Chapter 277
Meanwhile, in the girls' dormitory.
Ye Zhenzhen opened her small pink suitcase and distributed the snacks she brought back to the roommates gathered around her.
Zhao Xiaoxiao nibbled on a dessert while leaning in to examine the young woman as if looking at a rare animal.
"Tsk, tsk, tsk, Zhenzhen, did you eat some kind of magical elixir on your trip home?"
At the same time, Chen Jing pinched the girl's smooth, tender cheeks and teased with a grin.
"This skin, fair with a rosy flush, just like a peach. And these eyes, so full of spring romance!"
"Fess up, you've definitely been thoroughly nourished by love, haven't you?"
"Yeah, yeah! Tell us quickly, is this the doing of your handsome and rich 'younger brother'?"
Ye Zhenzhen blushed bright red, looking exactly like a cooked shrimp.
She playfully reached out to tickle them in retaliation.
"What nonsense are you talking about! You can't expect ivory from a dog's mouth! That's just from eating my family's home-cooked meals!"
"Ohoho, still acting tough, your face is red all the way to the base of your neck!"
Two fists are no match for four hands, and the young woman was quickly defeated.
She collapsed onto the bed, begging for mercy.
"Hahahaha, stop... it tickles! Hahaha..."
Amidst the roughhousing, her phone slipped out of her pocket due to their movements.
The previously silent phone suddenly lit up.
She instinctively looked over; it was a WeChat message from Gu Ran.
[Silly Bear: After dinner tonight, I'll take you to the company to hang out.]
Amidst the "oohs" and "aahs" of the other two, she got up with a flushed face.
Looking at the words on the screen, the corners of her mouth curled up uncontrollably.
Traces of sweetness overflowed from her usually cool and aloof eyes.
Her fingers tapped briskly on the keyboard, replying with a single word.
[Okay.]
Seeing her staring at her phone and giggling like a fool, the two onlookers exchanged winks and teased her again.
"Oh my, look at that cheap smile. I won't need to eat sugar for the next week!"
"Plant a younger brother in the spring, harvest a husband in the autumn, right!"
Embarrassed and annoyed, Ye Zhenzhen grabbed a throw pillow and hurled it at them.
"Go eat your snacks!"
Inside the girls' dormitory, the friends continued to playfully bicker.
Their cheerful laughter drifted through the window, blending into the gentle breeze of the university campus.
...
Evening in Qinglin City carried the chill of early autumn.
The two of them went to a private kitchen restaurant they frequently visited near the school for dinner.
Gu Ran picked up a piece of steamed sea bass, meticulously removed the bones from the edges, and placed it in Ye Zhenzhen's bowl.
"Here, eat more fish, it's good for your brain. I had to go to great lengths to pick this clean, so be grateful, young lady."
Ye Zhenzhen rolled her eyes at him.
How many bones does sea bass even have?
But she quickly caught the main point.
"You're the one who needs brain food!"
She bared her teeth in retort, but her hands were honest as she stuffed all the fish into her mouth.
Her cheeks bulged, looking like a food-guarding hamster.
As she chewed, her gaze unconsciously drifted to Gu Ran's phone on the table.
Ever since they sat down, the screen had been lighting up constantly like a disco strobe.
It was full of missed calls and message notifications, vibrating and buzzing against the tabletop.
She finally couldn't help it and slightly furrowed her pretty brows.
"Your phone is about to explode. Why don't you answer it? What if something major happened?"
Gu Ran noticed her subtle movements, unhurriedly pulled a tissue, and wiped his hands.
"Are you full? If you are, I'll take you for a tour around the company."
"Don't change the subject. Did something really happen?"
She asked softly, unable to hide the worry in her clear, cool eyes.
Gu Ran reached out his large hand and unceremoniously ruffled the tuft of hair fluttering on top of her head.
Under her murderous glare, he chuckled.
"It's really nothing major. Didn't I say I was taking you out to have fun? Let's go!"
As they spoke, the two had already paid the bill and gotten into the car.
Seeing that the young man's eyes truly lacked the anxiousness she had worried about, Ye Zhenzhen finally breathed a slight sigh of relief.
She then pouted her pink lips and reached up to pat down her messed-up hair.
"Don't touch my hair next time! What if I stop growing taller because of it!"
Gu Ran, who was looking down to buckle his seatbelt, paused. He raised his eyelids.
His gaze swept up and down the person in front of him.
His eyes finally landed on a certain spot, and his tone was quite serious.
"Logically speaking, a change in environment does promote growth, not to mention you don't really need to grow any taller."
"Setting height aside, you... seem to only be growing in age, not in flesh."
Seeing the conversation take a weird turn, she frowned.
Why did that sound so strange?
Ye Zhenzhen froze for a second, following his gaze to look down at herself.
"Boom," her cheeks flushed completely red.
"Gu 'Dog' Ran! You pervert! I'm going to bite you to death!"
Burning with shame and anger, she swung her small fists, delivering a frantic barrage of punches to Gu Ran's shoulder.
"Hey, hey, hey! I'm driving! Pay attention to traffic safety!"
The car started up accompanied by the young man's hearty, carefree laughter, their playful banter scattering into the early autumn air.
...
Half an hour later, the black Audi parked steadily outside the GR company headquarters.
The moment they pushed open the glass doors, Ye Zhenzhen was stunned in place by the sight before her.
The somewhat shabby startup "ragtag crew" she remembered had now unexpectedly expanded into a modern office space occupying an entire floor of the commercial building!
Hundreds of workstations were filled with employees staring intently at their screens, frantically typing on their keyboards.
The massive whiteboards on the walls were covered with intricate data curves.
The entire space was filled with the urgent ringing of telephones and the clatter of keyboards.
Everyone was operating frantically in a highly tense, wartime-like state.
"Hello, boss!"
"Boss!"
As they walked through, employees constantly stood up to greet him, their eyes revealing tension and anticipation.
The young woman followed closely behind Gu Ran.
Looking at the "stinky younger brother" ahead of her, who was usually flippant and full of nonsense, her heart inexplicably skipped a beat seeing the authority he displayed in this moment.
"President Gu!"
Li Sinan walked briskly toward them, clutching a thick stack of data reports.
This formerly stylish and beautiful English teacher now had bloodshot eyes from staying up late, and she reported the situation with a solemn expression.
"Penguin WeChat V2.0 launched ahead of schedule this afternoon! They threw in one billion in cash subsidies straight away to attract new users!"
"Even more fatally, Penguin has mobilized their entire traffic matrix. Currently, all mainstream domestic app stores have completely removed the installation package for our WeChat!"
The young man didn't pause his steps in the slightest. He turned his head and said to Li Sinan.
"Teacher Li, get ready. We're holding a meeting in five minutes."
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."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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'!"
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.
