"You seem a bit off lately."
"Do I?"
In the restaurant, Chen Qin, who had just returned to the country after wrapping up her work, noticed that Ye Shuang's mood was off. Her beautiful eyes fell on his face, studying him for a moment before she asked.
"What happened?"
"..." Ye Shuang just smiled and continued eating. "I'm fine. You're probably just imagining things."
"You can't hide it from me," Chen Qin said softly. She rested her cheek on one hand and thought for a moment. With a slight sway of her jeweled earrings, she seemed to realize something.
"Is it about Yuyou?"
Having his thoughts exposed so bluntly, Ye Shuang's face involuntarily stiffened for a few seconds before he fell silent.
"What did you do?" Chen Qin asked curiously. She couldn't quite imagine Ye Shuang getting this upset over Bai Yuyou; after all, the two of them were supposed to have a very good relationship, and Bai Yuyou didn't seem like the type to argue with Ye Shuang.
"I told her we are getting married..." Ye Shuang didn't hide it, speaking frankly, "And... that there is no possibility between me and her."
Chen Qin was quiet for a moment, as if digesting the information. She was a bit surprised that Ye Shuang would actually say such things to Bai Yuyou.
In Ye Shuang and Chen Qin's eyes, Bai Yuyou was still a child whose mind had not fully matured. Ye Shuang's actions had undoubtedly torn off the veil of idealism in a cruel manner.
"Ye, Yuyou will be very heartbroken if you do this," Chen Qin said slowly, feeling that Ye Shuang shouldn't have done that.
"It's a necessary process," Ye Shuang simply replied.
"No, it's not," Chen Qin shook her head. "Ye, haven't I said it before? I am happy as long as I can be by your side... Deep down, that child probably thinks the same way. Telling her all this is like abandoning her."
"I..." Ye Shuang couldn't say a word.
"Follow your heart, Ye," Chen Qin said softly. "Don't wait until an accident happens to regret it. You know that child likes to keep things bottled up inside, and she only opens up to you."
"..."
"Mm..."
...
Another week passed.
Early morning. Bai Yuyou hadn't had a good night's sleep in a long time. She sat at the head of her bed as usual, waiting for dawn to break. The young girl didn't know why, but her heart felt incredibly painful. Her mood was constantly so low that she didn't want to speak.
Even when Keke spoke to her, she often didn't hear a thing.
As the sky grew faintly bright, Bai Yuyou heard footsteps from the next room, but she didn't make any move. She just silently hugged her knees and buried her face in them.
Ye Shuang doesn't want me anymore.
...
"Yuyou, Yuyou?" During breakfast, Tang Keke tugged at Bai Yuyou. The long-haired girl sitting next to her finally snapped back to reality.
"Keke..."
"You look terrible. You even have dark circles under your eyes." Tang Keke noticed that Bai Yuyou's complexion was off and couldn't help but worry. "Are you okay?"
Bai Yuyou shook her head to indicate she was fine.
"I don't know why, but it's okay," the girl said softly.
Seeing Bai Yuyou in this increasingly absent-minded state, Tang Keke felt like she couldn't help at all. Ye Shuang had already gone to work. Lately, he had been leaving for work quite early, heading out almost immediately after making breakfast.
It was as if he was running away from something.
But when it came to matters of the heart, Tang Keke really couldn't offer much help other than hoping Yuyou would look on the bright side.
"Keke, I'm hungry," Bai Yuyou suddenly said, even though she was still holding her breakfast in her hands. Her whole body seemed enveloped in a low-pressure aura, as if anyone who looked at her would be sucked in and unable to struggle.
"Yuyou, you..." Tang Keke noticed Bai Yuyou's somewhat hollow eyes and reached out to grab her arm.
"Do you want us to go find Brother?"
"No need... Ye Shuang just spoke to me," Bai Yuyou said softly.
Tang Keke froze for a moment. "Brother? Didn't Brother leave for work early this morning?"
Bai Yuyou: "..."
The girl ate her breakfast quietly, not responding to Tang Keke.
Tang Keke was a bit worried.
However, after finishing breakfast, the two of them went to school.
The morning sunshine was nice. Tang Keke walked beside Bai Yuyou, trying to find all sorts of topics to cheer her up. She talked about everything from last night's TV dramas to her childhood stories, but she didn't get any response from Bai Yuyou.
Bai Yuyou walked slowly, her gaze fixed ahead, yet it seemed as if she wasn't looking at anything at all. Her beautiful eyes were completely devoid of emotion.
"Yuyou..."
During the morning classes, Bai Yuyou seemed to return to her normal self. She took notes during class, looked up at what the teacher was saying as if listening attentively, and even answered the teacher's questions fluently.
Seeing this, Tang Keke finally relaxed a bit. She stretched and said to Bai Yuyou, "Yuyou, Yuyou, I'm a little sleepy so I'm going to rest my head for a bit. Remember to wake me up later."
"Okay," Bai Yuyou nodded gently.
Because the next class was still in this large lecture hall, Tang Keke quickly fell asleep with her head on the desk. She had stayed up late last night binge-watching anime, so she planned to catch up on sleep during class.
...
"You there, stop sleeping." An unknown amount of time passed before Keke suddenly heard the teacher's voice.
It wasn't until she heard the teacher's voice that the soundly sleeping Tang Keke groggily opened her eyes. She rubbed her eyes. "Ugh, Yuyou, why didn't you wake me up?"
Turning her head, she saw that the girl beside her had long since disappeared.
"Did she go to the restroom?" Tang Keke looked around. After confirming she couldn't spot Bai Yuyou anywhere, she had no choice but to take out her phone and text her.
A good while passed before the girl slowly walked in through the back door of the classroom and sat down next to Tang Keke.
"Yuyou, did you go to the restroom? Why didn't you reply to my message?" Keke asked upon seeing Bai Yuyou return.
"Ye Shuang came looking for me just now," Bai Yuyou said softly.
"Oh, did Brother come to school today?" Tang Keke scratched her head. If the two of them had a good talk, maybe Yuyou wouldn't be so depressed anymore, right?
"Did you go to the school infirmary just now?"
"No," Bai Yuyou said.
"Outside the classroom?"
Bai Yuyou: "..."
"Then where did you see Brother?" Tang Keke asked curiously. Why did Bai Yuyou seem so unwilling to say anything?
"I don't know." The girl's words left Keke stunned for a few seconds.
"Didn't you... just say you saw Brother?"
Bai Yuyou lowered her eyes, her gaze still hollow, and simply said softly, "He said he would always be here, so I saw him."
Tang Keke: "..."
Is Yuyou... having some kind of mental breakdown?
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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.”
