"Alright, next up is number 21, Bai Yuyou from Business Class 1. Is she here?" A student referee standing by the high jump bar called out.
"Here."
Bai Yuyou responded and stepped forward.
"So you're Bai Yuyou, the top-ranked beauty on the school's popularity list... Hey, beautiful, wanna exchange WeChat later?" The referee student couldn't help but scan her up and down, his gaze lingering shamelessly on her snow-white, slender legs.
"Popularity list...?" Bai Yuyou wasn’t entirely sure what that ranking was, but when it came to strangers asking for her contact, she shook her head lightly.
"No, sorry."
Rejections should be firm, not vague out of politeness—that was something Ye Shuang had taught her.
The student hadn’t expected Bai Yuyou to refuse so decisively. "..."
"Uh, I was just asking out of courtesy," the boy chuckled awkwardly, though he silently made a mental note to call her out for improper form during the jump later. How dare she embarrass him like that?
He had plenty of female admirers, after all.
Despite his thoughts, he kept a cheerful tone. "Come on, let’s chat later. Maybe we’ll hit it off."
Bai Yuyou’s cool gaze lowered slightly. "No need, sorry."
"..."
The boy felt like he’d been slapped in the face. Fine, he thought, let’s see if you can clear the bar without touching it even once.
Bai Yuyou took her position and prepared to jump.
"Beeeeep—!" The referee blew his whistle.
She sprinted forward. Her starting height wasn’t high, and she used the simplest scissor technique—just splitting her legs to clear the bar.
But she misjudged the distance. Her knee bumped the bar, sending it tumbling onto the mat.
"Attempt void. Try again," the boy said, unsurprised. He could tell at a glance she was an amateur.
Probably just here for attention. That top spot on the popularity list? Definitely rigged.
Though she was undeniably stunning.
"Mm." Bai Yuyou nodded and reset for her second attempt.
The same thing happened again—the slightest touch sent the bar rolling off.
"Oof, tough luck. One more try," the boy said, grinning. "Want some tips? I can help."
In reality, he’d adjusted the bar to the very edge of its stand, where even the lightest contact would knock it over.
Bai Yuyou didn’t respond, focusing instead on her third attempt.
She glanced back and saw Keke and Ye Shuang standing nearby, giving her encouraging fist pumps. "You got this!"
"Okay." The girl steeled herself. This time, she’d nail it.
On her final sprint, she pushed off hard—
Only to accidentally kick the upright pole.
"DUANG!" The bar smacked the referee square in the face, sending him crashing to the ground with a yelp. "OW!"
Bai Yuyou sat on the mat, blinking at the fallen student.
"..."
"Failed."
Ye Shuang and the others in the distance: "..."
Yeah… high jump wasn’t her thing.
---
After the chaos, Ye Shuang led Bai Yuyou back to the spectator stands while the injured student was taken to the infirmary.
"Sorry, Ye Shuang..." Bai Yuyou mumbled an apology.
"Why apologize? Accidents happen in sports." Ye Shuang ruffled her hair.
That seemed to cheer her up a little.
"What’s next?"
"Nothing until this afternoon."
"Bro, Yuyou and I are gonna shower first," Keke said.
"Sure."
Ye Shuang nodded. If there were no more events, a quick rinse would be refreshing.
"Ye Shuang, phone..." Bai Yuyou reached out for her device. Ye Shuang paused, then smiled.
"I’ll hold onto it for now. Go shower first."
"Okay."
Once Keke and Bai Yuyou left, Ye Shuang pulled out her phone. The notification screen was empty. He hesitated, then dialed the contact labeled "Mother" again.
"The number you have dialed is currently unavailable..."
Still turned off.
Ye Shuang had no idea what was keeping Aunt Xian, so he tucked the phone away.
Then, a ringtone went off.
He checked—nothing on Bai Yuyou’s screen.
"Huh?" He pulled out his own phone instead. The caller ID read: "Qin Qin Baby."
"Qin Qin Baby... Wait, what?" Ye Shuang stared. Since when had his contacts been edited like this?
Did Chen Qin sneakily change it when he was taking care of her at the hospital?
"That woman..."
He answered. "Hello?"
"Shuang Shuang~"
"Uh, yeah?"
"You’ve got events at the sports meet today, right?" Chen Qin asked.
Ye Shuang paused. "I do, but... I never told you that?"
As faculty, he was signed up for the staff sprint and three-legged race—mostly because the school had so few nurses that everyone had to participate.
But he definitely hadn’t mentioned it to Chen Qin.
"Perfect."
"Perfect...?"
Before he could ask if she’d somehow shown up, she hung up with a playful, "You’ll see~"
Ye Shuang stared at his phone, then sighed and put it down.
---
A while later, Bai Yuyou and Keke returned, their hair damp and smelling of the school’s free shampoo—a scent Ye Shuang recognized well from students visiting the infirmary post-shower.
"Rest for a bit. There’s more this afternoon."
"Okay."
The stands were packed, but they found two seats in a corner.
"You two sit. I’ll stand," Ye Shuang offered.
"Ye Shuang, sit with me," Bai Yuyou insisted.
"Yeah, bro, just let Yuyou sit on your lap," Keke teased.
"That’s not appropriate."
"Why not? Or should I sit there instead?" Keke grinned mischievously.
'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.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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?"
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.”
