Yinshan Academy had many small gardens, each featuring a rustic wooden pavilion. The pavilions were modest in size, with a stone chess table at the center and several benches surrounding it. Vines gently coiled around the support pillars, making it seem as though they had merged into one.
Tao Xiaotao found a secluded corner and sat down on one of the benches. At this hour, with most students rushing to the cafeteria for lunch, the place was nearly deserted.
She pulled out a plastic bag and opened it to reveal a pile of bread crusts—leftovers from a bakery the night before, sold at a steep discount. A whole bag for just one yuan.
Bread crusts weren’t always easy to come by, though. If you arrived too late, they’d be gone.
But after sitting overnight in the summer heat, the crusts didn’t taste great—not that Tao Xiaotao minded much. She took a sip from her water bottle and continued chewing.
“Darn it, my bottles are gone.” After finishing a couple of crusts, her mood suddenly plummeted. Fat tears rolled down her cheeks, plopping onto her lap.
She cried as she ate the rest, then gulped down the remaining water in her bottle before carefully rewrapping the leftovers.
Dinner.
Sniffling, she glanced to the side, as if sensing something.
“……”
But she didn’t dwell on it, gathering her things and leaving.
A dozen seconds later, two heads popped up from a nearby bush, a leaf still perched atop Bai Yuyou’s head.
“Yuyou, why was Tao Xiaotao eating those bread crusts? Is her family really poor or something?” Tang Keke couldn’t help but ask.
“But Yinshan Academy’s tuition is 30,000 per semester, and the Hong Kong-Macau International Class starts at 100,000.”
“I’m free,” Bai Yuyou said. In her memory, she’d never paid tuition—some special exemption had covered it.
“Free… Oh, right!” Tang Keke suddenly recalled. “If you list our academy as your first choice for college, they waive all tuition fees.”
It dawned on her that many students at the academy didn’t pay tuition. Yinshan Academy had all sorts of waivers—for top academic performers, first-choice applicants, those admitted for special talents, and so on.
“Those bottles… was she planning to sell them?” Tang Keke felt a pang of guilt. She’d never seen someone her age collecting bottles before and had just assumed the girl was helping with cleanup out of kindness.
“We messed up,” Bai Yuyou said.
“Let’s give her some money. How much do those bottles even sell for? A few hundred?”
“Don’t know.” Bai Yuyou shook her head. “Keke, let’s collect bottles to return to her…”
“Huh?” Tang Keke blinked. “Where would we even find that many? Might as well just give her cash.”
Bai Yuyou thought for a moment. “Then ask the cleaning lady.”
“Right! She probably took them to sell.”
The two girls scurried off to search for the cleaning lady from the day before. Luckily, she wasn’t hard to find—soon, they spotted her driving a cleaning cart, sunglasses perched on her nose like a trendy accessory against the glaring sun.
“Bottles?” The cleaning lady gripped the steering wheel, the machine’s brushes still spinning beneath her feet. After hearing the girls’ question, she held up two fingers.
“Sold for this much.”
“Two hundred?” Keke guessed.
“Silly, if bottle collecting paid that well, everyone would be doing it. Two yuan!”
“Two yuan?” Tang Keke was stunned. That huge bag of bottles was only worth two yuan?
She gestured vaguely, suddenly wondering if the units were different.
Just then, the cleaning lady drove off, her cart’s hazard lights blinking behind her.
“Two yuan made her that upset…” Tang Keke scratched her head, realizing Tao Xiaotao’s situation was even tougher than she’d imagined.
Her heart ached for the girl.
She turned to Bai Yuyou. “How about we just give her a hundred yuan?”
“She doesn’t like us,” Bai Yuyou pointed out. After all, Tao Xiaotao had kept her distance before.
“Maybe not dislike… maybe she’s just shy.” Tang Keke pondered. “If we can’t talk to her directly, let’s slip it into her desk.”
“……” Bai Yuyou blinked but didn’t object.
……
By afternoon, military training was over, and everyone had returned to the classroom to rest. With no classes scheduled, many students dozed off.
Though they had to stay until four, sitting indoors playing on their phones was far better than standing at attention outside.
Seated at the front of the classroom, Tao Xiaotao was packing her books to take back to the dorm when her fingers brushed against something unexpected—what she first thought was a scrap of paper turned out to be a crisp red banknote.
“?!”
She froze, glanced around, then quickly stuffed the money into her pocket and hurried out.
From a distance, Bai Yuyou and Tang Keke exchanged glances.
“Success.”
“Mhm.”
Tang Keke flashed a victory sign. “She must be happy, right?”
Bai Yuyou, however, kept her eyes on the doorway, silent.
Once outside, Tao Xiaotao pulled out a phone no bigger than half her palm, a faded “3G” stamped on its back. She fumbled with the buttons before finally dialing a number.
Soon, someone answered. “Hello?”
“Um, hi, advisor? This is Tao Xiaotao from Business Class 1.”
“Oh, Xiaotao! What’s up?”
“I, uh… I found a hundred yuan… and I don’t know who dropped it. Could you help ask around? Whoever lost it must be worried.”
“A hundred?” The advisor paused, then chuckled. “It’s just a hundred yuan—keep it for snacks or fruit. Don’t worry about it.”
“B-but…”
“Really, it’s fine. Focus on your studies, okay?” The advisor sounded entirely unconcerned.
The call ended.
Tao Xiaotao stared blankly at her phone. “Heavens… a hundred yuan ain’t worth frettin’ over? City folk really built different…”
She trudged back to her seat, visibly unsettled—a reaction that left Bai Yuyou and Tang Keke baffled.
Why did she seem even unhappier now?
The two girls exchanged glances.
Did she lose the money?
'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.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
