“Crunch crunch crunch crunch.”
“Crunch, crunch.”
“Slurp—”
“Gulp, gulp, gulp.”
Accompanied by the rustling of bags inside the trash can, a long-haired girl was currently relocating the snacks from the basket in front of her. Relocating them straight into her own stomach.
The empty wrappers, naturally, were left for the trash can to enjoy.
“Yu You, don’t eat too much; it’s almost mealtime,” said Tang Keke, who was sitting cross-legged nearby playing a game. Unlike Bai Yuyou, who was still wearing the uniform of Yinshan Academy, Keke had changed the moment she got home into a cool little tank top and shorts—after all, it was still pretty muggy today.
“Don’t worry, I can finish it all,” Bai Yuyou said through a mouthful of chips, all while making sure to pass some to the little girl beside her, Yezi.
The two of them, big and small, eating snacks at the same time looked as alike as if they had been cut from the same mold.
So similar.
So very similar.
This sight landed squarely in the eyes of Ye Shuang, who was sitting across from them. Though he had the appearance of someone absorbed in his phone, his gaze was firmly locked on Bai Yuyou and Yezi. Since the match had come up in his mind, Ye Shuang grew more and more convinced that Yezi was Bai Yuyou’s daughter.
But then, how old had she been when she gave birth?
And Bai Yuyou had never once mentioned it before. It wasn’t like she could have been cloned, right?
Just as Ye Shuang was lost in thought, Bai Yuyou noticed his stare and tilted her head slightly.
“Corner of your mouth,” Ye Shuang said, reaching out to brush away a few crumbs stuck to the corner of her mouth.
Bai Yuyou wiped reflexively, then looked as though she wanted to throw herself into Ye Shuang’s arms.
Holding the soft, clinging warmth of Bai Yuyou in his arms, along with the faint floral scent that clung to her, Ye Shuang silently summoned his system interface, asking his question,
“Did Yuyou really experience something like that?”
[Character: Bai Yuyou
Touch to verify]
Ye Shuang: “…”
Are you out of your mind?
Seeing that the system was as unreliable as ever, Ye Shuang decided not to dwell on it. He figured he’d just take Bai Yuyou and little Yezi for a paternity test so he wasn’t jumping at shadows.
Humans are the sort of creatures that need repeated confirmation before they accept the truth—but maybe even then, that truth isn’t always the real one.
With Bai Yuyou in his arms, Ye Shuang’s mind raced over her relationship with Yezi and whether Bai Laoqi (that old man) had done anything to Bai Yuyou.
Based on the timeline, only that single possibility existed. After all, she had been locked up in the attic all that time.
Unless someone else had gotten in.
If Yezi really was Bai Laoqi’s daughter, Ye Shuang knew he would never be able to accept it.
Had Bai Yuyou simply forgotten, or had she lost the memory due to trauma? He had no way of knowing. What he did feel was a pang of sympathy as he gently patted her on the back.
Bai Yuyou looked up, catching the expression in Ye Shuang’s eyes, and tilted her head again, not understanding.
After dinner came, there was a short rest before it was time for a bath. While Ye Shuang sat at the desk, lost in thought, a sound came from behind him. He turned around to see Bai Yuyou standing in the doorway.
( • ω • )
Ye Shuang couldn’t help but smile softly at that. “What are you standing there for? Come on in.”
“Okay,” Bai Yuyou replied, hurrying into the room. But she was holding a towel, and judging by the eager look on her face, Ye Shuang understood immediately that this girl had come to take a bath with him.
“Yu You, let’s bathe together tonight. We can talk a bit,” Ye Shuang said.
That simple sentence made Bai Yuyou’s movements pause almost imperceptibly, as if her actions had slowed down. A flicker of confusion passed through her pitch-black, gemstone-like eyes—this was completely unlike Ye Shuang, who always kept his distance. Seeing him invite her was something she had never encountered before.
Her brain was about to start overheating.
Ye Shuang grabbed his change of clothes and walked into the bathroom, the air inside already carrying the faint scent of body wash.
When he looked back, Bai Yuyou was standing right behind him, setting her clothes on the rack.
“Hug,” the girl said, wrapping herself around him, so soft against his front.
Ye Shuang’s expression flickered. “Yu You, there’s something I want to ask you.”
“Something?” Bai Yuyou looked up. She sensed something off about Ye Shuang today, like he had something weighing on his mind.
“Mm… Let me rinse off first,” Ye Shuang said. Noticing her confused look, he quickly washed up and then slipped into the bathtub. As soon as he did, Bai Yuyou eagerly turned around in the water and settled into his arms.
The warm bathwater brought a pink flush to her cheeks as she seemed to bask in the heat and the comfort of his embrace.
Seeing her eyes half-closed, on the verge of dozing off, Ye Shuang had to put an arm around her waist and splash a hand out of the warm water to pinch her soft cheek.
“Yu You, I have a question for you.”
“It might stir up some unpleasant memories—is that okay?”
Unpleasant memories…
“Yeah.” Seeing her puzzled face, Ye Shuang gave a nod.
“With Ye Shuang here, there are no unpleasant memories.”
“What if I’m asking about a long time ago? Time far, far before now?” Ye Shuang’s voice was low, resting his chin on top of Bai Yuyou’s head while one hand gently rubbed her back.
“Ask whatever you like, Ye Shuang, it’s okay.”
Bai Yuyou burrowed deeper into his arms, her whole body seeming to relax completely.
“You probably understand the sort of thing I mean. That Bai Laoqi—the one who locked you up—did he do anything like that to you?” Ye Shuang asked.
Bai Yuyou lifted her head, clearly puzzled as to why he was bringing this up. Still, she had always answered Ye Shuang’s questions without hesitating.
“No, he didn’t do that. He just beat me and said I ruined his life.”
“That’s it?” Ye Shuang pressed.
“That’s it. Because I had to stay in that dark room, I barely ever saw him. And he said I smelled bad so he didn’t want to be near me,” Bai Yuyou spoke softly. Perhaps the warmth of her life now made the cold memories feel even darker by contrast.
But what Ye Shuang was asking about simply had never happened.
“So, not Bai Laoqi…” Ye Shuang thought about other possibilities. “Then, have you ever… done something like that with anyone before?”
Bai Yuyou looked directly at Ye Shuang, as if surprised he would even ask such a question. She said, bluntly,
“Ye Shuang, are you disgusted with me?”
Those soft words made Ye Shuang’s heart jolt, but he immediately explained, “No, Yu You, absolutely not. It’s just… there are some reasons why I need to know this.”
“I trust Ye Shuang,” Bai Yuyou nodded.
Then she answered, “No. Never, not once.”
Bai Yuyou didn’t know how to lie—especially not to Ye Shuang. Yet now, with that answer, Ye Shuang only felt more confused than before.
So then, Yezi…
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.”
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?"
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.
. 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!"
