"Shu He, are you okay?"
After boarding the next train, Luo Shuning turned slightly and whispered to Luo Shuhe, who was feigning sleep beside her with her eyes closed.
She hadn’t opened her eyes since taking her seat.
In response to her sister’s question, Luo Shuhe remained silent, only tightening her grip on her phone.
Seeing this, Luo Shuning sighed softly before shifting her gaze to the Gu siblings on the other side of the carriage.
Coincidentally, Gu Ximan also glanced over at that moment, and their eyes met in the air.
Luo Shuning’s lips curved into a gentle smile, and Gu Ximan responded with a slight nod before looking away.
When they had boarded earlier, there hadn’t been many empty seats, so they had ended up sitting apart.
Just then, Luo Shuhe slowly opened her eyes and unlocked her phone screen.
A system notification appeared—a friend request had been accepted.
[I’m Gu Luo.]
[The above is the greeting message.]
Noticing her sister’s movement, Luo Shuning quickly asked,
"Shu He, what’s really going on? You seem unusually interested in Gu Luo. Have you two met before?"
Silence.
Luo Shuhe’s thoughts involuntarily drifted back to the scene outside the security room earlier, where Gu Ximan had asked Gu Luo a similar question.
After another pause, she shook her head lightly, her tone as cold as a winter breeze. "No."
"Then why—" Luo Shuning hesitated.
Her sister had not only added Gu Luo as a friend but also saved his phone number.
Luo Shuhe glanced at the other version of herself sitting beside her, knowing full well that her sister wouldn’t let this go without an explanation.
After a brief pause, she replied expressionlessly, devoid of any emotion, "He seems like a strong fighter. Thought it’d be good to know him, especially since our family’s about to have another guy around. Can’t be too careful."
What a flimsy answer... Luo Shuning pressed her lips together.
Realizing her sister genuinely didn’t want to discuss it, she dropped the subject.
A moment later, she suddenly mused, "If only that older brother were someone like Gu Luo."
Hearing this, Luo Shuhe closed her eyes again, unwilling to engage.
Luo Shuning could only shake her head slightly and smile wryly.
She never expected their usually domineering mother to suddenly remarry.
Now, their family was about to gain a stepfather and a pair of step-siblings.
She could only hope everything would turn out alright...
............
"The next stop is Tianshui Station. Please prepare to disembark."
"ThenextstopisTianshuiStation，Passengers.........."
The train’s announcement echoed through the carriage.
Gu Luo and Gu Ximan stood up and made their way to the exit, ready to get off.
"Bro, they’re getting off at Tianshui Station too," Gu Ximan whispered after accidentally catching sight of the other exit.
Gu Luo followed her gaze, his eyes meeting Luo Shuning and Luo Shuhe’s.
He nodded politely with a smile, and Luo Shuning returned the gesture.
Luo Shuhe, however, averted her gaze as if deliberately avoiding him.
After disembarking, Luo Shuning took Luo Shuhe’s hand and walked toward the Gu siblings.
"What a coincidence," Luo Shuning said softly, her face lit up with a warm smile.
"Indeed. Shall we leave the station together?"
"Sure."
And so, a unique group consisting of three stunningly beautiful girls and one handsome young man appeared in the public eye.
Walking side by side, they turned heads at an astonishing rate—200%, to be precise.
A 200% head-turning rate meant the same person couldn’t help but look back at them twice.
Men passing by shot Gu Luo envious and jealous glances.
Gu Luo could only sigh helplessly.
What could he do? He was walking alongside three drop-dead gorgeous girls.
To make matters worse, the Luo sisters were wearing masks. If they took them off, who knew how breathtaking the sight would be?
Of course, some people looked completely different once their masks came off.
Gu Luo couldn’t help but wonder—would their charm skyrocket or plummet without the masks?
Under the relentless stares of passersby, the four exited the station.
"Gu Luo, we’ll head off first. See you next time," Luo Shuning said, waving.
Luo Shuhe, meanwhile, kept her gaze elsewhere, acting completely indifferent—a stark contrast to her earlier insistence on adding Gu Luo as a friend.
"Yeah, see you next time."
After parting ways, both groups walked in the same direction.
And continued to share the same path.
"......"
"......"
After an awkward silence, Luo Shuning couldn’t hold back a soft laugh. "This is too much of a coincidence. We’re heading to Tianshui Restaurant. How about you?"
"...We’re going to Tianshui Restaurant too," Gu Luo replied, his expression complicated.
The same thought flashed through both their minds—No way.
It couldn’t possibly be that much of a coincidence, could it?
But neither voiced the question.
Could it really be a coincidence?
Gu Luo wondered silently.
Luo Shuning was thinking the same thing.
The odds were high.
Just the thought of it lifted her mood.
Having a stepbrother like Gu Luo wouldn’t be so bad.
At least he wasn’t some weirdo.
Meanwhile, Gu Ximan was the most nervous of them all.
She was silently praying—Please, no!
She didn’t want her annoying older brother to suddenly gain three such beautiful sisters.
Her position as the family’s little princess would be in jeopardy.
............
Tianshui Restaurant wasn’t far from Tianshui Station, and soon, the four arrived at Tianshui Tower.
They took the elevator to the 101st floor, then transferred to another elevator up to the 120th floor.
The tower stood over 500 meters tall, offering a panoramic view of Caizhou’s beauty from the top.
As soon as they stepped out of the elevator, two receptionists in elegant qipaos greeted them with warm smiles.
"Welcome, Miss Luo," one receptionist said respectfully to the Luo sisters.
Luo Shuning nodded and returned a polite smile.
Clearly, they were regulars here.
The other receptionist then turned to Gu Luo and Gu Ximan. "Do you have a reservation, guests?"
"Yes," Gu Luo replied, giving the name of the private room his stepfather had booked.
Upon hearing the room name, the receptionist immediately bowed apologetically.
"My sincerest apologies. I didn’t realize you were with Miss Luo."
............
............
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!
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?!
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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.
