Lin Wanwan was still pressing against his arm, her fingers gently hooking his hem.
"What's wrong?" Sensing his body stiffen, Lin Wanwan looked up at him.
Chen Zhi quickly shoved his phone back into his pocket, turned his head, and forced an expression.
"Wanwan, I have to head back first."
"Huh? Where to?"
"Damai just sent an urgent message. Something happened at the company," Chen Zhi spoke rapidly. "I need to find a place with a computer to handle it right away, otherwise the company will be in chaos."
Lin Wanwan froze for a moment. The disappointment on her face couldn't be hidden at all, but she immediately let go of his hand.
"Is it very serious?"
"Extremely serious. I'm sorry, I can't walk with you tonight."
"It's okay, it's okay, work is more important. Hurry and go, I can just take a taxi back myself." Lin Wanwan took a step back, making way for him.
Chen Zhi nodded, turned around, and ran.
He hadn't run two steps when Lin Wanwan called out from behind.
"Chen Zhi!"
He looked back.
"Don't be too anxious, stay safe!"
The riverside on the summer night was so muggy it was hard to breathe.
Chen Zhi ran to the main road and flagged down a taxi with its vacant light on.
"Driver, to the old Dongcheng neighborhood. Please hurry, I'll pay extra."
The car shuttled through the night.
Chen Zhi turned his phone screen off and on again.
He read the last few messages Pei Ningxue had sent over and over again.
He had forgotten that Pei Ningxue grew up without a mother, and with Pei Dongcheng busy doing business, her greatest fear was being left behind.
Today, he had left her all alone in a completely unfamiliar place.
Left her in a house where someone could push the door open at any moment and treat her coldly.
Her foot was hit by a fishing rod, and no one cared.
She ate stone-cold takeout while listening to the sounds of the family next door going out to a hotel for a meal.
"Driver, can you go any faster?"
"Young man, there's a speed limit on this road. I'm already driving at the max limit. Any faster and I'll get points deducted." The driver glanced at him through the rearview mirror, and seeing his terrible expression, added, "Emergency at home?"
"Yeah."
"Don't worry, we'll be there right away."
The streetlights outside the car window flew by one by one, light and shadow flickering randomly across his face.
Chen Zhi closed his eyes.
He had always thought he could control the whole situation, thought he could rely on the information gap of his rebirth and a bit of cleverness to pacify all these girls. He thought that even if Pei Ningxue was angry, she would wait in the guest room for him to return and explain.
He was too arrogant.
As soon as the taxi stopped steadily at the entrance of the neighborhood, Chen Zhi threw down a hundred-yuan bill, didn't even wait for the change, pushed open the door, and rushed out.
Chen Zhi returned home panting heavily.
The main light in the living room wasn't on; only a little light shone through from the kitchen.
Chen Zhi didn't even take off his shoes, rushing straight to the guest room.
He grabbed the doorknob and gave it a hard push.
It was completely empty inside.
The bed was made neatly, as if no one had ever been there.
The silver suitcase in the corner was gone.
He walked in and flipped the switch on the wall.
The lightbulb flickered twice and turned on, its light dim and yellowish.
The takeout box sat on the desk, its lid closed tightly.
Chen Zhi walked over and reached out to touch it.
The box was cold.
A pair of things lay quietly next to it.
Chen Zhi saw it clearly.
It was that pair of red string bracelets.
Footsteps came from behind.
Zhang Guifang walked out of the master bedroom. Seeing Chen Zhi standing in the guest room, she walked over in a few strides and pointed at his nose, cursing.
"What are you doing back now! You still have the nerve to come back!"
Chen Zhi turned his head, his voice terribly hoarse.
"Mom, where is she?"
"Gone," Zhang Guifang's voice was a bit hoarse too. "When I came back, she was packing her luggage in the guest room."
Chen Zhi took a step forward.
"How long has she been gone? Which way did she go?"
"You're asking me?" Zhang Guifang slammed the rag onto the coffee table. "You're asking me when she left?"
"I came back carrying the takeout bags, wanting to heat up a couple of dishes for her." Zhang Guifang stood up, her voice trembling slightly. "When I pushed the door open, she was sitting alone on the edge of the bed, her eyes all red."
"Seeing me come in, she even smiled."
"Smiled and called me Auntie."
Zhang Guifang paused here and turned her head away.
"I asked her if she had eaten. She said she had. I took a look, and the takeout box was sitting in the trash can. The food was barely touched."
"I put the takeout bags on the table and told her, 'Eat a little, these were just packed from the hotel.'"
"She stood up and bowed to me."
Chen Zhi froze completely.
"And said, 'Auntie, thank you, I've caused you trouble.'"
"Then she started packing her things."
"I tried to stop her, but she wouldn't listen."
Zhang Guifang turned back to look at Chen Zhi, her eyes red.
"She said, 'Auntie, I shouldn't have come.'"
Chen Zhi couldn't utter a single word.
Just this morning, Zhang Guifang was still feeling indignant on behalf of Lin Wanwan, but now she was here shedding tears for Pei Ningxue.
Pei Ningxue had quietly swallowed all her grievances and then left without a trace.
Chen Zhi immediately pulled out his phone and dialed Pei Ningxue's number.
Beep— Beep—
It rang twice and was directly hung up.
He called again.
"Sorry, the subscriber you dialed is powered off."
The mechanical female voice was exceptionally jarring in the quiet guest room.
Chen Zhi panicked, completely panicked.
He switched to WeChat and opened Pei Ningxue's chat.
With trembling fingers, he typed out a few words.
[Where are you now? I'll come find you.]
Clicked send.
The moment the message was sent, a red exclamation mark popped up on the screen.
Followed by a line of small text below it.
The other party has enabled friend verification. You are not yet his (her) friend. Please send a friend request first...
Chen Zhi stared at that red exclamation mark.
Pei Ningxue had deleted him.
That Pei Ningxue who, in the top-floor duplex of Wanliu Academy, had blushed and called herself his wife.
That Pei Ningxue who, in the private room of the Guomao Hotel, had withstood the pressure from her own father and said she wouldn't marry anyone but him.
That Pei Ningxue who was left behind by him in the guest room of an old neighborhood in Jiangcheng, eating stone-cold takeout, aggrievedly sending him messages.
All along, Chen Zhi had relied on the fact that he was a reincarnator, relied on the trump cards in his hand, navigating effortlessly among several girls.
He thought that as long as his methods were skilled enough, he could balance the scales and give everyone a home.
It wasn't until this moment that he truly understood what panic was.
The kind of panic where a piece of your heart has been forcefully gouged out.
"Chen Zhi!" Zhang Guifang shouted from behind.
Chen Zhi whipped around, grabbed the pair of red strings from the table, stuffed them into his pocket, and rushed out the door.
Hurried footsteps echoed in the stairwell, mixed with the stumbling sounds of almost tripping on the way down.
Chen Jun happened to be walking in from outside. Seeing his son looking so lost and devastated, he froze at the door.
"Where are you going?"
Chen Zhi didn't hear him at all, rushing straight into the dark night outside.
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?!
tions: attribute allocation, analysis, proficiency, and simulation. Specializing in mechanical alchemy, from crafting sorcerous battle armor to handcrafting mechanical maidens, his mechanical legion conquers endless realms... Relying on his wits, he begins with a student-teacher romance, wins over a female director, enslaves a female assassin and a underworld queen, becoming the husband of a Grand Duchess... He enslaves the Goddess of Magic from the divine realm, developing his power simultaneously in both the Wizard World and the Realm of Gods...
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!"
