At four in the afternoon, the school bell rang across Guangya.
As usual, students flooded toward the club building or sports center, their laughter rising and falling like waves, weaving a lively net under the clear autumn sky.
Lu Xuexue glanced at Gu Ximan, who looked troubled, and hesitated before speaking up. "Miman, I’ll go with you."
She had carefully gone over the whole incident with Gu Ximan afterward and realized it was truly just a misunderstanding.
Gu Luo’s confession had been meant for Luo Shuning all along.
Though Lu Xuexue was heartbroken too, she had spent the past few days doing her best to console Gu Ximan, who was taking it even harder.
Hearing her offer, Gu Ximan waved a hand with forced nonchalance. "It’s fine, really. Hmph, I just want to see what that jerk Gu Luo is up to."
But the worry between her brows betrayed the unease in her heart.
Gu Luo’s words—You didn’t leave because of that awkwardness, did you?—still echoed in her mind.
What did that idiot mean?
Had he figured something out? Was he about to lay everything bare…?
"Alright then… I’ll wait for you downstairs," Lu Xuexue said, her expression concerned as she ruffled Gu Ximan’s cool tea-brown hair.
"Mhm! That jerk said he’d take me home, but I’m not going." Gu Ximan lifted her chin defiantly. "I’d rather starve to death or jump off this rooftop than go back with him!"
"Hey, none of that talk about starving or jumping! Tsk, tsk."
"You’re the best, Xuexue!"
Ten minutes later, Gu Ximan took a deep breath and slowly pushed open the rooftop door.
A breeze brushed past her, and the sunlight was a little too bright.
Gu Luo was the only one there, sitting on a bench. He waved at her and called out, "Block the door."
"W-why block the door…?"
Gu Ximan’s face instantly flushed.
Every Guangya student knew the rule—blocking the door with something meant hanging a "Do Not Disturb" sign. It usually meant a couple was up here getting cozy.
After using an empty bucket to barricade the door, Gu Ximan smoothed her cool tea-brown hair and walked unhurriedly toward the bench.
She sat down beside Gu Luo, leaving just a few inches between them.
"Come closer."
He patted the space next to him with a smile.
"…Okay."
Her heartbeat quickened, her gaze darting nervously as she inched closer, until her calf lightly brushed against his uniform pants. Her pulse stuttered.
"Ximan."
Gu Luo turned to look at her, his voice soft.
"…What?"
She puffed her cheeks and glared back, though her lashes trembled.
"You like me, don’t you?"
"……"
The words hit like a stone dropped into a still lake, sending ripples crashing through her chest.
Her eyes widened, lips parting, but before she could speak, she choked on her own saliva. Violent coughs wracked her, turning her cheeks scarlet.
"Cough… cough…!"
"Easy, easy."
Gu Luo’s hand settled on her back, gently rubbing along her spine. The warmth seeped through her thin uniform, so scorching she wanted to pull away—yet couldn’t bring herself to.
When she finally caught her breath, Gu Ximan covered her face, her voice muffled between her fingers.
"You… you…!"
"Jerk… What are you trying to say…?"
Her heart pounded so hard it threatened to leap out of her throat.
This was too sudden.
Way too sudden.
Instead of answering, Gu Luo pulled a lucky star from his pocket. The fluorescent green paper shimmered faintly in the sunlight.
Pinching the star between his fingers, he smiled so tenderly it could melt ice. "I love it. Really, really love it."
"Because you folded it for me. It’ll definitely bring me luck—and keep me safe."
"…S-so what…?"
Her pulse raced even faster.
But Gu Luo veered off again, fingertips tracing the star’s edges as he murmured,
"Ximan, there’s something I need to confess to you."
…………
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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?!
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!
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
