as payment.”

He released him.

Su Yunjing fell back into the tub with a splash, cold water flying everywhere. Shivering, he could barely move.

Xu Huai took one last look at his pathetic state, then left the room with a faint smile.

The drug in Su Yunjing’s system hadn’t worn off yet. It took him a long time to muster the strength to climb out of the bath.

Xu Huai was gone. Su Yunjing, feeling uneasy, locked the door from the inside and rested against it for a moment.

Once he’d recovered a bit of strength, he took off the soaked bathrobe and changed into a clean one hanging in the room.

When he lifted his gaze toward the mirror inside the closet, he finally realized why Xu Huai had treated him that way.

He had thought that maybe the body’s original owner had offended Xu Huai somehow— but no. It was this face that had brought him disaster.

Su Yunjing stared at his own reflection—handsome, striking, painfully familiar—and the corner of his mouth twitched.

Now he understood what the so-called ‘golden finger’ the Book Transmigration System mentioned really was.

A face that looked seventy to eighty percent like Wen Ci’s.

A whole bucket of dog bl00d splashed right over him.

That system was a really little devil! How did it come up with this? Does it read too many romance novels about substitutes?

Honestly, if he hadn’t run into a pervert like Xu Huai first, he might’ve admitted that, troublesome as it was, the system could be a bit of a divine assist sometimes.

If his best friend had died unexpectedly, and someone appeared who looked so much like him—even if that person had a bad reputation— Su Yunjing would’ve reached out too, just for that face.

But now that he’d met Xu Huai first, and knowing all the messy history between him and Wen Ci… there was no telling whether the man would take out his resentment on the current Su Yunjing.

After changing into the clean bathrobe, Su Yunjing dared not stay any longer and quickly left the room.

Stumbling out of the hotel, his appearance was so conspicuous that passersby couldn’t help but stare.

The night wind sobered him up a little, but his body alternated between burning hot and icy cold. His face was pale, lips trembling.

He tried to borrow a phone to call someone the original owner knew, but as soon as he stopped a passerby, they hurried away, probably thinking he was some kind of exhibitionist who would unbutton his coat.

As he crouched trembling by the roadside, trying to figure out what to do, a black business van pulled up beside him.

His first thought was that it was the same pervert from the hotel… or maybe Xu Huai again.

But when the door opened, he froze.The face inside was both familiar and strange. In shock, Su Yunjing blurted out, “Jiang Chunan?”

The once-handsome young man had shed his shyness and naivety, now dressed in a suit and tie, his features sharp and piercing.

Jiang Chunan frowned at Su Yunjing’s disheveled state, his gaze assessing and sharp.

“Get in.”

Though confused, Su Yunjing still trusted him—it was a familiar face, after all, someone he’d once known well. He steadied himself and climbed in, ignoring the dizziness.

As soon as he sat down, Jiang Chunan ordered the driver to go.

The car was comfortably warm, the seats soft, Su Yunjing found a comfortable position to lean back, his face as pale as paper.

He wanted to ask about Jiang Chunan’s life, but then remembered Wen Ci was dead—and he himself was no longer Wen Ci.

From the look Jiang Chunan gave him, the two weren’t close in this world. He probably rescued him only because of that familiar face.

The more he thought about it, the worse he felt. Shivering, he asked weakly, “Can you take me to a hospital?”

Jiang Chunan’s eyes flicked to the burn mark on Su Yunjing’s neck. Combined with the hotel bathrobe and his disheveled appearance, it was obvious to anyone that he had been through something.

“If you don’t mind making headlines for all the wrong reasons, I won’t stop you from going.”

Although Jiang Chunan’s words weren’t meant to mock—he was merely stating a fact—the cold, detached tone still made Su Yunjing glance at him.

What on earth had he been through all these years, to change so completely?

And… there was something else.

Under the tailored suit trousers, Jiang Chunan actually had legs. It didn’t look empty anymore, not like before.

Su Yunjing, having spent quite some time in this world, hadn’t seen anything truly supernatural or mystical—besides himself, a walking ‘bug’. So after the first jolt of surprise, he quickly reasoned it out that Jiang Chunan must have prosthetic limbs.

It seemed Jiang Chunan was doing well.

More than well, in fact—he was thriving.

He was also busy.

Jiang Chunan didn’t pay much attention to Su Yunjing. He sat there with his tablet, calmly handling work, taking several calls in between.

Taking advantage of the moment, Su Yunjing quietly began absorbing the memories of this body.

Whether by coincidence or by the system’s deliberate design, the body’s original owner was also named Su Yunjing—an unknown struggling idol trainee.

He’d been scouted by a talent agent while shopping and later joined a low-budget survival show.

Unfortunately, the show’s ratings had tanked, bringing him neither fans nor money.

Still, thanks to his strikingly handsome looks, the original Su Yunjing managed to sign with a small entertainment company afterward.

Last year’s wildly popular boy-group survival show was preparing to film a new season, and the original Su Yunjing wanted to join in, but the company already had plenty of good-looking trainees like him.

Aside from his face, the original Su Yunjing’s singing and dancing skills were mediocre, and even if he got in, he’d be just cannon fodder.

Then, out of nowhere, fate dropped a ‘pie from the sky’. A producer from the show took a liking to him and promised that if he spent one night with him, he’d make sure Su Yunjing got extra screen time.

The original wasn’t gay, but for the sake of his career, he gritted his teeth and agreed.

Who would’ve thought that producer would be so wild, even drugging him for ‘fun’.

Su Yunjing: “…”

He really hadn’t expected that—it turned out to be consensual after all. He’d thought the original owner was drugged against his will.

Meanwhile, little tsundere still followed the novel’s original plotline, entering the entertainment industry and becoming a blazing-hot top star.

What did surprise Su Yunjing, though, was that Fu Hanzhou’s manager turned out to be Jiang Chunan.

That pairing was something he’d never imagined. Back then, little tsundere used to get jealous of Jiang Chunan all the time—so when had the two gotten this close?

Fu Hanzhou was now one of the biggest names in the industry, while Jiang Chunan had become a top-tier agent—but he only managed Fu Hanzhou.

Because of his physical limitations, Jiang Chunan had a whole team of assistant managers under him. From business negotiations to film offers, to Fu Hanzhou’s personal matters, Jiang Chunan might not handle everything in person—but every decision still went through him. The media praised him as Fu Hanzhou’s most trusted confidant.

The original Su Yunjing had desperately wanted fame and had developed a subtle jealousy toward Fu Hanzhou. And to that all the endless gossip swirling around the entertainment world, he’d naturally picked up plenty of rumors.

Nowadays, with male-male trending CPs, the once ‘scandal-free’ Fu Hanzhou was being shipped with his own manager.

Su Yunjing sneaked a glance at Jiang Chunan, who was focused on his tablet, and couldn’t help sighing at how much things had changed.

To him, it had been less than an hour since he’d left this world—but inside the novel, ten whole years had passed.

Fu Hanzhou was already gone. And the new Su Yunjing—this reborn version—was only twenty.

Sigh. He’d never get to hear little tsundere calling him “gege” again.

A wave of inexplicable melancholy washed over Su Yunjing