After the rain, the sun shone brightly on the earth, as if countless little fairies were dancing in the wind, and the emerald-green leaves dripped with rainwater.
Su Ze held Xiao Hanhan's hand as they walked back to the dormitory.
His phone rang, and when he glanced at the screen, his eyes met Uesugi Akizuki's innocent gaze. "Holy crap! Your mom!" he exclaimed in panic.
Uesugi Akizuki tilted her head, her wine-red hair swaying slightly, and asked in confusion, "Nani?" (What?)
Seeing the caller ID displaying "Uesugi Akizuki," Su Ze, in his nervous state, didn't realize the problem with his words.
His current mood was akin to waking up in bed with his girlfriend, only to have her mother call him instead of her daughter after discovering her absence. The first call wasn't to her daughter but to the guy who often sneaked her out for dates!
At this moment, the guy was undoubtedly panicking, but the outcome was usually the same: the girlfriend would answer the call, and he would hold his breath, perhaps fidgeting nervously.
"Is the holiday coming soon?" Uesugi Akizuki's cold voice came through the phone.
Su Ze's heart tightened. He suddenly remembered that Uesugi Akizuki had said she would leave her daughter in his care but warned him not to do anything inappropriate with her!
Su Ze felt a pang of guilt, but he quickly justified himself. They only cuddled and kissed every day—that wasn't inappropriate, right?
I mean, what's so inappropriate about kissing? Even his mom used to kiss his cheeks when he was a kid!
Su Ze shamelessly affirmed his thoughts. Even if he felt guilty, he convinced himself there was nothing to feel guilty about! He firmly believed he had done nothing wrong!
"Yes," Su Ze replied calmly. "Tomorrow is National Day, and there's a seven-day holiday nationwide."
"Hmm... Come see me tomorrow," Uesugi Akizuki said.
"Tomorrow?" Su Ze was taken aback. "Isn't that a bit soon?"
"What's too soon?"
"...Never mind," Su Ze quickly shut his mouth.
"Alright."
The phone line went dead with a series of beeps.
Su Ze turned to look at the clueless Xiao Hanhan, pinched her cheek, and said seriously, "If your mom tries to kill me, remember to stay far away, okay?"
Xiao Hanhan looked at him blankly, not understanding a word.
...
CSGO trivia:
(Decoy grenade: A throwable item that simulates gunfire to distract enemies. It explodes after about seven or eight seconds, but the damage is negligible and rarely harms anyone.)
(Flashbang: A grenade that blinds enemies upon explosion.)
On the CSGO map Dust II.
Su Ze made a beautiful flick shot to take out an enemy rushing B site, then called out, "One at B."
Two teammates smoked off A site, while a girl-controlled terrorist lingered outside A doors. "Got a flash? I want to push A," she asked.
"Yeah," Shen Qingsheng replied, positioning himself at A doors, ready to throw the flashbang as soon as the girl entered.
Bang bang bang!
As the girl rushed into A site, she was met with a sniper's scope and froze. Suddenly, a deep, gruff voice roared, "Where's the flash?! Why the hell did you throw a decoy?!"
With a loud bang, the girl—no, the burly man—was taken out, and his screen went dark.
Everyone was caught off guard by the sudden outburst.
Just as the sniper who had taken out the man was about to leave, another sniper shot rang out. Su Ze, who had followed up from A long, ended the sniper's life with a single shot.
"Bro, that's not cool. Using a voice changer to pretend to be a girl and mess with my feelings," Shen Qingsheng complained, playing the victim.
"You f***ing b****! You f***ing—how dare you say I'm not cool after pulling that crap!" The man on the other end of the voice chat started spewing profanities.
The teammates were all confused. It was just a flashbang for pushing A site. Even if it was a bad throw and blinded a teammate, was it really worth getting so angry over? Dude, you need to chill.
"Bro, you're way too aggressive. What's your zodiac sign?"
Shen Qingsheng casually switched to his butterfly knife and hopped around, following Su Ze to A long. "I saw you hesitating, and since I didn't have a flash, I threw a decoy to boost your confidence," he said nonchalantly.
"Damn it! Hahaha... you're such a jerk... hahaha... that's evil..."
"OMG, I can't breathe... I thought something serious happened to make him so mad. You threw a decoy instead of a flash to boost his confidence? That's genius!"
Both teammates were laughing hysterically, and Su Ze was struggling to hold back his laughter.
In the next round, as Shen Qingsheng was about to push A site, the man took him out with a single Deagle shot and then quit the game...
"Why's he so mad?" Shen Qingsheng muttered as he opened a bottle of Nutri-Express.
"Hahaha—serves you right," the teammates continued laughing.
Su Ze, with his exceptional skills, dominated the match and secured the win.
Afterward, the two switched to playing League of Legends.
"So, what are your plans for National Day?" Shen Qingsheng's Yasuo danced through the minion waves. "Partying, clubbing, or surfing?"
"I'm thinking of checking if there are any factories hiring for the holiday, offering food and lodging. Just to get by for these seven days," Su Ze replied, playing Yone in the top lane, teasing the enemy Riven.
"I know a place that offers food and lodging," Shen Qingsheng said.
"Where?"
"The police station."
Su Ze was speechless and silently went to mid lane to steal all of Shen Qingsheng's minions.
"I admit, when it comes to being a jerk, I'll never match up to you!" Shen Qingsheng fumed.
"Actually, I do have plans for National Day," Su Ze said as Yone headed back to the top lane, ignoring Shen Qingsheng's Yasuo, who kept Qing him.
"What?!" Shen Qingsheng was shocked. "Are you going on a honeymoon with your girl and leaving me all alone to pull all-nighters at the internet café?!"
"We're in college now. Why don't you just get a girlfriend?" Su Ze lit a cigarette.
"Hahaha, get a girlfriend?" Shen Qingsheng scoffed. "Am I stupid? Why would I spend my money on someone else's future wife?"
"You've got it all figured out," Su Ze replied indifferently.
Suddenly, Shen Qingsheng's voice came through the headset, feigning sadness. "Wahhh... you heartless jerk! You've found someone new and forgotten about your old buddy. Men are all the same—no good!"
Su Ze exhaled a puff of smoke. The internet café was bathed in colorful lights, and Xiao Hanhan was curled up on the chair beside him, asleep. When she caught a whiff of the smoke, her nose twitched, and she turned her head away. Su Ze paused, stubbed out the cigarette, and waved the smoke away.
He had unconsciously ignored the little one who had been quietly by his side all this time.
Su Ze hadn't wanted to bring her along, but Xiao Hanhan was clingy and refused to leave him. In the end, he had no choice but to bring her.
Love wasn't a transaction. If Su Ze gave up going to the internet café for Xiao Hanhan, she would become a shackle binding him.
Xiao Hanhan didn't want to confine Su Ze either. Her only request was to stay by his side.
She curled up on the chair, feeling a little tired but not at all wronged. As long as she was with Su Ze, she was content.
"Tomorrow, I'm going to Rakshasa to meet my... I mean, Rakshasa's leader, Uesugi Akizuki," Su Ze said.
"Wait, wait, wait..." Shen Qingsheng was stunned. "Are you saying you're going to die?"
"Full marks for comprehension," Su Ze praised. "If your Chinese teacher were here, she'd give you full marks. But since I'm here, I'll smack you with a slipper."
"She can't kill me, and she wouldn't dare," Su Ze said calmly.
"You're that confident? Don't forget, she's at the Rolling Flame Realm, mid-stage!"
Su Ze remained expressionless. "Doesn't she know? This is Huaxia."
Su Ze was a prodigy of Huaxia. No matter how powerful Uesugi Akizuki was, killing Su Ze would be tantamount to declaring war on Huaxia. That was Su Ze's confidence in attending the meeting—he had the backing of his nation!
It wasn't just because of his country that he dared to go to Rakshasa. He had faced life-and-death situations and broken through realms before. What was one trip to Rakshasa?
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.
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.”
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.
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!
