Chapter 105
Seeing the girl's bashful demeanor before him, Gu Ran's heart skipped a beat.
Even though he hadn't been in a relationship in his past or present life combined, he wasn't completely clueless.
Did she... misunderstand something?
Lao She once said that a woman's blush speaks volumes more than a lengthy confession.
At the exact moment he saw the girl blush.
His heart fluttered along with it, unable to calm down for a long time.
"These flowers are for you..."
Halfway through his sentence, he suddenly couldn't bring himself to say the rest.
After swallowing hard for a while, he forced a smile and said, "Of course, it's to celebrate the end of your college entrance exams!!"
Then he reached out and rubbed her head, "Didn't you see at the school gate just now? Many parents were waiting to give their kids flowers. Whatever other kids have, you should have too!"
So... it wasn't a confession...
Hearing this, the aloof girl felt a sense of relief, but for some unknown reason, she also felt a faint sense of disappointment.
Pouting slightly, she snatched the flowers and brought them to her nose to take a gentle sniff, the corners of her lips curling up uncontrollably.
"Hmph, at least you're thoughtful enough to know how to honor your older sister."
"Yes, yes, yes. Let's hurry home, it feels like it's going to rain."
Gu Ran readily agreed, not arguing with his stubborn sister, and just reached out to rub her head again.
"Get lost, you have no respect for your elders. Whose head do you think you're touching?"
It was only then that Ye Zhenzhen reacted, slapping away the insubordinate dog paw.
But she didn't make a big deal out of it. She turned around, holding the flowers, and took large strides forward, reflecting on her recent emotional journey.
Wait!
What did he mean by parents waiting to give their kids flowers?
What did he mean by whatever other kids have, she should have too?!
Thinking of this, she couldn't help but stop in her tracks, narrowing her eyes as she turned to stare at her brother and his hidden implications.
"Wh-what's wrong?"
Under her intense gaze, Gu Ran subconsciously felt guilty, somewhat afraid to meet her eyes.
Hmph, what a dog!
I'm in a good mood today.
A magnanimous older sister won't stoop to the level of her stinky younger brother.
Although this guy was secretly taking advantage of her, for some reason.
That phrase, whatever other kids have, you should have too, sounded really heartwarming...
The two continued walking forward. Under the thickly clouded sky, a young, fluttering heart was warmed.
...
Pink lilies?
What did they symbolize?
Along the way, the aloof girl couldn't take her eyes off the bouquet in her hands.
But no matter how much she thought about it, she couldn't figure out if this guy really had any ulterior motives.
Ye Zhenzhen couldn't help but steal a glance at Gu Ran beside her, only to meet his deep gaze head-on.
"What are you looking at?" Seeing that he had caught her peeking, Gu Ran narrowed his eyes and asked.
"N-nothing..."
Ye Zhenzhen hastily turned her head away, a blush creeping up her cheeks.
Making eye contact the moment she turned her head, how could there be such a coincidence?
It was confirmed, this guy must have been staring at her the whole way!
Thinking of a certain terrifying possibility...
Her heart suddenly pounded fiercely, as if a restless little rabbit was thumping around in her chest.
However, from the developmental perspective of a certain Mr. Gu, this little rabbit seemed to have grown a bit bigger.
Ignoring his gaze, the blushing, aloof girl took a deep breath, smoothing out the rhythm of her breathing.
"Let's hurry home, it's about to rain."
There was no more idle chatter along the way, and the two quickly walked back home.
...
"Hmm? No one is home?"
Inserting the key.
After turning it twice, Gu Ran frowned in confusion.
Why did it need to be unlocked twice?
The door was deadbolted?
After opening the door, what greeted him was darkness and silence.
"Dad? Aunt Ye?"
He called out a couple of times on instinct, but only heard his own voice echoing in the empty living room.
Ye Zhenzhen followed closely behind, turned on the lights, and saw no one inside.
The dining table, which should have been filled with dishes, was completely empty.
There was only a solitary note on the coffee table, along with a stack of crisp, red hundred-yuan bills.
Gu Ran walked up, picked up the note, and couldn't help but roll his eyes in imitation of the girl. "I knew it!"
"What's wrong?"
A head leaned over beside him. Ye Zhenzhen looked at the note curiously.
"Here, Lao Gu took his annual leave and set off with Aunt Ye at noon for their honeymoon. I reckon they're already on the plane by now."
"Plane..."
Ye Zhenzhen selectively filtered the keywords, blinking her eyes, feeling a sense of novelty and envy toward traveling by plane.
Gu Ran: "..."
Is that the main point?
Can this girl focus on the main point?
Those two went out to have fun, throwing two kids who just finished their college entrance exams aside at home.
What kind of reliable parents would do such a thing?
This was definitely Lao Gu's idea. I knew he would forget his son after marrying a wife!
Just as he was harshly criticizing Lao Gu for this behavior, Ye Zhenzhen blinked her watery eyes.
"You... didn't know?"
"Know what?"
"They had discussed it a long time ago. Once we finished our college entrance exams, they would make up for the honeymoon they didn't have time for before."
Gu Ran: "!!!"
When did this happen? How did he not know?
Seeing his astonishment, two sweet dimples suddenly appeared on the aloof girl's face as she continued to rub salt in the wound.
"My mom told me a long time ago, I just didn't expect them to leave in such a hurry. But... Uncle Gu didn't tell you?"
As she finished speaking and saw the black lines of exasperation on her foolish younger brother's forehead, Ye Zhenzhen laughed even more wildly.
Gu Ran's mouth twitched. He helplessly tossed the note onto the table, "Fine, then for the next half a month, it's just the two of us left to guard the empty house."
As soon as he said this, the smile on the girl's face instantly froze.
Guard the empty house?
What kind of terrible phrasing was that?!
"Pfft, do you even know how to use words? What do you mean by guarding the empty house?"
Ye Zhenzhen's teeth couldn't help but itch, wanting to bite off all the rebellious bones he had grown over the past two days!
Gu Ran shrugged with an indifferent expression.
"Hey, as long as you get what I mean. Let's go, let's go, we're having a feast today to celebrate our liberation."
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen grabbed his arm and rolled her pretty eyes.
"What feast? Look at how the wind is blowing, it's about to pour down rain, why go out?"
"Well, we can't just not eat."
Gu Ran waved the stack of bills in his hand, counting them one by one. There were exactly ten.
In other words, this one thousand yuan was the living expenses for the siblings for half a month.
Lao Gu was so stingy!
"Can't we eat at home?"
Seeing his spendthrift attitude, Ye Zhenzhen stepped forward and snatched the living expenses away.
Her beautiful eyes were filled with confusion; she really couldn't understand how this guy could be so wasteful.
What kind of rich household did he think they were?
If no one was cooking, he just wanted to eat out. Couldn't he cook himself?
"Then you cook."
Gu Ran had no opinion on what to eat, as long as he didn't have to be the one cooking.
"Gu 'Dog' Ran, are you trying to die of laziness!"
Glaring at her lazy younger brother, Ye Zhenzhen felt a bit of frustration at his failure to meet expectations.
She asked helplessly, "If you're not cooking, you can at least do the chores, right?"
"Hmm... I'll consider it. After all, I have important business to attend to," Gu Ran answered after careful deliberation.
Because of the college entrance exams these past two days, he hadn't been busy with the launch of Temple Run.
Now that he had some free time, it was time to regroup and start developing his second game.
Time was money right now. While it was still early, he needed to finish making all the games in advance, leaving a certain Tencent with no way out.
But just as he was filled with plans for his future, Ye Zhenzhen suddenly grabbed him by the ear.
"You're actually being picky? Do you really think this is a multiple-choice question?!"
The next second, a miserable shriek echoed throughout the house.
"Ah, let go of me... Why are you biting me?! Ye Zhenzhen, are you a dog?!"
"Domestic violence! Domestic violence! This is domestic violence! Ye Zhenzhen, I am definitely going to sue you!"
"Ouch, sister, my dear sister, I know I was wrong..."
...
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
