"Let's go!"
Seizing the moment Tang Manman paused, Lin Yu grabbed her hand and pulled her back.
Qing Mo was clearly looking for trouble—if they didn’t leave now, when would they?
Wait for the two of them to start fighting?
Without another word, Lin Yu dragged Tang Manman away, glancing back as they walked. Seeing Qing Mo standing frozen in place, her face cold with no intention of chasing them, Lin Yu finally relaxed.
Good.
If she had gotten tangled up with them, who knew how today would’ve ended!
"Come on, I’ll take you down the other way."
"It’s faster that way."
Lin Yu was blatantly lying through his teeth, pretending not to see the long escalator right behind Qing Mo.
Whatever worked to get them out of there!
Even the flimsiest excuse was still an excuse!
Holding Tang Manman’s hand, he walked briskly for several minutes before looking back again. Only when Qing Mo had completely disappeared from sight did Lin Yu finally exhale and let go of Tang Manman’s hand.
"Let’s go."
"I remember there’s another escalator up ahead. We’ll take that one down."
With that, Lin Yu lifted his foot, ready to move on.
"...Was it her?"
A soft, hesitant voice spoke beside him.
"Huh? Who?"
Lin Yu froze for a second before realizing who Tang Manman meant.
Tang Manman’s eyes were downcast, her whole demeanor wilted like a flower. Her voice was barely above a whisper as she asked:
"That person… the one at the school gate who said she wanted to… keep you."
"Was it her?"
"..."
Lin Yu was momentarily speechless, unsure how to answer without hurting her. After a pause, he reached out and lightly tapped her forehead, forcing a clumsy change of subject.
"Don’t overthink it."
"Let’s go watch the lion dance downstairs."
"......"
Tang Manman stayed silent for a few seconds before nodding slowly—obedient, easy to push around.
If he didn’t want her to think about it, she wouldn’t.
The lion dance on the first floor was lively, but Lin Yu couldn’t focus on it.
His head kept turning, scanning the crowd.
Between watching out for Xia Muzhu and keeping an eye out for Qing Mo, he was practically juggling.
Tang Manman, ever perceptive, noticed his distraction. After a moment, she gently tugged his sleeve and murmured:
"I don’t want to watch anymore."
"Let’s just finish shopping and go."
"Sure!"
Lin Yu couldn’t agree fast enough, steering Tang Manman out of the crowd.
But the moment they broke free, he spotted a familiar figure approaching and instinctively tried to duck back into the throng.
Damn it!
Why today of all—
Wait.
Why was he even avoiding her?
Realizing there was no need to hide, Lin Yu relaxed and turned back, continuing toward the exit.
As Su Yuyao’s face lit up with delight, Lin Yu mouthed a sharp "Get lost" with a glare.
Once the easiest nuisance was dealt with, he and Tang Manman headed for the supermarket...
...
Maybe they’d already run into everyone they were meant to.
The rest of the shopping trip went smoothly—no more familiar faces, no encounters that seemed normal but felt unsettling upon closer thought.
Since they were stocking up for the New Year, the list was long. Very long.
So long that the two of them could barely carry everything.
In the end, they had to split the haul into two trips.
First, they’d take the groceries and other purchases home, then come back for the plushies.
Luckily, they had plenty of time to take it slow.
When they met up again, Lin Yu accompanied Tang Manman to the cinema to pick up the plushies.
The moment the clerk handed over the neatly packaged toys, Tang Manman’s mood brightened instantly.
She ran her fingers over each one, eyes crinkling with joy—a sight so lovely it was almost childlike.
Amused, Lin Yu nearly teased her about acting like she’d never seen a plushie before.
But the words died in his throat.
What if asking if she’d never had toys like these only brought up painful memories?
Swallowing the jab, he opted for a safer, more important question instead.
"How’s your sister’s recovery going?"
Tang Manman smiled faintly.
"She’s doing much better."
"She can already get out of bed on her own now."
"Another month or so, and she’ll be discharged."
Lin Yu nodded.
"Let’s go visit her together."
"Okay."
Tang Manman agreed without hesitation.
Stepping onto the escalator, their view gradually descended. As the ground floor came into focus, Lin Yu suddenly turned to Tang Manman.
"Does your sister hate anything in particular?"
...
Click!
The door handle turned abruptly. On the hospital bed, a black-haired girl scrambled to shove a glowing black object under the covers, guilt written all over her face.
The door swung open. Spotting the two visitors, the girl’s expression flickered with surprise—as if she hadn’t expected these two, or more precisely, hadn’t expected him to come.
Memories of what happened before she lost consciousness resurfaced, and the guilt returned full force.
She grinned, all sweet innocence and appeasement.
"Lin Yu-gege, what brings you here?"
"I came to see you, of course."
"Tang Qinqin-meimei."
Lin Yu’s smile was even brighter than hers—though his carried an edge that made the hairs on her neck stand up.
"Here, I brought you a gift."
Lin Yu stepped closer, extending his left hand toward Tang Qinqin.
Her eyes sparkled at the sight of the mango cake. Beaming, she reached for it with a sugary "Thank you, Lin Yu-gege!"
Just as her pale fingers were about to touch the box, Lin Yu lifted it just out of reach.
Feigning regret, he tutted.
"Ah, my mistake. This one’s for me and your sister."
"Your gift is right here."
Lowering his left hand, he raised his right, waving a cartoon-patterned thermos under her nose.
A faint aroma seeped from the lid—rich, savory, with an underlying hint of bean paste.
Tang Qinqin’s face drained of color.
Lin Yu’s grin widened.
"Drink up while it’s hot."
"It’s good for you!"
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!
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
'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.
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.
