"I'm back!"
Xia Yueshan announced loudly as he pushed the door open.
The sizzle of oil and steam rose from the kitchen, signaling someone was busy cooking.
Soon, a gentle voice called out from within.
"You're back? Dinner’s almost ready—just a little longer."
At that moment, a small head peeked out from behind the sofa. The boy’s delicate, youthful face broke into an earnest grin as he greeted Xia Yueshan.
"Brother Yueshan, you’re back!"
Xia Yueshan shot the boy a sidelong glance. Since his parents were away, the kid had made it a habit to come over for dinner every night. His tone was far from friendly as he retorted,
"You’re here early."
Wang Lin scratched his head sheepishly, cheeks flushing slightly.
"I was hungry."
Xia Yueshan shrugged off his backpack and tossed it onto the sofa before eyeing the boy.
"Did you wash your hands?"
Wang Lin held up his clean, pale hands.
"Yep!"
Xia Yueshan gave a curt nod and headed to the bathroom to wash up.
By the time he returned, the dishes were ready. Xia Muzhu and Wang Lin were already setting the table.
Xia Yueshan pitched in, and soon, everything was laid out—food, bowls, and chopsticks.
Seated at the table, Xia Yueshan dug in immediately, while Wang Lin, ever the polite one, chirped sweetly,
"Sister Muzhu, come eat!"
Xia Muzhu untied her adorable cat-patterned apron and hung it on the kitchen wall before responding,
"You two start first. I’ll be right there."
She rinsed her hands under the tap, dried them with a towel, and finally made her way to the table.
But just as she was about to sit down, her phone rang.
Glancing at the screen, her gentle features tensed with unease.
Clutching the phone, she stepped aside to answer, her voice hushed as she spoke to the person on the other end.
Though she hadn’t gone far, snippets of the conversation drifted to the table.
Wang Lin’s eyes sparkled with curiosity, his ears perked up to catch every fragmented word.
Xia Yueshan, meanwhile, kept his head down, shoveling food into his mouth. He didn’t need to hear the call to know exactly what it was about.
Those so-called "responsible parents" of theirs were probably trying to set his sister up with another "promising young man"!
"Mom, really, it’s fine. Yueshan and I are doing just fine on our own..."
"I don’t need it."
"I—I don’t want to meet anyone..."
"I can take care of myself..."
Xia Muzhu stood by the sofa, her voice soft and pleading as she spoke to their mother, who was oceans away.
But the conversation clearly wasn’t going well. Gradually, her tone grew more strained, until it finally cracked with the faintest hint of tears.
That was the last straw for Xia Yueshan.
He slammed his chopsticks down, stormed over, and snatched the phone from Xia Muzhu’s hand.
"Did you not hear her say she doesn’t want to?!" he barked into the receiver.
"Call after call, day after day—give it a rest already!"
His tone was sharp, and their mother, equally unyielding, snapped back after a stunned pause.
"Yueshan! Is that any way to speak to your mother?"
But Xia Yueshan wasn’t as easy to push around as his sister. He fired back without hesitation.
"Yeah, that’s how I talk. Got a problem with it?"
"You ignored me before, and now you suddenly care how I speak?"
"Wow, what perfect timing! Why don’t you wait till I’m on my deathbed to start parenting me?"
"By then, I’ll be deaf and blind—won’t even hear you nagging. Sound good?"
"Listen up—stop playing matchmaker with my sister!"
"She’s not an idiot. She can handle her own love life!"
"If she meets someone she likes, she’ll go for it herself!"
Without waiting for a response, he hung up and handed the phone back to Xia Muzhu.
"Don’t mind her. Let’s eat."
With that, he marched back to his seat and resumed devouring his meal like nothing had happened.
Xia Muzhu sniffled, her face still clouded with distress as she returned to the table and took her seat.
Wang Lin, who had witnessed the entire outburst, sat frozen in shock. It took him a while to recover.
Glancing nervously between Xia Yueshan, whose cheeks were stuffed with food, and Xia Muzhu, whose eyes were slightly red, he finally mustered his courage.
Taking a deep breath, he flashed Xia Muzhu a sweet, reassuring smile.
"Don’t be sad, Sister Muzhu."
"When I grow up, I’ll marry you!"
Xia Muzhu was so stunned she forgot her sorrow entirely, gaping at the boy in disbelief.
Before she could react, Xia Yueshan let out a strangled cry, his eyes nearly bulging out of his skull.
"What did you just say?!"
"You wanna marry my sister?!"
"Who the hell do you think you are?!"
With that, he delivered a sharp smack to Wang Lin’s forehead.
"You little brat! You think you’re worthy of being my brother-in-law?!"
Wang Lin shrank back, clutching his head with teary eyes, thoroughly chastened.
Xia Muzhu couldn’t help but giggle, her worries melting away. She didn’t scold Xia Yueshan—just sat there, quietly laughing to herself.
After dinner, Xia Yueshan promptly kicked Wang Lin out.
He even issued a warning: from now on, the kid wasn’t allowed to show up uninvited. He’d call him when the food was ready.
Once the "ungrateful punk" was gone, Xia Yueshan helped Xia Muzhu clear the table and carry the leftovers and dishes to the kitchen.
As he placed the last bowl in the sink, he hesitated, watching her busy figure.
He wanted to ask if she still hadn’t gotten over that guy.
And if so, whether she’d ever consider...
Never mind.
She’d never agree.
Xia Yueshan took a deep breath, exhaled slowly, and turned away.
Grabbing his backpack, he retreated to his room to tackle some homework—better to get a head start now than cram last-minute after a day of fun.
] [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!"
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?!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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!
