This time, it was Gu Ximan’s turn to be hit by a nuclear bomb of shock.
What had she just heard?
What tradition?
Being the "smaller one"? What did that even mean?
A mistress?
A second wife?
Were they even living in the same era?
"Wait... wait a minute... Xuexue, what did you just say?" Gu Ximan wondered if the sheer embarrassment from earlier had caused her to hallucinate.
After all, even if the two of them were inseparable best friends, sharing the same man was beyond the pale.
"I said... Sister Ximan... I’m actually quite traditional. I’m willing to be the smaller one," Lu Xuexue forced out, doubling down despite the awkwardness.
Her white-stocking-clad legs curled into adorable question marks under the table.
"I... you..."
Gu Ximan’s brain was buzzing like a beehive.
She noticed the sunlight gilding the tips of Lu Xuexue’s hair, the hum of the air conditioner suddenly deafening, even the cloyingly sweet scent of lemon-scented hand cream on the nightstand—every sensory detail amplified tenfold by her shock.
Gu Ximan had imagined countless scenarios for today’s meeting with Lu Xuexue.
They might have a calm heart-to-heart, sharing their feelings. They might part on bad terms over irreconcilable differences. She’d even braced herself for accusations, for their friendship to shatter beyond repair.
But out of all possibilities, she’d never anticipated things taking such a bizarre turn.
"Sister Ximan, as long as you let me stay close to Brother Gu Luo, I’ll listen to you in everything. Really. You take the lead, I’ll follow," Lu Xuexue declared, her tone a mix of determination and pleading.
Right now, her priority was to stabilize Ximan.
No matter what, she couldn’t afford to compete with her.
The odds were stacked hopelessly against her.
Better to retreat strategically and aim for a happy ending for all.
As for Brother Gu Luo, Lu Xuexue would never willingly share him with another girl—unless that girl was her best friend, Gu Ximan. In that case, she could make an exception.
Worst-case scenario, the three of them could just live happily ever after together.
"Xuexue, do you even hear yourself right now?"
Gu Ximan was at her limit. Never in her wildest dreams had she imagined her sweet, innocent best friend being this "traditional."
Willing to share a man.
She didn’t know whether to laugh or cry—or just cry some more.
Hearing this, Lu Xuexue nodded earnestly. "I know what I’m saying. It’s not illegal, you know."
"......"
Gu Ximan’s lips twitched violently, rendered speechless.
Oh Xuexue, if your lawyer parents knew you were applying legal knowledge like this, they’d be so proud... not!
"Please, Sister Ximan? Pretty please?"
Seeing Gu Ximan’s silence, Lu Xuexue grabbed her arm and started shaking it, dialing up the puppy-dog eyes to maximum.
She looked downright pitiful.
"This... this..."
Gu Ximan squirmed, wishing Lu Xuexue would just yell at her instead of subjecting her to this torture.
As the saying goes, you don’t hit someone who’s smiling at you.
Add guilt to the mix, and outright refusal became impossible.
Noticing Gu Ximan’s hesitation, Lu Xuexue’s eyes lit up. She pressed her advantage:
"Ximan, the line of girls who like Brother Gu Luo could stretch across Caizhou. If we team up, it’d be a classic case of one plus one being greater than two."
"Honestly, what guy would say no to having both of us, right?"
"Besides, we’re best friends."
With every word, Gu Ximan’s already sluggish brain short-circuited further.
At first glance, it almost made sense.
But upon closer inspection—
No.
No no no!
Gu Ximan shook her head, her expression a masterpiece of conflicted emotions.
"Let me think about this..."
Lu Xuexue immediately stood up, circled behind her, and started massaging her shoulders. "No rush, Ximan. Take your time. We’ve got all the time in the world."
"A week, a month—I’ll wait however long it takes."
This strategic retreat worked like a charm.
Gu Ximan, who’d planned to delay briefly before outright refusing, found herself tongue-tied again.
How could she say no when Xuexue was being this accommodating?
Aaaaaaaaaah—!
This wasn’t how the script was supposed to go!
After an internal struggle of epic proportions, Gu Ximan collapsed weakly into Lu Xuexue’s arms, murmuring with closed eyes:
"Just call me Ximan from now on."
Lu Xuexue’s heart plummeted. She panicked, thinking this was a rejection.
But then Gu Ximan added:
"As for what you proposed... I need time to consider it."
"But until I give my answer, you’re not allowed near Gu Luo without my permission."
Against all odds, the path forward suddenly cleared.
"Ximan, you’re the best!" Lu Xuexue squealed, her cheeks flushing with excitement as she planted a loud "Mwah!" on Gu Ximan’s face.
The hardest part was getting started.
But now that the first step was taken, the rest would follow naturally.
Lu Xuexue knew that in this game of love, securing Ximan meant securing Brother Gu Luo.
This was a strategy only she had discovered.
A masterstroke she dubbed—Leverage Ximan to Control Brother Gu!
............
............
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.
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!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
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?!
