"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!"
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!
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
