"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.]
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
