Help! I'm the Plot Device: Just Here to Save the Heroes

Three Offerings and a Very Stressed System

Jerry’s gaze sharpened, slow and hard as a blade. “Bold of you to lie to me.”

Under the weight of that look the man’s composure broke. He rushed out the words like a man saving his own skin. “Yan daren left some time ago—he received a note.” His voice dropped to a whisper. “From—”

Jerry leaned forward. “From who?”

The man’s face went white; he clamped his mouth shut as if the name itself might scorch him. Xu Ming’s patience snapped a little. “You won’t say?”

“Wangye, please forgive me,” the man blurted. “Yan daren was summoned by Lady Liang Fei—to the Orchid Pavilion- near the Misty River.” He sagged into a bow, as if that single admission had already been paid for with his life.

Jerry exchanged a brief look with Xu Ming, then let his shoulders fall. He gave the man a quick, absolute order: “You may go—and tell no one that you spoke to us.”

The clerk fled like a man who’d been allowed to keep his head.

Jerry watched the empty hall for a long breath, then turned to Xu Ming. “Why would Lady Liang Fei want to meet Yan An?”

Xu Ming’s expression was faintly scandalized, and a shade too amused. “What are you thinking host?”

Jerry voice low, that tasted like warning and wonder both, “She’s… you know what she is, and who she becomes. This meeting—the timing—it isn’t in the story. It wasn’t supposed to happen, System.”

Xu Ming nodded, the screen of his calm flickering. “It’s not in the outline. Unscheduled variables are catastrophic, besides nothing in here is following the original line now.”

Jerry let out a sharp breath and pushed a hand through his hair. “Let’s go—before you get deleted for real.” He nudged toward the door.

Xu Ming snapped to attention, trying for bravado and landing closer to panic. “Yeah, yeah—move out. Lead on, Host. And—try not to get us killed by palace intrigue while we’re at it.”

They stepped out of the palace walls, toward the Misty River and the Orchid Pavilion where a summons waited, both of them suddenly feeling like small players on a very large, very dangerous stage.

🐱

Orchid Pavilion

The Orchid Pavilion stood at the edge of the Misty Forest, its curved roofs half-veiled in drifting fog. Jerry and Xu Ming moved quietly along the pebbled path, stopping just short of the pavilion’s open veranda.

There, seated against a carved balustrade, was Yan An—his expression as composed as always. Beside him, a young woman in a pale pink robe leaned close, her voice soft, almost conspiratorial.

Jerry froze mid-step. From where he stood, he caught only the girl’s side profile, blurred by the curtain of willow branches, but something in the curve of her cheek, the light tilt of her head, struck him like a thunderbolt.

His breath snagged, and a single word tumbled out, raw and almost broken.
“...Sweety.”

Xu Ming blinked and whipped his head toward him. “Host… what? Who is Sweety?”

Jerry shook his head sharply, panic flashing across his features. “We shouldn’t be here. Let’s—let’s meet him somewhere else.”

Before Xu Ming could protest, Jerry was already backing away, turning quickly down the path as if chased. At the same time, the girl in pink rose, bowed politely to Yan An, and departed in the opposite direction. Yan An stood, his gaze instinctively sweeping after her—only to catch sight of Jerry’s retreating back.