Su Muxue remained silent, watching the elderly man’s exaggerated display of pitifulness and the ingratiating smile he wore as he handed over the milk tea vouchers.
No… perhaps it was just her imagination.
Right now, the most important thing was to leave this place.
The middle-aged man seemed to realize the same thing.
He glanced at the vouchers in Liu Yuan’s hand, then at the visibly nervous old man, his lips parting slightly before he ultimately said nothing.
In such a bizarre place, it was better to avoid unnecessary trouble.
A head full of unanswered questions was still preferable to losing one’s life.
...
“Grandpa, can we leave now?” Liu Yuan waved the vouchers in her hand, her tone cheerful.
“Yes, yes! Of course! Absolutely!”
The old man looked as if he’d been granted a pardon, nodding and bowing repeatedly. “This way, please! The emergency exit is just up ahead!”
Hunched over, the old man led the way, clutching his small broom like a spear…
His steps were unsteady, and he seemed even more nervous than before, as if the group behind him were some kind of deathly specters.
Su Muxue and the middle-aged man exchanged a silent glance.
They followed quietly at the back of the group.
Liu Yuan, meanwhile, trailed curiously about three meters behind the old man.
The surroundings didn’t seem to change much—still the same ancient-style buildings with a worn-out feel—except the lighting appeared slightly brighter.
“Grandpa, did your escape room use some special props? It feels so realistic.”
The old man stiffened noticeably. “Heh… right? Our boss… spent, spent a fortune on it…”
His voice trembled slightly.
After walking for about two and a half minutes, the scenery around them grew monotonous.
The buildings on either side disappeared, replaced by walls of rough, uneven gray stone.
Finally, a corner appeared ahead.
The old man stopped at the turn and pointed forward. “There! That’s the emergency exit!”
Liu Yuan followed his finger.
Beyond the corner stood a door.
An utterly ordinary one, like the kind of security door commonly found in residential buildings.
On the wall beside it, four crude characters were scrawled in red paint: 【Emergency Exit】.
The writing was messy, like a child’s scribble, with streaks of red paint dripping in places.
“Brother, let’s go!”
As the group walked away, the old man watched their retreating figures, his obsequious and fearful expression slowly fading.
...
The sunlight was harsh.
The clamor of voices, along with the slightly polluted yet fresh air of Jiangxia—it all rushed over them in an instant.
They were out.
Behind them, the security door closed without a sound.
The middle-aged man and Su Muxue both let out long sighs of relief, their bodies relaxing as fine beads of sweat dotted their foreheads.
Their faces bore the dazed relief of survivors, as if they’d narrowly escaped disaster.
Liu Yuan, however, remained completely unaffected.
Waving the vouchers in one hand, she tugged excitedly at Su Qi’s sleeve with the other. “Brother! Let’s go get milk tea!”
A cup of milk tea costing a little over ten yuan wasn’t unaffordable, but maybe the free ones tasted better?
To her, the experience had just been a slightly thrilling but ultimately underwhelming escape room—too big, and with teammates who kept spoiling the surprises.
Su Qi glanced at his sister’s eager expression, then at Su Muxue and the middle-aged man, who still seemed shaken.
Su Muxue looked like she wanted to approach, but the middle-aged man pulled her back.
Su Qi replied casually, “Sure, let’s find the milk tea shop.”
“There are only two vouchers,” he reminded her. “What flavor do you want?”
Liu Yuan paused mid-step, turning back to Su Qi and staring blankly at the two thin slips of paper in her hand. “Huh? Only two?”
Three people, two vouchers.
That… really wasn’t enough.
In her excitement earlier, she hadn’t noticed.
In her simple mind, an apology gift should’ve been one for each person.
Su Qi found her expression amusing and said gently, “It’s fine. You two use the vouchers. I’ll buy my own.”
“No way!”
Liu Yuan rejected the idea without hesitation, her tone stubborn.
How could she let her brother pay for his own drink when they’d gotten these for free?
That would ruin the fun.
Her eyes sparkled as an idea struck her, and her face lit up again.
“Brother, I know a milk tea shop up ahead!”
She pulled Su Qi’s arm closer, whispering conspiratorially.
“They have a really special kind of straw!”
“Oh?” Su Qi played along, feigning curiosity.
“It’s like this—” Liu Yuan gestured. “One straw, but with two ends, bent like this, and they join into one tube!”
She formed a “Y” shape with her middle and index fingers, then mimed sipping from both.
Admittedly, the gesture was a little too cute.
“That way, we can share one cup!”
Liu Yuan’s tone was light, as if this were the most natural solution.
Su Qi blinked in surprise.
He looked at his sister’s bright, expectant face—her pure, uncomplicated desire.
With a soft laugh, he humored her. “Alright, then.”
“Yay!” Liu Yuan cheered, immediately tugging him forward.
Her memory was good, and the shop’s distinctive decor made it easy to find.
A pastel-pink signboard, cartoon mascots by the entrance—it was undeniably cute.
“This is the one!” Liu Yuan declared, pointing confidently.
She rushed to the counter with the vouchers, eager to order.
Su Qi and Yun Huang found seats nearby.
Yun Huang gazed at the couples laughing and the leisurely shoppers passing by, a sense of unreality washing over her again.
“Brother, Yun Huang, here’s the milk tea!”
One was a strawberry boba, pink and sweet-looking.
The other, a golden mango slush.
Liu Yuan handed the strawberry drink to Yun Huang.
Then, she placed the mango slush between herself and Su Qi.
Sure enough, the cup had that special straw.
A white plastic tube split into two curved ends at the top, like the entwined necks of swans.
“Brother, this is it!” Liu Yuan pointed proudly at the straw, her expression screaming, “Praise me!”
Her smugness practically spilled from her sparkling eyes.
She’d already imagined sipping from one side while Su Qi took the other, and then—
Su Qi’s gaze lingered on the straw.
Then, he looked at Liu Yuan.
The girl was practically vibrating with anticipation.
Su Qi leaned forward slightly.
Liu Yuan instinctively moved closer too, ready for his praise—or perhaps to share that first sweet sip of mango slush with him.
Then, she watched as Su Qi reached out and steadied the cup.
A perfectly normal action.
Then, Su Qi reached out and pulled the glass toward himself.
Still somewhat normal.
Liu Yuan blinked, her smile lingering as she waited for Su Qi to take a sip from one of the straws.
However, Su Qi didn’t choose to do that.
Instead, he also pulled Yun Huang’s strawberry boba drink toward himself.
Liu Yuan’s smile faltered slightly.
Huh?
What’s going on?
Did he not like the mango and decided to switch drinks?
That still seems somewhat nor—
The next second, Su Qi pulled the straw out of the mango slush.
Huh??
HUH???
Liu Yuan felt things were veering in a direction she absolutely did not want to see…
After removing the straw, Su Qi rotated it 180 degrees.
He positioned the double-ended side downward.
Then, he inserted both ends into the two drinks.
With the single opening on the other end in his mouth, he took one massive slurp.
The mango slush and strawberry boba visibly plummeted at an alarming rate!
The two different flavors of milk tea merged through the Y-shaped passage, forming a single stream before disappearing into Su Qi’s mouth.
"Gulp gulp—"
The not-so-loud slurping sound was unusually clear in the quiet corner of the milk tea shop.
In just a few seconds.
The cups were left with only a few half-melted ice cubes and a shallow layer of tea that the straw couldn’t reach.
Su Qi released the straw and looked up.
Even smacking his lips as if savoring the last drop.
The air…
Froze.
Liu Yuan remained leaning forward, her eyes wide with disbelief as she stared at the empty cups.
Her mind short-circuited for a moment.
This wasn’t how it was supposed to go!
That’s not how these straws are meant to be used!
What happened to sharing a drink together?!
Where was her carefully planned, heartwarming scene of "two people sipping from the same cup"?
After a few ‘gulp gulp’ sounds, how did it just… vanish?
Beside them, Yun Huang’s usually cool expression flickered with rare surprise before melting into barely suppressed amusement.
She glanced quickly at Su Qi, then at the fuming Liu Yuan.
"Su Qi!"
Liu Yuan finally snapped out of it, slamming her hands on the table as she shot to her feet. Her voice rose an octave, trembling with indignation.
[Joy +999]
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
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.”
