Chapter 46
Holding the thermos filled with brown sugar ginger tea, Ye Zhenzhen walked into the classroom all by herself.
She sat back in her seat, puffing her cheeks, her pretty face still carrying the lingering traces of shy annoyance.
Pei Susu, who was sitting next to her doing practice questions, frowned and asked curiously, Ye Zhenzhen, where is your backpack?
Gu Ran didn't prepare this for me!
As soon as Pei Susu finished speaking, Ye Zhenzhen immediately retorted.
Pei Susu: ???
Ye Zhenzhen: !!!
The two looked at each other, staring wide-eyed for a moment, not knowing what else to say.
Ye Zhenzhen pursed her lips, her pretty face instantly flushing red as she screamed internally from the embarrassment.
She was holding a super tacky thermos, so why did Pei Susu have to ask where her backpack went?
Could she not see the thermos in her hand?!
Pei Susu blinked her almond eyes, staring at the girl in front of her in slight astonishment.
Genuine question: did she just out herself without even being interrogated?
When did she ever ask about the thermos?
If Ye Zhenzhen hadn't said anything, she really wouldn't have noticed anything special about the cup sitting on the desk.
But looking closely, she realized that this thermos indeed... had a certain taste to it. It even had a police station logo printed on it.
Oh~ So it was your Gu Ran who gave it to you.
The raging fire of gossip instantly ignited in her eyes. She reached out, grabbed the thermos on the desk, and examined it curiously.
Eh... no, it's not...
Seeing her action, Ye Zhenzhen froze and instinctively tried to stop her, but Pei Susu easily dodged her grasp.
Looking it up and down a few times, she smiled, her eyes full of teasing ambiguity.
Noticing the badge at the bottom of the cup, she couldn't help but let out a soft sound of surprise.
Hearing her playful voice, Ye Zhenzhen's cheeks flushed an unnatural shade of red. She subconsciously tucked a strand of hair behind her ear, finding something to do so she wouldn't look so awkward.
Let me see what our thoughtful Gu Ran prepared for you.
Pei Susu blinked, looked at Ye Zhenzhen with a smile, and then twisted open the cup lid.
I... I already told you, he didn't prepare it.
The flustered girl was still acting tough, while secretly glancing sideways, keeping a close eye on her desk-mate's every move.
Wow!
Catching the strong waft of ginger tea hitting her face, Pei Susu's eyes widened. She turned to look at Ye Zhenzhen, the teasing look in her eyes growing even stronger.
Not bad, classmate Gu Ran is really heartwarming. He even knows you're on your period these past two days.
Hearing this, Ye Zhenzhen recalled the scene from this morning when Gu Ran cornered her in bed, and her cheeks turned another shade redder.
Unable to handle the current atmosphere, she bit her lip, hurriedly dropped the sentence, I... I'm going to get my backpack... and rushed away from her seat.
...
On the other side, Gu Ran walked into the classroom carrying two backpacks.
Before he could even return to his seat, he was stopped.
Ye Jinliang had a look of shock and confusion in his eyes. He scratched his head and asked, No, Brother Ran, do you really have to try this hard?
Huh?
Hearing this, Gu Ran looked completely bewildered. Before he could react, Ye Jinliang patted him on the shoulder.
Just as he was about to say something, he noticed the clue.
Of the two backpacks on Gu Ran's shoulders, one was obviously his own, while the other looked like a girl's.
Connecting this to the fact that Ye Zhenzhen lived with him, his mouth twitched uncontrollably, and he couldn't help but ask, So... you carried her backpack...
Before he could finish his sentence, a beautiful figure appeared at the classroom door.
Ye Zhenzhen, with blushing cheeks, saw Gu Ran standing in the classroom aisle and quickly waved, saying, Dog Gu... Gu Ran!
The moment the class's unattainable flower appeared, the boys in the classroom instantly erupted into a commotion.
But immediately after hearing her call Gu Ran so intimately, they all suddenly put on confused expressions.
Watching helplessly as the beautiful, unattainable girl stood at the door waiting for Gu Ran to come out, her eager look and flushed face left everyone dumbfounded.
Looking at Gu Ran again, they couldn't help but grit their teeth, echoing the same doubt Ye Jinliang had before in their hearts.
No, seriously, what right does this guy have?!
So what if he's a bit more handsome, a bit taller, a bit richer, and has a deputy chief for a dad? Other than that, what else does he have?
What else does he have over them?!
Seeing Gu Ran slowly walking out of the classroom with a lazy expression, the girl couldn't help but frown, her obsessive older sister acting like a mother complex rising up again.
Frowning slightly, she gently lifted her foot and kicked him, her cold eyes carrying a trace of shy annoyance.
Noticing the collective gazes coming from his class, the aloof girl's expression also paused, and she quickly pulled Gu Ran out in embarrassment.
Once in the hallway, she finally regained her composure. Turning her head to look at Gu Ran, her delicate eyebrows instantly shot up.
Look at you being all lazy. Can you show some energy? You don't take anything seriously all day, and you even managed to walk off with my backpack...
Gu Ran: ???
Listening to the motherly girl's nagging, question marks floated across Gu Ran's face as well.
Was this what they called shifting the blame?
I helped carry your backpack, you forgot to take it, and now it's somehow my fault?
Gu Ran twitched his mouth and stared helplessly at Ye Zhenzhen, saying, Big sis, can you be reasonable?
Ye Zhenzhen: ???
What did he say?
Was she being unreasonable?!
Her beautiful eyes darted around, as if she were staring at a disobedient son, and she let out a faint sigh.
Look at what you're saying, brother. I only said a few extra words, and you're already getting impatient. You must be tired of me.
Gu Ran: ...
Did this girl also have a drama queen attribute?
The more time they spent together, the more he felt she was a treasure trove of a girl, with all sorts of hidden traits popping up left and right.
Just look, she had even dug up Lin Daiyu-style dramatic literature.
Never mind, never mind. Since brother is so tired of it, I won't say any more.
Ye Zhenzhen pretended to cover her face and weep, reached out to grab her backpack, and turned to walk away sadly.
Leaving Gu Ran standing there with a twitching mouth, silently watching the girl's retreating back. He couldn't help but smile and shake his head.
Returning to the classroom, he clearly noticed his classmates' weird stares, but he didn't care. He went straight back to his seat and started studying with absolute focus.
...
And when Ye Zhenzhen also returned to her seat carrying her backpack, she noticed the winking and grimacing expressions from the person next to her, and her face flushed red, unable to handle it.
What... what are you looking at?
Pei Susu didn't reply, but her teasing eyes seemed to say a single sentence.
You're embarrassed and angry now, aren't you?
Turning her head away to ignore her desk-mate who always had dirty jokes at the ready, Ye Zhenzhen took out her test paper and silently started working on it.
But she found that she couldn't focus at all. Her thoughts constantly drifted to the thermos sitting on the desk.
Brown sugar ginger tea... what would it taste like?
She secretly glanced at her desk-mate, then reached out her small hand, stealthily grabbed the cup, and took a small sip.
The taste wasn't that great at first; the ginger flavor was very strong, but she found it surprisingly sweet, and it felt warm going down into her stomach.
Drinking it sip by sip, she only took small tastes, subconsciously reluctant to finish it all at once.
Seeing the smile floating on her face, Pei Susu curled her lips and reached out to fan the air in front of her face.
"What is that smell?"
"Ah, it's the foul stench of romance!"
"Look at that goofy grin on your face. The ginger tea might not be sweet, but your heart sure is. It really sweetened you right down to your core, didn't it?"
Ye Zhenzhen: "..."
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
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...
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."
