"Pan Pan?" Su Yang called out while putting on his clothes and getting out of bed.
He walked to the bathroom door, turned on the light, and looked inside. Apart from the usual bathroom fixtures, there was nothing—no sign of Pan Ning.
"What the hell? Where is she?"
After scanning the bedroom and finding no trace of Pan Ning, Su Yang quickly stepped out of the room.
As he moved from the hallway into the pitch-black living room, his peripheral vision caught something flitting past the balcony.
A sudden unease gripped him, making him freeze mid-step before instinctively ducking behind the wall to peek.
His eyes narrowed, and in an instant, his hair stood on end. His pupils dilated, and he clamped a hand over his mouth.
Two figures stood on the balcony—both unmistakably female, judging by their silhouettes.
One was clearly Pan Ning. The other had a high ponytail, a curvaceous figure with an hourglass shape, and a height roughly matching Pan Ning’s, around 170 cm.
The balcony’s glass door was shut, and the glare from the lights of neighboring buildings made it hard for Su Yang to see the other woman’s face clearly. Still, he could tell she was drop-dead gorgeous.
The two stood face-to-face, engaged in what seemed like a heated argument. Their voices were muffled, but their body language suggested they were on the verge of a physical altercation.
‘What the actual hell is going on? Did I wake up in the wrong reality or something?’
Su Yang swallowed hard, his gaze locked on the balcony.
After what felt like an eternity of arguing, Pan Ning suddenly turned her back to the living room.
The other woman remained motionless.
Su Yang’s brain short-circuited. Abandoning stealth, he decided to march over and demand an explanation.
Who was this woman? Why was she on his balcony in the middle of the night? And what were she and Pan Ning arguing about?
But before he could take a single step, the bombshell of a woman abruptly grabbed Pan Ning and shoved her off the balcony.
"Holy—FUCK!!!"
Su Yang’s eyes nearly popped out of his skull as the expletive tore from his throat. His mind went blank.
BOOM!!
An indescribable, thunderous roar exploded inside his head.
His heart wrenched in agony as he lunged toward the balcony.
"I’LL KILL YOU!!"
……
With a strangled shout, he jolted upright, drenched in cold sweat.
Su Yang blinked at his surroundings, his face a mask of utter confusion.
"What the—?!"
Yep. He was sitting in bed. Pan Ning lay beside him, undisturbed.
Hearing his outburst, she stirred, rolling over with a groggy murmur. "Have you… lost your mind?"
"Was I… dreaming??"
"What are you talking about?" Pan Ning pushed herself up weakly, studying Su Yang’s bewildered expression.
After a two-second lag, Su Yang turned and helped her sit up.
"You… didn’t go out?"
"Go where?"
"Huh?! This doesn’t feel like a dream!"
"What’s wrong with you?" Pan Ning leaned against the headboard, frowning at him.
"Nothing… just a nightmare."
"You’re a grown man. Since when do nightmares scare you like this?"
Su Yang slapped his cheeks, then pinched his thigh—hard. The pain was real.
Whether the earlier scene had been a dream or not, this moment definitely wasn’t. As his pulse steadied, a dry thirst clawed at his throat.
He glanced at Pan Ning’s questioning face before swinging his legs off the bed. "Feeling any better?"
"A little."
"I’ll get water." Su Yang left the room and headed for the living room.
At the hallway entrance, he instinctively glanced toward the balcony.
Nothing.
Gulping, he poured himself a glass of ice water, chugged it, then filled another with warm water for Pan Ning before returning.
"Here, drink."
He sat beside her, carefully helping her sip.
Then he grabbed his phone from the nightstand. The screen read 2:46 AM.
His 3:00 AM alarm was still fourteen minutes away.
"Damn. It really was just a dream."
"What kind of nightmare was it? Ghosts chasing you?" Pan Ning asked weakly.
"Worse than ghosts."
"Tell me."
"Let’s talk tomorrow. Not in the mood now. Let me check your temperature." Su Yang picked up the digital thermometer and scanned her forehead.
Beep. 39.1°C.
"Phew—it’s dropped a bit. Stay under the covers; don’t catch another chill."
"I need the bathroom."
"Hold on, put this on first." Su Yang grabbed one of his jackets from the closet and draped it over her shoulders.
Two minutes later, Pan Ning emerged from the bathroom and obediently settled back into bed.
Su Yang touched her forehead again. Still feverish.
"Take another dose before sleeping."
"Mhm." Pan Ning nodded faintly.
He fetched a fever reducer and an antiviral pill, feeding them to her one by one.
"Alright, your fever should break below 39 in a few hours. Get some rest."
"Okay… You should sleep too."
"Yeah." Su Yang climbed in beside her.
Once the lights were off, Pan Ning drifted back to sleep almost instantly.
But Su Yang lay wide awake.
Staring at the ceiling, he thought, ‘Was that really just a dream? Something feels off.’
‘Dreams aren’t supposed to feel that real.’
He took a deep breath and mentally called out:
—System?
[Here.]
—Was I dreaming earlier?
[Yes.]
—But it didn’t feel like a dream. I’ve had dreams before. This was different.
[Scan confirms host was dreaming.]
—No way. Something’s not right.
The memory replayed in his mind—Pan Ning being shoved off the balcony—and his skin prickled with goosebumps.
Gulping, he quietly sat up and studied her sleeping form.
Assured she was undisturbed, he slipped out of bed and left the room.
At the hallway entrance, he slowed his steps and peered at the balcony again.
Still empty.
Su Yang flicked on every living room light before striding to the balcony and yanking open the glass door.
His half-finished pack of cigarettes lay on the side table next to the lounge chair where he’d last smoked.
He picked it up, counted the remaining sticks, then snorted at his own paranoia.
"Why am I checking my smokes? Even if that was real, it’s not like that woman would’ve helped herself to my cigarettes."
Shaking his head, he lit one and slumped into the chair.
In the quiet, his brain replayed the scene against his will.
Every time he pictured Pan Ning falling, his heart twisted like it was being ripped apart.
Leaning on his hand, Su Yang gazed into the distance. The early-morning air in Haicheng carried a biting chill.
A cold breeze swept over his bare torso, making him shiver. After two more drags, he stubbed out the half-smoked cigarette in the ashtray.
—System?
[Here.]
—One last time. That was a dream, right?
[Confirmed: dream.]
[The translated content will appear here once the original Chinese text is provided.]
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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!
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
