The mountain breeze blew gently, carrying a hint of coolness as it fluttered the hem of Lin Mo's clothes.
He was leaning against the railing, gazing into the distance and admiring the beauty of the lake and mountains before him, when a flurry of hurried yet deliberately lightened footsteps came from behind.
Before he could even turn around, a warm, soft, and fragrant body pressed tightly against his back, and a pair of slender arms wrapped around his waist.
Jiang Yunlu gently rested her cheek against his back, feeling his steady and powerful heartbeat. With his unique, refreshing scent lingering at the tip of her nose, her cheeks couldn't help but grow hot.
This was probably the boldest thing she had ever done in her life.
"What are you looking at so intently?" Her voice carried a trace of imperceptible nervousness, the end of her sentence rising slightly as if she were acting coquettishly.
Lin Mo didn't turn around. He merely gave a light chuckle, his tone laced with a leisurely ease.
"Looking at the mountains, looking at the water."
He paused, then slowly turned around, his gaze falling upon Jiang Yunlu's pretty face, which was flushed red from nervousness and shyness.
As their eyes met, the girl's eyes were like a pool of clear spring water, reflecting his silhouette.
The smile in Lin Mo's eyes deepened. He lowered his voice, giving it a magnetic quality.
"And, while I'm at it, looking at you."
Boom!
Jiang Yunlu felt a rush of heat shoot straight from the soles of her feet to the top of her head. She felt like she was about to catch fire. Since when did this guy become such a smooth talker?
She instinctively tried to step back, but Lin Mo's arm around her waist gently pulled her in, bringing them even closer.
"Hmph! So I'm just an afterthought?"
She complained verbally, but her heart was bubbling with sweetness. Tilting her head, she simply leaned shamelessly against Lin Mo's shoulder, greedily soaking in this rare moment of intimacy.
The two embraced quietly, enjoying this fleeting moment of warmth.
Without Xie Yuling and Chu Miaomiao around, Jiang Yunlu deeply cherished this time.
After a while, unable to hold back her curiosity, Jiang Yunlu's muffled voice came from the crook of his shoulder.
"Um... Ning Qingcheng, did something happen to her family?"
She weighed her words and asked cautiously, "She doesn't... seem like a child from an ordinary family. Her temperament is too refined."
Lin Mo's eyes softened. He gently patted her back, as if soothing an anxious kitten.
"Yeah, not an ordinary family."
He didn't tell the direct truth, but instead smoothly recounted a fabricated background: "The Ning family went bankrupt, and her parents passed away in an accident. With no one at home left to take care of her, I brought her back with me."
His tone was flat, as if he were talking about something completely trivial, but hearing it made Jiang Yunlu's heart clench.
She snapped her head up, her eyes filled with shock and heartache as she instinctively covered her mouth.
Such a cute and elegant little girl had actually suffered such a heavy blow.
"Then... does she know about all this?" Jiang Yunlu's voice trembled slightly.
"She knows."
Lin Mo nodded, looking off into the distance as if reminiscing. "When she first arrived, she was completely listless, like a withering flower. But she's very strong. She's slowly moving past it now and has adapted to life here."
Hearing this, Jiang Yunlu's hanging heart finally settled.
So he had arranged everything so well.
She rested her head back on Lin Mo's shoulder. This time, there was a sense of justified reliance in her actions.
This man's shoulders truly seemed capable of holding up the sky for the people around him.
Suddenly feeling playful, Jiang Yunlu extended a finger and drew light circles on his chest, muttering softly, "Why are you so good to everyone?"
Lin Mo looked down at the pouting girl in his arms and only found it amusing.
"Because a good person is just naturally good to the people around them."
Giving himself a good guy card was absolutely not going overboard!
Meanwhile, Zhou Nianqian was leading Ye Qiaolin and the other person out of the campsite.
Behind them, several people followed, carrying fish baskets and fishing rods.
The sunlight was just right, and the breeze was mild—it was the perfect time for fishing.
He had already begun to fantasize about the scene where, after catching a big fish, he would casually show it off in front of Jiang Yunlu.
However, just as he rounded a cluster of trees, the smile on his face froze.
Not far away, on the grassy lakeside, Jiang Yunlu was quietly leaning in a boy's embrace, her profile soft and their posture intimate.
That scene was like an invisible needle, precisely popping all the colorful bubbles of fantasy in Zhou Nianqian's heart.
His mind buzzed, and his footsteps came to an abrupt halt.
The world seemed to have been put on mute, leaving only that glaring image before his eyes.
All his fantasies were instantly shattered.
"No!!!"
Snowflakes fluttering! The north wind howling!
Zhou Nianqian staggered, his knees going weak as he was about to faceplant into the ground.
"Old Zhou! Hang in there!"
Ye Minghui was quick on the draw, grabbing him and hauling him up just in time to prevent an intimate encounter with the earth.
Propped up by him, Zhou Nianqian stared blankly into the distance, looking like a statue that had its soul sucked out.
She sighed. At this point, the truth couldn't be hidden anymore.
"That guy is named Lin Mo."
Her voice was flat, as if stating a fact that had nothing to do with her.
"He's the top student at Guangba High. He didn't lie to me before; he really is the provincial Math Olympiad champion. Plus, in a little while, he's heading to Tianjing to participate in the national team's training camp."
Every word was like a stone smashing into the dead, silent lake of Zhou Nianqian's heart.
He suddenly snapped back to his senses, shoving Ye Minghui away. He turned his head to glare fiercely at Ye Qiaolin, his eyes red with agitation.
"Why didn't you tell me this earlier?!" His voice was hoarse, laced with suppressed anger.
"How was I supposed to say it earlier?"
Ye Qiaolin was also getting a bit annoyed by his attitude. "I just got the news myself! I had to verify it, right? What if it was a mistake?"
This explanation made the anger in Zhou Nianqian's chest stall. Indeed, he was taking his anger out on her.
"Wait," Ye Minghui scratched his head from the side. "Are you two arguing about the wrong thing? The main point is what my sister just said—that Lin Mo is going to Tianjing for a training camp."
Going to Tianjing?
Participating in a training camp?!
These words were like a bolt of lightning, instantly splitting the gloom in Zhou Nianqian's mind.
He froze.
The expression of heartbreak and grief he wore just a second ago began to change at a visible speed.
Despair faded away, replaced by astonishment. Then, a glimmer of light ignited in his eyes, quickly spreading like a wildfire.
"That's right! The training camp!" Zhou Nianqian slapped his thigh, completely coming back to life. "He's going to Tianjing! How long will that take? A month? Two months?"
He had already made up his mind to transfer to Guangba High, so he could be closer to her and get a head start.
And now, Lin Mo, his biggest obstacle, was actually leaving on his own?
This was simply a godsend!
By the time he came back from the training camp, it would be way too late for him!
The sorrow on Zhou Nianqian's face was completely swept away, replaced by an almost ecstatic excitement. He even picked up the fishing rod from the ground and hoisted it back onto his shoulder, as if the person who had just been half-dead with grief wasn't him at all.
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
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.”
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.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
