“So many important things were all in your wallet?”
Sun Tao asked in surprise.
“Yeah.”
Xia Muzhu nodded with a troubled expression and said, “If I lose my wallet, it’s going to be a real headache. The cash is one thing, but the ID card and bank cards all need to be reported lost and replaced. And tomorrow’s Saturday, so I’ll have to wait until Monday to handle the reports.”
“Do you have mobile banking?”
“If you do, transfer the money out first through your mobile banking app, then call the bank to report your cards lost. The 24-hour customer service should be able to help you block the cards.”
Sun Tao reminded her.
Xia Muzhu quickly nodded and, following Sun Tao’s advice, began transferring the money from her lost bank card to another account.
After transferring all the money and calling the 24-hour customer service to block the lost cards, the two of them sitting on the bed finally breathed a sigh of relief.
“Luckily, the money in the bank card didn’t get lost.”
Xia Muzhu said with relief.
“Yeah, that’s true.”
“But as for your ID card, you’ll just have to wait until Monday to go to the police station to report it lost and get a new one.”
Sun Tao shrugged.
Xia Muzhu nodded.
“There’s no other way.”
After settling the issue with the bank cards, it was getting late. The two washed up and planned to go back to their own rooms to sleep.
Xia Muzhu was the first to return to her bedroom. Sun Tao glanced at her own room, then turned to look at the bedroom door that Xia Muzhu had just closed. Without much hesitation, she walked toward Xia Muzhu’s room.
She pushed open the door and smoothly slipped under Xia Muzhu’s blanket, only her head peeking out. Facing Xia Muzhu’s puzzled look, she pouted slightly, her dark eyes shimmering with moisture.
“I’m leaving for another city to work tomorrow. After we part ways, I don’t know when we’ll meet again. Let’s sleep together tonight!”
“Okay.”
Xia Muzhu softly replied, looking at her dear friend who was about to leave for another city. She too felt reluctant, her eyes reddening as she nodded.
“Together.”
The two lay in bed, chatting endlessly, from some local gossip to each other’s past embarrassing and silly moments.
“Do you still remember Deng Song from high school?”
“He had a crush on Zhou Tingting for three whole years in high school!”
“When we took the graduation photos, his eyes were almost completely squinted just so he could sneak a glance at Zhou Tingting. The photos turned out hilarious!”
Sun Tao said enthusiastically.
“Really?”
Xia Muzhu’s eyes sparkled with curiosity.
She knew roughly about Deng Song’s crush on Zhou Tingting, but she had never really looked closely at the graduation photos Sun Tao mentioned.
“Of course!”
“Wait, I’ll find it for you!”
Sun Tao took out her phone, opened the photo album, and started scrolling through the pictures.
Xia Muzhu leaned close to Sun Tao, her beautiful almond-shaped eyes sparkling with a gentle smile, full of anticipation as she waited for Sun Tao to find that graduation photo and see what kind of funny expression Deng Song had back then.
Photos flashed by one after another. When a selfie of Sun Tao and her boyfriend, full of affection, swiftly appeared, Xia Muzhu’s smile suddenly froze.
What was that just now?
Sensing something unusual, Xia Muzhu quickly stopped Sun Tao’s rapid scrolling and said,
“Wait, scroll back a bit.”
“What’s wrong?”
Sun Tao turned her head toward Xia Muzhu, curious.
“I think I just saw someone very familiar. Scroll back, let me take a closer look.”
Patting Sun Tao’s hand anxiously, Xia Muzhu urged.
“Oh.”
Sun Tao obeyed and began scrolling back through the photos.
After a few pictures, the screen displayed that selfie of Sun Tao and her boyfriend showing their affection.
“This one!”
Stopping Sun Tao’s finger from swiping further, Xia Muzhu stared seriously at the photo.
Judging by the background, it was clearly taken at a barbecue stall.
In the photo, Sun Tao and her boyfriend pressed their faces close together, pouting cutely as they looked at the camera.
But Xia Muzhu’s concern wasn’t with the two who nearly filled the entire photo—it was the white-haired man sitting by the grill in the upper right corner.
With just one glance, Xia Muzhu recognized him as the white-haired man who had been following her that night.
Her beautiful eyes widened. She took a deep breath and raised her hand to point at the white-haired man in the corner of the photo, about to speak, but her voice suddenly caught in her throat.
Opposite the white-haired man sat a strange figure, only half visible, with a side profile so obscured that even his own mother wouldn’t recognize him.
Xia Muzhu’s sea-blue pupils visibly trembled.
How...
How could it be him?
Looking at that strange person’s side profile, almost completely hidden by yellow hair, the Zhong School uniform he wore, and the conspicuous blue tattoo on his neck—
A chill ran through Xia Muzhu’s entire body. Her mind couldn’t find a single excuse to justify him.
In that instant, a terrifying yet undeniable suspicion took root deep in her heart.
“Zhuzi.”
“Zhuzi?”
“Zhuzi!”
Sun Tao called Xia Muzhu’s nickname three times in a row before finally pulling her out of her stunned daze.
“Hm?”
“What’s wrong?”
Xia Muzhu instinctively turned her head.
“What were you about to say just now...”
Frowning, Sun Tao was about to complain that Xia Muzhu had stopped speaking mid-sentence, but then she suddenly noticed the obvious glistening tears at the corner of Xia Muzhu’s eyes. She reached out, surprised, and asked,
“Why... why are you crying?”
“Ah?”
Hearing Sun Tao’s words, Xia Muzhu instinctively raised her hand to touch her face. Her fingers came away wet and cool. Only then did she realize she had been crying.
“I-I’m fine.”
“It’s just that the phone screen was too bright; it hurt my eyes.”
Xia Muzhu wiped her face clumsily and spoke softly.
“Okay, okay, let’s not look at it anymore. I’ll find it for you tomorrow during the day.”
“Mm.”
Xia Muzhu responded quietly.
The phone screen went dark, and the room was plunged back into silence.
“Zhuzi, are you really okay?”
After a moment of quiet, Sun Tao still couldn’t help but ask worriedly.
“I’m fine.”
Xia Muzhu answered sullenly. After a moment, she spoke again, her voice trembling slightly but not too obvious:
“Could you send me that photo later?”
Sun Tao nodded gently. Although she didn’t know why Xia Muzhu wanted the photo, she readily agreed.
“Of course, no problem.”
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.”
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?!
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!
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
