After stepping out of the subway station, Chen Qin stretched lazily under the sunlight, gazing at the surrounding skyscrapers. "Ah, feels nice," she murmured.
"Are you hungry?" Ye Shuang asked, wondering if she had eaten anything before rushing over.
"Eating? Sure!" Chen Qin said. "Our corporation has a few subsidiaries here. We could head to their cafeteria—I’ll call someone to pick us up."
"Have you lost your mind from work?" Ye Shuang replied. "Let’s just find a place for morning tea. We might even catch a discount. Come on."
"Oh." Chen Qin obediently followed without protest.
Instead of taking her to a well-known restaurant, Ye Shuang led her down a narrow alley to an old eatery he remembered. Inside, elderly men in tank tops sat with reading glasses perched on their noses, sipping tea while scrolling through their phones, plates of dim sum laid out before them.
In earlier years, they’d probably have been flipping through newspapers instead.
"Even grandpas keep up with the times," Chen Qin remarked, noticing one watching videos of middle-aged women dancing in the square.
"Men are all the same," Ye Shuang said.
"So you watch that stuff too?" Chen Qin suddenly asked, her smile tinged with mischief.
"I don’t need to," Ye Shuang coughed lightly.
"Right, you’re surrounded by pretty ones anyway," Chen Qin muttered, her tone inexplicably wistful.
Ye Shuang: "..."
The tables were worn with age. After settling into their seats, a server approached.
"What tea would you like?"
"Chrysanthemum," Ye Shuang answered. "One plate of BBQ pork rice rolls, dry-fried beef hor fun, shrimp dumplings, chicken feet, and durian pancakes."
"Got it."
"Hehe, all my favorites," Chen Qin giggled. "You still remember?"
"Coincidence. I like these too," Ye Shuang said.
"Hmph." Chen Qin didn’t buy it for a second.
As the bamboo steamers arrived, Ye Shuang asked why she hadn’t arranged for help. Knowing Chen Qin, hiring a professional cleaning crew wouldn’t have been surprising.
Blinking her lovely eyes, Chen Qin replied, "Ancestral homes shouldn’t be cleaned by outsiders. It wouldn’t feel right."
"Outsiders?" Ye Shuang paused briefly but didn’t press further.
Chen Qin took a bite of a shrimp dumpling and brightened. "This place is pretty good!"
Ye Shuang pointed at the beef hor fun. "Try this."
"Wow, this is delicious too," Chen Qin said after a mouthful.
"The wok hei here is strong, and there’s no excess oil at the bottom. Not many chefs can pull that off," Ye Shuang explained, revealing why he frequented this spot.
"Ye, you know a lot. Who told you this?"
"Who…" Ye Shuang trailed off, suddenly recalling his father had once said the same thing.
His chopsticks stilled. He finally understood that saying—the hardest part of losing a loved one isn’t the moment of their passing, but the endless emptiness that crashes over you later, triggered by the smallest traces they left behind.
Immortality might just be one of the cruelest curses in the world.
Noticing Ye Shuang’s quietness, Chen Qin quickly changed the subject. "These chicken feet are great too! Try them!" She piled a few into his bowl.
"Yeah." Ye Shuang snapped out of it and nodded.
The meal totaled just over sixty yuan—thirty per person, a steal.
Ye Shuang’s ancestral home sat in an aging residential complex, its exterior even more dilapidated than the one Bai Yuyou had lived in. The grayish-white walls were streaked with water stains, now darkened to a heavy brown.
"Which floor?" Chen Qin asked.
"First."
"First?" Just as confusion set in, Ye Shuang guided her through a maze of alleys before ducking into a passageway.
Chen Qin glanced around. "Uh… this is kinda complicated."
"Suppose so."
Soon, they stopped before a modest courtyard. Graffiti covered the walls, and beyond the iron gate lay a yard littered with dead branches and leaves. The house itself had a weathered wooden door, its blackened surface mottled with mold.
"Ohh, it’s this kind of courtyard. I thought it was an apartment."
"That complex was built later, decades ago."
Ye Shuang unlocked the gate and stepped inside.
"Watch your step—some spots are slick with algae."
"Glad I didn’t wear heels."
A desolate yard, a withered old tree, a row of yellowed plants—Ye Shuang stood silently at the entrance for a moment before heading inside.
Chen Qin curiously explored, her gaze landing on a well.
"Someone drowned there. Don’t get too close," Ye Shuang said without turning, already at the wooden door.
"Wha—?!" Chen Qin shuddered and scurried back to his side.
The door’s once-vibrant guardian deities had faded to pale pink. Inserting a brass key, Ye Shuang jiggled it before turning the knob.
With a creak, the door swung open, releasing a cloud of dust thick with history.
The interior was dim and musty.
"Kinda… creepy," Chen Qin admitted.
"Don’t worry. At worst, it’s just my ancestors." Ye Shuang strode in and began cleaning.
Chen Qin marveled at relics she’d never seen before—a wall hanging of a chubby baby in a bellyband, ink paintings of pine trees, oil lamps. It felt like stepping into the last century.
"You holding up okay?" Ye Shuang asked, noting the thick dust.
"Who says I can’t handle it?" Chen Qin rolled up her sleeves. "Hand me a broom!"
"Buy your own. I’ve only got one."
"..."
After fetching cleaning supplies, Chen Qin dove into the work without complaint, her skin already coated in grime within minutes.
"Why go this far?" Ye Shuang knew how much she valued cleanliness. He couldn’t fathom her determination.
"Like I said, ancestral homes shouldn’t be cleaned by outsiders," Chen Qin replied, then added softly,
"There’s one more reason, though."
"What?"
Dust smudged her cheeks as she beamed. "I want to make more memories with you, Ye."
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers NOW!
