Chapter Seven
Gu Ran returned to his room. The image of Lao Gu's face, with the word "disbelief" written all over it, floated into his mind, and he couldn't help but laugh out loud.
However, he had to admit that Lao Gu's suspicion was not without reason.
If it were him from his past life, upon hearing the news that Lao Gu was going to remarry, even if he agreed on the surface, he would secretly trip up that legendary stepmother until he ruined the marriage.
And the reality of the past had indeed been exactly like that. But now, he was no longer the person he used to be.
A trace of expectation actually swelled in his heart, hoping that this stepmother, whom he had once driven away, could bring happiness to Lao Gu.
In his past life, he had been a rebellious son for over thirty years; in this life, he wanted to start being a filial son from this moment on.
Gu Ran rubbed the center of his brows, tossed these distracting thoughts to the back of his mind, and opened his textbook.
He knew very well that rather than making a fuss over the remarriage, it would be better to get into a good university and make Lao Gu truly happy for once.
Lao Gu had once placed great hopes in him, wishing for him to get into a university of political science and law or a police academy.
But as his high school grades steadily declined, Lao Gu's expectations fell through time and time again.
By now, the old man seemed to ask for nothing more, only wishing for him to live happily and not cause trouble at school.
But Gu Ran understood that this was Lao Gu's helpless compromise—both to reduce his pressure and to maintain their already precarious father-son relationship.
If he could get into a top-tier university at this point, it would be nothing short of a massive surprise for Lao Gu.
However, he didn't plan on walking the path Lao Gu expected of him.
Although inheriting his father's profession would be nice and would make his future path smoother, doing so was not what he desired.
If the game ideas in his head could be realized ahead of time, he would become the bona fide father of mobile games, leading the trend of the era.
In any industry, as long as one could reach the very top, wealth would roll in. The mobile gaming industry was even more so, with a speed of accumulating wealth that far exceeded other industries.
Just as he had told Ye Jinliang, his goal was the sea of stars, a truly vast world!
...
The hands of the clock ticked away, and time flew by in the blink of an eye.
After he reviewed all the knowledge points of high school Chinese, a clear memory network had formed in his mind.
During the process of forming these memories, he discovered that he could actually recall many details from his past life.
Those trivial matters that might have only been fleeting glances in his past life were now vividly clear under his super memory.
Realizing this, Gu Ran's breath hitched.
There was no need to mention his past life memories; their importance was self-evident.
But right now, the college entrance examination was the most important thing!
Even if he was a poor student in his past life, he had still taken the college entrance examination.
Even though he didn't know how to do many of the questions at the time, at least in this moment, if he thought back carefully, he could clearly remember every single punctuation mark on the exam paper.
In other words, as long as he was given a piece of paper, he could perfectly recreate this year's college entrance examination paper!
However, this thought only flashed through his mind for a moment.
Leaking the college entrance examination questions was no small matter. Even if no one believed him, he was afraid that someone would come knocking on his door to settle the score afterwards.
He silently reviewed the exam questions in his mind and found that, aside from English and Chinese, he had a lot of problems with the other subjects.
Especially math. Even with the questions right in front of him, he had no idea where to start.
Because if you don't know it, you don't know it—there was no ambiguity about it.
But he didn't dare to copy the questions down and ask others for help either; after all, doing so was too risky.
For a moment, he felt deeply regretful.
Why hadn't he checked the answers after the college entrance exam in his past life?
If he had checked the answers, with his current memory, he would definitely be able to memorize the standard answers by heart. How would he have fallen into his current predicament?
Back then, after finishing the exam, he felt all was right with the world. He just checked his score and spent all his remaining time playing games.
Thinking of this, he wished he could slap himself twice for wasting such a great opportunity!
...
Meanwhile, in the master bedroom, Lao Gu stroked the photo hanging on the wall, tears shimmering in his eyes.
"I'm apologizing to you..."
He murmured softly, "I'm getting remarried..."
His voice was hoarse and low. Staring at the photo, his nose couldn't help but sting, and a few teardrops unconsciously rolled down the corners of his eyes.
"Also... I'm going to put you away..."
Lao Gu continued, "Shulian is a good person, and she treats me very well. You don't need to worry..."
He slowly poured out what was on his mind, as if he were having a conversation with the person in the photo.
"Our son seems to have grown up a lot. Are you watching over him? ... Sometimes I really feel like I have no face to see you, but now everything is heading in a good direction..."
At this point, Lao Gu paused. "Alright, I'm starting to nag again. I know you don't like listening to me nag, so I won't say much more. Lastly... let me say goodbye to you..."
As his voice faded, he slowly took the photo down from the wall, gently brushing his hand over the frame, his eyes full of the tenderness of his memories.
If Gu Ran were here, he would instantly recognize that this was his mother, who had been dead for over a decade.
Lao Gu scrutinized it for a long time before earnestly wiping the already spotless frame with his sleeve, and then carefully put it away.
"Goodnight..."
The low, hoarse voice sounded again. Lao Gu closed the box containing the photo frame, a faint smile appearing on his face, just like the smile he used to have when saying goodnight to the owner of the photo.
...
...
At 5:30 in the morning, the alarm clock rang right on time, waking up Gu Ran, who had been studying all night.
He yawned softly, dragged his exhausted body up to sit, and stretched, his bones cracking.
In his past life, over a decade of being a programmer had long since overdrawn his physical health, and in this life, he probably still couldn't escape the fate of typing code.
He planned to take advantage of his current good health, being at his physical peak of eighteen, to maintain it well.
He didn't want to find his body failing him by the time he got rich and could go to a club to enjoy himself.
You ask what kind of club?
A proper health and wellness club, of course!
Forcing himself out of bed and getting dressed, Gu Ran hurried downstairs.
At 5:30 in the winter, the sun had not yet fully risen, and the moon had not yet had time to fade away. The sky was a hazy gray.
Facing the biting cold wind blowing from afar, he instantly missed the warmth of his bed.
The sky wasn't fully bright yet, and not even a dog could be seen on the road, but he still stepped out the door with firm resolve, striving for his goals.
Exhaling hot breaths and rubbing his hands together, he began to stretch his body. Before long, he started jogging along the river dam.
Since he hadn't exercised in a long time, the goal he set for his first morning run wasn't high—a one-kilometer slow jog there and back, totaling just two kilometers.
However, expectations are one thing, and reality is quite another.
Half an hour later, dragging a body that felt like it was falling apart, he trudged back as slowly as a dead dog, deeply experiencing the "nine deaths and one life" of contemporary youth—dying of sleepiness, dying of hunger, dying of heat, dying of annoyance, dying of laughter, dying of speechlessness, dying of exhaustion, dying of poverty, dying of anger, and finally, just barely surviving...
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
