"Tomorrow evening, Yu You will have a stage performance. It's for the Light Music Club, a new club she just joined."
After returning from Alice's place, the atmosphere at the dinner table remained relatively relaxed. Bai Yuyou sat beside Ye Shuang, eating quietly in small bites. At this moment, Ye Shuang brought up the music performance, extending an invitation.
"Tomorrow evening?"
"Yeah." Ye Shuang nodded.
"Tomorrow evening…" Zhou's Mother said, "I should be free."
Since Ye Shuang had invited her to watch the performance, Zhou's Mother was determined to go—even if she had to make time for it. Coincidentally, she had an engagement scheduled for tomorrow, but she decided to find an excuse to cancel it.
"Alice, are you going?" Ye Shuang turned to the little girl.
"Mmm." Alice looked away, seemingly lost in thought and unwilling to meet Ye Shuang's gaze.
The girl was still pondering what Ye Shuang might ask of her, given that she had said he could make her do anything.
"Would he try to make me do something weird?" Alice thought, glancing at Ye Shuang with a strange expression.
Ye Shuang had no idea what was going through the girl's mind. Seeing that Alice remained silent, he didn’t press further.
Unexpectedly, Alice suddenly spoke up, "Fine, as part of the bet, I’ll go."
"Bet?" Ye Shuang quickly caught onto Alice’s little game. He merely smiled, choosing not to call her out—after all, it wasn’t worth making a fuss over.
She was just a grade-schooler. What could she possibly do for him?
The dinner conversation shifted to Bai Yuyou’s recent life and whether she would return to the harbor district with Zhou's Mother and the others. Unsurprisingly, Bai Yuyou refused every suggestion.
But this time, she didn’t shake her head with tears in her eyes or bury her face in Ye Shuang’s chest like before. Instead, she calmly and expressionlessly declined Zhou's Mother’s offers.
Zhou's Mother sighed inwardly, though she noticed that Bai Yuyou’s resistance toward her had lessened. If that was the case, all that remained was to let time do its work.
Meanwhile, Bai Yuyou’s two uncles adored her dearly. Back when she was little, they had loved carrying her around to show off the exquisitely beautiful child to their friends.
Though this wasn’t their first reunion, they still gave her a generous welcome gift—each presenting her with a red envelope containing a bank card loaded with a million yuan.
"I don’t need this…" Bai Yuyou initially refused, but seeing the warmth in her uncles’ eyes, she eventually accepted.
The girl had no extravagant expenses. To her, whether it was a million or ten million made no difference.
She’d just give it to Ye Shuang when they got home.
Time flew by, and it was almost nine o’clock. No matter what, it was time to head back and rest.
Zhou's Mother briefly considered asking Bai Yuyou to stay with her at a hotel for the night but ultimately dropped the idea.
"Be careful on your way back. I’ll come watch the performance tomorrow," Zhou's Mother said as she and the others stood by the car, bidding farewell to Ye Shuang and Bai Yuyou.
"Mm." Ye Shuang nodded, then gently patted Bai Yuyou’s head. The girl softly added,
"Goodbye… Good night…"
Zhou's Mother smiled. "Rest well, Sister Rou."
Ye Shuang also raised a hand toward Alice, who had been staring at him. "See ya."
Alice turned her head away but stuck out her tongue playfully.
"Pakeda."
"It means ‘goodbye,’" one of the uncles explained with a laugh.
Ye Shuang chuckled as well before leaving with Bai Yuyou.
Zhou's Mother watched their figures until they got into their car, then reluctantly returned to her own vehicle.
Just then, her phone rang. Glancing at the screen, she saw it was Zhou's Father calling.
"Hello?"
"A-Xian, you took Alice with you?" Zhou's Father’s voice sounded strained, as if holding back some emotion.
"Yeah, what’s up?"
"…" The line fell silent for a moment.
For some reason, he suddenly hung up. Zhou's Mother looked at her phone but didn’t dwell on it.
……
"What did Aunt Xian talk to you about?" Ye Shuang asked the girl in the passenger seat as he drove.
Bai Yuyou replied, "She asked… about how I’ve been."
"And… wanted me to go back."
Ye Shuang kept his eyes on the road and didn’t press further. But then, he felt a weight against his arm—Bai Yuyou had rested her cheek against him.
"I won’t leave Ye Shuang…"
"I only want Ye Shuang…" The words seemed more like a reassurance to herself.
Ye Shuang reached over and gently patted her head.
……
The next day.
Yinshan Academy was as lively as ever. After selling some lemon tea in the morning, the rest of the day was spent rehearsing and preparing for the Light Music Club’s performance.
Since everyone was practicing in the gym’s backstage area, they didn’t run into members of other clubs.
After finishing a piece, Zhixia called for a break. "Alright, let’s rest for a bit."
During the break, they had some unexpected "guests."
Two students with middle-parted hair walked over and grinned at Zhixia. "Hey, working hard, huh?"
"What do you two want?" Zhixia didn’t seem thrilled by their presence, but she kept her annoyance in check. "Don’t you guys from the LoveKun Music Club have anything better to do than bother us?"
One of the students shrugged. "Just heard the Light Music Club was about to disband, and now you’re putting on a show. Had to come check it out."
"Huang Zhao, if you’ve got nothing important to say, please leave. Don’t disrupt our rehearsal," Linlin interjected.
Huang Zhao smirked. "Linlin, no need to be so cold. We used to be in the same club, remember?"
"Once you left the Light Music Club, you stopped being one of us."
"Ouch, that’s harsh. I didn’t do anything wrong. Music is more fun with more people. If the club keeps ranking last every year and can’t even recruit new members, what’s the point?"
"Mind your own business." Zhixia tugged Linlin’s sleeve. "Ignore him."
Linlin added, "Just go away. You’re bothering us."
"Such a buzzkill." Before Huang Zhao could finish, a hand suddenly landed on his shoulder.
Ye Shuang appeared between Huang Zhao and the other boy, grinning as he slung an arm around each of their necks. "What’s the fun discussion about?"
Huang Zhao stiffened, quickly stepping back. The other boy was equally startled.
"W-Who are you?"
"Me? Just the Light Music Club’s supervising teacher. Are you two here to help move equipment?" Ye Shuang pointed at an electronic keyboard nearby. "That thing’s pretty heavy. We could use some extra hands."
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.”
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
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?"
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!"
