“What?”
“They actually dared to rob us?”
“This is outrageous!”
“They’re breaking the law!”
“Let’s go!”
“Come with me to report this to the police!”
Xia Muzhu’s brows furrowed in anger. She grabbed Lin Yu’s hand, pulling him toward the nearby police station to file a report.
“Sis, it’s useless. I’ve already reported it,” Lin Yu said, letting Xia Muzhu tug at his hand, his tone heavy with frustration.
“But there’s no surveillance footage, and I don’t have any evidence of the robbery. The police can’t do anything without proof,” he added.
Xia Muzhu abruptly stopped in her tracks, still holding Lin Yu’s hand. She stood frozen for a moment before slowly turning around, her eyes reddened as she asked,
“So, what should we do?”
“Are we supposed to just accept being bullied with nowhere to seek justice?”
Seeing the helplessness and hurt in Xia Muzhu’s eyes, Lin Yu’s heart clenched painfully.
Deceiving such a kind girl like this made him feel utterly guilty.
His heart ached with remorse, but when he thought about the tragic fate that might await Xia Muzhu, the second female lead, he forced himself to steel his resolve and continue following the original plan.
“There’s nothing we can do. The police need evidence to take action, and we don’t have any.”
Lin Yu’s right eye, visible beneath his golden hair, darkened with a resigned gloom, as if he had already surrendered to this harsh world.
Seeing Lin Yu’s defeated and dispirited state, Xia Muzhu felt a pang of sympathy. After hesitating briefly, she lowered her head and rummaged through her small handbag.
Soon, she pulled out a stack of cash and held it out to Lin Yu.
“Take this money. This whole mess started because of me, so I have to take responsibility. I won’t let you suffer.”
“No, I can’t accept this!” Lin Yu waved his hands frantically in refusal.
“I absolutely cannot take this money!”
“Listen to me!” Xia Muzhu stepped forward, determined to press the money into his hands. Lin Yu, however, clutched his pockets tightly and took quick, small steps backward to avoid her reach, as if the stack of bills in her hand were burning embers.
They struggled for a moment until Lin Yu finally stopped resisting and placed his hands on hers, who was still holding the money, then suggested,
“Sis, how about this?”
“I’ll accept the money, but I won’t keep it with me. You can hold onto it for me.”
“You’ve seen it yourself—keeping money on me isn’t safe.”
“When I get into university and need to pay tuition, or if I need money for something else, I’ll come to you to ask for it. How does that sound?”
Lin Yu spoke sincerely.
Xia Muzhu thought it over and agreed that it was a good idea. She stopped insisting on handing over the money and prepared to put it back in her bag. Suddenly, she looked up with a worried expression and asked,
“But since your money was stolen, do you still have enough to live on?”
“Yeah,” Lin Yu nodded and smiled.
“Tomorrow I’ll finally get paid. Life might be a bit tight for a while, but at least I can support myself.”
Only after hearing this did Xia Muzhu feel comfortable putting the money away. She slipped it back into her bag, zipped it up, then looked up and, still a bit concerned, reminded Lin Yu:
“Don’t be too hard on yourself. If you ever need anything, don’t hesitate to come find me. No need to be shy with your big sister.”
Hearing Xia Muzhu’s words, Lin Yu gave an embarrassed smile, a little shy as she said:
“I actually do have something I need your help with.”
“What is it?”
“You tell me.”
Xia Muzhu asked with genuine concern.
“Well, the salary won’t come until tomorrow, so tonight...” Lin Yu looked at Xia Muzhu expectantly and said,
“Could you treat me to a meal?”
“I thought it was something serious,” Xia Muzhu said with a small sigh of relief, smiling softly as she asked,
“What do you want to eat?”
“Anything’s fine,” Lin Yu said, not picky at all.
“Can you handle spicy food?”
“There’s a Sichuan restaurant nearby that’s pretty good. Their dishes are very authentic,” Xia Muzhu suggested.
“Sounds great!” Lin Yu nodded eagerly, smiling brightly.
“I love spicy food!”
...
As dusk settled, the vast sky divided itself into three colors. To the west was the fading orange-gold glow of the setting sun. To the east lay the deep, cool darkness of night.
Between these two was a gradient of blue—starting from a pale sky blue near the sun, gradually deepening into a profound, mysterious navy near the night.
These three colors stretched across the sky like a tug-of-war between the sun and the night.
The gradient blue in the middle was the rope’s red ribbon.
As always, the outcome of this timeless battle was the same as it had been for millions of years.
The sun won. It sank its brilliant form into the western mountains, pulling the blue curtain down with it, leaving only darkness to reign over the sky, bearing the penalty of defeat.
As the sun tore away the blue fabric, street lamps on the ground flickered on in unison, cheap substitutes for the sun, continuing to provide light for the world.
Under one of these street lamps stood a boy with an exaggerated hairstyle, his head wrapped in bandages. He suddenly stopped, sniffing the air repeatedly, trying to catch the salty, fragrant scent.
“Smells like delicious stewed fish!” the flamboyantly styled boy exclaimed.
“Want to eat fish?”
A woman walking about a step and a half ahead stopped as well. She turned around, her pale yellow dress fluttering lightly with her movement. Bathed in the glow of moonlight and incandescent street lamps, she looked like a gentle fairy who had accidentally wandered into the mortal world.
“But the fish sold outside doesn’t taste the same as this one,” the boy said, a little disappointed.
He twitched his nose again, sniffing the air filled with the aroma of fish. His expression grew forlorn as he softly added:
“It smells like home. Ever since Mom left, I haven’t tasted this kind of flavor in a long time.”
The woman suddenly froze in place. Her ocean-blue eyes were filled with deep sorrow and tenderness.
At that moment, the bag she was holding swayed slightly. She instinctively looked down and saw a few yellow croakers, already out of the water, writhing inside. Her eyes brightened as she looked at the boy with surprise and said,
“Do you want some stewed fish?”
“Why don’t you come home with me? I’ll cook it for you.”
“My sister’s stewed fish is actually pretty good.”
“Really? You mean it?”
A spark of hope shone brightly in the boy’s right eye, peeking out from beneath his blonde hair. But it quickly faded, and he said with disappointment,
“But won’t your boyfriend get upset if you do that?”
At this moment, Lin Yu’s inner voice:
Ugh~!
I can’t take it anymore.
I’m about to puke.
This green-tea vibe is way too strong!
I can’t keep pretending!!!
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?!
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
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!
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.
