At some point, Tang Manman had stopped crying.
Seeing that her emotions had stabilized, Lin Yu let go of her.
Looking around, Lin Yu's gaze landed on a long wooden bench nearby meant for resting.
He reached out, intending to take Tang Manman by the wrist to lead her over, sit her down, and ask about the details of what had happened.
However, the moment Lin Yu's hand touched Tang Manman's wrist, she broke free.
The next second, a soft, cool little hand was stuffed into his palm.
Before Lin Yu could react, that small hand entwined with his, fingers interlocking tightly.
Lin Yu's eyes darkened slightly. He didn't say anything, simply continuing to pull her along until they sat down on the wooden bench.
"What happened?"
"Tell me everything in detail."
Lin Yu asked softly.
Tang Manman nodded and sniffled. In a hoarse voice, she began to speak:
"Half a month ago, in the school lab, I heard the senior students talking about an investment. They said it would have very generous returns."
"At the time, they had all put money into that project, including The Supervisor."
"They all got good earnings and feedback."
"I got tempted listening to them, so I voluntarily asked to join them."
Hearing that Tang Manman had actively requested to join, Lin Yu was practically speechless.
However, considering that Tang Manman must be feeling terrible right now, Lin Yu buried that sentiment deep in his heart. On the surface, he maintained a gentle demeanor and listened quietly.
"When I went to the lab today, I found the seniors in a chaotic state. I asked them what was wrong, and that's when I found out the money had been swept away."
Speaking of this, Tang Manman's emotions, which she had barely managed to stabilize, looked ready to burst like a dam again. It was clear this incident had caused her immense hurt.
Afraid she would start crying endlessly again, Lin Yu hurriedly held her hand, using his other hand to gently pat the back of hers soothingly.
"It's okay, it's okay."
"We'll get it back."
"Don't be scared, don't be scared."
Tang Manman raised her hand to wipe away a tear rolling from the corner of her eye with the back of her hand. She nodded, finally stopping the urge to cry.
"Have you guys reported it to the police?"
Tang Manman nodded and said:
"The Supervisor and the seniors have all gone to report it."
Lin Yu sensed something wasn't quite right and asked:
"They went to report it, but didn't you go?"
Tang Manman looked up at Lin Yu with a pitiful expression and shook her head.
Lin Yu took a deep breath, trying hard to control his emotions, and said softly to Tang Manman:
"Let's go to the police station again."
"We don't know if they mentioned your losses when they reported it. Let's go check for ourselves, just to be safe."
Tang Manman sniffled and nodded obediently, raising no objections.
"Have you eaten?"
Lin Yu looked at her; she looked like such a little crybaby that he estimated she hadn't eaten anything.
Sure enough, Tang Manman shook her head and said:
"No. I don't want to."
"You can't not eat just because you don't want to."
Lin Yu persuaded her gently:
"Don't starve yourself."
Turning his head to look around, it clearly wasn't the time for a big feast. Lin Yu spotted a shop selling savory egg pancakes by the roadside nearby and decided to just get something simple there.
Leading Tang Manman toward the small cart selling the pancakes, Lin Yu coaxed her softly, seeing her spirits were low, and told her some amusing stories.
"When I was in S City, I craved this so much."
"I dreamed about eating it."
"Once, I dreamed I was eating a savory egg pancake, but I couldn't bite through it no matter how hard I tried."
"When I woke up, I realized I was gnawing on my own duvet. My jerk roommates even took ugly photos of it and used them to threaten me into bringing them food every day."
As Lin Yu recounted these little anecdotes, Tang Manman didn't smile, but her attention was somewhat diverted. She followed Lin Yu's topic and asked:
"Don't they have egg pancakes in the South?"
"They do."
"But they're too salty. I couldn't get used to them."
"The more I ate them, the more I missed the taste of the North."
Tang Manman nodded. Being in a bad mood, she didn't continue the conversation but just stood obediently by Lin Yu's side, not stepping away for a moment.
To save time, they bought just one portion, adding a fried dough stick, making it look very substantial.
After cutting it in two, they each held half of the egg pancake, hailed a car by the roadside, and headed straight for the Municipal Public Security Bureau.
Upon arriving at the police station, Lin Yu took Tang Manman to report the case and asked the police for information.
After learning that The Supervisor had been scammed out of over eight hundred thousand, Lin Yu completely dismissed the idea that this was a trap set specifically for Tang Manman.
There were plenty of people who had lost more than her. Amidst those massive sums, Tang Manman's twenty-something thousand didn't seem like much.
Lin Yu couldn't get any useful clues at the police station.
After leaving, Lin Yu asked Tang Manman to call her senior brothers and sisters to see if she could get any useful information from them.
Tang Manman obediently took out her phone and called a senior sister.
Lin Yu had her put it on speaker so he could hear their conversation.
The call connected, and a chaotic noise came from the phone, sounding like people were arguing.
Soon, a breathless female voice spoke up.
"Hello, Manman, is something wrong?"
Holding the phone, Tang Manman asked in a soft, slightly raspy voice:
"Senior Sister Li, where are you guys right now?"
"We are at Pengjie Company. We found that middleman named Wang!"
There was a gnashing hatred in Senior Sister Li's voice. Clearly, the middleman she mentioned was heavily linked to this fraud.
Lin Yu instinctively looked at Tang Manman. She looked bewildered, seemingly completely unaware of this middleman's existence. It appeared she really was only responsible for handing over the money and knew nothing about the inside details.
"Manman, do you want to come over?"
Through the phone, Senior Sister Li extended an invitation.
Tang Manman looked at Lin Yu. Lin Yu nodded, and Tang Manman understood immediately, saying:
"Mm, we'll be there in a bit."
"Okay, hurry over..."
"I..."
"Hey!"
"What are you doing!"
"Don't touch me!"
Senior Sister Li's voice suddenly became intense, as if something unexpected had happened.
"Hello? Hello?"
"Senior Sister Li?"
Tang Manman called out anxiously twice, but the only response was the disconnected call.
Not knowing what to do, Tang Manman instinctively looked up, casting a helpless, pleading gaze at Lin Yu.
"We need to get over there immediately."
Lin Yu made a prompt decision.
Regardless of what was happening over there, he needed to go and see.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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?!
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.
