Is the Male Lead the One Being Punished?

Punishment? Hearing the system's words, Su Chen was instantly confused. He didn't understand what was happening. It seemed like he had done nothing, and now suddenly, such a severe situation had arisen. What exactly was intended? Previously, the system had not been like this; he had done many excessive things without any punishment. 

But now there was suddenly a punishment, and it appeared to be quite severe, giving Su Chen a bad feeling. He thought he hadn't done anything too excessive! Well, indeed, it was quite excessive.

Originally, the male lead, Fang Yufan, was supposed to have some kind of development with the female lead. At the very least, there should have been mutual trust. But in the end, the situation had deviated completely from the script. 

But all of this wasn't his doing; Su Chen's back went cold. Could it be because of his recent frivolous behavior towards Bai Bing'er? Su Chen carefully thought through all the possibilities. The more he thought, the more things seemed off. 

From the beginning to end, his behavior had nothing to do with a villain; it was entirely like a male lead, which would naturally invite punishment from the system. It was just that there had been a problem with the system before.

But now that the system had issued a new script, it was clear that it would take this story's development seriously. Hence the notification that the plot had been disrupted. Su Chen regretted it. And at the same time, he remembered the fear of being dominated by the system in his previous 33 lives. The punishment would definitely not be light. What should he do now?

"I didn't do it on purpose, who would remember how to perform the true villain script after such a serious collapse occurred before!" 

Su Chen lamented for a long time, sighing in resignation. "Whatever, I've been punished before. If it's not a blessing, it's a disaster that can't be avoided. Let's see what it's all about," he said, and quickly checked what the system had to say.

[Due to the serious collapse of the previous script, the system is observing everyone with a very strict standard, and all characters in the script are under observation.]

[And just now, Fang Yufan, who is the male lead, voluntarily gave up approaching the female lead, thereby severely disrupting the plot.]

[The system has decided: to give Fang Yufan a severe punishment, a strike of five thunders.]

What? After seeing the system's prompt, Su Chen was completely baffled, not clear about what was going on. The system had punished, yet it seemed like it hadn't. It had actually punished Fang Yufan, who is the male lead, which was a situation Su Chen could never have imagined.

"Wait, what's going on now? Not only will I be punished by the system for disrupting the plot, but now every person in the script will suffer severe punishment?"

Su Chen muttered to himself, suddenly bursting into cheerful laughter. This was the very thing he had questioned the system about when he was first punished for disrupting the plot. It wasn't just him disrupting the plot, so why shouldn't the male lead be affected?

Never did he think that after such a long time, his wish from those days would actually come true. Thinking of the moment Fang Yufan would be struck by lightning, Su Chen couldn't help but burst into laughter.

"Ha ha ha! This is too funny. There's even a lightning punishment; it seems that today Fang Yufan can't avoid being fiercely struck by lightning."

As Su Chen laughed, he suddenly felt something was not right. Even if they were going to punish those who disrupt the script, it should be Qin Luoyi who was punished. From beginning to end, it was Qin Luoyi who was breaking the rules. In the end, it was Fang Yufan, the male lead, who was punished, which was totally unexpected.

But why would Fang Yufan be punished? What was the reason that the system targeted him?

Su Chen couldn't figure it out for a moment and carefully recalled Fang Yufan's actions. He didn't find anything strange. Because after being humiliated by Bai Bing'er, he didn't want to continue being a lapdog for her.

Su Chen looked again carefully at everything the system had said so far.

Su Chen immediately understood.

"Ha ha ha, this is purely self-inflicted." Su Chen did want to see what this Five Thunderbolts punishment was all about. But what annoyed him was that the one being punished turned out to be Fang Yufan. If it had been Qin Yu, it would have been a celebration for Su Chen. "Wait a minute... doesn't this set a precedent?"

Su Chen thought that since the system was going to punish Fang Yufan, one of the male leads, then the original male lead, Qin Yu, would definitely be punished if he disrupted the plot as well. Not having Qin Yu punished took away half of Su Chen's good mood, and he even wished he could start on Qin Yu's storyline right away.

As for what would happen to Fang Yufan after being struck by the Five Thunderbolts, and how dire his fate would be, Su Chen had no idea. After all, there are now two male leads, and if Fang Yufan died, it wouldn't affect him. On the contrary, he was actually looking forward to Fang Yufan's misfortune.

Just having emerged with the fortune of a male lead, Fang Yufan had encountered such a situation, which was incredibly unlucky. The consequences were likely to be severe. And Su Chen found this all too amusing; after being tied to the system for so long, this was indeed the first time he had encountered such a scenario.

"The more important point is, Fang Yufan has no idea that a catastrophe is about to befall him. He's probably still in the dark."

Could it be that the system would not punish Qin Luoyi? Su Chen now understood that it had nothing to do with Qin Luoyi. In fact, Qin Luoyi was just a bait. The real person who caused the plot to collapse and tortured the male lead, Fang Yufan, was actually Bai Bing'er.

Su Chen looked at Bai Bing'er, who was still in a daze, and couldn't help but sigh. "Indeed, no matter what the female lead is, the intensity of disrupting the plot does not diminish." Su Chen praised, "I thought the Yang sisters were ruthless. What Qin Yu suffered, what the original female leads went through, was just a collapse of character. But look at Bai Bing'er now, she has inadvertently brought disaster upon Fang Yufan, the male lead."

"Good heavens, I was almost fooled myself. I didn't expect you, Bai Bing'er, to have such potential. You've just appeared on the scene and immediately brought such a terrifying offensive."

Since Bai Bing'er had such talent, why not quickly bring her into Qin Yu's storyline? Just as Su Chen was thinking about this, Bai Bing'er suddenly sat up. The first thing she did upon waking was to look at Su Chen. And then her gaze never left.

Su Chen was actually a little scared by her stare. Thinking that Fang Yufan had offended her and was about to be struck by lightning, Su Chen was afraid too!

"Miss Bai Bing'er, are you okay? I've just removed all the poison from you." Oops. After saying this, Su Chen immediately felt something was wrong. While focusing on completing the task, he had made it look like Bai Bing'er had been humiliated.

How would this woman react? Never mind, as long as I'm careful from now on, I shouldn't end up like Fang Yufan.

Su Chen decided to face Bai Bing'er's wrath.

But what followed was only Bai Bing'er slowly straightening out her clothes, not saying much else. What's going on, no reaction at all? Su Chen continued, "Miss Bai Bing'er, I have healed your body."

"I know." In fact, Bai Bing'er had never really been unconscious. The reason she pretended to be unconscious was to see what the relationship between Su Chen and Qin Luoyi was, and whether Qin Luoyi really wanted to harm her.

But obviously, she didn't. Bai Bing'er was pleased when she found out the news, at least it proved that Qin Luoyi cared about her and she hadn't befriended the wrong person. But Bai Bing'er couldn't understand the relationship between Qin Luoyi and Su Chen.

Does Qin Luoyi like Su Chen? Why? What ability does Su Chen have to make Qin Luoyi treat him like this? Even though Bai Bing'er didn't want to admit it, she had to say that Qin Luoyi, in front of Su Chen, was like a licking dog.

Bai Bing'er found it too horrible to think about. Too many people pursued Qin Luoyi, but this best friend never gave anyone a good face. For a while, Bai Bing'er even thought that she hated men as much as she did.

But unexpectedly, the reason Qin Luoyi has always been rejecting other suitors turned out to be because she wanted to be a 'loyal follower.'

No, this term can't be used for Qin Luoyi. Bai Bing'er felt like her worldview was being challenged.

Qin Luoyi certainly isn't that kind of person; there must be things that Bai Bing'er doesn't know about. On others, this behavior might be considered groveling, but for Qin Luoyi, it should be called affection.

Originally, Su Chen was going to speak ill of Qin Luoyi. But thinking about Fang Yufan, who was punished for disrupting the storyline, he immediately became nervous. Better think twice about it.

If it is serious enough to disrupt the storyline and receive severe punishment, then it could be troublesome. Su Chen felt the need to restrain his recent behavior.

He had been too wanton. This is bad.

But fortunately, Fang Yufan had taken the hit for him. But Su Chen still had a thought: how exactly is Fang Yufan supposed to accept the so-called Five Thunderbolts? They are on a train now! It's not like they are going to split the train in half, right?

After a while, the train arrived at a new city. But there was still a long way to go before reaching the capital, yet the train stopped anyway. There was a short break in between.

Suddenly, a heavy rain began to fall, growing heavier and heavier. A storm with fierce winds and thunder... Terrifying natural disasters followed one after another.

Su Chen was confused. What's going on? Such a sudden storm, it's not about to strike now, is it? However, that was not the case.

Just when Su Chen didn't know what to do, an announcement came over the loudspeaker. There had been a collapse up ahead.

The train couldn't move for a while, and the passengers were urged to get off the train and take shelter from the impending storm.

This... indeed, when the system wants to do something, there's nothing it can't do. Bai Bing'er opened the door of the compartment. Qin Luoyi excitedly said, "Bing'er, are you okay?"

"Of course, I'm completely fine."

"That's good, let's quickly get off the train, the big storm is coming, and the weather is going to change drastically."

"Okay!" Bai Bing'er agreed, then left hand in hand with Qin Luoyi.

This scene caught Su Chen off guard. "What's going on, didn't Qin Luoyi knock her out? Why does Bai Bing'er have no reaction at all, and still act like a good sister?"

Su Chen couldn't understand. But before he could recover, he encountered Fang Yufan. Fang Yufan, true to the male lead's luck, seemed unscathed despite being heavily attacked by Bai Bing'er twice. Su Chen looked at him with new respect.

Enduring the pain and with a murderous look in his eyes, Fang Yufan taunted Su Chen, "I didn't expect the esteemed young master of the Su family to also travel by train. If people in the capital knew about this, they'd be shocked."

Su Chen ignored him, what's there to talk about with the protagonist. He's the antagonist. There's nothing to say. And right now, there's no task at hand, not in the midst of performing a storyline. 

The thought processes of the male leads are always different from ordinary people, and although there is no conflict between him and Fang Yufan, influenced by Qin Yu, Su Chen didn't have a very good impression of these male leads.

And his disregard for the male lead made Fang Yufan even more furious. Indeed, Fang Yufan's face turned pale as soon as he saw that Su Chen wasn't paying him any attention.

Furious, he said: "Su Chen, now that you're alone here, you dare to be so arrogant?"

The threatening tone in his voice was evident, and his heart cursed Su Chen non-stop. Damned thing. After getting off the train, Fang Yufan was determined to teach Su Chen a lesson. Fang Yufan had investigated and found that Su Chen had come alone, without even a single guard by his side.

This was an opportunity. If Su Chen returned to the capital, it would be troublesome to take action. He would not make the same mistake as Qin Yu. Since Su Chen was the biggest obstacle on his path to dominance, Fang Yufan would not miss any opportunity to kill him.

It was fortunate that they were staying tonight; he would take the chance to kill Su Chen. He had intended to kill Su Chen without making a sound.

Upon seeing Su Chen, Fang Yufan could not contain the rage in his heart. Su Chen, observing such an arrogant Fang Yufan, was inwardly curious about how this great male lead would be struck by lightning. "Fang Yufan, you should worry about yourself," Su Chen warned. However, if they were in the capital, Fang Yufan might have been frightened by Su Chen's words. 

But here, with no one around, Fang Yufan believed Su Chen was simply afraid and trying to intimidate him with such tactics. This only made Fang Yufan more determined to kill Su Chen that very night. With Su Chen gone, things would become simpler. Fang Yufan didn't consider the now lacking-in-confidence Qin Yu a threat at all. 

From the moment Fang Yufan descended the mountain, his goal had always been Su Chen. But he never expected the heavens to be so kind as to deliver Su Chen right to him. Thinking this, Fang Yufan's lips curled up in a victorious smile. Yet all these to Su Chen seemed so ridiculous. 

He intended to provoke, "Fang Yufan, you just stay here and fume, I'm going to have a more in-depth exchange with Bai Bing'er." Fang Yufan clenched his teeth, clearly enraged by Su Chen's words. "Damned fool, I won't fight with you for Bai Bing'er, but do you think her cold and frosty physique is so easy to conquer? I just want you to watch the beauty in front of you, yet be utterly helpless." 

Indeed, it was because of Fang Yufan's withdrawal that he was subjected to such punishment. Su Chen thought he must take this as a warning to never follow in those footsteps.