The night was quiet, save for the soft clicking of a mechanical keyboard echoing through a cold study.
Xiao Lian sat in front of his computer, the glow of the screen casting eerie shadows across his sharp features. On the surface, he looked calm — tailored suit, perfect posture, composed expression.
But his fingers had paused mid-keystroke.
Because he remembered something… that shouldn't exist.
A flash.
A moment.
A woman — crying in a hospital corridor.
"Why does no one believe me? I didn't push her…"
His heart skipped. That voice wasn't from a memory of this life. It was from the book.
Reborn of the Vicious Heiress.
He had read it once. Late at night. Out of boredom, curiosity. But now, details were leaking into his mind like ink spreading across paper.
He wasn't supposed to know this.And yet, somehow, he did.
He leaned back slowly, thoughts colliding.
"Xiao Xinya was cold, manipulative."
"She betrayed Li Suna."
"She was the villainess."
But now?
Now she was…
Gentle. Confused. Different.
He'd tested her—subtle questions, small traps. She dodged them like someone who didn't even know the game.
She was not the same girl from the original plot. And that terrified him.
Because if Xiao Xinya changed… then what about him?
He stood up abruptly, walking to the mirror on the far wall.
"Who am I?" he murmured, voice hollow.
A part of him — the part tangled in ink and pages — whispered:
You are the male lead.
The alpha. The conqueror. The destined heir of power and destruction.
"You were supposed to fall in love… lose control… and destroy everything in your path for her."
And yet…
"You hesitated."
His fists clenched. The script — it was slipping.
He turned back to the table, eyes falling on a file his assistant had dropped off earlier.
Photos.
Surveillance of Xiao Xinya.Meeting Li Suna in secret.
Sharing tea.
Talking.
Laughing.
His jaw tightened.
"Li Suna," he whispered. "What are you planning this time?"
And Xiao Xinya… What had she become?
For the first time in years, Xiao Lian felt something unfamiliar.
Doubt.
He tapped a finger against the desk. Once. Twice.
Then he made a call.
📞 "Prepare the car. I'm visiting the Xiao Estate."
📞 "Now."
Meanwhile…
Back at the Xiao Estate, I felt an unexpected chill as I stood on the balcony. The city lights blinked in the distance, and the evening wind carried a strange tension.
Suna had warned me.
"If Xiao Lian remembers, he will come for you."
And I had just begun to understand this world…To embrace my new identity.
Now, the original male lead — the one destined to fall in love, obsess, and destroy — might be waking up.
And I wasn't ready for him.