It was like a dream.
A nightmare, one that left Ye Shuang unable to fully process the information for days.
"..."
At night, lying in bed thinking about An Shiyu, Ye Shuang closed his eyes and could only picture 005 tugging at his sleeve, only to turn into a cold corpse the next moment.
"Sigh..."
Could he still enter that timeline?
In other words, did he still have the courage to go back there?
Ye Shuang himself couldn't be sure.
There was no doubt that incident had left a psychological shadow on him.
But if he could provide medication, would it be possible to prevent more tragedies from happening?
More children like 005 existed in that world.
Ye Shuang couldn't decide. He got up and sat in front of the computer, pulling up all the previous research data from the backup files.
He silently memorized the content, thinking it might come in handy the next time he entered that timeline.
But things didn't go as he wished.
In the following days, Ye Shuang didn't see the clock again. Despite making an effort to spend more time with An Shiyu, there was no progress.
He had no ability to actively enter the timeline, nor did he know the conditions for the clock's appearance—everything was completely passive.
Especially the experience "down the mountain." Watching himself move as if he were a player viewing a CG animation...
...
Half a month passed in the blink of an eye, and soon Ye Shuang's wedding was approaching.
"Ye, before the wedding, you have to have a meal with my family," Chen Qin said through the video. Since they were getting married, he still hadn't officially met all the uncles and aunts—though he'd seen some during the New Year, they needed a proper dinner.
"Okay, when?"
"This Friday," Chen Qin said, but noticed Ye Shuang's gaze seemed fixed on something. "Ye, what are you looking at?"
"Your belly." Ye Shuang was observing Chen Qin's lower abdomen through the video—it had been two months after all.
Chen Qin laughed softly at that. She lifted her shirt to show Ye Shuang her stomach. "Ta-da! See, Ye?"
Her pale lower abdomen was slightly rounded, though barely noticeable. Compared to her fit, athletic figure, this slight bulge looked like she'd just gained a few pounds.
That was also why the wedding had been moved up—if they waited a few more months, her belly would become very obvious.
"It's a bit bigger, but it still looks fine," Ye Shuang said with a slight smile.
"I feel like this part is bigger too," Chen Qin said, then showed him the lower curve before quickly pulling her shirt back down. She glanced around sneakily, as if afraid of getting caught doing something wrong, since she was still on the living room sofa.
"Where are Uncle and Auntie Chen?"
"Outside, I'm home alone."
After chatting with Chen Qin for a while, Ye Shuang hung up.
It was morning now. Bai Yuyou and Keke had already gone to school, and even Yezi had been transferred as a transfer student to a nearby public elementary school.
"Hmm, so I'm going to have two kids before I'm thirty?" Ye Shuang mused.
It seemed like that was the case.
"Might as well write some of the novel."
Before heading to the company, Ye Shuang planned to update two chapters of his novel. Recently, the novel had reached over a million words, and the two-million-word goal was just a few hundred thousand away.
"Has it really been that long? Feels like it's almost done," he sighed.
He originally started writing this novel just to kill time while waiting for Bai Yuyou to finish school and make a little extra money. But now, he had somehow stuck with it, and the two-million-word mark was just around the corner.
"Dropping some free little gifts, ooh." As usual, Ye Shuang typed that line and uploaded the new chapter with a wry smile.
Once he finished this novel, he probably wouldn't write another one.
Work was already quite busy, after all.
With that thought, he turned off the monitor, got up, drove to the company, and arrived at the office.
Once inside, he glanced at the assistant's seat. An Shiyu was already there early. Ever since the last incident, she had become noticeably more reserved and no longer initiated any physical contact with Ye Shuang.
She seemed to be in a "finish work then bolt" kind of mood.
Ye Shuang didn't pry about it.
"Morning. When did you get here?" Ye Shuang greeted her.
The short-haired girl lifted her head slightly, then looked away. "Well..."
"I got here when work started."
Same old nonsense from her. Ye Shuang was used to it. He sat down in his spot and began browsing through the neatly stacked documents on his desk.
Time passed quietly. The office was silent, broken only by the occasional click of An Shiyu's mouse and the rustling of Ye Shuang flipping through contracts.
Normally, An Shiyu would have draped a leg over and lounged around playing games. But not anymore—maybe because of that hotel incident.
"Little Yu," Ye Shuang finally spoke up.
"What?" An Shiyu replied without turning her head. She kept staring at her monitor, showing only a small ear and the strands of hair behind it.
"About what happened last time..."
"Don't bring it up," An Shiyu cut him off directly. She propped her cheek on her hand.
"Forget it. Who knew you'd end up crying over it? It's not like we..."
"Tch."
"You're a grown man. Crying like that? How unbecoming."
An Shiyu's last sentence seemed to come from deep in her chest, carrying a strange undertone.
"That's not why I was crying," Ye Shuang said, somewhat helpless.
"Then why? Were you moved to tears?" An Shiyu shot him a glance before letting out a sigh. "Ah, forget it. Don't mention it anymore."
"Sorry."
"What's there to apologize for? You're a bit of a softie, sure, but it's not your fault," An Shiyu said flatly.
Ye Shuang: "..."
Was she comforting him or insulting him?
He leaned back in his chair, thinking for a moment before asking,
"Little Yu, can I ask you something?"
"998 yuan per question."
"How are you the same as Xiaoyi?"
"I'm two bucks cheaper. A better deal," An Shiyu said.
"Is that so?"
Seeing Ye Shuang stay silent, she finally relented. "Fine, first-time discount—free. What do you want to ask?"
"About your parents."
Those simple words made An Shiyu fall silent. Her expression even turned cold.
"I don't want to talk about it."
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
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.
