"Do not listen to idle gossip of right and wrong, just recite Daoist scriptures from dawn to dusk. If you take past illusions as truth, how can a drawn cake satisfy your hunger?"
The Daoist priest interpreting the fortune slip read the text aloud. His voice was unhurried, carrying a transcendent, immortal-like aura.
The girl obviously didn't understand. Her pretty brows furrowed tightly, her face full of bewilderment.
She pursed her lips and asked tentatively, "Daoist Master, what... what does this mean?"
The priest did not answer immediately. His fingers tapped lightly and rhythmically twice on the pearwood table in front of him.
The crisp sound was not loud, but it instantly drew all of the girl's attention.
"Literally, it means you shouldn't pay attention to idle gossip. A relationship is ultimately between the two of you. Whether others speak well or ill of it has nothing to do with you."
The priest's gaze was peaceful, yet it seemed to see right through people's hearts. "If you take those illusory words as truth, it would be as absurd as looking at a drawn cake and claiming you are full."
The girl's face paled slightly, clearly struck by how accurately he had guessed her troubles.
Seeing this, the priest tapped the table again, his tone growing a bit heavier.
"Considering the marriage prospects you are seeking in your heart, this slip warns you that there will be various negative voices around you trying to shake your resolve. If you believe them, this relationship will fall apart."
As soon as he finished speaking, several pilgrims nearby who were eavesdropping subconsciously nodded, feeling that this interpretation made a lot of sense.
The girl immediately waved her hands and shook her head.
"I definitely won't listen to them, and I won't believe their words anymore."
Han Lu leaned close to Lin Mo's ear and lowered her voice: "This interpretation seems pretty much the same as what you said earlier."
Lin Mo nodded. "It is similar, but there's still a slight difference."
At this time, the young man also came over with a fortune slip.
He handed over the slip in his hand, "Daoist Master, please take a look at my fortune."
The priest took the wooden slip and glanced at it.
"Slip number seventy: All of spring is filled with bitter worry and torment; in summer, your pursuits will finally begin to settle. When autumn harvests and winter solstices pass, it will be just like riding a crane with immense wealth tied to your waist."
He stroked his beard, a standard smile appearing on his face: "It is a medium-auspicious slip."
At this moment, Lin Mo's divine sense quietly spread out like spilling quicksilver, instantly covering all the fortune slip canisters in the hall.
The next second, he almost burst out laughing.
Good heavens, there wasn't a single inauspicious slip in the canisters of this temple.
To put it bluntly, inauspicious sounded bad, so they simply changed them all.
A minimum guarantee of a good review.
However, this also fit human psychology very well; this way, people coming to seek fortunes wouldn't draw a terrible slip and turn away in disgust.
The priest looked at the young man with a smile.
"This slip, no matter what you are asking about, has only one answer: bitterness first, sweetness later; difficulty first, ease later; danger first, fortune later. If you are asking about current affairs, you won't see a harvest until autumn or winter. If you are asking about the distant future, it will take many years before you see a return."
The young man opened his mouth, his expression instantly becoming somewhat complex, and he subconsciously turned his head to look at his girlfriend beside him.
The girl's heart leaped to her throat, and she stared at him intently.
The priest took in both of their expressions, changed the subject, and his voice became solemn.
"However, the prerequisite for all of this lies in a single phrase."
He spoke clearly and forcefully, "Persevere to the end."
This phrase was like a heavy hammer, striking hard against the young man's heart.
A glimmer of light reignited in the girl's previously dim eyes. She looked at the young man, her gaze full of anticipation.
The young man took a deep breath, as if making a firm decision, and suddenly reached out, tightly grasping her hand.
Her hand was a little cold and trembling slightly.
"You will persevere, right? No matter what happens to me? You have to keep going!"
The young man's Adam's apple bobbed. He nodded vigorously, as if taking an oath.
The girl's eyes were still red. Her fingertips dug into his arm as she pressed further:
"Then after we go back, can you please stop going on business trips? I really feel insecure, especially... especially when you travel with female colleagues, I really..."
Her voice grew lower and lower, carrying a faint, barely noticeable sob, the trailing notes disappearing into the air.
The expression on the young man's face instantly froze, the resolve from his earlier nod vanishing without a trace.
He opened his mouth but made no sound. He just sighed silently, his eyes drifting elsewhere as his mind rapidly calculated the pros and cons.
Just as this awkward silence was about to swallow the two of them, a clear voice interjected.
At this moment, Lin Mo strolled forward casually.
"Young man, what you were praying for in the hall just now wasn't marriage, was it?"
Lin Mo had somehow appeared beside them, his hands in his pockets.
The young man reacted like a cat whose tail had been stepped on. He froze, his eyes full of wariness.
Lin Mo ignored his defensiveness and continued speaking on his own: "You should be praying for your career."
He used a declarative sentence, so certain that it left no room for doubt.
"Marriage and career cannot be conflated, and their time spans are vastly different. What you seek is your career. Your chance to skyrocket to success is within this year, and it is fleeting.
But if you want a good marriage, you have to endure with all your heart. Just like raising a pot of flowers, you must persevere for many years before it blooms into the result you desire."
The young man was stunned for a moment but did not answer.
"Marriage and career are vastly different, with huge differences in time span. If you seek a career, the opportunity lies in this year. But if you seek a perfect marriage, you must persevere for many years before you can obtain something beautiful."
As soon as he finished speaking, Lin Mo suddenly turned his head and looked at the middle-aged Daoist priest who was stroking his beard and watching the show.
"Daoist Master, if I interpret it this way, it should also be acceptable, right?"
With this, he kicked the ball back to the priest.
Being called out, the middle-aged priest wasn't annoyed. Instead, he smiled faintly and replied with deep meaning:
"What this layman says is true. However, for this gentleman, there is no way to have the best of both worlds. Ultimately, he must make some compromises."
He was playing the ultimate non-stick pan, dodging any blame.
The young man took a deep breath, as if his mind was made up. He turned his head, finally daring to look directly into the girl's eyes:
"I go on business trips to fight for more opportunities. Once I get promoted, I won't have to run around like this anymore. Just give me a little more time."
Hearing this, the girl froze. The light in her eyes dimmed bit by bit. She slowly released the hand gripping his arm, her brows furrowing tightly.
"Is your work more important, or am I? You just nodded... What did your nod even mean?"
Her questioning was soft and airy, yet it cut like a sharp blade.
Before the young man could answer, the crowd of onlookers had already erupted.
"No way? Is there even a choice to make? Your girlfriend is going to spend the rest of her life with you. Don't tell me you can marry your job?"
"Exactly! In today's society, what kind of job can't you find? Just get a different one!"
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
