It's Actually Not Easy Wanting to be a Supporting Male Lead Chapter 4.1

Chapter 4.1
This is the first time Sui Yuan's initial thoughts after awakening in a new world have nothing to do with the storyline.
Truthfully speaking, regarding the sudden confession, the first reaction was alarm, then…probably remorse? In any case, he had no idea what exactly the other party liked about him.
"What are you thinking about?" Seeing Sui Yuan daydreaming, 5237 drifts over and rubs against his arm, snapping him out of his daze. "You're not thinking about that Zhao Xihe, right?"
"……I am," Sui Yuan replies a tad awkwardly. Besides the times when he is immersed in playing a character, he had never been good at lying. Besides, when faced with his system, he doesn't feel that he has anything to hide.
Hearing Sui Yuan's answer, 5237 startles before dashing in front of his eyes. Looking him up and down, it eventually can't help but shout overbearingly, "Don't be foolish! What are you thinking about him for?! You aren't swindled by his honeyed words again, are you? Think about all the things he has messed up so far. Furthermore, you don't have the qualifications to think about love now!"
"I know." Sui Yuan nods, hanging his head. "Because I am aware of all that, I don't know how to answer him. I feel a little apologetic because of this."
5237 remains silent for a period of time. It feels that when Sui Yuan was created, they clearly added in too much 'obedience, docility, kindness and honesty'. Although this makes him easier to control, it also gave him a soft, 'Holy Father' disposition.
"My dear, this 'Holy Father' attitude is not trendy anymore. If you continue thinking this way, you will definitely be stoned and roasted by the readers," 5237 exhorts earnestly.
Sui Yuan: "……"
"Ai…even if you feel remorseful, just feel it in your heart and continue doing what needs to be done." 5237 sighs, willingly shouldering the responsibility of guiding its partner, preventing this simple and pure child to be adducted by a scoundrel and pulled down the wrong path. "Do you understand my point?"
Tilting his head to the side, Sui Yuan ponders seriously for a moment, then hesitantly nods.
"…You don't actually have any feelings towards him, right?" 5237 can't help but ask anxiously after seeing Sui Yuan's delayed reply.
"No." This time, his answer is immediate. After all, that colleague of his is always causing trouble. Even if he doesn't detest him, Sui Yuan still don't feel anything close to like.
5237 breathes a sigh of relief. "Then, is guilt important or is your score important?"
"Score!" Sui Yuan's eyes light up.
"Think about Zhao Xihe's attitude all this time. He really doesn't know when to stop before going too far! Just in case you feel apologetic and want to compensate him or even spend a little bit of time with him, you will face a calamity! Your score will come crashing down!" 5237 reminds him firmly. "Are you willing to lose marks in order to compensate him?"
Sui Yuan determinedly shakes his head.
Between Zhao Xihe and points, he doesn't need to think all that hard to know the latter is more important to him than the former. Besides, after making him lose so many points, the one ought to be compensated is him!
Thinking everything over, Sui Yuan's mind is very clear, the multiple knots tangling around each other in his brain finally straightens. His eyes are no longer distant, allowing 5237 to be at ease. It really feels like extending a hand to rub Sui Yuan's head as though praising a puppy.
"If he really loves you, that's his problem. Even if you know this, you shouldn't obsess over it." Seeing Sui Yuan calm down, 5237 summarises cheerfully. "As you don't know how to persuade Zhao Xihe to give up…ai…if he continues following you, just think of ways to run away from him. Wait until he loses track of you and you manage to enter another world undetected, you two wouldn't meet for quite a long while. His feelings will gradually disappear, and you wouldn't need to worry yourself sick over it. It's a win-win case!"
Convinced by his system, his optimistic spirit returns and lets Sui Yuan focus on skimming through the script for this fourth world, at the same time looking for ways to throw his pig teammate off his back.
This is a cultivation world revolving around the female lead Shen Jiayi, and detailing the period of her cultivation journey, leading up to her ascension to the Immortal Realm. Most of it is simply the everyday life of a cultivator with romantic subplots scattered here and there. Because Shen Jiayi wholeheartedly desires to achieve Ascension, she doesn't have the mood to be in a relationship. Therefore, no matter how many young, handsome men possessing profound cultivation surrounds her, the most that happen is some ambiguous conversation with no strict romance occurring. Speedily scanning through the text, Sui Yuan counts how many characters suitable to be a supporting male lead with goodwill towards the female lead. In the end, he ends up with more than ten, and no way to tell who is more important to the storyline. Furthermore, he also has no idea who the male lead is meant to be!
…This is very unreasonable!
However, now that he is involved in this world, Sui Yuan can only brace himself and push forward until the end. Flipping to the last few pages, he eventually realises that the true male lead only appears once the female lead ascends.
"Clad in white robes, the corners of his mouth curls faintly upwards as it always did in the past. Shen Jiayi stares wordlessly up at him, a thousand sentences swirling in her being, but not knowing where she should start from. When he extends a hand towards her, she can only place her fingers lightly on his palm…
Apparently, he has always been waiting for her… Shen Jiayi sighs in happiness. From now onwards, they will walk alongside each other, hand in hand." Sui Yuan closes the book, tears streaming down his face as he stares woefully at 5237. "Just who is the male lead?!"
"I…I don't know either…" 5237 says uncertainly. "You've finished reading it, right? Even the original text itself doesn't state clearly, so I naturally don't know either ah…"
Sui Yuan covers his face with both hands. "Then what should we do…?"
"So what if we don't know?!" 5237 straightens to its full height, smugness lacing its voice. "The reason I picked this world is exactly because you don't know who the male lead is!"
Frowning, he listens attentively to 5237's words, waiting to be enlightened.
"You see, our side-mission in this world is to play hide-and-seek, not letting Zhao Xihe find you. In this world with more than ten supporting male leads who are all equally important, he will have a lot of difficulties in distinguishing who you are currently acting as. Also, you don't know who he is acting as. Like this, you don't need to worry about accidentally exposing your little unique quirks, thus decreasing the possibility of him catching you!" 5237 gives its analysis in an extremely grave tone. "When both parties don't know who the other is, trying to find holes in that person's attitude is very tough. So, as long as you do everything according to the plot and not react to whatever the others do, he will definitely be unable to find you!"
"After that, I will make sure to die ahead of schedule, return to the space and immediately enter the next world. Once we succeed in accomplishing that, we will forever be free of him!" Sui Yuan agrees enthusiastically.
"Correct!" Seeing Sui Yuan grasping his meticulous plan, 5237 praises loudly, with equal amounts of fervour. "However, you must weather a storm before being able to see the rainbow! It will be hard for you in this world. You cannot let down your guard even a little, and absolutely cannot let anyone poke a hole in your façade! Most importantly, I will have to trouble you in dying ahead of schedule! Once you have experienced all these, I guarantee everything after will proceed smoothly!"
Heartened by 5237's promise, Sui Yuan feels his confidence returning. Feeling much better, he commences diligently studying the role he is meant to play.
This time, he is to play a hypocrite named Liu Minghui, who appears sanctimonious on the outside, but is actually a black-hearted, black-bellied man. In order to achieve more power, he is willing to do absolutely anything. As the female lead's Senior Martial Brother and someone she depends on, he exploits her regard towards him, pushing her into dangerous situation after dangerous situation.
Over time, the intelligent female lead is naturally able to sense this Senior Martial Brother's hidden intents and begins to put her guard up around him. It is at this moment that Liu Minghui come to realise that he actually likes the female lead, Shen Jiayi…
Towards this, Sui Yuan can only think: Heheh…
Even though he is aware that he likes Shen Jiayi, in Liu Minghui's opinion, love is not as important as power. Therefore, he continues exploiting her, all the while struggling with himself. When Shen Jiayi sustains injuries, his heart will ache and he will worry, but he doesn't stop. This cycle continues up until the female lead sees through his mask, concocting a plan to trap Liu Minghui and ending his life.
…Although he is set to die near the end of the story, due to trying to throw this pig teammate of his off, Sui Yuan has to make sure he dies before that scene. After all, Zhao Xihe will take on the role of the male lead who will not die in this world. If he, as the supporting male lead, dies near the end of the plot, he will definitely bump into Zhao Xihe again in the space between worlds.
"What do you think about this persona?" Noticing that Sui Yuan is nearly done with reading the information about his character, 5237 circles around its partner, seemingly begging to be praised. "I chose this for you with utmost care and thought! Because this personality is a complete one-eighty degrees different from your natural disposition, as long as you don't go out of character, Zhao Xihe will absolutely not be able to tell it is you!"
Sui Yuan nods, lifting a hand and gesturing. Immediately, a water mirror materialises in front of him, his figure reflecting clearly on its surface.
A young man with delicate facial features clad in white, expressionless visage exuding a displeased aura. Tilting his head to the side, Sui Yuan gradually crafts a personality to fit his character, then allows his lips to curve into a smile. Instantly, the unhappy atmosphere is replaced by a soft and gentle air. Eyes carrying a mild lustre, a mere glance is enough to evoke amorous feelings in whoever it falls upon, undoubtedly able to succeed in captivating the hearts of women. Raising a hand to remove the white jade flute hanging at his waist, Sui Yuan studies it carefully for a moment, then places it below his lips, blowing a soft, melodious tune.
This piece is Liu Minghui's personal masterpiece, created as the last memento of his deceased mother, in commemoration of all she did for him. Whenever he has the time, he likes to play this song, consequently gaining the female lead's sympathy.
Once he feels he is completely immersed in his role, Sui Yuan tucks the flute away and returns to inspecting himself in the mirror. A trace of lament seeps into his voice when he glances at 5237. "Does the creator of this world possess an obsession for the colour white? If I remember correctly, amongst the ten over supporting male leads, at least four or five of them like to wear white clothes. Even the female lead is always in white."
"It's called 'being clear as ice and pure as jade, not eating food for common mortals[1]'! Immortal cultivators should be this way!" 5237 retorts. "Anyway, no one will disturb you for the time being, but very soon is your first scene. You need to help the female lead, increasing her good opinion and make her depend on you. There're no problems, right?"
"Of course," Sui Yuan states with confidence. After all, this is the fourth world…even if the score of the first three keeps dropping with each completion, this small matter of acting his part is nothing difficult!
"Then, I wish for your flag to be risen[2], and your martial abilities flourish ~ ! (≧▽≦)/ "
"……5237, what kind of strange things have you been reading? Your use of words is becoming rather weird lately…"
The author has something to say: The beginning of a new world…let's play hide-and-seek ~ Everyone, come take a guess at who the male lead is!
Actually, I reckon it would be pretty obvious…you will surely know when he appears…
……It's my fault for only introducing the basic context and not developing the plot at all…OTL
Footnotes:
[1] Clear as ice and pure as jade, not eating food for common mortals: Meaning to be on another completely different level from mere mortals/ordinary folk. To distinguish oneself so thoroughly that people have to put you on a pedestal.
[2] Flag being raised: In ancient China, when a battle is won, the victors raise their flags, while the loser's flags are destroyed or claimed as spoils of war.