Lin Yu knew that at this moment, he had to be thick-skinned.
And being thick-skinned had always been Lin Yu’s specialty.
Walking to the bedside, Lin Yu sat down beside Xia Muzhu and gently took her delicate hand, which rested limply on the edge of the bed.
Xia Muzhu didn’t resist, letting Lin Yu’s large hand envelop her fair, slender fingers. Yet, she still refused to look at him, occasionally letting out a quiet sob as she turned her face away.
“Zhu-zi jie?”
Lin Yu called softly.
Xia Muzhu didn’t respond, her gaze stubbornly fixed on the wall.
Undeterred, Lin Yu gave her hand a light squeeze and called again, his voice tender:
“Zhu-zi jie?”
Still, Xia Muzhu refused to acknowledge him, her expression resolute as if she had sworn never to speak to him again. Yet, paradoxically, her hand remained pliant in his grasp.
Understanding her unspoken feelings, Lin Yu grew bolder, gently pulling her into his embrace.
Just as he had expected, Xia Muzhu didn’t struggle. Instead, she melted into his arms, soft and warm.
Holding her close, Lin Yu was momentarily dazed by the sensation of her fragrant, delicate body pressed against him.
He had always thought the first girl he’d be this intimate with would be… her.
Shaking off the brief distraction, Lin Yu felt an odd sting in his eyes. Blinking rapidly, he quickly regained his composure.
Now wasn’t the time to dwell on such thoughts.
What’s done is done…
At least, thank goodness.
He had never made any promises to her…
Suppressing the surge of emotions inside him, Lin Yu took a steadying breath and refocused. His hand, resting on Xia Muzhu’s slender waist, slid downward until he found her other hand. Clasping it tightly, he murmured:
“Zhu-zi jie.”
“Let’s be together, okay?”
At his words, Xia Muzhu’s body trembled visibly. She turned her face away again, her voice choked with tears:
“No.”
“Why not?”
Lin Yu couldn’t hide his shock—he had never imagined Xia Muzhu would refuse.
Pulling her hand free, Xia Muzhu wiped her tears and said bitterly:
“You don’t even like me. Why should I be with you?”
Hearing this, Lin Yu exhaled in relief, realizing she simply didn’t want to trap him out of obligation.
He caught her retreating hand again, his voice coaxing:
“Zhu-zi jie, who said I don’t like you?”
“I’ve liked you for a long time.”
“Otherwise, why would I go to such lengths to help you?”
“Plenty of people face danger in this world, but you’re the only one I’ve ever helped!”
“That’s because I like you!”
Xia Muzhu lifted her head, her tear-reddened almond eyes glaring at him accusingly as she sobbed:
“You’re lying!”
“If you liked me, why did you keep avoiding me afterward? Why wouldn’t you see me?”
“And now you suddenly say you like me!”
Her voice grew more and more aggrieved, fat tears rolling down her delicate cheeks.
“I’m not lying!”
Lin Yu met her gaze squarely, his tone earnest:
“I avoided you because I was afraid you’d be in danger again.”
“Do you remember what happened back then?”
“When you stood up for Xia Yueshan at that bar, I could tell you’d be in trouble afterward.”
“I wanted to protect you, so I did everything I could to stay close—visiting your house every day after school.”
“But in the end, it still happened.”
“And in a way, it was because of me.”
“That incident shook me badly.”
“I… I just couldn’t face you after that.”
His words were laced with sincerity, and since ninety percent of them were true, they were nearly impossible to refute.
Xia Muzhu’s tears fell harder as memories of the past resurfaced, mingling guilt and gratitude in her heart.
Seizing the moment, Lin Yu pressed on:
“Zhu-zi jie, I’ve felt drawn to you since the first time we met.”
“As we spent more time together, I realized how kind you are.”
“I loved every moment with you.”
“Looking back, I think I already liked you back then.”
“But afterward…”
“…I was afraid I’d bring you more misfortune, so I buried those feelings.”
“Now…”
Here, Lin Yu tightened his embrace, ignoring the distracting softness pressed against his chest as he swallowed hard. Meeting Xia Muzhu’s eyes, he spoke with deliberate clarity:
“This situation has made up my mind.”
“From now on…”
“Let me protect you, okay?”
At this, Xia Muzhu’s defenses crumbled completely. She wrapped her arms around Lin Yu, burying her face in the crook of his neck as she wept uncontrollably.
Lin Yu held her gently, stroking her back in slow, soothing circles as he waited for her to calm down.
After what felt like an eternity, Xia Muzhu lifted her head. Wiping her tear-streaked face, she looked up at Lin Yu, her deep blue eyes swirling with conflict.
“But… you already have a girlfriend,” she whispered between sobs.
“Since when do I have a girlfriend?”
Lin Yu feigned shock, his tone incredulous.
He knew exactly who she meant, but playing dumb was necessary—it made that other girl seem insignificant in his heart.
“That girl… the one you went to the movies with,” Xia Muzhu sniffled, her voice tinged with jealousy. “The one you played claw machines with.”
“Oh, her?”
Lin Yu adopted an expression of sudden realization, as if he’d only just remembered. He chuckled dismissively.
“She’s not my girlfriend.”
“Our relationship is… complicated.”
“Basically, I helped her with something big, and she returned the favor.”
“We’re just a bit closer than regular friends, that’s all.”
“But I don’t have feelings for her.”
“Now that high school’s over, she’s leaving for college out of province.”
“We probably won’t even see each other again.”
“Besides, I’ve been buried in studying this whole time—when would I have had the chance to date?”
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?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
