Around eleven o'clock at night.
Xu Mo returned home with An Youyi in tow.
No more pretending—it was time to come clean with the old man.
He had to break the news about going out to make his own way in the world.
Sure, he could drag it out day by day,
but who knew what his father-in-law would think?
Better to come back and reassure them first.
Besides,
dinner time had long passed.
The family didn’t have a habit of eating late-night snacks.
Su Ting was firmly against anyone having midnight meals.
They were probably all asleep by now.
So, timing his return like this was perfect.
Xu Mo knew he couldn’t shake off the "Dragon Queen."
Even if he booked two hotel rooms,
An Youyi would still slip silently into his room.
It was a headache.
Might as well just bring her home.
Clean and simple.
"Youyi, while you were away, the cleaning lady kept your room tidy. Just head upstairs, take a shower, and go to sleep... Huh? Why is the living room light on?"
Xu Mo’s eyebrows shot up.
This wasn’t the scene he’d imagined at all!
Shouldn’t everyone be asleep by now?
Had a burglar broken in?
No, no… that couldn’t be.
Xu Mo quickly dismissed the idea—
because he heard Xu Fuqiang’s furious voice booming from inside.
"You little brat! You dare show your face here?!"
Xu Fuqiang was seething, storming toward them in long strides.
From a distance, he spotted a woman standing beside Xu Mo.
Though he couldn’t make out her face clearly yet,
Xu Fuqiang was already certain—
this unfilial son had gone too far.
Playing around outside was one thing,
but bringing her home?!
Disgrace! Absolute disgrace!!!
Cutting off his bank cards had been the right move.
A stroke of foresight.
In fact,
Xu Fuqiang now felt he’d been too lenient.
"You unfilial wretch!! How dare you bring some floo—"
Xu Fuqiang’s disappointment was immeasurable. The "Seven Wolves" belt was about to be unleashed.
It wasn’t that he wanted to break his promise,
but how could he face the ancestors with this shame?!
However, when he recognized the familiar face,
his hand froze mid-motion.
The old man was now stuck in an absurd pose—
one hand on his belt,
as if about to undo it,
while he stared at An Youyi, lost in thought.
An awkward, silent contemplation.
Xu Mo cleared his throat. "Dad, if you want to play, you’ll have to ask Mom first."
Xu Fuqiang wasn’t deaf to the teasing tone.
Then An Youyi calmly added, "I don’t agree."
Xu Fuqiang felt blood rising in his throat.
Were these two conspiring against him?!
He shot Xu Mo a glare. "Youyi, you can go ahead. This brat stays."
An Youyi didn’t budge, glancing at Xu Mo instead.
Xu Mo’s lips twitched. "Listen to Dad."
An Youyi nodded, then wheeled her suitcase inside.
None of them seemed to notice the strange, unspoken tension lingering in the air.
Once An Youyi was gone,
Xu Fuqiang glared daggers at Xu Mo.
"You’re married now, a grown man. Can’t you give your mother and me some peace of mind?"
Xu Mo’s mouth twitched again. "I understand."
Xu Fuqiang scoffed. "Understand? If you understood, we wouldn’t be worrying like this!"
Xu Mo nodded.
No matter what Xu Fuqiang said,
he’d respond with the same flat,
"Yes, yes, you’re right."
No impatience.
Just detached agreement.
Ironically, it was Xu Fuqiang who grew impatient.
He could see it now—
Little Xu was just humoring him.
"To prevent you from making unforgivable mistakes in the future, starting today, all your bank cards are frozen! And don’t even think about selling your cars for cash to fund your reckless lifestyle. Let’s see who in Shanghai dares buy them!"
Old Xu had laid down the law.
Money made people reckless.
Xu Mo had been born with a silver spoon in his mouth,
never knowing hardship.
Partly because Su Ting couldn’t bear to see him suffer,
and partly because Old Xu couldn’t bring himself to toughen up the family’s only heir.
But times had changed.
Xu Mo was married now.
If he kept acting like a spoiled child,
how could he ever inherit the family business?
So Old Xu hardened his heart.
He’d discussed this with Su Ting last night.
She’d agreed.
That meant this wasn’t just his unilateral decision.
He expected Xu Mo to beg,
to bargain.
Old Xu had even prepared his bottom line:
A million at most!
Three months, one million!
Not a cent more.
Otherwise, go starve.
As for whether Xu Mo might actually starve without money—
what a joke.
Was there no food at home?
No meal card at the company?
Weren’t his office snacks and drinks enough?
He wouldn’t starve.
But as for luxuries?
Old Xu’s stance was clear:
Not a chance!
Yet to his surprise,
Little Xu just nodded and gave an "OK" gesture.
"Got it."
Old Xu blinked. Was this some reverse psychology?
"All your cards are frozen."
"Mm."
"You’ll have no money for food."
"Mm."
"You’ll pay for your own gas from now on."
"Mm."
"And don’t ask Qiaoqiao for cash. Your mom talked to her this morning—no secret handouts either."
"Understood. Dad, if there’s nothing else, I’d like to rest now."
Xu Mo yawned lazily.
Xu Fuqiang’s face darkened.
Was this brat truly unfazed,
or just biding his time until tempers cooled before begging for mercy?
Old Xu ranted on for a while longer,
but Xu Mo remained unmoved.
If anything, he looked amused.
Using money to pressure him?
Did they forget who Xu Mo was?
As Xu Mo stepped inside,
Xu Fuqiang stood frozen for a long moment.
Finally, he gritted his teeth and muttered to himself,
"Keep pretending!! Let’s see how long you last. You’ve never had to manage a household—you don’t know the cost of firewood and rice. Just wait till reality hits you."
To seal all escape routes,
Old Xu made Xu Mo swear not to borrow from his "good-for-nothing friends."
Little Xu agreed.
Still uneasy, Old Xu rambled on,
only to find Xu Mo completely indifferent.
Old Xu was rattled.
But he was sure—
Xu Mo wouldn’t last long.
Soon, he’d come crawling back,
forced to accept his penniless reality.
Meanwhile, as Xu Mo entered the living room,
he spotted two figures waiting by the sofa—
one tall, one short,
chatting and laughing.
The taller one was petite, the shorter one… surprisingly not.
Dressed in pajamas,
the smaller figure’s "primordial energy" was barely contained.
A phrase popped into Xu Mo’s mind:
"Small in stature, mighty in presence."
The taller figure was his mother, Su Ting,
and the shorter?
No need to guess—his little sister, Xu Shi.

close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"

ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!

pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"

transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”