Chapter 89
Li Sinan looked up slightly. Seeing Gu Ran standing in front of her, her somewhat dim eyes brightened a bit, and a smile tugged at the corners of her mouth.
"It's Gu Ran. Good morning."
Her voice sounded a bit weak. Lately, she had been mentally and physically exhausted by all sorts of complaint letters.
"Ms. Li... you don't look very happy?"
Gu Ran frowned slightly, unable to help but ask when he saw Li Sinan looking so listless.
"I'm alright."
Hearing this, Li Sinan managed a forced smile. She then looked at Ye Zhenzhen not far away and smiled again, "Good morning to you too, Zhenzhen."
Regardless of what the aloof girl thought in her heart, as a well-behaved student, she naturally wouldn't dare act arrogant when a teacher took the initiative to greet her.
She quickly nodded obediently. After exchanging greetings, Li Sinan didn't say anything more and walked straight toward the teaching building, having lost her usual liveliness.
Staring at her back, Ye Zhenzhen frowned and softly asked the boy beside her, "Did something happen... to Ms. Li?"
Gu Ran nodded gently but didn't speak. Instead, he looked at the young teacher's back, quietly lost in thought.
Perhaps... she was feeling very sorrowful right now.
Full of hope, she had turned down the opportunity to stay and develop in a big city, choosing instead to return to her hometown to teach and educate. Yet, she ended up being attacked over her style of dress. It was truly lamentable.
She was just a twenty-four or twenty-five-year-old girl, at an age where she loved beauty. Even if she dressed beautifully, it shouldn't be considered her fault.
It was a classic case of victim-blaming.
He shook his head, his desire to recruit her to work for him growing even stronger.
She was a graduate of a prestigious university. Although she majored in education, she was at least very familiar with computers, which was quite rare in this small county town.
"What are you looking at? Let's go!"
Seeing that he didn't answer her question and was just staring blankly at the teacher, Ye Zhenzhen gave him an annoyed glare and kicked him in the calf.
"Oh, right."
With things on his mind, Gu Ran nodded blankly and immediately stepped forward to walk.
But after taking a few steps, he noticed the girl was still standing in the same spot. He couldn't help but look back in confusion.
"Pervert!"
Spitting out the word lightly, the aloof girl walked straight toward the teaching building, leaving the bewildered boy standing there.
Gu Ran: "???"
What did he do to be called a pervert?!
Where is his lawyer? Where is his lawyer!!!
...
...
As time passed, the start of the new semester gradually got on track, and the high school seniors resumed their day-and-night studying routine.
The weather gradually warmed up, the snow on the roads slowly melted, and their winter clothes were shed one by one.
After another month of systematic studying, time arrived at the end of April, bringing the days of the college entrance examination another step closer.
However, the atmosphere in the classroom had split into two extremes.
Some people became increasingly nervous, while others relaxed.
The latter were either top students who had already studied almost everything and didn't need to study much more, just needing to maintain their good condition.
Or they were the poor students who had completely given up on any cure and started enjoying life ahead of time.
April 30th, the second mock exam.
The approach of the second mock exam completely heralded the arrival of the college entrance examination, enveloping the entire school in a tense and anxious atmosphere.
According to the First High School's schedule, the most indicative exams were the first and second mock exams. The third mock exam, scheduled around May 20th, would have significantly reduced difficulty, purely meant to boost the students' confidence.
Therefore, this second mock exam was the last chance to test their own results.
Gu Ran had long prepared his mindset. Under the aloof girl's tutoring, he was full of confidence in his abilities.
The morning sun shone on him. Carrying the girl's schoolbag, he leisurely followed behind her.
Because Lao Gu was on duty, there was no private car today, so the two of them had to walk to school.
But with the warm breeze blowing against his face, watching the surrounding branches slowly sprouting, and feeling the vibrant breath of life, Gu Ran actually grew to like this leisureliness.
"Hurry up!"
The girl walking in front turned her head to call him for the umpteenth time. Seeing his lazy appearance, he looked like an old man taking an early morning stroll; the only thing missing was swapping the schoolbag in his hand for a birdcage.
"It's obviously you who's walking too fast..."
The gentle spring breeze blew, scattering the girl's black hair and the bangs on the boy's forehead.
The figures of the two walked slower and slower. Gu Ran's old-man speed successfully dragged down the girl's pace...
...
Arriving at the examination room, Gu Ran's assigned seat this time was much further forward than during the first mock exam.
For example, his surroundings were filled with examinees seizing the time to cram at the last minute, reviewing ancient poetry.
In this upper-middle examination room, everyone's level was about the same—their grades were worse than the best but better than the worst. Every time there was an exam, this group of people was the most anxious.
Stuck in the middle, Gu Ran felt like an out-of-place pig.
Unlike the people reviewing around him, he took the initiative to pick a window seat, sat down, and quietly narrowed his eyes to look out the window, admiring the sprouting willow branches.
Under his observation, he found that only the willow trees by the roadside sprouted the earliest.
Having spent a long time with the aloof girl, he had gradually learned that indifferent expression.
Just sitting there quietly, he attracted the evaluating gazes of little girls.
But before they could look for long, the invigilator for the first subject arrived at the examination room carrying the test papers.
Seeing the person who arrived, Gu Ran's eyes lit up, and a smile unconsciously formed at the corners of his mouth.
Li Sinan had completely put away her mature style of dress, changing into simple jeans and a white jacket. However, with her beauty and good figure, she could outshine anyone else by a mile no matter what she wore.
She didn't see Gu Ran. After walking up to the podium, she meticulously urged everyone to go out, and then had them re-enter to assign seat numbers.
Fully simulating the college entrance examination process, she held a metal detector in her hand and checked them one by one.
When it was Gu Ran's turn, she was visibly startled, and her tense, pretty face broke into an involuntary smile.
Quietly puffing out her small mouth, she whispered, "Good luck~"
Seeing this, Gu Ran also smiled and nodded. Without communicating much more, he went to his seat and sat down.
Taking advantage of the time while the test papers were being distributed, he carefully observed Li Sinan and found that the girl who used to love smiling had, at some unknown point, put away her gentle smile.
The exquisite makeup on her face had also disappeared, replaced by a bare face.
It was evident that in the month or so since the new year, she had truly been through a lot.
Perhaps the school had blocked the news to avoid a negative impact, so no rumors about parents' complaints had spread.
But he knew this was not the end.
Even though Li Sinan had changed her style of dress now, the blame would still be pinned on her, and the time for that would be right after the college entrance examination.
Thinking of this, he felt somewhat sorrowful, but he didn't know how to change it.
So... when the time comes, he should just bring her over to be his secretary. She could wear whatever she wanted!
Balenciaga and Valentino would be arranged first. After all, he was just a vulgar man. What was wrong with looking at a secretary's legs?
He was getting sidetracked, cough cough cough...
He was a true gentleman!!
Once the exam paper was in his hands, he shook his head, cleared his cluttered thoughts, and immersed himself in answering the questions.
The classroom was so quiet that time itself seemed to have stopped. Only the faint sounds of breathing and the rustling of turning pages intertwined in the air.
Li Sinan sat silently at the podium, stubbornly keeping a stern expression on her small face, naively thinking that doing so would prevent any further complaints.
When another invigilator arrived, she stepped down from the podium and began to patrol the aisles from time to time.
However... the number of times she paused behind Gu Ran was noticeably much higher...
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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.
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
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."
