In the early hours of the morning, under the pouring rain, a car sat quietly by the side of the road.

The night was thick with darkness, and the rain fell heavily, creating a dense curtain that blurred everything in sight. The asphalt was splattered with countless droplets, the rhythmic sound of the downpour filling the air. The car stood alone in the storm, its body battered by the relentless raindrops, the noise echoing eerily in the silence of the pre-dawn hours.

The highway was wide, and not a single vehicle had passed by for a long while. No pedestrians either. This made the solitary car parked by the roadside seem even more desolate.

In stark contrast to the torrential rain outside, the interior of the car was eerily quiet.

In the driver’s seat, a figure sat motionless. The young man was leaning forward, his upper body slumped over the steering wheel, his head resting on his arms. His dark, disheveled bangs obscured his face, making his expression unreadable, but his completely still posture suggested he was asleep.

"...Ugh..."

Suddenly, a muffled groan of pain broke the silence inside the car.

Xu Xiliu frowned as he slowly straightened up, his eyes half-lidded as he tried to rub his throbbing temples. But as soon as he moved, a sharp wave of numbness shot through his calves and arms, freezing him in place. He hissed through clenched teeth, his face contorted in discomfort. It took him a moment to recover, blinking in confusion as he shifted slightly.

"What the hell..."

His muttered words were abruptly cut off as the sound of the rain outside reached his ears. He turned to look out the window and froze, stunned by the sight.

Where was he?

Inside... a car?

And it was pouring outside?

Xu Xiliu snapped back to reality, quickly turning his head to look outside. The rain had blurred the glass, making it impossible to see clearly. The windshield wipers moved back and forth relentlessly, offering the only clue to his location: parked on the side of an unfamiliar, empty highway.

But hadn’t he just been at the hospital?

The thought flashed through his mind, only to be immediately contradicted by the memories that followed.

No, he had died.

He had been at the hospital, staring at his computer. After working nonstop for three days on a medical research project, his body had finally given out. He remembered the moment vividly—his vision going black as he collapsed while organizing data.

He remembered the feeling of suffocation, his blood turning sluggish, his heart struggling to keep beating.

It definitely hadn’t been an illusion.

But if he had died, why was he here?

Was this the road to heaven?

Xu Xiliu sat frozen for a few seconds before a faint glimmer at his feet caught his attention. He looked down and saw a phone lying on the floor of the car, its screen lit up. A call was coming through, flashing insistently. It must have been set to silent by mistake, because there was no ringtone—just the call hanging up after going unanswered, then immediately ringing again, as if the caller was desperate to reach him.

Next to the phone was a pair of gold-rimmed glasses that had also fallen. Xu Xiliu picked them up and absently slid them back onto his nose before grabbing the phone. His gaze lingered on the name displayed on the screen: Butler Zhong.

He swiped to answer.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Xu!"

The voice on the other end was elderly but strong, though it carried an unmistakable note of urgency and frustration from waiting so long. "Where are you? Why haven’t you been answering? The master’s condition was already bad, but now it’s gotten even worse..."

The master?

Who?

Xu Xiliu blinked slowly, confused. "He... how is he?"

"How do you think? The same as always!" The other man sounded exasperated, though his tone was mostly laced with worry. "The master refuses to take his medicine, barely eats anything, and his health was already poor to begin with. Today, the Qin family came by and left something behind, and whatever it was triggered another episode. And now, with the rain, it’s just making things worse..."

The man on the phone spoke rapidly, and though his words were somewhat vague, Xu Xiliu managed to pick out a few key details.

The Qin family? An episode?

He pulled the phone away from his ear and took another look at the caller ID: Butler Zhong.

This all felt... strangely familiar.

Like he’d seen it somewhere before.

Before he could figure it out, a flood of memories suddenly crashed into his mind, making him groan and tighten his grip on the phone.

The Qin family. Qin Li.

Now he understood why this felt so familiar.

This was the exact plot of a cheesy BL novel his colleague had once shown him!

In the novel, the male lead, Qin Li, was a behind-the-scenes tycoon who wielded immense power, but in the early stages of the story, he suffered through inhuman torment. Not only did he have the classic CEO ailments—stomach problems and headaches—but he also had severe mental health issues, suffering from chronic insomnia that left him perpetually gloomy and volatile, waiting to be "saved" by a sunny, cheerful protagonist.

But what had really caught Xu Xiliu’s attention—and made him read through the whole thing with a frown—was the fact that there was a minor character in the novel, a personal physician to the male lead, who shared his exact name!

On the surface, being a personal physician sounded prestigious, with a generous salary to match. But in reality, it was a job more grueling than that of an overworked office drone. Not only did the doctor have to be a jack-of-all-trades, on call 24/7 with no days off, meticulously tending to the male lead’s physical ailments (like his stomach problems), but he also had to rush to the male lead’s mountain villa in any weather to treat his mental episodes.

And later, when the male lead and his love interest finally got together and started being disgustingly affectionate, the poor doctor even had to double as the love interest’s physician—especially when the male lead’s... "enthusiasm" left the protagonist sick and exhausted. The doctor would have to rush over in the middle of the night, awkwardly but politely reminding him, "Mr. Qin, you should... pace yourself in bed..."

Ugh. Xu Xiliu had cringed so hard reading that.

And now, he had transmigrated into the novel—right into the role of that poor, overworked tool of a doctor.

He still remembered the embarrassment of reading those scenes, and the merciless teasing from his colleague afterward.

Perhaps because he had been silent for too long, the butler on the phone spoke again, more urgently this time. "Dr. Xu, are you listening? Please hurry over! The master’s condition is critical!"

"Uh, yeah, I’m listening..."

Xu Xiliu snapped back to reality and sighed silently.

"...Got it. I’ll do my best. I’m still on the road."

He glanced out the window.

Parked on the side of the road still counted as being "on the road," right?

The original owner of this body had probably received a call from the butler in the middle of the night and rushed out, only for something to happen on the way—leading to Xu Xiliu’s transmigration.

He had a feeling the original had also died from overwork.

Such was the tragic fate of a disposable side character.

Hearing his response, the butler seemed to relax slightly, but then some kind of commotion on the other end drew his attention away. Xu Xiliu could hear panicked shouts of "Master!" followed by the sharp sound of something shattering and a heavy thud, as if something—or someone—had collapsed. There was also a low, guttural growl of pain.

Xu Xiliu’s lips pressed into a thin line.

Finally, the butler hurriedly said, "The roads are slippery in the rain. Be careful, Dr. Xu," before abruptly hanging up.

No doubt he had rushed off to deal with the chaos.

Xu Xiliu lowered the phone, then, after a brief pause, resignedly started the car and began driving toward the mountain villa where the male lead lived, relying on his newly acquired memories.

Seriously, he had been working himself to death before he died.

And now, the moment he opened his eyes after death, he was back on the job.

And what time was it? Oh, perfect—1 a.m.

Xu Xiliu gritted his teeth. As much as he wanted to complain, he still had professional ethics. He couldn’t just abandon a patient, so he consoled himself with the thought that, tool character or not, at least the pay was good.

A million a year.

Once the plot reached its conclusion, he could take that fortune and retire for good.

The thought eased some of his resentment at being dragged out of bed in the middle of the night to work.

The rain continued to pour outside as the car sped down the road, splashing through puddles.

Soon, the vehicle turned onto a winding mountain road.

About half an hour later, the car entered a small estate halfway up the mountain, coming to a stop in front of

an opulent villa.

Xu Xiliu exhaled slowly, instinctively smoothing out his clothes. The rearview mirror reflected his face, framed by gold-rimmed glasses—his narrow, peach-blossom eyes catching a faint glimmer of light in the darkness, making them appear unusually bright. Below them, his lips, even when pressed into a neutral line, carried a hint of a smile.

His calm eyes effortlessly took on a gentle, practiced warmth before he grabbed an umbrella and stepped out of the car.

The night sky was murky, the villa illuminated from within, but the steady rain only emphasized the loneliness of the isolated mountain building.

"Come inside. The master is waiting."

A servant was already waiting at the door. Xu Xiliu walked over under his own umbrella, and the male servant silently gestured for him to enter. Though the man said nothing, Xu Xiliu caught the faint curl of his lip before he turned away.

...Why?

Xu Xiliu paused briefly before pretending not to notice and followed the servant inside, being hurriedly led upstairs.

The closer they got, the more obvious the chaos became.

Servants moved about with their heads bowed, coming and going in silence, their expressions wooden and indifferent. Their busy movements clashed strangely with their cold, detached demeanors, making them seem almost like puppets. Their eyes, however, flickered with a mix of disdain, disgust, and fear—all carefully concealed but still unsettling to witness.

The atmosphere in the villa was oppressive, the grand, icy-cold halls amplifying the sound of the rain outside, the occasional echo making the place feel even more desolate.

As he walked, Xu Xiliu noticed shattered porcelain vases, spilled food on the floor, and even faint traces of bloodstains.

Even though someone had clearly tried to clean up in a hurry, the remnants were enough to paint a vivid picture of what had happened before his arrival.

He couldn’t help but think—this male lead was seriously ill.

His workload was going to be insane.

Just as they reached the door to the room, a middle-aged man rushed out in a panic. The moment he saw Xu Xiliu, he exclaimed, "Dr. Xu!" His voice matched the one from the phone call, and Xu Xiliu recognized him as the loyal butler, Zhong.

"Dr. Xu, hurry inside! The master, he—"

The butler’s words were drowned out by a low, hoarse roar from inside the room. The voice was deep and magnetic, but it was filled with unmistakable agony, as if its owner was enduring unbearable torment. Knowing the situation was dire, Xu Xiliu nodded silently and stepped inside without another word.

The moment he entered, before he could even get a clear look at the person inside, a glass came flying straight at his head.

"Shit—!"

Xu Xiliu instinctively dodged to the side, and the glass shattered against the doorframe behind him, shards scattering across the floor with a sharp crash. The servant who had followed him in screamed in fright.

"Master!" Butler Zhong’s face paled, and from deeper in the room came more panicked shouts: "Ah! The master broke free!" "Quick, hold him down!"

Xu Xiliu was still reeling when his eyes met a pair of bloodshot ones, filled with unbridled fury. Before he could react, the figure broke free from the people restraining him and lunged straight at him.

A wheelchair was knocked over in the chaos, and Xu Xiliu’s mind went blank. He dodged instinctively, but the deranged man seemed to have fixated on him as some kind of enemy, chasing him relentlessly. In his panic, Xu Xiliu used the overturned wheelchair as a shield, circling around it to avoid the man’s grasp. The man followed, his eyes wild.

The others in the room, too afraid of the man’s state, hesitated to intervene, leaving the two of them in a bizarre game of cat and mouse around the wheelchair. Sweat beaded on Xu Xiliu’s forehead, and in a moment of desperation, he spun around and punched the male lead square in the face, sending him sprawling to the ground.

Crisis averted.

Staring down at the tall, gaunt man now lying motionless on the floor, Xu Xiliu adjusted his glasses—which had nearly fallen off—and muttered under his breath, "...No one mentioned this job required combat skills."

The room fell dead silent.

All the servants stared at him, their expressions a mix of shock and disbelief. Butler Zhong gaped at him, speechless.

Only then did Xu Xiliu realize what he had just done.

He quickly plastered on a polite smile.

"...Ahem. My apologies. That was... improper."