"Gulp..."
Only after Shen Mengli swallowed the last bite of corn did she let out a satisfied sigh.
"Pfft..."
Seeing Shen Mengli's adorable expression, Ye Feng couldn't help but laugh. However, he was quickly silenced by her fierce glare.
"Xiao Feng, how can you still laugh! If it weren’t for your lack of chivalry, would I have ended up like this?"
"S-sorry, Mengli. I just thought of something funny."
"Hmph!"
Shen Mengli turned her head away indignantly. But the more she thought about it, the more she realized she was always the one suffering, while Ye Feng remained unscathed. Feeling unbalanced, she abruptly stood up from her chair.
Ye Feng assumed she was done with lunch and wanted to leave the table. "Mengli, you just finished eating. Why don’t you rest for a bit? I should take this chance to tidy up the house, so I’ll just—"
Before he could finish, he noticed Shen Mengli narrowing her eyes, staring at him with an eerie intensity, as if a sharp blade were grazing his face.
"M-Mengli?"
Ye Feng licked his dry lips, trying to reason with her.
"I don’t know what’s wrong, but could you not look at me like that? It’s kind of scary."
"Scary?"
Shen Mengli raised an eyebrow, her lips curling into a sweet yet dangerous smile. Then, right in front of him, she deliberately dropped the chopsticks from her bowl onto the floor. She bit her lip, feigning regret.
"Oops~ Look how clumsy I am, can’t even handle such a simple thing. Hold on, Xiao Feng, let me pick these up before you leave the table."
With that, she bent down. Ye Feng’s eyes widened in realization—but it was too late. The hem of his clothes was already firmly in her grasp.
"Xiao Feng, don’t even think about running away~ If I’m suffering, you’re suffering with me~"
......
"Nom♡"
Su Yuxin took a bite of strawberry cake, carefully licking the cream from the corner of her lips.
After a heated meeting, they finally had a short break. To recharge, Su Yuxin had ordered a strawberry cake for herself.
"So, what do we do now?"
Li Mucheng glanced at Su Yuxin, clearing her throat to remind her to focus.
"Mmm..."
Su Yuxin quickly swallowed the cake, sitting upright on the sofa without even wiping her mouth, waiting for Xie Yuyan’s response.
"I think Ye Feng’s jacket is a decoy—meant to make us believe something happened to him. Otherwise, why would we find it now after searching for so long without a trace? It’s suspicious."
Xie Yuyan furrowed her brows. The prolonged thinking had given her a headache, but every time she recalled the despair in Ye Feng’s eyes, she felt uneasy. Deep down, she was determined to bring him back.
"Besides, the river may be fast-flowing, but there are no large predators or complex terrain. If he had drifted downstream, we should’ve found him by now. So I believe... he’s still alive."
"But... Xie Yuyan, didn’t you say you couldn’t sense Ye Feng’s life signs that day at the cliff?" Su Yuxin timidly asked.
"At first, yes. But after discussing it, I realized Ye Feng’s secrets run deeper than we thought. There might be clues we’re missing. And don’t forget—after being shot, his injuries were fatal. Yet he chose to jump into the river. That seems unnecessary unless..."
Li Mucheng nodded thoughtfully. While suicide was a possibility, his actions were indeed strange. Maybe he faked his death to escape!
"Then... if your theory is right, Ye Feng could still be hiding in these mountains?!"
Li Mucheng seized the key point, looking to Xie Yuyan for confirmation.
"Exactly. Even if he survived, he wouldn’t leave immediately. There are more eyes outside than in the wilderness. He’d wait until the heat dies down."
Xie Yuyan gave Li Mucheng an approving look, though it wasn’t surprising—after all, she was Ye Feng’s student.
"Then I’ll mobilize people to surround the mountains! We’ll keep searching the riverbanks. If we find nothing... we’ll tear the whole mountain apart!"
The moment Ye Feng was mentioned, Li Mucheng lost all rationality. Thankfully, Su Yuxin calmed her down.
"It’s okay, Mucheng. We’ve been through worse. Let’s stick to the plan and not act recklessly."
"Su Yuxin’s right," Xie Yuyan agreed, sitting beside Li Mucheng. "We don’t know if Ye Feng has other escape plans. We can’t risk alerting him."
"I... I understand."
"Let’s end the meeting here. I need to sort through my thoughts. Call me if anything urgent comes up."
With that, Xie Yuyan headed to her room.
Su Yuxin stood up, gently patting Li Mucheng’s shoulder. "I’ll go home and arrange personnel too."
"Alright. I’ll stay here for a while."
After they left, Li Mucheng remained alone on the sofa. The warm sunlight outside couldn’t melt the coldness in her heart.
"Teacher... why? Why did you leave me when I’ve been so obedient? Were all those moments we shared just an illusion? I... I miss you so much."
......
"Cough... cough!"
Ye Feng looked at Shen Mengli, still coughing in his arms, and sighed. "Mengli, was this really necessary? Why provoke me like this? Go get some water to soothe your throat."
"Wuu..."
Shen Mengli had wanted to humble Ye Feng, but her ambush had backfired. After so many defeats, the frustration overwhelmed her, and tears spilled out.
"Xiao Feng, you bully!"
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.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
his freshman year, Su Bai accidentally bound the "Indulgence Tycoon System." 【Sleeping in? Reward: +$1,000】 【Spent $288 at a street barbecue stall? Cashback: +$2,880】 【Dropped $14,396 on in-game skins? Special reward unlocked: A brand-new Porsche Panamera!】 Luxury cars, penthouses, corporate shares, financial empires… College life was all about living freely and doing whatever he pleased! … When the adorably naive academic genius faced family medical bills and financial struggles, Su Bai waved his hand dismissively: "Your future is on me." "Wuwu~ Big Brother is so good to me! I’ll become a scientist to repay you!" When the genius girl got bullied by a shady professor? Su Bai casually dropped a billion-dollar investment, forcing the university to grovel and beg for her return. A company’s funding chain collapsing? Su Bai smirked—cash was the one thing he’d never run out of. Years later, when people traced the rise of the AI prodigy beauty, who was the man behind her success? Not just that—Su Bai also became the tsundere campus belle’s unattainable dream, the contrast senior’s daily necessity, and the beautiful counselor’s emotional anchor…
