Time flew by, and Chen Zhi and Lin Wanwan were already in the fourth grade.
Sunlight filtered through the classroom windows, casting dappled shadows on the desks. The Class Two, Grade Four classroom was bustling with noise and excitement, the air filled with a unique mix of thrill and tension. Today was parent-teacher meeting day.
For most elementary school students, these words were akin to the end of the world. But for Chen Zhi, it was nothing more than a routine commendation ceremony.
Ever since his rebirth, Chen Zhi had used his adult mindset to absolutely crush the competition, leaving everyone in the dust academically. Math, English, Science—as long as it was an exam, he was guaranteed a perfect score. He had sat on the throne of first place in the school so long he was practically growing calluses.
The two goofballs at home, Chen Jun and Zhang Guifang, had almost gotten into a full-blown martial arts brawl last night fighting over the right to attend this parent-teacher meeting. In the end, Zhang Guifang won with the ridiculous excuse: I am a bank teller with strong calculation skills, so I can more accurately calculate exactly how many points our son beat the second place by.
Chen Zhi spun the ballpoint pen in his hand out of sheer boredom, his gaze sweeping over his desk mate to his left.
Lin Wanwan was sprawled over her desk, burying her head in her arms and playing dead. She had only scored a seventy-eight on her math midterm, and rumor had it that Auntie Lin Jing had already laid down the law: if the teacher singled her out for criticism at this meeting, her snacks would be cut off for a month.
Stop pretending, you cannot hide from it no matter how hard you play dead, Chen Zhi poked her elbow with his pen cap.
Chen Zhi, you traitor! Lin Wanwan snapped her head up, her cheeks puffed out like a hamster. You got a perfect score, of course it is easy for you to say! When my mom gets here, you have to help cover for me!
Chen Zhi shrugged, looking entirely helpless to assist her.
He turned his head and looked to his right.
Sitting there was his new desk mate who had recently transferred, Li Zhiyi.
Completely unlike the loud and boisterous Lin Wanwan, Li Zhiyi was as quiet as air. She wore a washed-out school uniform with slightly frayed cuffs. Her hair was always tied in a low ponytail, and her bangs were so long they almost covered her eyes.
In the week since she transferred, aside from her mosquito-like whispers when called on by the teacher, Chen Zhi had not seen her speak up on her own. The homeroom teacher, Lao Wang, had specifically instructed him, as the class monitor, to take good care of the new student.
At this moment, Li Zhiyi was sitting up perfectly straight, her hands neatly folded on her lap. The desk in front of her was completely bare, save for a single Chinese textbook.
The surrounding students were all chattering away about whose parents were coming, but she seemed to have an invisible vacuum barrier around her, isolating her from all the noise.
Chen Zhi felt a stir in his heart. He decided to fulfill his duty as the study commissary and bridge the gap with his introverted new classmate.
He cleared his throat, leaned slightly to the right, and put on a friendly smile: Li Zhiyi?
The girl's shoulders visibly flinched, like a startled little animal. She slowly turned her head, her gaze peeking timidly at Chen Zhi through the gaps in her thick bangs, before quickly dropping back down.
Um... Chen Zhi pointed toward the parents trickling into the classroom from the doorway. For today's parent-teacher meeting, is your mom coming for you?
It was the most ordinary of greetings.
According to Chen Zhi's script, she was supposed to answer yes or no, and then he would casually compliment her with something like your grades are pretty good too, successfully breaking the ice.
However, the script got stuck on the very first line.
Li Zhiyi lowered her head even further, almost touching her chest. The fingers resting on her lap twisted together, her knuckles turning slightly white from the force.
After several seconds, a tiny, almost inaudible voice drifted into Chen Zhi's ears:
I... do not have a mom.
The smile on Chen Zhi's face instantly froze.
The air seemed to solidify for a moment.
His adult mindset made him immediately realize he had stepped on a landmine, and a massive one at that. An immense wave of guilt washed over him, and he frantically waved his hands, trying to salvage this terrible opening line.
Ah... I am sorry, I am so sorry! I did not know... Chen Zhi's brain short-circuited, and his mouth moved faster than his mind, blurting out instinctively, Then is your dad coming?
The moment the words left his mouth, Chen Zhi wanted to bite his own tongue off.
If it was a single-parent family, mentioning the other parent was highly likely to be a taboo subject as well. What was he doing? Rubbing salt in the wound?
Sure enough, Li Zhiyi's head dropped even lower, and she shrank into a tiny ball. That oversized school uniform looked even more hollow, as if it could swallow her up at any moment.
Her voice began to tremble, carrying a suppressed sob. Every word seemed to be forcefully squeezed out of her throat:
I... do not have a dad either.
Boom—
Chen Zhi felt like a bolt of heavenly lightning had struck him right on the top of his head.
What kind of hellish difficulty level conversation was this?
A double combo! Precision bombing!
He had actually sprinkled salt twice in a row on a ten-year-old girl's most vulnerable wound, and stomped on it a couple of times for good measure.
Chen Zhi felt like he was not just socially dead; he wanted to be actually dead. If time could flow backward, he would rather go back to that night and fight over the fresh pile of crap Xiaobai had just taken than start this conversation.
Years later, whenever he recalled this scene in the dead of night, Chen Zhi would shoot up from his two-hundred-meter-wide bed in shame and slap himself twice in front of the mirror.
No, he did not need to wait until years later.
Right now, immediately, at this very moment.
Chen Zhi felt that the first thing he would do when he got home from school was to find the sturdiest crooked tree and have a tug-of-war with it to see who was stronger.
I... um... I...
Chen Zhi, who was usually articulate and could sweet-talk his mom Zhang Guifang in circles, was now completely stuttering. His entire vocabulary had run away from home at this moment, leaving him with nothing but a flushed red face and complete helplessness.
It is okay.
Li Zhiyi suddenly spoke.
She kept her head down and did not look at Chen Zhi. But her tightly twisted fingers slowly loosened and rested flat on her lap once again.
I have been used to it for a long time.
Her voice was very light and calm, even carrying an indifference completely unsuited to her age.
This calmness was more like a knife than her earlier trembling, stabbing straight into Chen Zhi's heart.
Just then, the front door of the classroom was pushed open.
An old man with a hunched back, wearing a gray Mao suit, walked in. His clothes were very old but washed spotlessly clean, and his collar was buttoned up meticulously. His wrinkled face carried a hint of nervousness, and he held a slightly misshapen cloth hat in his hands.
The old man stood at the door, his cloudy eyes searching through the rows of well-dressed parents in the classroom, looking completely out of place.
Grandpa...
Li Zhiyi called out softly, immediately standing up and walking over quickly to support the old man's arm.
Watching this scene, Chen Zhi felt a complex mix of emotions in his heart.
] [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!"
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
