"Why do you have to leave so early?"
"It's only June—you still have a long time before school starts, right?"
Xia Yueshan asked, clearly unable to understand.
"Because there are other things I need to take care of."
Lin Yu didn’t want to explain Tang Manman’s situation to Xia Yueshan, so he brushed off the question.
"Then, after you’re done, can you come back?"
Xia Yueshan asked pitifully. Ever since he heard that Lin Yu wouldn’t be returning even during holidays, his frown hadn’t eased.
"No."
"I’ll be going to N City for work, and once I’m done, I’ll just prepare for school directly."
Xia Yueshan’s brows furrowed even tighter, his face practically dripping with sorrow and frustration.
The night was long, but the way home was short.
Lin Yu led Xia Yueshan into the residential complex, nodding slightly in greeting to the familiar faces of the security guards in uniform.
One of the guards, slumped drowsily in his chair, perked up the moment he saw Lin Yu. His bleary eyes snapped open, and he flashed an ingratiating smile.
But sensing that Lin Yu didn’t want to make a scene, he simply grinned eagerly and didn’t make any further moves.
"If you ever run into danger or trouble again, you can call me. Or you can even ask the security guards here for help."
Once inside the complex, Lin Yu patted Xia Yueshan’s shoulder and gave him this reminder.
Xia Yueshan remained sullen, his mood so foul he didn’t even feel like speaking.
After walking Xia Yueshan all the way to his building, Lin Yu saw that his face was still drooping, so he patted his shoulder again and comforted him:
"Don’t be sad."
"All good things must come to an end."
"If fate allows, we’ll meet again someday!"
"Go on home now."
"Don’t keep your sister waiting."
Lin Yu gave Xia Yueshan’s shoulder another pat, urging him to hurry inside.
Xia Yueshan took two steps forward, then stopped and turned back, reluctant to leave. Seeing Lin Yu’s warm, gentle smile, the thought that this might be their last meeting made him even more heartbroken.
He turned back around and headed for the stairwell, just as he was steeling himself to accept the painful reality of Lin Yu’s departure—when a sudden, sharp pain interrupted his melancholy.
Xia Yueshan yelped, immediately clutching his backside.
By the time he realized what had happened and spun around, Lin Yu was already sprinting away, his figure rapidly disappearing into the night.
Gritting his teeth and rubbing his stinging rear, Xia Yueshan hopped on one foot and roared at the distant, nearly vanished silhouette:
"Long Aotian!"
"You just wait!!!"
...
Xia Yueshan angrily shoved open the door, furious at Lin Yu for being such a jerk—and at himself for letting his guard down and falling victim to such a cheap shot!
The moment he stepped inside, he noticed his sister’s gaze fixed on him.
Or, more accurately, fixed on the space behind him.
Confused, Xia Yueshan glanced over his shoulder. Seeing nothing, he closed the door behind him.
"Xiaoshan."
"I just heard you shout—"
"Was that Lin Yu?"
Xia Muzhu’s sapphire-blue almond eyes shimmered with hopeful light, her lips curling unconsciously into a smile.
"Uh..."
Xia Yueshan scratched his head guiltily and mumbled,
"Yeah, he came, but he just dropped me off downstairs and left..."
"Oh..."
"I see..."
The light in Xia Muzhu’s eyes dimmed instantly, losing all its earlier brilliance—like a layer of gray mist settling over a once-vibrant blue sea.
Her smile lingered, but now it twisted into a bitter, self-mocking grimace.
"I—I’ll go wash the dishes."
"I haven’t cleaned up yet."
Xia Muzhu stood up from the couch, her spirit broken, and shuffled toward the kitchen.
Watching his sister’s despondent figure, Xia Yueshan felt a pang of guilt.
That bastard Lin Yu!
How dare he break my sister’s heart like this!
I—
I...
"Ugh!"
Xia Yueshan let out a heavy sigh.
He lamented the fact that there was really nothing he could do about it.
He couldn’t beat Lin Yu in a fight, couldn’t make him stay, and couldn’t even find a proper reason to blame him.
The more he thought about it, the more suffocated he felt. He wanted to retreat to his room and punch his sandbag to vent his frustration.
But just as he turned to take a step, he paused, his gaze drifting back to the figure busying herself in the kitchen.
Lin Yu was leaving.
Should he tell his sister?
Xia Yueshan was torn.
If he told her, she’d be devastated.
She was already heartbroken today—would delivering this news, which would surely hurt her even more, be too cruel?
But if he didn’t tell her, and Lin Yu left without her knowing… would they ever get another chance to meet?
Would she resent him for keeping it from her?
After standing there for only a short while, Xia Yueshan made up his mind.
Tell her.
He had to tell her.
What if it played out like one of those TV dramas?
His sister, upon hearing the news, finally confronts her feelings.
She rushes to the airport—or the train station, or wherever—to intercept Lin Yu and pour out her heart in a passionate confession!
And then…
Would there be a happy ending?
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.
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?!
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
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!
