“What do you think I’m going to do?” Liu Muye raised the remaining bottle of bruise ointment in his hand and said to Han Juyou, “Didn’t you sprain your ankle? Let me help you apply the medicine!”
As he spoke, Liu Muye took step after step toward Han Juyou.
“Hey, hey, hey—don’t come any closer!”
Han Juyou panicked, abruptly standing up from the recliner and taking several steps back.
“Ha! Your leg isn’t hurt at all!” Liu Muye smirked, as if he’d already guessed the truth. “You were lying earlier, weren’t you? You little liar.”
“You’re the liar,” Han Juyou retorted, hiding behind the medical bed while eyeing Liu Muye warily. “You’re the weird one here. What exactly do you want? You’ve been giving me shady looks since the first day of school!”
Liu Muye scoffed. “Oh, please. Who’d have any shady intentions toward you? Do you think you’re some kind of novel heroine, universally adored wherever you go?”
“Then why were you staring at me with that dumbstruck look during freshman orientation?”
Han Juyou’s pointed question left Liu Muye speechless.
“I…”
“Uh…”
“Well…”
Liu Muye stammered for a long moment, completely at a loss for words.
“See? You definitely have ulterior motives!” Han Juyou pressed her lips together and smirked coldly. “And that friend of yours is probably no good either. Leaving those two alone in the ward—something bad must be happening.”
With that, she immediately headed toward the locked ward where Nangong Ye and Shangguan Yurou were.
“Don’t go over there!” Seeing this, Liu Muye quickly blocked her path.
The more he resisted, the more suspicious Han Juyou became. She sidestepped him and dashed toward the ward door.
“No, don’t—”
Thud!
“Ah!”
Liu Muye turned to chase after her, only to hear Han Juyou cry out in pain. Looking down, he saw her sitting on the floor, clutching her ankle—this time, she’d really sprained it.
As if obeying the “running always leads to a sprain” trope from cheesy romance novels, Han Juyou had gracefully—or rather, clumsily—fallen and twisted her foot.
Liu Muye crossed his arms, gloating. “Told you not to run. Now look at you.”
“Stop mocking me and help me up!” Han Juyou frowned, beads of sweat forming on her forehead. It was clear she was in pain.
“Weren’t you just worried I was some kind of creep? Now you want my help?” Liu Muye said, but he still walked over and extended his hand.
Han Juyou’s sharp, fox-like eyes narrowed as she stubbornly replied, “If you weren’t the only living soul in this hallway, I wouldn’t even consider letting you help!”
Still, she placed her hand in his. Liu Muye’s palm was much warmer than hers—this was their second physical contact, counting the time he’d grabbed her hand on the sports field earlier.
Liu Muye helped her back to the recliner, then uncapped the bruise ointment. “Want to apply it yourself, or should I do it?”
“I’ll do it myself!”
No way would Han Juyou let Liu Muye touch her ankle. She snatched the bottle from him, removed her shoe and sock, and began gently rubbing the ointment onto the injury.
The medicine was a pale yellow, oily liquid. Han Juyou poured some onto her palm and carefully spread it over the swollen area. Her legs were slender and fair, making the redness around her ankle even more pronounced.
The sprain had already begun to visibly swell, the skin turning an angry red. The way she bit her lip while applying the ointment made it obvious it hurt—a lot.
Her arch was elegantly curved, her skin smooth and pale, her toes a soft pink with well-defined joints and no polish… Liu Muye couldn’t help but glance a few times.
Let it be known—he was not a foot guy!
Sensing his gaze, Han Juyou looked up mid-application and glared. “Why are you staring at my feet?”
Liu Muye’s face flushed as he denied it. “I—I wasn’t! Who’d even want to look at you?”
With that, he hurried out of the infirmary, guilt written all over him.
Watching his retreating figure, Han Juyou flashed a sly smile.
……
The ward’s soundproofing was surprisingly good. Despite the commotion in the hallway, the two inside hadn’t heard a thing—and their own shouts for help had gone unnoticed as well.
After futilely trying to open the door, Shangguan Yurou and Nangong Ye had no choice but to stand awkwardly in the room.
Nangong Ye sat on the bed, clutching his sprained ankle, while Shangguan Yurou took the chair beside him.
Seeing him drenched in sweat, Shangguan Yurou handed him the bruise ointment Liu Muye had shoved into her hands earlier. “You should take care of that.”
“Are you… instructing me?” Even in pain, Nangong Ye couldn’t resist his domineering CEO lines.
Shangguan Yurou waved a hand dismissively. “No, I just thought you might want to treat it before it swells even more.”
Nangong Ye smirked. “Hah. Woman, is that concern I detect? Go on, admit it—what’s your real motive for getting close to me?”
His arrogance triggered Shangguan Yurou’s scripted response from the original plot.
“First, I have a name—it’s Shangguan Yurou, not ‘woman.’ Second, I’m not trying to get close to you. Stop flattering yourself!”
This line was supposed to have been delivered during freshman orientation, but here it was, delayed until now.
“Shangguan Yurou… An interesting name, indeed.” Nangong Ye’s smirk returned. “I know what you’re thinking. You’re hoping to use my injury as an excuse to ‘help’ me with the ointment, aren’t you?”
Shangguan Yurou nearly rolled her eyes out of her skull. “Are you serious? Your so-called friend locked us in here—how is that my doing? And I never said I’d apply it for you!”
Nangong Ye shook his head. “That guy outside isn’t my friend.”
“Huh?” Shangguan Yurou frowned. “If he’s not your friend, why would he lock us in here together?”
“How should I know?” Nangong Ye shrugged, his deep, handsome eyes betraying a hint of cluelessness. “I thought you were the one scheming!”
Shangguan Yurou was at a loss for words. “Do you really think you’re that irresistible? Who’d even want to scheme over you?”
“And why couldn’t I be?” Nangong Ye arched a brow with misplaced confidence. “I’m Nangong Ye, future head of the Nangong Family. In Shangjing City, when my family speaks, who dares oppose? Countless women would kill to marry into this fortune.”
“Well, I’m not one of them.” Shangguan Yurou rolled her eyes. “Now tend to that ankle before it balloons into a giant pork knuckle.”
Nangong Ye gazed at Shangguan Yurou, silently musing to himself, "Is this woman actually concerned about me? 'Big pig’s trotter'? What an amusing nickname—she really is different from other women!"
…
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?!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
