Night fell, the moonlight silvery and bright.
Bai Yuyou beside him had already fallen asleep, her posture no longer curled up defensively but relaxed, nestled close. Under the gentle caress of the moonlight, her delicate features seemed even more refined.
Yet Ye Shuang lay awake, one arm tucked beneath his head as he stared quietly at the ceiling.
Sleep eluded him—his mind was occupied with thoughts of Yuyou, Chen Qin, and the matter of Yuyou’s birth parents.
Just then, the girl beside him stirred slightly. She murmured something unintelligible before nuzzling against his neck, pressing even closer. The warmth of her breath brushed against his skin.
Noticing this, Ye Shuang tugged lightly at the thin blanket, covering her exposed shoulder.
Shifting slightly, he gazed at her face, so close he could almost count her lashes. With a finger, he gently brushed aside a stray lock of her hair. His dark eyes were unfathomable, lost in thought.
Suddenly, the girl leaned in and—
"Mwah~"
Ye Shuang blinked in surprise.
She mumbled again, "Cricket… gotta catch it…"
Watching her unconscious antics, he couldn’t help but chuckle. "What the heck?"
Amused as he was, his thoughts soon drifted back to her—back to how, not long ago, even a kiss required formal permission, let alone anything more intimate. Now, he finally understood: he was simply unwilling to let go.
"How many years have I wasted?" he wondered.
He used to keep track down to the exact day. But ever since Yuyou picked him up and brought him home, those calculations had faded from memory.
Some obsessions, it seemed, could be released in an instant.
Lost in reminiscence, lulled by the faint floral scent of the girl beside him and her soft warmth, he gradually succumbed to sleep.
The night passed without incident.
Morning arrived.
After sending Yuyou and Tang Keke off to school, Ye Shuang washed the dishes and settled at his desk, booting up his computer. Writing had become a daily habit, and over time, his word count had grown—along with his readership. Even his novel’s rating had climbed to a solid 9.0.
He clicked through the reviews, filtering out low-star critiques before browsing the latest feedback.
"The recommendation period’s over. Seven days of exposure just isn’t enough. I really hope my dear readers can help spread the word," he muttered to himself. Still, as promised, he uploaded three new chapters today and left a note at the end: "For every 0.1 increase in rating, one extra chapter."
"Alright, time for work."
Checking the clock, he saw that the three-chapter update had taken him right up to his shift. Heading down to the garage, he drove his sports car to the school.
"So slow."
The moment Ye Shuang slipped on his white coat and turned on the AC, a voice sounded behind him.
"Hm?" He paused before realizing it was An Shiyu. "How’d you get in? The infirmary wasn’t open."
"Uncle, of course I have a key."
An Shiyu was sprawled across one of the beds, lazily flipping through a book with one leg bent, her skirt riding up slightly.
"Your underwear’s showing," Ye Shuang pointed out.
"Whatever. Feel free to use me as you like, Uncle." She didn’t seem bothered, continuing to read as the quiet room filled with the sound of turning pages.
Ye Shuang’s eye twitched as he took his seat. "And you call me a pervert? You’re the real weirdo here, you little Jap."
"How rude…" An Shiyu replied flatly. "My great-grandfather was one of the few foreign anti-war heroes buried in the local cemetery. I’m a born-and-raised Chinese citizen."
"Ah, my apologies." Ye Shuang bowed his head sincerely.
An Shiyu didn’t dwell on it, returning to her book until Ye Shuang spoke again. "Didn’t know you read."
"Just a novel… Tokyo Landlord or something. The author’s so slow." She skimmed a few more pages before losing interest. "Why do all these pretty girls flock to the protagonist?"
"Even if you put it that way…"
Ye Shuang gestured to himself. "I actually write novels too."
"Oh? What’s yours called?" An Shiyu twisted to look at him, though her bangs still shadowed her perpetually bored eyes.
"Here." Suddenly enthusiastic, Ye Shuang pulled up his story on his phone and handed it over.
An Shiyu took one glance at the word count and set it down.
"Too short. Not reading."
Ye Shuang: "…"
Suppressing the urge to smack her backside, he retrieved his phone.
"Let me know when it’s longer." An Shiyu flopped onto her back like a salted fish, yawning.
But seconds later, she abruptly sat up.
"Is writing hard?" she asked.
"Not… really?" Ye Shuang said. Getting successful was the tough part—publishing was easy.
"How long does a chapter take?"
"About two hours at first?"
An Shiyu did some mental math based on a million-word novel’s chapter count, then lay back down expressionlessly.
"Goodnight."
"Don’t give up so fast, damn it!"
"Shut up, Uncle."
Ye Shuang sighed and returned to his desk just as a student walked in. "Nurse…"
Instantly switching to professional mode, he smiled warmly. "What’s wrong? Are you feeling unwell?"
Out of the corner of his eye, he noticed An Shiyu had already drawn the curtain around her bed.
Fast.
"I scraped my knee when I fell." The student pointed to the grazed skin, still speckled with sand.
Ye Shuang fetched antiseptic and began cleaning the wound.
Once bandaged, he checked if she could move comfortably. The girl blushed under his attentive care.
"I-It’s fine! The bandage doesn’t restrict me at all."
"Good. The cut’s shallow, so no need to change the dressing—just keep it dry." Kneeling before her, Ye Shuang adjusted the strap.
"Thank you."
"Anytime. Off to class now."
"Okay~" The girl hesitated, then added, "Nurse, can I have your number? I fall a lot…"
"If you get hurt, just come straight here," Ye Shuang deflected smoothly.
"Oh… alright."
After seeing her out, he turned to find An Shiyu now sitting in his chair, legs crossed.
"I think," she said, "I get it now."
Ye Shuang: "?"
Get what?

't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.

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.”

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?"

ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!