Chapter 111 – Sentinel & Guide: Becoming Your Exclusive Guide – The Male Lead Sits at Home, and Trouble Falls from the Sky! (01)
[Points settlement complete. Reward for breaking up the male and female lead: 1000 points…] The mechanical voice of the system only appeared during points settlement.
“Tang Tang, do you want to rest for a while?” The system still remembered that every time Tang Tang returned to the system space after completing a mission, his mood was always bad.
“Let’s go to the next world.” This time, Bai Tang wasn’t the least bit disappointed. He even wanted to hurry to the next world to meet Min Gunian again.
He wondered what name Ah Nian would have in the next world.
Seeing how eager Bai Tang was, the system swallowed the words of comfort it had prepared and felt genuinely gratified. Tang Tang had grown up and was no longer so emotionally impulsive.
However, the face-slapping came too fast. The system’s metaphorical face stung.
As soon as the system activated transmission mode and sent Bai Tang into the new world—before he could even fuse with his body and memories—he was suddenly slapped across the face.
Bai Tang stumbled, unsure of what had just happened. A strange woman’s voice rang in his ears, accompanied by a buzzing sound: “Stop pestering Herslet. He’s already broken off the engagement with you.”
A written notice of the broken engagement drifted down from midair. Bai Tang caught it and skimmed through it quickly. The gist was that Herslet Shelley and Bai Tang were not a good match in compatibility and were therefore dissolving the engagement.
In this world, Sentinels and Guides each possess a spiritual entity. Sentinels are the main combat force, while Guides play a supporting role, calming the Sentinels’ mental disturbances. They are critically important on the battlefield. However, not all Sentinels and Guides are compatible. If their spiritual power doesn’t match, not only will the Guide be unable to soothe the Sentinel, it might even worsen their condition.
Simona Percy, seeing Bai Tang looking stunned and clueless, lost interest and turned to leave.
Leaving behind a dazed Bai Tang, still holding the notice of their broken engagement.
Merging with the host’s memories was already uncomfortable—especially when those memories revealed that the male lead of this world was none other than Herslet Shelley, the man who had just handed him a letter of annulment. The shock was so intense that Bai Tang fainted on the spot.
“Tang Tang, don’t scare me! Tang Tang…” The system shouted anxiously.
This place was rather remote, and few people passed by normally. Without caring about anything else, the system immediately teleported Bai Tang back home.
Bai Tang furrowed his brows as the flood of memories surged into him.
The original host of this body had been a typical “silly and sweet yet malicious” supporting character. His recently annulled fiancé, Herslet Shelley, was the male lead of this world—and a future powerhouse among Sentinels. The female lead was Simona Percy, the very woman who had just slapped Bai Tang.
The plot of this world went like this:
The male lead, Herslet Shelley, was an S-class Sentinel. He and Bai Tang were neighbors and had essentially grown up together. Bai Tang was a Guide who had fallen in love with Herslet a long time ago. Both families knew each other well, and given the current imbalance in the world—with far more Sentinels than Guides—many Sentinels remained single for life. Thus, Herslet’s parents arranged a marriage between him and Bai Tang.
After coming of age, Herslet once returned from a trip with an injured female Guide—Simona Percy, the female lead. Because of her status as a Guide, she was placed in Bai Tang’s home to recover, where she could be conveniently cared for.
Simona Percy was delicate, beautiful, and possessed A-class spiritual power—an upper-tier level among Guides.
Because Bai Tang was deeply attached to his fiancé and feared Herslet might fall for Simona, he spent her entire recovery period showing off in front of her—flaunting the gifts Herslet had given him, how much the Shelley family elders adored him, and how much his own family cherished him. His goal was simple: to make Simona back off.
Instead of backing off as Bai Tang had hoped, Simona only grew from envious to jealous. Playing the part of the delicate and gentle victim, she quickly won the affection of both Bai Tang’s family and the male lead’s family. She repeatedly set up situations to make it seem like Bai Tang was bullying her—just in time for Herslet to witness them—turning Herslet, who had originally been indifferent toward Bai Tang, completely against him.
Then came a sudden Zerg invasion. Herslet joined the defense forces. The Alliance suffered defeat after defeat, the situation becoming dire, and panic spread through the border cities.
Simona, as an A-class Guide, entered the battlefield and boosted Herslet’s spiritual power, allowing him to defeat the Zerg in a single decisive strike.
Herslet’s fame skyrocketed. The public was fascinated by this newly risen hero, and many Guides began to admire him. Before long, news of his engagement to Bai Tang was dug up. Because Herslet had always been cold and distant—even to Guides—and had hurt many of their feelings, the public grew increasingly interested in the two Guides associated with him. Among them, the one who received the most attention was Simona, the battlefield heroine.
Devastated, Bai Tang impulsively posted online about his engagement to Herslet and accused Simona of being the third party who had ruined their relationship. The internet was shocked and began digging deeper—only to “uncover” countless pieces of so-called evidence of Bai Tang being arrogant and tyrannical, constantly making things difficult for Simona.
Despite the fact that most of these accusations were baseless, no one believed Bai Tang’s side of the story. Numerous people even came forward claiming to be his “friends,” confirming how “unreasonable” he was.
At an awards banquet hosted by the Alliance leadership, Simona got drunk and slept with Herslet. Shortly afterward, Herslet publicly announced their marriage. The blow was too much for Bai Tang. With his reputation in ruins, his family turning against him in favor of Simona, and his heart utterly shattered, he committed suicide by jumping into a river on the day of Herslet’s wedding.
The original host had been crushed by all of this—and even Bai Tang, after receiving these memories, was deeply shaken.
Originally, the male lead was supposed to be his loyal partner. But now, the moment he arrived in this world, his so-called lover handed him a breakup letter and even allowed the female lead to slap him in the face.
The letter of annulment was left behind by the lake, where it was picked up by a passing member of the Shelley family. Shocked, he hurried home to report it to the family head.
The head of the Shelley family—Herslet’s father—immediately summoned Herslet and threw the letter in his face.
“You want to break off your engagement with Bai Tang? Why didn’t you tell us?” He wasn’t a traditionalist; if his children truly had no feelings for their partners, he wouldn’t force them to stay together. But that didn’t mean Herslet could annul the engagement without saying a word.
Herslet took the letter, skimmed through it quickly, and said in a low voice, “I didn’t write this.”
Indeed, the annulment letter wasn’t written by Herslet. Although the handwriting was nearly identical, the subtle details lacked the sharp, decisive strokes that were characteristic of his writing.
“Then where did this annulment letter come from?”
A strange unease stirred within Herslet. Maintaining a calm expression, he said to his father, “I’ll go to the Bai family and find out.”
Herslet was an old acquaintance of the Bai family, so the servants naturally let him in. Bai Tang’s parents had not yet returned home. He climbed the familiar stairs, and as he walked down the hallway, the faint sound of sobbing reached his ears, intermittently breaking the silence.
A sudden sense of unease swelled inside him.
The door to Bai Tang’s room was ajar. The sobbing came from the boy curled up on the bed.
His face was buried in a white pillow, his body trembling. The soft, muffled weeping made Herslet’s heart ache.
He had known Bai Tang since they were children—back when they were just learning to speak—and watched him grow into the boy who followed him everywhere. But he had never felt anything romantic toward him. Until now. Until he saw that tear-streaked face. And for no reason at all, his heart twisted painfully.
“Qiu’er… I don’t want to do this mission anymore,” Bai Tang whispered through his pain, unable to suppress the heartache.
If he could, maybe he should just let the male and female leads be together. Worst case, he’d get sent into a punishment world again.
“Tang Tang, if you hate the male lead, I’ll get back at him for you. I’ll stick needles into a straw doll of him…” the system said with heartache.
“No… it’s okay,” Bai Tang murmured. He didn’t want to hurt the male lead.
“Ah…” The system had even brought out the straw doll, but now Tang Tang didn’t want to touch the male lead. What should it do?
Suddenly, the system had an idea. D*mn it—if it couldn’t touch the male lead, that didn’t mean it couldn’t go after her! She dared to slap my Tang Tang the moment he arrived? Let’s see how I deal with you!
The boy lifted his head, eyes red and brimming with vulnerability.
He sat there in a daze, lost in thought, letting his tears soak the pillow beneath him, creating a large wet stain.
The scene was beautiful, almost ethereal—so delicate that it felt as though the boy might vanish in the blink of an eye.
That thought surfaced in Herslet’s mind, and an overwhelming sense of panic swept through him. He quickly walked over and pulled the boy into his arms.
“Why are you crying?”
Bai Tang fell into a familiar embrace—one that felt so safe, even stronger than any of the bodies he had occupied in past worlds. But it didn’t belong to him. Not now. And maybe never.
The tears he had worked so hard to stop began falling again. The boy curled up into himself, silently resisting Herslet’s hold.
Herslet’s pupils contracted slightly.
In the past, Bai Tang would always light up when he saw him, chirping away, eager to find things to talk about. Now, he wouldn’t even look at him.
Just then, a pale yellow squirrel peeked out from beside Bai Tang’s feet—it was his spiritual companion. The little squirrel twitched its tiny nose and lay down beside Bai Tang, its fluffy tail brushing lightly over the back of his foot.
A… a squirrel! Bai Tang’s eyes widened in surprise.
“Qiu’er, th-there’s a little squirrel here.” And it looked just like him—even the patch of black fur on its forehead was the same.
“Tang Tang doesn’t need to be scared~ That’s your spiritual form!” the system chirped cheerfully. “Since Tang Tang is a squirrel, your spirit animal is a little squirrel too~”
Bai Tang was utterly amazed and began playing with the little squirrel as if no one else were present.
Beside him, a white wolf emerged from Herslet’s body. The moment it saw the adorable squirrel, it let out a howl and pounced—knocking both the squirrel and Bai Tang onto the soft bed.
They say a spirit animal reflects its owner’s emotions. Bai Tang pouted and tried to push the white wolf away, but the wolf was relentless, howling as it pounced on him again.
“Look at that dumb wolf—does that look like someone who doesn’t like Tang Tang?” the system muttered. “I’m telling you, the male lead is just a closet softie. That breakup letter was probably forged by that fake little b*tch of a female lead.”
Trying to cheer Bai Tang up, the system shamelessly spouted lies.
…Though in truth, the system had hit the nail on the head: the breakup letter had been forged by Simona, imitating Herslet’s handwriting.
Bai Tang had always trusted the system’s words completely. Now that he understood the nature of spirit animals, he snuck a glance at Herslet, who was trying (and failing) to look aloof. His gaze dropped slightly and caught sight of the nervous sweat beading on Herslet’s palm. The heavy cloud in Bai Tang’s heart began to lift.
“What are you doing here?” Bai Tang asked in a soft, milk-sweet voice.
In this world, Bai Tang was especially beautiful—his delicate features made him look like a fallen elf, and that was one of the reasons the female lead was so jealous of him.
“I…” Herslet suddenly found himself at a loss for words. He wasn’t someone who spoke easily, so all he could do was take out the breakup letter and hand it over. “I didn’t write this.”
In the past, he might’ve let the misunderstanding slide. But now, he absolutely didn’t want there to be distance between them. He just wanted to offer the boy all the beauty in the world and see that smile on his face again.
He stood there awkwardly, waiting for Bai Tang’s reply, swallowing nervously without realizing it.
The system saw this and laughed gleefully in its heart. “Who’d believe this guy doesn’t like my Tang Tang?” it thought. But since he had made Tang Tang cry, the system decided it was time to teach him a lesson—a crash course in proper behavior!
It pulled out the notes from the prime minister’s wife in world two and began whispering earnestly into Bai Tang’s ear.
Bai Tang nodded, then angrily snatched the breakup letter from Herslet’s hand. “You already broke off our engagement—what are you doing here?”
Herslet saw Bai Tang didn’t believe him, so he picked up a pen and paper from the desk and wrote a few lines, imitating the breakup letter. “Look—my handwriting has sharper strokes. This one doesn’t.”
He carefully pointed out the differences between the two. Bai Tang pursed his lips, but in his heart, he was already convinced. The male lead had never lied to him.
Still—trust is one thing, punishment is another. Bai Tang carefully folded and put away both letters, then pointed to the door and said, “Get out!”
“Alright, I’ll go. Just… please don’t cry anymore, okay?” Herslet looked at Bai Tang’s swollen, walnut-like eyes and, worried he’d upset him further, quietly left the room.
Author’s Note:
The plot has officially begun—no one’s getting away now! That slap from the female lead? Oh, it’s getting paid back. As for the male lead… it’s time for him to suffer in the classic “chasing the wife after the crematorium” arc!
Honestly, he’s a bit pitiful—just sitting at home and suddenly taking the fall for everything. Oh well~ That’s what you get for being the male lead. Time to carry the blame!