When Jia Hyson comes to he's sitting on a soft couch in a foreign place overlooking the sea. A young beautiful dark-skinned lady was kneeling beside him feeding him grapes while the smell of roast meat and something like curry wafts through the air, making his mouth water subconsciously.
Accessing his memory he realizes he is Farrell Abioye of the Abioye royal family.
The fourth prince of Samotrelis.
'Now this is what I'm talking about!' Jia Hyson exclaims inside his head, 'finally, I knew there is mercy in the coding! Send me the story,'
The story is called High-class Heartache. It's a dog blooded story about childhood sweethearts and cut-throat corporate business.
Song Chuntao, the protagonist and the male lead, Zheng Jinhai, knew each other since they were two years old thanks to their parents being close friends. They fell in love in middle school. However, the Zheng family was nurturing a white-eyed wolf that was an adopted young girl, Zheng Ting, who wanted to marry Zheng Jinhai and solidify her place in the rich family.
Why did the Zheng family adopt a little orphan girl despite having two handsome to death sons? Who the fuck knows.
Anyway, because the Songs were very nice and welcoming, and Song Chuntao treated her like a sister, Zheng Ting was given a lot of access to places in the Song household and took photos of important documents to give to the greedy uncle Zheng Yanda. Zheng Yanda is a close confidant to the male lead's father, Zheng Guo who is of course in charge of the company. With his brother's guidance, Zheng Guo obliviously gives the green-light to snatch up these golden projects from the Song family's hands earning their hatred and resentment. The Song family lashed out but the Zheng family felt wronged by this and also fought back, causing the smaller Song family to be pressured and move overseas.
Song Chuntao was influenced by this, seeing first hand how her family was suffering because of the Zheng's and coldly broke it off with a pleading Zheng Jinhai. Even though she still held soft feelings for him, she could not stand what his family has done. To further incite the flames, Zheng Ting implied how it was Zheng Jinhai that had used her affections to steal the documents, showing Song Chuntao the photos that she stole and transferred onto his phone. This caused Song Chuntao to vow revenge on the Zheng family, Zheng Jinhai especially.
Fifteen years later Song Chuntao came back a successful rising businesswoman of the Rising Star company, eager to make Zheng Jinhai pay. However, what she didn't expect was- Zheng Jinhai had amnesia!
Yes, that's right, the typical amnesia card has been played! In the future it is explained that Zheng Jinhai has grown suspicious, especially at Song Chuntao's parting words filled with disdain and hatred, so he investigated like a smart person and then confronted Zheng Ting with no witnesses around like an absolute fucking dumbass.
Because she was his sister he gave the typical, 'You have three days to confess before I do it for you,' before the girl promptly panicked at the declaration and pushed him in front of an oncoming car.
Miraculously his body was okay save for the broken leg, fractured shoulder and amnesia. Zheng Ting and the greedy uncle Zheng Yanda take this opportunity to cover up their misdeeds and life went on until Song Chuntao came back.
Obviously Song Chuntao was pissed. She went through so much pain crawling her way to the top and her archenemy didn't know she existed. That just wouldn't do!
They're first meeting after a long separation was... less than great. Zheng Jinhai held a bad impression of this 'crazy madwoman' and Song Chuntao was filled with suppressed rage at his attitude.
Zheng Ting who who is currently Zheng Jinhai's fiancée and has a lot of power and influence right now obviously gets threatened by her and does a lot of shitty things including drugging her and putting her in a well known lecher's hotel room. Song Chuntao believes some of it to be Zheng Jinhai's doing who she now sees as complete scum and does her best to dodge these traps and counterattack subtly.
Jia Hyson sighs as he continues skimming. It's pretty decent to be honest but this sort of story wasn't really his thing so he was a little bored. He prefers lighthearted comedy to this sort of long winded drama. Anyway Song Chuntao then decided to play honeypot, disguising herself and applying to be Zheng Jinhai's secretary. You know, like normal people would.
Zheng Jinhai was very impressed by her persona's good work and intrigued by her cold attitude. Stuff happens, he falls in love first and she softens her attitude, provoked by his doting which reminds her of the good old days. However Song Chuntao was still conflicted, this was the guy who almost ruined her family! But, but, he lost his memory! He can't be held responsible can he? Ah, so much confusion and internal conflict... so boring...
Jia Hyson yawns a little and gestures for the pretty servant girl to put a grape into his mouth, thanking her sweetly and making her smile adoringly. 'Bebe... the writing is decent, the plot seems a little overdone but it's not terrible- what's the rating?'
If Bebe could it would roll it's eyes before replying, '2.8 stars.'
Jia Hyson blinks, 'What, how can that be?' Even though he doesn't like it, objectively he would give it at least over 3.5 stars. Most romance stories like this are quite popular and even the bad ones can get up to 4 stars.
Curious, he forces himself to continue reading. At first he was seriously confused. The cannon fodder were varied between typical dumb reckless types that were fun to face slap quickly and conniving greedy types that took a bit longer to deal with but eventually were satisfactorily face-slapped. Of course the main villain was still alive and well but who would kill off their most important antagonist in the beginning of the story? Jia Hyson was assuming Zheng Ting's true face will be revealed in the middle, face-slapped a few chapters later after something elaborate like kidnapping, then does a comeback after forming an alliance with a family rival for the final big bang.
Which does happen. Eventually. Jia Hyson knows his cliches. However after finishing the story his face was black. Because he knew now why the rating was so low.
The male love interest… gets amnesia too many times!
The author must have gotten excited by the initial good reception from the first plot twist of amnesia because afterwards the poor male lead seems to constantly suffer from it at certain intervals of the story. The first car crash due to Zheng Ting was understandable. Then, it was a bit frustrating but still, Jia Hyson can stomach that right after the pairing had their first night together Zheng Jinhai has to leave early due to work reasons and then, because coincidentally Zheng Ting somehow found out like damn that girl should have gone into intelligence like what, she arranged for someone to push him into the street again. Zheng Jinhai narrowly escapes but then he slips on a puddle and hits the back of his head on a wall and forgets the night before making Song Chuntao angry and confused at his change in attitude.
However, the third time amnesia strikes.. Zheng Jinhai protects Song Chuntao from hired thugs or something, very cooly defeating them all but at the last minute uses his body as a shield for Song Chuntao and gets hit by a crowbar. He completely loses his memories, forgetting who he is completely and becoming dependent on Song Chuntao like an imprinted bird.
Zheng Jinhai was punched by the second male lead in a confrontational fight scene after the second male lead found out what happened to Song Chuntao and fell down a flight of stair. He lost his memories and regressed to the mindset of a teenager.
Zheng Jinhai after being held gun point by Zheng Ting who was threatening him with Song Chuntao's safety in exchange for marriage jumps off a cliff, into the sea and once again completely loses his memories and is temporarily adopted by fishermen.
Zheng Jinhai realises he's 'not good' for Song Chuntao, thinks she can do much better than him and his messed up family (Zheng Ting who at that point hooks up with an underground boss somehow) and breaks up with her, he goes to a hypnotherapist to seal off his memories of his love for her, completely forgetting her existence.
Zheng Jinhai is sabotaged by a different second male lead a month before the wedding making him forget…
Zheng Jinhai after being hit by a baseball on their picnic date…
After passing out from overheating in the hot springs Zheng Jinhai…
Jia Hyson: '…' What the fuck is this?
'Bebe is the male lead's skull made from eggshell?' Jia Hyson was a little concerned for this world's male lead. Ignoring the fairly bad luck unfitting a male lead, wouldn't so much head trauma cause brain damage? Even from overheating in a hot spring...
'That... shouldn't be.' Bebe also sounded uncertain. It had also never come across a domineering CEO male lead that was so 'delicate'. 'Do you want to read the reviews?'
This time Jia Hyson shakes his head, 'No, I, heh, I think I know what the problem is,' Even though it was quite a unique problem indeed, the systems did not lie in saying this world was on easy mode. Other than the problem of recurring amnesia the rest of the story was fine. That is to say, as long as Jia Hyson establishes himself as a character that can occasionally pop in to save the male lead's head every few months he can happily go about his rich life as a wealthy prodigal prince of.. Samotrelis?
He looks down at his body and frowns. Currently he looks quite young, twelve or thirteen maximum however that wasn't the problem. The problem was his skin was a light milk coffee brown and he was wearing some rather exotic foreign clothing that was a mix of African, Balinese or Malaysian. He couldn't recognize it. Nor could he recall such a place called Samotrelis every existing. Which meant he won't necessarily be able to adapt.
With a calm outside that didn't match his anxious insides, Jia Hyson sat up from his lazy half laying on the couch, gently dismissed the servant girl from the room and walked toward the nearest full length mirror his unabsorbed memories could provide.
For a young teenager he was quite tall. His skin was dark but not very dark, and soft with only some faint callouses on his hands which shows that he's living quite well inside what looks to be a palace. His face... his face was so hot! Even though he was young he could be considered a top tier hottie. Unlike Bai Li Wei who was a streak of untouchable moonlight, pure with a hint of sultry coquettishness, this body was the complete opposite, sexy and wild yet restrained in a noble arrogant temperament.
His hair was tied up in a pony tail, black waves of thick locks falling down to the middle of his back like a waterfall constantly in motion. His phoenix eyes still kept a slight slant like they always did but it made his defined facial features constantly exude an uncontrollable lazy seductiveness, with a cat like golden coloring shining through his eyes making him look like some sort of young panther prince god in human form. This was further emphasized by his slim but not thin frame that held the beginnings of muscle definition.
If this was a yaoi manga about Arabian princes, he would be the younger brother of the main gong crown prince. Maybe when he grows up he may actually develop into the appearance of a gong crown prince! How exciting!
Except... in the context of this story of corporate Romeo and Juliet...
Jia Hyson: '...'
Bebe: '...'
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe...'
Bebe: 'Um.'
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe where am I?'
Bebe: '...'
Jia Hyson: 'Am I one of the background students in their childhood? A rich foreign exchange student?'
Bebe: 'No.'
Jia Hyson: 'Am I one of the teachers? A prince who decides to try live the commoner life and goes to China to fulfill his dream to be a teacher and ends up in their school?'
Bebe: 'No.'
Jia Hyson: 'Am I one of the business corporate executives when the male lead starts up his own business? A foreign friend? Or an overseas contact? This country probably has a lot of, uh, resources, so, like, I could have-'
Bebe: 'No.'
Jia Hyson: '...so I'm just a random foreign prince completely unrelated to the story?'
Bebe: '...You're mentioned to have attended a high society event in the context of emphasizing how upper class and exclusive it is.'
Bebe brings out the a paragraph, 'Even the beloved fourth prince of Samotrelis, a small exotic island filled with gold, oil and various bountiful goods, was present. It was known as Luxury Island and not even the world leaders much less the Zhengs could dare think of offending them. Rumors had it the eldest Zheng son had just established a trade contract with them earning much envy and awe from the other families.'
Jia Hyson wants to cry. In the first world he was a character only present in the first few chapters. In the second world he had roughly around seven or eight lines about him. Now, he only had three sentences! Only one was actually about him! Will he really be an original character unrelated to the story next time??
He takes it back! The Systems have no mercy! Fuck the system!
The fucked system Bebe: '...'
After bitching and moaning for a bit longer, Jia Hyson decides to stop being dramatic and act a bit more professional. He hasn't gotten full access to his memories yet but he wants to hear the objective information before he takes the time to absorb the original's life story. "Is there any more information about the country the story provides?"
Bebe makes an awkward coughing noise and Jia Hyson's stomach drops, "It's used to describe a change in economic stability for luxury goods in order to faceslap one of Zheng Tian's plans... Samotrelis experiences an uprising due to the dissatisfaction of the common people toward the royalty in around ten years or so, the incompetent king is beheaded, the greedy queen sent to work in brothel, the brothers are sent to work in the mines and the fourth prince..."
"Oh god," Jia Hyson groans, burying his face into his hands in dismay, despite having such an unimportant character with such great environmental conditions in the story he certainly has one big fucking pit for himself. As expected of a dog blood drama even this incredibly insignificant character will not be left out ah. He may have wished to be living at the peak of life but in retrospect doesn't that tell him that his future could only get worse from then on?
"The fourth prince..." Bebe sounds incredibly awkward, "Since the rebel leader was the fourth prince's bodyguard he personally witnessed the debauchery, corruption and chaos the spoiled prince had made firsthand, and felt special hatred toward him. Therefore he was raped by slaves for ten day, chopped up his limbs to feed to the fishes before feeding the still alive prince to octopi."
Jia Hyson: '...' What exactly did this original body do?
That's a really fucking cruel death okay? Even without that zoology degree Jia Hyson likes marine creatures so he understands that in this situation bringing out a shark would've been far more merciful than an octopus. Octopus are curious creatures that like to play and explore, their suckers make it hard to resist, they're rather strong depending on species and, plus they have beaks. It's a slow, tortuous and frankly deeply uncomfortable death.
Honestly if he had the resources he would have definitely killed someone in that manner in the last world.
However he quickly adjusted his mood. The reason why the revolt happened was because the original character was probably a typical rich tyrant who indulged in pleasure no matter who has to pay the price. All Jia Hyson has to do is not r*pe, kill people for stupid reasons and steal from the poor which, like, isn't that hard. He doesn't understand how other people make it sound like such a fucking trial to be a decent human being but whatever.
His family... he'll do his best but if they end up being pigheaded teammates Jia Hyson feels no guilt in letting them burn.
After all, a violent downfall of a monarchy is usually a result of some truly heinous crimes from royalty or at the very least a high death rate caused by the corruption of nobility. Of course there are occasions where one could argue that this or that uprising was also due to the greed and ambition of a few prominent rebel leaders as well as some unlucky external factors like great periods of drought and some poor planning with good intentions from the upper half of society but who really knows. The point is these things have occurred all throughout history both fictional and non-fictional and generally in romantic fiction, the rebels almost always win. Especially if the rebels had a decent reason and the leader was as hot as their burning desire for justice.
Jia Hyson: 'Mmnn... maybe if I'm lucky I could play out Humiliated Prince and Pining Rebel Leader?'
Bebe: '...' Don't say anything. Just. Ignore him. Maybe he'll go away.
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe.'
Bebe: '...'
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe.'
Bebe: '...'
Jia Hyson: 'Bebe.'
Bebe: '...what?'
Jia Hyson: 'I'm so horny.'
Bebe: (ノಠ益ಠ)ノ彡┻━┻