Zi Yu awoke with a blinding headache. He groaned as he squeezed his eyes shut, a flurry of information overloading his brain. He took a few moments to adjust before allowing the information to slowly sink in. It turns out that the head-splitting barrage was information about the world and body he was currently inhabiting. The body’s name was Lai Ning and he was a veterinarian who worked for a famous clinic he had personally created and worked up to where it was now.

Lai Ning, though very gentle with animals, has a permanent case of face paralysis and was very blunt with humans, never cutting corners or mincing words. He was a young man who lost his parents at a young age and only ever bothered getting along with animals, which made people believe he simply didn’t care for humans in general and thought of him as particularly cold-hearted. That wasn’t entirely true; he was just honest to a fault.

However, that didn’t stop people from trying to ruin him. Because of Lai Ning’s fame, there were plenty of people jealous over his talents and recognition, which is how the entire story kicks off. According to the information provided, Lai Ning got an emergency call from a famous celebrity, Liang Fang, who rushed to his clinic to help his pet dog, BaoBao. The fluffy little Pomeranian had gotten sick for the first time in years and Liang Fang, panicky and unsure of what to do, rushed to Lai Ning’s clinic because he heard of all the positive rumors surrounding it.

Lai Ning obviously took the case but was busy at the time, so he had asked an assistant to prepare the medicine after checking BaoBao, who turned out to only have a common cold, and went off to check on the other “patients” while he waited for the medicine to be ready. His assistant, an unnamed party, was jealous of Lai Ning and realized that, if successful, Lai Ning’s popularity would only rise higher. Thus he prepared a medicine that, not only wouldn’t do anything, would harm the dog because BaoBao was particularly allergic to the medicine.

After coming back, Lai Ning injected the medicine, being too busy to check it, and, after a few days, BaoBao’s condition significantly worsened. Liang Fang cursed Lai Ning and worried sick over his poor dog when his twin brother, Liang Jin, introduced him to an upcoming new veterinarian, Cao Xinyi. Liang Fang hurriedly took BaoBao to see him and, not only did Cao Xinyi cure him, he even identified that BaoBao was purposely injected with medicine that would harm him. Needless to say Lai Ning’s career suficantly ended then and there and he was thoroughly beaten to death by his cellmates in prison.

Zi Yu frowned, wasn’t that jump too big? Not only that, but it was clear that Lai Ning wasn’t the one to prepare the medicine, so he shouldn’t have taken all the blame himself! Sure, he was a bit negligent by not checking, even if he was busy, but the guy who purposely switched it should have easily been caught and punished as well! Though, the story definitely contradicted itself in that regard. It claimed that Lai Ning cared more for animals than people but had him skip over when Zi Yu could only assume to be basic procedure by double checking the medicine provided.

And with such an “extreme” animal-lover like Lai Ning, he definitely would have checked to make sure the puppy got the correct treatment. Zi Yu felt that, with that kind of character, when he cared about something, he wouldn’t half-ass it. Even if an animal got even a common cold, like BaoBao, Lai Ning would take care of them with the utmost care. Whatever. It’s all for story purposes, he supposed, because after that, the story seemed to revolve around Cao Xinyi.

Cao Xinyi cured the dog’s illness and was praised for being a saint among saints, even getting Liang Fang’s appreciation. Liang Fang spent a lot of time around the other male and the two became quick friends, Liang Feng’s brother also joining in after meeting Cao Xinyi in their shared home a few times. The twins soon brought Cao Xinyi to a party held by their family and there Cao Xinyi met his soon-to-be lover, Sun Zhihao, Liang Fang and Liang Jin’s cousin. What? You thought the twins were the love interests here? Nope.

They were just a means of getting the true lovers to meet. Cao Xinyi fell in love at first sight and quickly got the man’s phone number and even had dinner with him afterwards. Zi Yu scoffed at how easy everything worked out for him, but he felt as if this world worked a lot like a book where the author just wanted everything to serve the protagonist's needs so he could only accept it. He continued reading; Cao Xinyi and Sun Zhihao quickly grew from friends to lovers, their lives filled with rainbows and butterflies.

Even when someone wanted to cause trouble for Cao Xinyi, Sun Zhihao quickly cut them off at the bud, cleaning up everything that could cause harm to his precious lover. The story after having Cao Xinyi and Sun Zhihao meet was basically just an excuse to shove as much dog food in the reader’s face and ending with the two getting married and living happily ever after. All in all, it was a barely passable story with cliched events. Zi Yu wasn’t all too surprised that this was a danmei world, because one of the first bits of information he received was that gay marriages were legalized and universally accepted in this world.

It was one of the major differences of this world and his, even if they were practically identical in everything else. Zi Yu had no problems with gay people; in fact, he had no problems with gender in general. If the person was decent looking and kind, why should he care what was between their legs? It seems that Lai Ning also shared his sentiments, though not for himself. He didn’t care what others identified as so long as they didn’t hurt anyone. Zi Yu sighed, looking over Lai Ning’s nonexistent personal life.

It seemed that he truly cared for nothing other than animals. Oh well. Zi Yu glanced at the original soul’s last wish and was surprised to see that was actually quite simple: “Make sure BaoBao avoids being injected with the wrong medication. And make sure the other pets got the proper care as well.” While Lai Ning was sent to prison, the pets he had been caring for before Liang Fang’s appearance all had to go to different veterinarians and some of the pets couldn’t survive because their conditions were too difficult for the other vets to deal with.

The story hadn’t been lying when it said Lai Ning was busy; he had to do some much research on some of the pets’ conditions and stayed up for days on end to make sure they were all properly treated. When Liang Fang came, he had only gotten in a two hour nap and his mind wasn’t completely there, prioritizing the animals with more serious conditions than BaoBao’s. Zi Yu sighed ruefully, pitying the poor guy’s situation. Well, Zi Yu was here now, and he would do his best to fulfill the original soul’s final wish.

However, he felt that these wishes were far too simple… Mister system, is that alright? Should he really be given such a simple task, even if he was a complete newbie? After a few minutes of not receiving an answer, Zi Yu assumed the the system either couldn’t hear him or was intentionally ignoring him, and the latter seemed fairly plausible at this point. He couldn’t put a finger on it, but the system he was bound to seemed to be quite a cold fellow.

Zi Yu suppressed a sigh and sat up, looking around. He was laying on a couch, a thin blanket draped over him that was on the verge of falling off entirely, a stiff pillow under his head. His neck was sore and his back ached in slight strain, pursing his lips in discomfort each time he moved. Zi Yu glanced everywhere and found that he wasn’t even in this body’s own room, but sleeping in the back of the clinic, according to the original’s memories. He had just finished a surgery for a particularly sick pet and had decided to take a short nap in the back instead of calling it a night altogether and going home.

He cried internally at Lai Ning’s workaholic nature. Even if he were devoted to his job, surely being tired while working wouldn’t help anyone. Zi Yu shook his head and slowly got up, ignoring his body’s cries of protest and unconsciously hurriedly rushed to the bathroom to wash his face and wake himself up, despite how much he wanted to sleep. He only realized what he did when he grabbed a spare towel he kept there to wipe his face, not knowing whether to laugh or cry. It seems that Lai Ning’s workaholic attitude was carried onto him as well.

Well, he couldn’t be all too surprised. He was in his body now, and old habits died hard. He tiredly glanced at the mirror, about to leave when his brain finally caught up with what he saw. His brows furrowed as he turned back around, staring at the image reflected in front of him. Zi Yu bent forward slightly, taking in everything he saw. Smooth white skin with a small, petite nose, wide, rounded eyes with thick bags hanging off them. Golden threads of hair brushed the sides of his face, a thin, low-hanging ponytail thrown over his shoulder. He looked like a foreigner, but what caught his attention the most were his eyes.

The left was a beautiful blue with a purple hue, and the right a stunning bright gold. They contrasted each other yet looked so beautiful together, and they looked eerily familiar. Zi Yu frowned slightly, were Lai Ning’s eyes heterochomatic in the story? A ding sounded in his head as the familiar robotic voice spoke up:

[Host’s eye color has been brought over from his original world in order to give Host some semblance of familiarity and so Host doesn’t feel too alienated in his new bodies.]

Zi Yu watched as his face darkened, his heart squeezing tightly. “Well, that was an unnecessary sentiment…” Zi Yu has never liked his eyes. Forget the fact that heterochromatic eyes were rare enough as is, but his eye coloring was so bizarre that even his own parents weren’t able to tell how he got them. Not only that, but because of them… He’d rather not go down that rabbit hole. Instead, he asked, “Wouldn’t others notice the difference?”

[Host needn’t worry. The system edits each new body Host inhabits’ data so that Host’s physical changes aren’t seen as unnatural.]

“Oh? If that’s the case, couldn’t you just ‘edit’ each world so that each possible new body’s wishes are granted without the help of someone like me?”

[Host asks for the impossible. System’s power is insufficient enough to change major plot points by itself and thus asks for the help of outside forces such as you.]

Is that so… Well, it makes sense, he supposes?

[Also, it is recommended that Host refrain from speaking aloud when communicating with this system. We have a telepathic connection and thus System is able to hear Host’s thoughts.]

“Oh?” He felt his lips twitch. If that’s so, then why didn’t it respond to him earlier? Hello, almighty system? Care to explain?

He didn’t get a response for a few minutes and felt his exasperation rise. Don’t just ignore him when it felt like it! He has a lot of questions, okay?! And they’re valid questions! What part of the story was he even at, anyway?

[Ding. Host is at the day when Liang Fang comes to the clinic in order to treat BaoBao.]

… Hey, Mr. System? Is it okay if I throttle you? Don’t just ignore me then answer me at random! Was this the famed ‘carrot and stick’ treatment? What did he do to deserve this! Zi Yu gnashed his teeth but stayed silent, internally cursing the system to death ten times over!

System: …

Just as he was beginning to curse the system for the eleventh time, Zi Yu heard commotion coming from outside. Curious, he poked his head out and nearly had the door slammed in his face from someone rushing over to him.

“Lai Ning, hurry! Famous, famous singer Liang Fang is here!” An assistant all but squealed, her cheeks flushed red.

Zi Yu’s face was blank, thankful for Lai Ning’s facial paralysis and cold deposition because otherwise he would freaking out externally as much as he was internally. Wasn’t this too much of a coincidence? Didn’t he just wake up? Hey, Mr. System, you’ve got a lot of explaining to do!