After Awakening, The Vicious Male Supporting Character Refuses the 'Bad Ending' Script - Chapter 1

A contract scattered into the air. Pei Weixue stood frozen, his face a mask of bewilderment and sorrow. He let the papers slide past his head and flutter across his cheeks like feathers, landing softly at his feet. He took a trembling step forward but was barked to a halt. Swallowing his agony, he tore his gaze away from the man standing at the corner of the stairs watching the scene, and turned around.

“Pei Weixue. Do you have to go against me? I don’t love you! Did you hear me?”

“Then why did you marry me in the first place!”

Confronted with the question, Su Yin dithered for a moment. Looking at the man before him whose eyes were filled with desolation, a thought flickered in his mind—he wanted to embrace him and comfort him. But it was only a flash. “Do you think I wanted to?!” In truth, he didn’t know why either; it was just as if he were supposed to act this way.

Despite having heard this death sentence repeated countless times, Pei Weixue found he still couldn’t escape the heartache. His eyes welled with crystalline tears. Sniffing, he wiped them away with both hands and turned his head. His upturned nose was noticeably damp and slightly swollen. He walked quickly back to the bedroom in silence, ignoring the shouting behind him.

The moment the door closed, he slid down against the frame and sat on the floor. Nearly six years of time hadn’t been enough to erase the sweetness of the past. At first, Su Yin had simply ignored him, but later it escalated; he began openly chasing after another man and constantly clamoring for a divorce.

Pei Weixue had nothing left to hold onto Su Yin with except that marriage certificate. In truth, he didn’t know what he had done wrong. His mind was filled with the fragments of how Su Yin used to hover around him back in university.

Su Yin used to be a legendary figure in the academy—good-looking, exceptionally talented, and a top-tier student who had won first prize in national fashion design competitions several times.

Pei Weixue, on the other hand, was a science student so ordinary he was practically invisible. He studied Software Engineering, and usually, no one paid him much attention as he carried his textbooks around.

Once, while participating in a web design competition, Pei Weixue was buried in work at the library. He was struggling with the color coordination and checking color codes on his phone when a voice came from behind him: “The colors and layout could be refined a bit. Don’t you think this text box design feels out of place with the rest of the page?”

Pei Weixue looked up to meet a face that was bold and unrestrained. The reflection in his pupils smiled at him. He heard his own voice ask, “Out of place?”

The young man sat down beside him with a long stride, bringing with him a faint, refreshing scent of soap. “Look, the dominant color of your entire page is deep blue, but the text is tan. Don’t you think it’s strange?” He reached out, took the mouse, and dialed a beautiful light shade on the palette. “What do you think?”

“It’s pretty…” Pei Weixue hesitated for a few seconds before saying, “I’m a bit colorblind.” To his surprise, after saying this, the young man slapped his shoulder and said with great camaraderie: “Then I’ll be your color palette from now on! What’s your name? I’m Su Yin. ‘Su’ as in grass, ‘Yin’ as in gou yin (to attract/seduce).” His bright white teeth flashed a smile so dazzling that Pei Weixue couldn’t help but smile back. “Pei Weixue. ‘Pei’ as in non-clothing, ‘Wei’ as in the future, ‘Xue’ as in falling snow.”

Su Yin thought that was their first meeting, but it wasn’t. They had crossed paths many, many times, but each time Pei Weixue had only watched from a distance. He would often hear roommates or classmates discussing how Su Yin from Class 3 of the 2015 Fashion Design department had rejected someone’s confession, what awards he had won, or what show he had organized to perfection.

After that encounter, he often saw Su Yin in the library, holding a picture book and a drawing board, sitting quietly in a corner. Pei Weixue would choose a nearby table. Su Yin would often bring him kiwis and carrots to eat—he knew these were daily supplements to help with his colorblindness.

His colorblindness wasn’t congenital. After a family tragedy in high school, he suffered from a mental illness. During episodes, he would become restless and agitated. His auxiliary medications were Chlorpromazine and Thioridazine. During his senior year, under the immense pressure of the college entrance exams, his mental state was extremely unstable, so he went against medical advice and took extra doses. It was this that caused damage to the cone cells in his retina.

However, since his illness required continued medication, he didn’t opt for surgery.

Su Yin never said much unnecessary fluff, but he always took practical action, and Pei Weixue saw it all.

Once, after a teacher assigned a project requiring every student to present their results and design philosophy, Pei Weixue went on stage with his USB drive. The moment the webpage layout appeared, it caused a burst of laughter. The colors were a mess, devoid of any aesthetic sense. He knew his classmates were just amused and meant no harm, but in reality, he didn’t even know what the color scheme looked like. He forced himself to finish the PPT.

The teacher gave him a “Good” rating because the layout design was actually quite solid.

It was a large joint class with students from several departments. After he sat down, a few troublemakers from the adjacent class made fun of him. His colorblindness wasn’t exactly a secret; everyone who shared classes knew, and it was inevitable that some pranksters from other classes would mock it.

“If you’re colorblind, just make everything one color. Why insist on using others?”

In fact, Pei Weixue used color codes to select his colors every time, but the results were always poor. Having been colorblind for so long, he had lost basic judgment regarding color; he could only know the names of colors from books or descriptions and then try to recall if they matched.

As soon as he stepped out of the teaching building, he heard that remark. He felt a sting of anger—even someone who is colorblind should have the right to use color, shouldn’t they? But those people weren’t wrong; since he couldn’t tell them apart, it might have been better to just use one color.

“Hey.”

Just then, a familiar voice rang out.

He looked over to see Su Yin rubbing his eyes as he walked out of the back door. He stood before the two classmates with his hands in his pockets, his chin slightly tilted. “Apologize.” In his life, Su Yin despised people who mocked others for being ill; no matter what the illness was, it was never a reason for ridicule.

The two turned around and looked up. “Su Yin, what are you doing in our class?” Fashion Design and Computer Science were two different departments, and they didn’t share joint classes.

“I said, apologize to Pei Weixue.” Su Yin reached out, grabbed their hands, and twisted them around. “There,” he nodded toward Pei Weixue. “Apologize to him.”

The two felt embarrassed that the subject of their mockery had heard them. Coupled with Su Yin’s presence drawing many eyes to the scene, they had no choice but to apologize to Pei Weixue before hurrying away.

Pei Weixue smiled and nodded at Su Yin. “Thank you.”

Su Yin walked to his side and hooked an arm around his neck. “If you want to thank me, why not do something practical?”

“I can buy you dinner.”

“No, no, no, not that.” Su Yin pulled out a bottle of fresh-squeezed carrot juice from somewhere. “Drink this today.”

Pei Weixue’s expression immediately soured. He truly disliked carrots, but he also knew why Su Yin insisted on making him drink the juice. Taking it, he asked, “Why did you come to class here today?”

“Oh, I don’t have classes today.” They walked downstairs together. Seeing him drinking, Su Yin withdrew his hand and put it in his pocket. “I came specifically to find you.”

“Find me?” Pei Weixue was surprised.

Su Yin nodded. “My uncle grew a ton of corn, more than we could ever eat. He gave us a lot, so my mom made a ‘Corn Feast’ today. She wants to make me eat until I puke. Help me out, okay?” He pressed his hands together, his eyes full of pleading.

Looking at the empty plastic bottle, Pei Weixue nodded gently. “Okay.”

Su Yin’s mother had a very lively personality. At least, she was the liveliest elder Pei Weixue had ever met. The moment he entered the house, she took his backpack and ushered him to the dining table. She proudly introduced the dishes of the “Corn Feast”: sweet corn kernels, corn and pork rib soup, corn pancakes, corn stir-fried with shrimp, creamy corn chowder, butter-roasted corn, steamed corn cakes, and so on.

The table was overflowing; it really looked like more than two people could finish.

“Auntie will call you Xiao Pei, alright?” Su Qingyue hospitably moved all the dishes toward Pei Weixue. He was overwhelmed by the favor. “Alright, Auntie.”

Su Yin sat beside Pei Weixue, eating corn kernels with his chopsticks. He looked at his mom happily—Not bad, little old lady, you move fast.

“Xiao Pei, does our ‘Gou Yin’ cause trouble at school?”

“Gou Yin?”

“Mom!”

Pei Weixue’s confused voice and Su Yin’s embarrassed shout rang out at the same time. Su Yin tapped his bowl. “Don’t call me Gou Yin!”

Su Qingyue ruthlessly exposed him. “You’re the one who insisted on changing your name when you were little.” She turned to Pei Weixue. “Xiao Pei, you have no idea. Back in third grade, the teacher gave an assignment to make phrases using the characters in your own name. He chose ‘Gou Yin’ (Seduce). Not only that, he made a huge fuss about changing his name. He was losing his baby teeth then and spoke with a lisp; he told everyone he met that his name was Su Gou Yin.”

“Is that so?” Pei Weixue couldn’t help but laugh. He looked at Su Yin teasingly. Su Yin glared back in exasperation, and though Pei Weixue tried to rein in his laughter, it still overflowed from his eyes. Even though it was his first time at Su Yin’s house, there wasn’t a hint of awkwardness—it felt as if he had been there many, many times before.

“Why are you glaring at Xiao Pei? Didn’t you pick the name yourself?” Su Qingyue had short, capable hair and dressed in a way that perfectly matched her stature and temperament, making her look spirited and young. As she spoke, she scooped a bowl of corn chowder for Pei Weixue. “Try this, it’s delicious.”

Su Yin gave a cold snort and focused on his food.

Pei Weixue looked at the pile of food growing in his bowl, his eyes feeling a bit stinging. It had been a long, long time since he had eaten a meal like this.

Afterward, Su Yin walked back to the dorms with him. Although they were in different majors, they were in the same building. As they passed the playground, they decided to take a stroll. Pei Weixue watched as Su Yin occasionally ran into acquaintances and chatted; he just walked along quietly.

“Weixue.”

Pei Weixue turned his head. “Hmm?” The moonlight fell on Su Yin’s profile, making him look as noble and flawless as a deity from ancient mythology. He stared, unable to look away.

Su Yin said, “From now on, come home with me for dinner every weekend.” He spoke in a relaxed, casual tone as if it were an insignificant matter, but on his other side, his hand was pressed tightly against his thigh, and he was even walking a bit clumsily.

“Okay.” Pei Weixue withdrew his gaze before Su Yin looked over, turning his head to pretend he was watching others play basketball. “Thank you.” He didn’t want to poke a hole in Su Yin’s intentions; he understood what Su Yin meant. Su Yin thought he was lonely—or perhaps, felt he was pitiful.