The thin, almost transparent leaves pasted on the window allowed the morning sunlight to penetrate softly and warmly into the room.

A delightful woody fragrance permeated the entire space.

The cool breeze from the courtyard gently caressed his body, causing him to feel a chill and involuntarily open his eyes.

What caught his attention wasn't the modern European-style furniture in the room.

Instead, it was the reflection in the mirror not far away, showing an attractive face with cool, emerald-green eyes that couldn't hide a hint of confused drowsiness.

It was as if he wanted to keep people at arm's length while appearing harmless at the same time.

He raised his hand to touch his own face.

The black-haired, green-eyed youth in the mirror mirrored the exact same action.

"Where is this...?" Lanqi murmured.

It seemed he had transmigrated.

The familiar appearance in the mirror was one he knew all too well - a character from their company's new game, "Thorny Lionheart".

As the game's lead artist, he had originally been at the company organizing colleagues to pay respects to the planner's mother. He only felt a disconnection in his brain before everything went black, and when he opened his eyes again, he saw what was before him now.

At the same time, a flood of information surged into his mind, and he struggled to understand the current situation.

Soon after, his brow furrowed deeper and deeper.

Because he hadn't... transmigrated into the body of some hero with unlimited potential or an absolutely evil villain.

Instead, he had become a minor character who quickly met his demise in a side story called "The Rise of Talia".

This youth named "Lanqi" had no special traits other than being good-looking, coming from a wealthy family, and not being particularly bright!

Since the important character "Talia" had been assigned to him for illustration in the game, all the characters related to "Talia's" storyline were also drawn by him, including "Lanqi".

He never imagined he would now become the minor character Lanqi...

Fortunately, out of professional integrity, he had drawn Lanqi to be very handsome.

He covered his chin and couldn't help but ponder.

"Speaking of which, why did this rich young master end up meeting his demise...?"

Although he belonged to the art department, he had played this game to some extent and had received some character design documents.

Soon, he remembered -

Someone would target the life of "Young Master Lanqi".

And that someone was none other than the protagonist of the side story and the game's planned late-stage villain - the demon princess Talia, last descendant of the demon race.

At this point in time, although the great demon Talia had not yet risen to power and appeared to be just a destitute refugee girl, her strength was already formidable.

In order to survive in the human realm, she had been constantly disguising herself.

Only when pushed to the brink would she be unable to suppress her inner ferocity and cruel nature.

And in the side story.

"Lanqi" was the first human to provoke Talia to the point of exploding with anger after her exile.

The spark that ignited their enmity was "Lanqi" shooting down Talia's dark pigeon familiar, which she had sent to gather intelligence, mistaking it for prey.

When Talia found "Lanqi" two days later.

The young master, not yet understanding the severity of the situation, not only didn't apologize but went on a frenzied tirade of mockery towards Talia, who looked like a beggar.

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He even threatened to roast her other familiars as well, to throw her a super-awesome barbecue party!

In the end.

The suicidal "Lanqi" got what he asked for, was instantly killed by Talia, dropped a ton of gold coins, and had his family's treasured ancient relic [Lament of Compassion] stolen.

This plundered wealth also became an incredibly important startup fund for Talia's path to restoring the demon kingdom.

In a sense, our living Bodhisattva Mr. Lanqi was indeed Talia's great benefactor.

"I don't want to be Talia's number one fan—!"

Sitting on the bed, Lanqi covered his head as if waking from a nightmare.

Calm down.

Think positively.

Things aren't actually that bad.

Since he knew about the "grudge between Lanqi and Talia", all he had to do was avoid it all!

Don't anger this demon boss, send her safely out of his family's territory, OK!

At this moment, in this brand new world.

Lanqi felt a long-lost motivation and spirit!

It must be the karmic reward for abiding by the law and doing good deeds in his previous life.

Next, his wonderful life as a rich young master begins!

Financial freedom, no more overtime! Rich and powerful, how dreamy!

Just then.

A light knock on the door interrupted his thoughts.

"Young Master, are you awake? You asked me to wake you up early yesterday..."

A faint female voice came from outside the door, seemingly having heard movement inside the room.

"I'm up."

Lanqi responded, getting out of bed, almost tripping over a pile of wine bottles at the foot of the bed as soon as he stepped on the ground.

He was stunned for a moment.

That's right.

Since the previous owner of this body had just turned 16 and come of age last month, he had developed a bad habit of alcoholism.

Therefore, the memories of the past month felt a bit disjointed.

It seemed that the previous owner often acted foolishly and did stupid things when drunk.

The "Lanqi provoking Talia" in the original plot might have also been because he was drunk.

So drinking really is harmful.

Lanqi mused while changing his clothes.

As soon as he walked out of the bedroom.

He noticed the maid standing trembling beside the door.

The maid seemed to have reluctantly completed the evil young master's task, yet feared being scolded by the awakened evil young master.

"Thank you for your hard work."

Lanqi said in a gentle tone.

"Eh?"

The maid revealed a surprised expression, unconsciously making a sound.

She seemed to be judging Lanqi's mood today.

Then she quickly reacted and said to Lanqi:

"The master is already waiting for you in the dining room."

Lanqi nodded.

He knew that his previous self's parents were still alive; he wasn't an orphan.

It's just that they had been busy managing the trading company affairs and had adopted a hands-off approach to raising Lanqi for the past few years.

Even these days, in the previous owner's memory, it was rare for the father to return home.

Thinking about this, Lanqi walked down the hallway of the mansion.

All the servants, without exception, would cower, bow deeply, and then quickly leave as if escaping.

It seems the previous owner hadn't made life easy for those around him.

Lanqi sighed inwardly.

Although he didn't have many memories of being drunk, it seemed that when the previous owner was intoxicated, he would become irritable and throw things around, so it was inevitable that the servants would be afraid.

......

Soon Lanqi arrived at the dining room.

He saw a middle-aged man sitting at the end of the long table, who was Lanqi's father.

"You're late again today."

The father didn't seem to be scolding Lanqi, merely stating a fact.

"I'm sorry, I won't drink excessively anymore."

There's no need to be self-destructive from now on.

Lanqi was very satisfied with the life of a rich young master.

He had only one goal in life -

To live freely, steadily, and at ease.

"Sit down."

Clearly, all the servants in the hall were surprised by Lanqi's attitude.

And the father, after a brief pause, still nodded and replied.

"Alright."

Lanqi looked at the sumptuous food on the table that didn't fit his definition of breakfast and sat down in his seat.

For some reason.

He felt something was off.

Then, he instinctively looked up and stared at a cooked dish in the center of the long table.

— On the plate was a golden-brown, crispy roasted pigeon.

It had been evenly coated with a layer of fragrant seasoning, and even after being cut, it still maintained a perfect shape.

"This is..."

Lanqi asked with an odd expression, slowly raising his hand to point at the pigeon.

The more he looked at it, the more he felt a strange sense of déjà vu.

The father didn't respond immediately, and the distant attendants also looked at Lanqi with puzzled faces.

Today's Lanqi seemed very strange to them, in any case, very gentle.

"It's the pigeon you shot yesterday. The servants prepared it for today's breakfast as per your request."

The father glanced up at Lanqi and said flatly,

"You drank too much last night. Don't you remember again?"

Lanqi: "?"

Yesterday?

The pigeon I shot?

Feeling extremely uneasy in an instant, Lanqi quickly extended his fork towards the unfamiliar dish, pretending to be calm.

Even though the roasted pigeon on the plate was now unrecognizable.

But carefully observing its shape and outline.

It finally made Lanqi absolutely certain that it was indeed the pigeon belonging to the great demon Talia.

After all, Talia's familiar was also drawn by him.

"Are you alright?"

Lanqi's unusual behavior couldn't escape his father's eyes.

"I'm fine, just the aftereffects of excessive drinking. Alcohol really is harmful."

Lanqi smiled and glanced at his father, continuing to eat breakfast.

Glimpsing the tragic state of Talia's familiar, Lanqi only felt a lump in his throat.

Previous self, you were truly naive...

To turn someone's familiar into this state.

And then to want to mock her like that.

If she didn't kill you, she wouldn't be worthy of being the Demon King!

Lanqi couldn't help but wonder if there was any way to save the crispy-on-the-outside, tender-on-the-inside pigeon before him.

The answer was no.

So the most reasonable thing for him to do now was very clear.

He should thoroughly destroy the evidence and pull himself together to recover from the hangover.

So he finally reached out, picked up the pigeon leg and put it in his mouth, biting down on the salty and oil-absorbed crispy roasted meat. Just like this, the wonderful flavor spread in his mouth.

Satisfied.

Later, he'd feed the bones to the dogs.

......