Tang Manman's brain had completely crashed from nervousness, rendering her unable to think.
With a blank mind, she obediently reached out and placed her delicate, pale little hand into Lin Yu's large, dark grasp.
Lin Yu didn't hesitate either. He held her hand and directly tucked both of their hands into his other empty jacket pocket.
In broad daylight, Lin Yu's posture of holding one girl in each hand naturally drew the stares of many passersby.
Under the strange, scrutinizing gazes of the pedestrians, both Tang Manman and Xia Muzhu were too ashamed to lift their heads.
But Lin Yu, sandwiched between the two of them, was entirely different.
He was perfectly calm and composed. When the shocked and disgusted looks of the crowd, looking at him as if he were a total scumbag, landed on him, a smile actually surfaced on his face.
His humble and polite demeanor made it seem as if he were receiving a compliment!
"Let's go."
"Let's go eat some instant-boiled mutton."
Just like that, Lin Yu walked toward the mutton hotpot restaurant south of the bridge with a smile on his lips, holding Tang Manman with one hand and Xia Muzhu with the other.
Along the way, the two girls, unable to bear the weird stares from passersby, coincidentally had the same thought of pulling their hands back.
But Lin Yu's grip was very tight.
They struggled gently, and seeing that they couldn't pull free, they stopped insisting.
Moreover, there was another reason why the two were willing to let Lin Yu hold their hands at the same time.
Neither of them wanted to see Lin Yu holding only the other's hand and being affectionate with her!
If I retreat, the enemy advances!
So I absolutely cannot back down!
Thus, the situation turned into what it was now.
The two silently competed with each other in secret, allowing Lin Yu to do as he pleased.
However, there was still some good news for them.
Because it was cold, there weren't many pedestrians on the road.
Therefore, there were only one or two strange glances.
Falling upon them, it was something they could temporarily endure.
Equally, there was bad news waiting for them.
Also because of the cold, the mutton hotpot restaurant they were heading to would be unusually packed.
It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say the customers inside would be a sea of people!
Once they got there, the two would likely become the sole focus of the entire place immediately!
Xia Muzhu had realized this early on and had been deeply worried.
Just as they were about to reach the entrance of the hotpot restaurant and the crowd began to thicken, Xia Muzhu finally couldn't hold it in anymore.
The boss and the lady boss of the restaurant, and even the waiters, were very familiar with her as a regular customer.
Walking in like this in a triangular formation, it wasn't just that she couldn't afford to lose face.
She really, really couldn't afford to lose this much face!
Faced with this immense sense of shame, Xia Muzhu no longer cared about competing with Tang Manman.
She struggled with her hand again, this time using a bit more strength, but she still couldn't yank her hand out of Lin Yu's grasp.
Seeing that the hard way wouldn't work.
Left with no choice, Xia Muzhu could only try the soft approach.
She gently squeezed Lin Yu's hand. When he looked over, she frowned and pouted, putting on a pleading expression, hoping Lin Yu would let her go and save her some face in front of acquaintances.
What Xia Muzhu didn't know was that just a moment ago, Tang Manman's little hand had also started struggling to break free from Lin Yu's large hand.
She felt exactly the same; she didn't want to enter the sight of the people inside the shop in this kind of posture.
Faced with their pleas, it wasn't like Lin Yu was a good guy... (His kind personality had just popped up before being knocked out in one punch by his evil personality.)
Lin Yu found their reactions highly amusing. It was the perfect chance, taking advantage of the fact that both had lowered their pride to beg him.
Lin Yu wanted to make the two of them more familiar with each other, so he feigned distress and said:
"Don't move around."
"It's rare for us to run into each other, so let's have a meal together and get to know each other."
"Isn't it nice like this?"
"I'll be your middleman, and you can slowly get familiar with each other."
"If it weren't for me as the middleman, could you two even be in the same place?"
Both Tang Manman and Xia Muzhu understood the underlying meaning of Lin Yu's words.
It was nothing more than him using this opportunity to force them to make a stance!
This guy Lin Yu...
When did he become so wicked?
But even knowing it was a trap, Xia Muzhu had no choice but to close her eyes and jump right in.
After all, just slightly imagining the looks of the boss and the lady boss shifting from friendly delight to shock and panic after she entered the shop was already too much for her to bear!
At least, if she walked into the shop arm in arm with Tang Manman, they could still use the excuse of being close girlfriends to cover things up...
Xia Muzhu parted her red lips. Just as she was about to compromise, Tang Manman, on Lin Yu's left, suddenly spoke up, beating her to it:
"We don't need you to get to know each other."
Saying that, Tang Manman broke free from Lin Yu's hand, walked over to Xia Muzhu's side, and reached out to gently link her arm with hers.
Xia Muzhu was startled by Tang Manman's sudden action.
What she didn't know was that after finding out they were eating at this particular mutton hotpot restaurant, Tang Manman had been far more nervous than she was.
Because working in this hotpot restaurant was a neighbor who lived near her house.
That middle-aged woman was a notorious gossip.
If she discovered this twisted relationship between her and Lin Yu, she could make sure the whole country knew about it by the next day!
Therefore, Tang Manman was even more anxious than Xia Muzhu.
And she made her stance much faster.
Goal achieved.
Seeing both of them with their heads bowed, looking embarrassed, shy, and somewhat reluctant, yet still awkwardly linking arms in an intimate manner, Lin Yu smiled, his eyes narrowing, and nodded with extreme satisfaction.
With his somewhat fierce looks coupled with that wicked smirk, he looked even more like a delinquent playboy than an actual one!

rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!

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.”

with countless casualties. As a top-tier gamer, Liu Xuan volunteered to join the fight, intending to dominate with his skills, but instead he obtained the hidden class: [Pacifist]. Unable to attack. Unable to use active skills. Fortunately, with each level gained, he acquired a new passive skill. And so, armed with a body full of passives, Liu Xuan slaughtered his way through the battlefield of ten thousand races! [You attacked Liu Xuan] [You gained the debuffs: 'Poison', 'Fear', 'Burning', 'Bleeding', 'Freeze', 'Silence', etc.] [Your attack speed has been reduced by 99%] [Your armor and magic resistance have been reduced by 99%] Warriors of the Ten Thousand Races: How the hell am I supposed to fight this?!

u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.