"Tianyi Villa?"
Li Ming stared at the screen, lost in thought.
He knew exactly why Tan Chengcheng was reaching out, but he had already decided not to help, so he had no intention of meeting her.
His finger hovered over the screen for a long time, yet he still didn’t reply to her message.
She had suffered quite a blow today—it was better to let her calm down first. Maybe in a few days, she’d come to accept reality.
Li Ming set his phone aside and closed his eyes, intending to sleep.
But the scenes from earlier kept flashing through his mind.
This unprecedented thrill wasn’t just a first for Li Ming—it was also Wang Xin’s first time!
When she turned back to look at him with those bewitching, half-lidded eyes, Li Ming felt as if his soul had been sucked into a vortex by her seductive gaze.
Tan Qingqing, asleep beside him and liable to wake at any moment; the prisoners resting just a wall away; and the unlocked cell door—
Every single detail was electrifying his nerves!
To fully savor this unparalleled passion, he had even deliberately deactivated his 200-meter detection radius warning field.
This intoxicating, pulse-pounding excitement was like a drug, eroding his rationality and leaving him utterly addicted.
He knew… he was hooked…
Li Ming didn’t remember how he fell asleep, but he dreamed again.
In the dream, a group of tiger-headed humanoid monsters sat around a dining table, ravenously fighting over the meager scraps of food. This time, however, he wasn’t among them.
Instead, he sat high above at another table, surrounded by an extravagant feast, free to pick and choose as he pleased. Yet after some deliberation, he only took a few small bites.
Once the tiger-headed monsters finished devouring their meager meal, they all turned their hungry, predatory gazes toward him…
The next morning…
Li Ming jolted awake.
Wiping his forehead, he realized his undershirt was drenched in cold sweat.
He exhaled deeply and checked the time on his phone.
It was already 9 a.m.!
His stomach growled fiercely—he was starving. Li Ming quickly got up, washed his face, and took a shower.
After straightening his clothes in front of the mirror, he nodded approvingly at his own dashing, debonair reflection.
Only then did he head out.
He went straight to the cafeteria, but it was completely empty—no one in sight. Clearly, he was too late; everyone had already eaten, and the place had been cleaned up.
Li Ming ducked into the kitchen, hoping to scrounge up something to curb his hunger.
Last night, he’d barely touched the food while drinking with Lin Xi, and after expending so much energy, whatever little he’d eaten had long been burned off.
Glancing around, he noted the usual prison fare: potatoes, eggplants, peppers, tomatoes, eggs—rotated in endless variations, no different from his college cafeteria. Cheap and healthy.
Li Ming had some basic cooking skills, but his specialty was fried rice. With practiced ease, he heated the pan, poured in oil, and scrambled the eggs. Then he scooped two bowls of leftover rice into the pan. Soon, a plate of fried rice—lacking in both presentation and aroma—was ready.
Carrying the plate out of the kitchen, he suddenly noticed a stunningly beautiful woman standing in the cafeteria, watching him with an amused smile.
"Xia Hong! What a coincidence! Haven’t eaten either? Want to try my fried rice? Freshly made, still hot!" Li Ming set the plate on the table and gestured invitingly.
Xia Hong looked at the so-called fried rice and couldn’t hold back her laughter.
"You made this?" she asked, grinning.
"Yep! What do you think? Not bad, right?" Li Ming admired his creation. Sure, it was a bit rough—too much oil, slightly burnt eggs, and the rice was a tad overcooked and hard—but overall, not terrible.
"Hahaha! Do you even know how to cook? This fried rice… Did you fall asleep while making it?" Xia Hong clutched her stomach, laughing so hard she had to lean on the table for support.
"Hey, I think it’s decent! The presentation might not be great, but try it—the taste is good!" Unfazed by her reaction, Li Ming picked up the plate, ready to feed her a bite.
Xia Hong immediately waved her hands in refusal.
"No, no, no! I’m not eating that! I’d rather not risk food poisoning. Just sit tight—let me show you how it’s done."
As she spoke, she gathered her long hair into a loose bun, rolling up her sleeves as she headed toward the kitchen.
Li Ming’s eyes lit up. He quickly followed, casually dumping his much-praised fried rice into the trash on the way.
"Xia Hong, you can cook? With those delicate hands, I’d never guess you had this skill!" he marveled.
"It’s nothing. Cooking’s a breeze compared to handling a scalpel. You don’t need to help—just wait outside," Xia Hong said, washing her hands and shooing him away.
"Let me at least assist. Can’t have you doing all the work!" Li Ming snatched the scallions from her and turned on the faucet to rinse them.
Water cascaded over the scallion leaves, and before he knew it, the floor was soaked.
Xia Hong watched his clumsy efforts, shaking her head in amusement as she took the scallions back.
"Just go! You’re making more work for me!"
Li Ming scratched his head sheepishly. He’d managed just fine on his own earlier—why was he so inept now?
"Alright, I’ll leave you to it! Call if you need anything!" He shook the water off his hands and turned to go.
Xia Hong nodded emphatically.
"Yes, yes, yes! Go! You leaving is the biggest help you could—AHH!!"
Before she could finish, her stiletto heel slipped on the wet tile—made even slicker by Li Ming’s earlier spill.
Dressed in a form-fitting black dress with a white coat over it, Xia Hong couldn’t move freely. With no time to react, she flailed helplessly, reaching for something to steady herself.
But there was nothing to grab—just empty air as she toppled backward…
Just as she braced for impact, a pair of strong hands shot under her waist and hips, lifting her effortlessly into the air!
Xia Hong felt her whole body jolt, her brain rattling slightly from the sudden motion, before those burning hands held her aloft with ease. And that wasn’t all—
Those powerful arms even gave her a little bounce, as if she weighed no more than a feather. The sheer masculine energy was overwhelming.
"Xia Hong… you’re so light~…"
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!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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?!
] [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!"
