Chapter 142
The night had just fallen over Wuzhen, and the wind by the Dyehouse Bridge still carried a hint of the day's lingering heat.
The two of them, carrying several bags of local specialty Gusao cakes, walked back along the bluestone path.
Ye Zhenzhen's steps were bouncy; like a child, she was walking by stepping on the grid of the bluestone slabs.
Her white cotton and linen dress swayed gently in the night breeze, like a gardenia blooming on the road.
"Gu 'Dog' Ran, hurry up~"
The girl walking in front would occasionally turn her head to urge the boy behind her.
"Alright, alright. Ye Zhenzhen, are you a childish brat, skipping as you walk."
You're the childish brat!
Annoying brat...
The girl pursed her lips and turned her head away, leaving the boy who didn't know how to speak properly with a cold back.
Gu Ran smiled at this, then lowered his head to fiddle with the camera in his hands, looking through the photos he had taken of the childish girl today. The curve at the corner of his mouth just couldn't be suppressed.
"Ye Zhenzhen, the lighting in this one is absolutely amazing. It gives you an eight-foot-tall aura."
He shook the camera triumphantly. "I'll send it to Pei Susu when we get back and make her die of jealousy."
"Call me sister, show some respect."
The girl continued without turning her head, "And that's my graceful figure, what aura? That sounds terrible."
Seeing that they were about to return to the guesthouse, Gu Ran put away his camera, stuffed one hand in his pocket, and followed slowly behind.
"Right, that's not an aura, that's a graceful figure stuffed by two bowls of mutton noodles."
"Gu 'Dog' Ran! You're asking for it!"
Ye Zhenzhen's almond eyes widened in a glare. She turned around and was just about to raise her foot to teach this mood-killer a lesson when her wrist suddenly tightened.
A strong force struck.
In a dizzying spin, she was firmly pinned by Gu Ran behind the advertising billboard on the side of the guesthouse's main door. The shadows instantly swallowed both of their figures.
"Mmph..."
Just as the girl was about to struggle, her mouth was once again covered tightly by a large hand.
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
Couldn't he change the move?
Why did it always feel like a mental insult every time?
"Shh—don't move."
Gu Ran kept his voice low in his throat and gestured forward with his eyes. "Look there."
Ye Zhenzhen looked in the direction of his gaze. Through the bright floor-to-ceiling glass, a man and a woman were standing at the front desk.
With just one glance, Ye Zhenzhen felt like she was losing her mind, instantly stiffening like a block of wood.
The man was dressed in a sharp dark gray suit, his hair combed meticulously, wearing gold-rimmed glasses, his back perfectly straight, exuding the aura of a veteran cadre from head to toe.
The woman was wearing an elegant silk qipao and a shawl, looking down at the brochures on the counter, every movement full of gentleness.
Uncle Gu and her mom?!
They were also coming to this guesthouse?!
For a moment, the girl felt her heart stop for a second.
With this kind of luck, she could easily win five million if she went to buy a lottery ticket.
Gu Ran was equally dumbfounded by this.
For a split second, he even wondered if Lao Gu was playing a trick on them.
Almost getting caught on the waterway during the day was one thing, but how could they run right into them when returning to the guesthouse at night?
Just how small was this Wuzhen?
Were they really hunting them down?
And that meticulous look... are you even a proper gentleman, pretending so well?
Having seen Gu Xiangcheng's greasy appearance before, looking at his strict old father now, Gu Ran only felt the image collapsing.
The girl beside him didn't have as big of a heart. Being separated from Lao Gu and her own mother by just a wall was thrilling, sure, but mostly it was nerve-wracking.
Her small hands couldn't stop sweating; she could only grip Gu Ran's sleeve tightly, not even daring to breathe loudly.
Through the glass door, the conversation inside floated out clearly.
The guesthouse boss was typing away at the computer screen, looking troubled: "Sir, I'm sorry, it's peak season these days. The standard rooms and double rooms are all full."
"Full?"
Gu Xiangcheng frowned slightly, raised his hand to check his watch, and spoke in a steady tone: "Boss, we heard from others that the environment here is quite nice, which is why we came specifically. Please check again. Any room type is fine as long as we can stay. My wife and I just decided to come look around on a whim, and we don't want to go through the hassle of changing places."
These words were spoken flawlessly, highlighting his taste while establishing the "arriving on a whim" big-shot vibe.
Hiding outside the door, Gu Ran applauded wildly in his heart: Brilliant, truly brilliant.
Lao Gu's trick of retreating to advance perfectly captured that middle-class vibe of "money is no object, just want the experience."
The boss scratched his head, clicked the mouse twice more, and suddenly his eyes lit up: "Oh? Wait! There really is one room left!"
"Oh?" Gu Xiangcheng nodded reservedly. "What type of room?"
The boss pushed his glasses up and smiled ambiguously: "The 'Honeymoon Couple Supreme Grand Round Bed Suite' on the top floor. It was originally booked by a young couple a couple of days ago, but maybe they didn't like it or something, so they canceled it at the last minute. If you two..."
The unspoken implication was obviously a fear that these two, at their age, wouldn't be used to something so flashy.
Outside the door.
Gu Ran: "???"
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
It felt as if the world suddenly went quiet for three seconds.
Inside the lobby.
Hearing the combination of words like "round bed," "couple," and "supreme," Ye Shulian, who was standing beside him, blushed slightly. She gently tugged at Gu Xiangcheng's sleeve, seemingly feeling that staying in such a room at their age was a bit inappropriate.
But who was Gu Xiangcheng?
He was an old criminal investigator who wouldn't change his expression even if Mount Tai collapsed in front of him.
Lao Gu's expression didn't change. He even pushed his glasses up very calmly: "A round bed? That works. We're out traveling, after all. Experiencing the lifestyle of young people isn't a bad idea. The key is that it's quiet here and suitable for resting."
After saying that, he took out his ID card and slapped it onto the counter with a smack. The movement was smooth and flowed with dominating confidence.
"Check us in. Oh, by the way, boss..."
Gu Xiangcheng paused and lowered his voice, but the sound still slipped out through the crack in the door: "...Does that suite come with complimentary red wine?"
Outside the door.
Ye Zhenzhen turned her head abruptly to look at Gu Ran, her eyes filled with shock and absurdity.
Gu Ran's mouth twitched wildly as well. He had to bite down hard on the tip of his tongue to keep from laughing out loud.
The boomerang had finally hit home.
This "love motel room" really had some deep f*cking destiny with his Gu family.
After going round and round, it actually ended up in his own dad's hands.
What, were all the men in his Gu family... secretly perverted?
They even needed red wine to set the mood?
Well done, Lao Gu!
It seemed that tonight, the Gu family's ancestral graves wouldn't just be emitting green smoke; they'd be blowing pink bubbles!
Ye Zhenzhen was so mortified by this point that she was about to evaporate on the spot. Her whole face was as red as a bright red cloth, and she wished she could find a hole in the ground to crawl into.
She signaled wildly with her eyes to Gu Ran, who still seemed to be enjoying the show: Let's go! If we keep eavesdropping, we'll get styes in our eyes!
To this, Gu Ran thought: Styes in the eyes?
I'm listening with my ears; if anything, I'd get styes in my ears!
Seeing that he wasn't moving, the girl, pressed against the shadow of the billboard and not daring to move a muscle, could only "helplessly" continue listening, feeling a sense of thrill.
It wasn't until their parents took the room card and walked arm in arm toward the elevator.
Watching the floor numbers jump all the way to the top floor, the two of them sighed with slight disappointment.
"Let's go."
Taking advantage of a moment when no one was around, Gu Ran grabbed Ye Zhenzhen. Hunched over, they quickly slipped into the guesthouse lobby.
"Oh? You're back?"
The owner had just finished checking Lao Gu in and was looking down to sort out some receipts. When she looked up and saw two dark figures flash by, she instinctively called out a greeting.
Before she could get a clear look at them, the two had already sprinted into the stairwell.
"Strange..." the owner muttered, scratching her head. "Now that I think about it, why did those two kids look a bit like that couple from just now?"
...
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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.
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."
y came from. The chests contained supplies, currency, class-change scrolls, skills, talents… and even godhood! The laws of the world were completely rewritten. This became a world where everyone gambled with their fate! Some people, despite having nothing, opened a divine artifact and rose to the top, eventually ruling the world. Others went bankrupt, opened nothing but worthless junk, and leaped from skyscrapers in despair. Lin Ye arrived in this world from another reality, utterly bewildered. “What is going on? Why is everyone a gambling addict?!” “Opening chests? No way. I refuse to gamble. I’ll start with myself!” Until— On his first chest, he obtained a Mythic Talent: Void Incarnation! He could become completely intangible, pass through all things, and reduce everything to nothingness! … On his fiftieth chest, he obtained a Mythic Weapon: Blade of Karma! With a single slash, karma shattered, twisting the universe and overturning the myriad phenomena of creation! … On his ninety-ninth chest, he obtained a Mythic Divine Treasure: Primordial Purple Energy! It could split open the heavens and earth, create all things, and evolve countless worlds with a single thought! Lin Ye: “Now that I think about it… shouldn’t someone have told me that every chest is guaranteed to contain something Mythic?!”
