The room was filled with a peach-colored ambiance, its enormous heart-shaped bed strewn with fresh flower petals. Ye Shuang and Chen Qin sat on the edge of the bed, stiff and motionless as if meeting for the first time.
Chen Qin: "OvO…"
Her mind had been clouded by impulse when she dragged him here. Now, she was utterly dazed—especially with Ye Shuang’s hand already wrapped around her waist.
"Um… Ye, maybe we should… reschedule?" Feeling a ticklish warmth in her abdomen, Chen Qin tentatively suggested, only to notice Ye Shuang silently studying her, as if deep in thought.
Suddenly, he asked, "Did we… break up?"
"Huh?"
"N-no, we didn’t… right?" Chen Qin whispered, but Ye Shuang’s eyes flickered with confusion. He pressed a hand to his forehead, struggling to recall something.
"Did I misremember?"
"Are you okay, Ye?!"
"I’m fine." Ye Shuang murmured, seeming to regain some clarity. "Let’s continue."
"Wait, wait, wait—no, forget it!" Chen Qin blurted out.
"What’s wrong?" Ye Shuang pinched her cheek playfully, grinning. "Weren’t you going to devour me?"
"N-not like that!"
Chen Qin suddenly felt like she was taking advantage of him.
"I—I was just blinded by desire earlier," she admitted, acknowledging she’d been craving Ye Shuang’s body. But now, cooled down, a wave of guilt washed over her.
What if something really happened, and Ye Shuang regained his memories? Would he think she’d gone too far?
"But… we’ve come close before…"
Her head spun.
"Stop. Enough." In the end, reason and pride won out. Chen Qin pulled Ye Shuang out of the room.
"We’ll talk next time!"
Ye Shuang, unfazed by her antics, chuckled. "Same old Chen Qin—always backing out at the last second. You never go through with it."
"Poor you, huh?" Chen Qin’s heart twinged with sympathy. After a brief struggle, she relented, "Fine, maybe I’ll just—"
But the next second, she shook her head vigorously.
"Ugh, what am I thinking?!"
Wiping imaginary drool from her lips, she steeled herself. "First, we fix your memory!"
"I told you, I’m not losing my memory," Ye Shuang sighed.
What was wrong with this world?
Had he crossed into a parallel universe? Out of nowhere, he’d somehow gained a so-called girlfriend named Zhao Mengyao.
His girlfriend had always been Chen Qin.
They’d been deeply in love, even planning to get engaged this year…
Engaged…
Ye Shuang’s thoughts blurred. Wait, hadn’t they already gotten engaged? Why did that memory feel so hazy?
Had it actually happened?
The ring…
He glanced at his hand—no engagement ring in sight. A ringing filled his ears.
"Ye?"
"..."
"Ye?"
"..."
"Ye?!"
Ye Shuang snapped back to reality, meeting Chen Qin’s worried gaze.
"Sorry, I spaced out."
"You’re pale." Chen Qin reached out, tenderly brushing his cheek—cold sweat dampened her fingertips. Guilt crept into her voice. "This is my fault for being so greedy earlier."
"Let’s just go back and rest."
"..."
They returned to the apartment. Though Ye Shuang insisted he was fine, Chen Qin forced him into bed as evening fell.
"Sleep a little. Maybe you’ll feel better after a nap," she said, tucking him in before climbing onto the bed herself, pretending to adjust the sheets in the corner.
But her position inadvertently smothered Ye Shuang’s face beneath her soft curves, rolling over him like waves.
"Can’t… breathe."
"Huh?"
"Tch."
...
Eventually, Chen Qin made sure Ye Shuang closed his eyes to sleep, watching over him quietly.
Her emotions were a tangled mess.
If Ye Shuang saw her as his girlfriend, she’d be overjoyed—but…
It wasn’t enough.
"Just a substitute…" Chen Qin propped her chin on her hand, lost in thought as she gazed at Ye Shuang.
The setting sun cast golden-orange light through the floor-to-ceiling windows, gilding her long lashes as they fluttered.
"..."
Beside her, Ye Shuang’s breathing steadied—he’d fallen asleep.
He must’ve been exhausted.
Out like a light the moment his head hit the pillow.
"If only Zhao Mengyao had never existed… Why did you fall for her?" Chen Qin had asked herself this countless times.
A memory surfaced. She pulled out her phone and logged into her cloud storage.
Crossing her legs, she scrolled through dated videos until she found one—a middle-school talent show.
"Next up, Class 2-2’s Zhao Mengyao with a dance performance!"
In the grainy footage, a proud girl in a pleated mini-skirt swayed to a K-pop beat, tossing her hair, biting her lip, and moving with a confidence that radiated youthful allure.
Back then, Zhao Mengyao had been extraordinary—her dance skills made her the school’s darling.
Maybe it was also because of the hideous, ill-fitting uniforms.
"Is this what they call a ‘white moonlight’?" Chen Qin mused. Compared to Zhao Mengyao’s vibrant performance, her own quiet violin recital must’ve seemed dull.
"Even so…"
Her whisper was cut off by the doorbell.
She headed downstairs, expecting a delivery—Bai Yuyou and the others had keycards, after all. But when she opened the door, the figure outside made her brows arch in surprise—
"Zhao Mengyao."
"Is Ye Shuang here?" Zhao Mengyao looked haggard, clearly having a rough time.
Her company had gone bankrupt, followed by Tang Hao vanishing abroad with all the money, leaving no trace.
No matter how she racked her brain, Zhao Mengyao couldn’t understand why Tang Hao would betray her like this.
After she’d given him everything.
"Ye isn’t here. Get lost," Chen Qin said flatly. With Ye Shuang asleep and his memories unstable, she didn’t want Zhao Mengyao stirring up more chaos.
"Liar! He lives here—I checked!" Zhao Mengyao shouted.
"Ye Shuang! Are you inside? Come out!"
"Ye Shuang!"
"Enough! What do you even want?!" Chen Qin snapped, slamming the door—
But Zhao Mengyao stuck her foot in the gap.
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
