The man on the other end of the phone was Ye Shuang's close friend Chen Hai, who currently worked as a manager at a major bank in the city and was doing quite well for himself.
After sorting out the cash situation, Chen Hai continued asking, "Where are you now? Should I come pick you up?"
"I'm staying at someone else's place for now. Don’t worry, I’ll send you the location on WeChat later. Come get me tomorrow," Ye Shuang declined.
"Alright, how about 10 a.m. tomorrow?"
"Sure."
After hanging up, a faint, sweet fragrance drifted over. Ye Shuang turned his head—the long-haired girl beside him was staring at him motionlessly, her face almost pressed against his.
"What’s wrong?"
"You… are leaving?" Bai Yuyou tugged at Ye Shuang’s sleeve, her fingers tightening slightly as she asked.
She had just heard Ye Shuang say, "Come get me tomorrow," and thought he was leaving.
"No, I’m just depositing all this money in the bank so it’ll be safer," Ye Shuang explained, leaning back slightly to put some distance between them.
"Why haven’t you gone to shower yet?"
"I want to shower with you," Bai Yuyou said.
Her voice was light and delicate, and hearing such a request made Ye Shuang cough awkwardly for a moment. But considering that taking advantage of her naivety would make him no better than scum, he quickly dismissed the thought.
Looks like she needs more education about boundaries between men and women.
"Maybe next time?" Ye Shuang deflected, then changed the subject by pulling out the shower gel and other toiletries he had bought that afternoon. "Use these when you shower from now on. Go ahead."
"Mm." Hearing that Ye Shuang was willing to shower with her next time, Bai Yuyou obediently hugged the toiletries and headed into the bathroom.
Once she was inside, Ye Shuang picked up his phone and logged into WeChat. Since his phone number had changed, verifying his identity took a little longer than usual.
Without any chat history restored, there were no messages. He sent Chen Hai the location of the residential complex.
"OK, it’s past 8. Time for late-night snacks, bro!" Chen Hai quickly replied with a goofy-eyed emoji.
"Just ate. You’re ridiculous."
The next second, Chen Hai video-called him, and Ye Shuang answered.
Chen Hai was slightly chubby, with a round face and body, neatly trimmed short hair, and a pair of gold-rimmed glasses.
At the moment, he was wearing wireless earbuds, and from the background, it seemed he was eating at a restaurant.
"What the hell, man? Why stay at someone else’s place instead of mine? And whose place are you at anyway?" Chen Hai grumbled, though he never uttered a single curse word at work—always the picture of politeness, completely unlike his usual self.
After all, everyone in this world wears a mask, only showing their true selves to those closest to them. The two had grown up together, so formalities were unnecessary.
"No way I’m staying at your place. Do I really want to listen to you and your wife rocking the bed every night? Besides, your wife’s home, and I’m unemployed. Aren’t you worried?"
Chen Hai scoffed on the other end of the call. "Oh, screw you. Like I don’t know you?"
"You still haven’t told me whose place you’re at!"
"A friend’s. Just a friend." As Ye Shuang spoke, he noticed from the corner of his eye that the bathroom door had opened.
Bai Yuyou stepped out, dripping wet and covered in soap bubbles, her slender, pale figure barely concealed beneath the foam. "Ye Shuang, these bubbles won’t come off…"
Ye Shuang’s mouth fell open.
"Huh? Was that a girl’s voice? And such a sweet one too? Holy shit, dude, did you actually get adopted by a sugar mommy?!" Chen Hai’s voice blared from the phone before Ye Shuang hung up.
Standing up, Ye Shuang pushed the clueless Bai Yuyou back into the bathroom.
"Sit down." With no other choice, Ye Shuang had her sit on a stool while he used the showerhead to rinse the bubbles off her.
Even though his view was mostly limited to her smooth back and the faint curves barely hidden by her long hair, Ye Shuang still felt his self-control wavering.
Rubbing his temples, he focused on washing away the bubbles.
Her hair, in particular, was extremely long—reaching her waist—and after Bai Yuyou had applied a generous amount of shampoo, the foam seemed endless.
No matter how much he rinsed, more remained.
Unlike men, women don’t wash their hair every day, not just because it’s a hassle but also to protect their hair. Yet Bai Yuyou had never used shampoo before, and her hair was still incredibly soft. Some people are just born with good genes—this kind of hair quality can’t be achieved without genetics.
Once she was clean, Bai Yuyou noticed Ye Shuang’s pants were soaked and reached out to pull them down. "Pants… wet."
"Wait—!"
A short while later, Bai Yuyou, now dressed, was unceremoniously tossed out of the bathroom.
Sitting on the floor in a "seiza" position, she turned her head toward the closed bathroom door, blinking innocently before tilting her head. "Is he… mad?"
Soon, Ye Shuang finished his shower and stepped out, wearing only boxers and drying his hair with a towel.
Noticing Bai Yuyou still sitting by the door, he asked, "Why are you still here?"
"Are you hurt?" Bai Yuyou looked up at him with concern.
"No…?" Ye Shuang was puzzled. Why was she suddenly asking this?
"I saw… the swollen part. Did you get injured?"
Ye Shuang: "…"
"That’s not an injury. Come on, let’s dry your hair." He pulled her up, but her legs, having gone numb from sitting too long, gave out, and she tumbled into his arms.
"You okay?" Ye Shuang instinctively wrapped an arm around her waist.
The girl naturally carried a faint, sweet fragrance, but after her shower, the floral scent was even more intoxicating.
Ye Shuang wasn’t sure how much longer he could resist this girl, who had absolutely no sense of personal space.
For now, he’d just have to take it slow.
"So warm…" Bai Yuyou murmured, pressing her cheek against his body and closing her eyes contentedly.
Ye Shuang could only sigh helplessly before gently stroking the back of her head.
This girl must have been starved for affection. He wasn’t even sure what role he was playing in her life anymore.
After a while, seeing that her hair wasn’t drying easily, Ye Shuang brought out a hairdryer.
Bai Yuyou was unfamiliar with hairdryers—she often went to sleep with wet hair, only to be met with strange looks at school the next day.
"You smell awful. Do you even dry your clothes?"—this was something she heard often.
Though she didn’t understand why people said such things, she simply continued living the only way she knew how.
But as the warm air from the hairdryer blew against her hair, Bai Yuyou suddenly felt…
that her life really was different now.
And she loved it.
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.”
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!
ts me of treason?" "Correct. The host must return to the capital and gradually build up influence." "Wait—I have half a million soldiers, and you want me to go back to the capital to 'build influence'?" "Host, you are currently the Northern Garrison General, loyal to the Great Xia Dynasty." "Of course I am loyal to Great Xia! Absolutely loyal!" "But you keep referring to yourself as 'We'..." "Never mind the details! Summon all the regional commanders and military officers! We suspect treacherous officials are manipulating the court! They shall march with Us to the capital and purge the corrupt!" "......"
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
