Chapter 167
In the bedroom, Ye Zhenzhen stared at the two blue floral dresses spread out on the bed, her expression as solemn as if she were defusing a bomb.
The one on the left was a gift from Gu Ran, given under the beautiful pretext of "Republic of China wealthy daughter style."
The one on the right was a gift from her own mother, who claimed it was an exclusive custom-made piece from Wuzhen.
The pattern, the cut, the frog fasteners, and even the positions of the loose threads were exactly the same.
Ctrl+C, Ctrl+V?
The corners of the young woman's mouth could not help but twitch twice.
If these two dresses ever saw the light of day at the same time, she wouldn't even know how to explain it to her mother...
After pondering for a full five minutes, the young woman finally acted like a thief, stuffing both dresses into the storage box at the very bottom of her wardrobe, out of sight, out of mind.
She would just pick randomly tomorrow morning. Whoever she picked, she would wear; her fate was left to heaven.
Having dealt with the dresses, Ye Zhenzhen threw herself back onto the bed and wrapped herself tightly in her small blanket.
Her body was so tired it was about to fall apart, but her brain felt like it had been injected with stimulants.
As soon as she closed her eyes, her mind was filled with what had just happened in Gu Ran's room...
"Ahhh!"
Ye Zhenzhen buried her face in the pillow, her two slender legs kicking wildly in the air.
It was too shameful!
If her parents had come back a minute later, would they have...
Stop!
She couldn't think about it anymore; if she thought about it any longer, she would spontaneously combust!
She grabbed her phone, the screen light glaring.
The chat window was still stuck on Gu Ran's message: [I'm thinking about you].
Did this dog fall asleep?
Why was there no movement?
What should she send?
After thinking about it, her fingers tapped rapidly on the screen, preparing to send an aloof "good night, bye-bye" to end today's round.
Perhaps it was because her palms were sweating, or maybe she was feeling guilty and her hands were shaking. In short, in the dim room, after typing the words, her thumb pressed the confirm button.
Sent successfully.
[Dr. Ye: Good night baby]
Looking at the message that had already been sent, Ye Zhenzhen's brain experienced a three-second blue screen of death.
Good night... baby?
Ba-by?!
Boom—!
Her blood instantly flowed backward and rushed straight to the top of her head. Ye Zhenzhen's scalp went numb, and her toes almost curled hard enough to dig out a magical castle.
[Silly Bear: ?]
Immediately after, the second message popped up like a death warrant, and even through the screen, she could feel the teasing from the other side.
[Silly Bear: Baby? Who are you calling that? Hmm?]
Through the screen, the young woman could imagine his half-smiling, extremely punchable expression!
It was over.
She was completely socially dead.
Ye Zhenzhen let out a desperate whimper, threw her phone to the foot of the bed like a hot potato, and shrank into the blanket to play dead.
I am a mushroom.
I am asleep.
That was sleepwalking just now, my account was hacked, aliens hijacked my keyboard...
One minute passed.
Two minutes passed.
Just when she thought Gu Ran had let her off the hook.
"Click."
An extremely soft sound.
Coming from the balcony.
The young woman stiffened all over, her heart instantly leaping to her throat.
Is he crazy?!
Uncle Gu and her mother were right next door!
Before she could react, a gust of night wind carrying a lemon scent slipped into the room.
The French windows opened and closed gently, and that tall, slender figure sneaked in with practiced ease.
His footsteps were extremely light, unhurriedly approaching the bed.
The mattress sank slightly.
Gu Ran sat on the edge of the bed.
Ye Zhenzhen gripped the corner of the blanket tightly, tense as a drawn bow under the covers.
"Asleep?"
The young woman decided to play dead to the end.
If the enemy doesn't move, I don't move.
"Looks like you're really asleep."
Gu Ran chuckled softly, his fingers accurately poking the soft flesh at her waist through the blanket.
"You still have the energy to talk in your sleep and call me 'baby', so it seems I didn't scare you just now."
The young woman clenched her teeth, determined not to break character.
"Since you're asleep, I'll exercise my rights as a family member."
Gu Ran spoke slowly and methodically, his tone laced with mischief. "I heard that when people are in deep sleep, they have instinctive reactions to external stimuli. Dr. Gu is here to do a physical examination."
As soon as he finished speaking, a large hand slipped in along the edge of the blanket.
A palm carrying body heat pressed against her calf without any barrier.
An electric, tingling sensation instantly exploded.
"Ah!"
Ye Zhenzhen couldn't pretend any longer. Like a cat with its fur standing on end, she suddenly threw off the blanket and sat up, crossing her arms over her chest and glaring at him while keeping her voice low:
"Gu 'Dog' Ran! You're crazy! I'm going to scream for help!"
A certain scoundrel propped himself up on the bed with one hand, looking at her leisurely, his eyebrows slightly raised: "Scream then."
Saying that, he leaned in a bit closer: "Call my dad and Aunt Ye over to judge. Texting to flirt with me in the middle of the night, and then not taking responsibility for putting out the fire. What kind of crime is this? Arson of the heart?"
"Who... who flirted with you!"
Ye Zhenzhen's face was so red it looked like it was dripping blood, her momentum weakening significantly. "That was a keyboard problem! I wanted to type 'bye-bye'..."
"Oh—"
Gu Ran dragged out the end of his word. "So it was the keyboard that made the first move. Then when we were watching the movie just now and you burrowed into my arms, was that a gravity problem?"
"You!"
Ye Zhenzhen wished she could die of shame.
This dog, getting an advantage and then acting innocent!
"Get out right now!" She stretched out her foot and kicked him, glancing at the bedroom door in panic. "They are right next door. If they hear us..."
Before she could finish her sentence, the sound of slippers rubbing against the floor suddenly came from the living room.
"Tap, tap, tap..."
The sound drew closer from afar.
Gu Ran: "???"
Damn it, did you jinx it?!
In contrast, the young woman was scared out of her wits, freezing into a stone statue.
Gu Ran, however, stretched out his long arm, wrapped it around her waist, and smoothly pulled her down onto the bed.
"Shh."
He made a silencing gesture by her ear, and with his other hand, quickly pulled the blanket over, covering the two of them tightly.
In the narrow space under the covers, it was cramped and boiling hot.
The two lay on their sides facing each other, their bodies pressed tightly together.
Thump, thump, thump.
Heartbeats were fast, heavy as drumbeats, impossible to tell whose they were.
The footsteps in the living room paused in the hallway.
That one second felt as long as a century.
Ye Zhenzhen's fingers dug fiercely into the muscles of Gu Ran's arm, so tense she could barely breathe.
"Click."
The bathroom door next door closed, and the sound of a flushing toilet rang out.
The footsteps sounded again, gradually fading away, until the sound of the master bedroom door closing was heard.
The world returned to silence.
A layer of cold sweat broke out on Ye Zhenzhen's back; she felt as if she had just been fished out of the water.
This feeling of doing something "immoral" right under their parents' noses was too much of a challenge for her heart.
"They're gone... you should go quickly..."
She pushed against Gu Ran's chest, her voice carrying a hint of a sob, soft and entirely lacking in menace.
Gu Ran didn't move.
In the darkness, he gazed at the young woman in his arms.
Her cheeks were burning, the corners of her eyes were red, and her wet eyes looked like a little fawn's.
"Scared?"
"N-nonsense."
Ye Zhenzhen sniffled. "We'd be dead if we got caught."
"Don't worry, I know what I'm doing."
Gu Ran chuckled softly. "Besides, since I'm already here, I can't exactly return empty-handed, can I?"
Her alarm radar went off again: "What do you want to do?"
"Do!"
Ye Zhenzhen: "???"
Afraid of being beaten to death, Gu Ran quickly changed the subject. "I was startled by your text message just now, and now I still have to comfort your emotions. Boss Ye, how are we going to settle this account?"
"You... scoundrel!"
"Yeah, I am."
Gu Ran lowered his head and rubbed his nose against hers.
"That unfinished project from earlier... shouldn't we continue it?"
The young woman was just about to refuse, but before the words could leave her mouth, they were completely swallowed up.
The back of her head was firmly grasped, leaving no room for retreat.
The girl's hands pressing against his chest slowly lost their strength, eventually wrapping softly around his shoulders.
Their breaths intertwined, the temperature rising.
Just as she was about to suffocate from the lack of oxygen, Gu Ran finally let go.
But he didn't pull away. Instead, he buried his face in the crook of her neck, his hand mischievously giving her slender waist a squeeze.
"Don't..."
Ye Zhenzhen trembled all over, biting her lower lip hard.
This jerk!
He knew someone was next door and she didn't dare make a sound, so he was pushing his luck!
"This is today's tuition fee."
Gu Ran whispered in her ear, his voice husky. "The S-curve drift is an exclusive skill. It's very expensive."
After a long while.
Gu Ran propped himself up, looking completely satisfied.
Looking at the girl beneath him, whose face was flushed as red as a boiled shrimp, a smile overflowed in his eyes.
"Alright, I'll let you off the hook."
He planted one last gentle peck on her swollen lips and rolled off the bed.
Ye Zhenzhen hastily pulled the blanket tight around herself, leaving only her large, dewy eyes exposed as she glared at him warily.
Gu Ran walked over to the floor-to-ceiling windows and slid them open a crack.
The night breeze poured in, blowing away the room's lingering romantic tension.
Just as he was about to step out, he suddenly looked back. Seeing the bulging "silkworm pupa" bundled up on the bed, the corners of his lips curled into a smirk.
He made no sound.
He merely moved his lips, silently mouthing four words.
Word by word.
Extremely clearly.
Ye Zhenzhen understood them.
It was—
"Good. Night. Ba. By."
The next second, his figure slipped out and disappeared into the night.
"..."
Ye Zhenzhen stared blankly at the empty balcony.
After a long moment, she yanked her head back under the covers and thrashed around wildly on the bed.
"Gu Ran, you massive jerk!!!"
Her silent roar echoed beneath the blanket.
......
In the next room.
Ye Shulian, who had just lain down, frowned.
"What's that noise? Is a mouse digging a hole?"
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.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
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."
for mindless slaughter, this isn't for you.] My name is Ye Shu, and I'm a transmigrator. It seems I'm supposed to be the protagonist, but that feels pretty unlikely. This world has been invaded by a system. The antagonists on the other side have suddenly become pure, flawless saints. The female leads have been force-fed the so-called "original plot," making them think they've been reborn. Now, everyone thinks I'm scum. Including the old lady in my ring. And here I am, in the Monster Beast Mountain Range, braising pork. To put my situation in perspective— It's as if, the moment Xiao Yan stepped into the Monster Beast Mountain Range, the Soul Emperor already knew he would become the Flame Emperor, and Yao Lao had been turned to the enemy's side. I have nothing right now. Oh wait, that's not true. I do have a white-haired loli child-bride who's the Heavenly Dao, and her only skill is acting cute. So, tell me guys... what are my chances of making it to the end?
