"Brother Fang! Brother Fang! Have mercy!" Yu Duoyu was utterly stunned, staring at the hand that had stopped just inches from his face. The movement Fang Zhiyi had made was dripping with lethal intent.
"Don't get so close to me," Fang Zhiyi said coldly.
"Heh heh." Yu Duoyu released his grip. "I've already made the arrangements." As a seasoned middleman who traveled far and wide, Yu Duoyu had his own connections—though some weren't exactly aboveboard.
The markets in Guang City were chaotic at this time, flooded with outsiders, which had given rise to various factions.
Yu Duoyu's "contact" led him and Fang Zhiyi to inspect the goods, but they were ambushed by rivals in a narrow alley. The glint of knives in their hands made Yu Duoyu's legs tremble.
"This doesn't concern you. Get lost," one of the attackers said, surprisingly reasonable.
"Why are they after you?" Fang Zhiyi asked, eyeing the scar-faced man guiding them.
"Business rivalry, damn it. These bastards resort to dirty tricks when they can't win customers fair and square," Scarface sneered. "Just go." He took a slight step back.
Fang Zhiyi sensed his intention to flee and grabbed him. "No need."
"Huh?"
Watching Fang Zhiyi take down two men using the cramped alley to his advantage, Yu Duoyu regained his confidence.
"Your friend here—some kind of technician?" Scarface asked uncertainly.
"What's it to you? Mind your own business!" someone from the opposing side shouted.
Fang Zhiyi sighed. "I'm just here to buy goods. But if you kill him, I won’t have a supplier."
"You asking for death?" Despite the threat, Fang Zhiyi knocked out two more men, leaving the speaker hesitant. Was this guy some kind of martial artist?
Fang Zhiyi clicked his tongue. "How about you come with us instead? I’ve got a business opportunity and need manpower."
Tempted by both force and profit, their inspection team grew in numbers. Scarface was reluctant but kept quiet—after all, once they reached his turf, he could settle the score.
But once they sat down, both sides were mesmerized by the grand vision Fang Zhiyi painted.
Tapping his rough sketch on a cardboard box, Fang Zhiyi declared, "At this rate, neither of you can meet my supply demands alone. I need you to work together and ensure the safety of the materials. Within three years, I’ll have you driving luxury cars and buying high-rises!"
Scarface felt the urge to applaud but held back when he saw his rival sitting across from him.
"But... is your product really that good?" someone questioned.
"Lacking faith in your own product is the first mistake! Let me put it this way—even if you dominate this area, so what? Can you monopolize the market? Or do you think jail time beats honest money?"
"Let’s do it!" The leader slammed the table and glared at Scarface. "What about you, dumbass?"
Scarface shot back, "You’re the dumbass! I’m in too!"
Fang Zhiyi took a deep breath. "One month. We’ll have a finished product in one month." Both sides stared at him with hope, dazzled by the grand blueprint—they could already see their future success.
When Fang Zhiyi returned to the small county, the electromechanical factory was already undergoing reforms. The myth of the "iron rice bowl" had shattered. Salesmen scrambled for clients or chased unpaid debts. Lin Jianguo, now the factory director, had gone gray—the factory needed transformation, or it would dissolve like the battery plant, leaving workers jobless.
The hand-crank generator business was declining, with nearby markets saturated and knockoffs emerging. Fang Zhiyi’s return reinvigorated the small workshop.
Dressed sharply, Fang Zhiyi reappeared at the factory. Seeing Lin Jianguo’s stress-whitened hair, he stated his purpose.
"You started a company? 'Big Millet Company'? Sounds like a grain seller," Lin Jianguo joked weakly.
Fang Zhiyi handed over a stack of documents. "My research and proposal. Take a look, Uncle Lin."
Lin Jianguo skimmed at first, but his interest grew with each page.
"We have injection molding machines, and small tape drive mechanisms are doable. But we’ve never made circuit boards for tape reading and writing," he muttered.
Fang Zhiyi smiled. "Not a problem. I’ve already sorted the circuit boards."
Lin Jianguo looked up. "You have that kind of expertise?"
Fang Zhiyi shrugged. "I went to Guang City and secured suppliers."
Lin Jianguo nodded and kept reading. The English-learning craze was rising, and the repeater—a novel student product—filled a gap. Imported tape recorders were expensive and bulky. The market desperately needed affordable, portable learning electronics.
By dusk, Lin Jianguo closed the file, studying Fang Zhiyi intently.
"If the project fails, I’ll cover half the losses," Fang Zhiyi said casually, exuding the confidence of a millionaire despite his empty pockets.
Lin Jianguo suddenly laughed.
"When I first met you, I never imagined this day."
The factory convened a meeting to discuss the "third industry" transformation plan. Skeptics fell silent when Fang Zhiyi unveiled the first prototype.
On the very day the repeater launched, Xiao Hei informed Fang Zhiyi that third brother Fang Mingrui had been arrested for stealing public property. Since he was months shy of adulthood, he was sent to juvenile detention. Fang's Mother was frantic, but Fang's Father and second brother Fang Haoran reacted indifferently, even mocking the situation. This led to another fight between Fang's parents, but Fang's Mother summoned her brothers, forcing Fang's Father to back down—though the downside was her money ending up with Fang Zhiyi’s deadbeat uncle.
Fang Haoran grew more listless by the day, mirroring Fang Zhiyi’s past self—working at dawn, eating, then laboring again.
"The original host was used to it, but Fang Haoran? He’s tasted freedom. That’s the sweetest revenge." Fang Zhiyi grinned like a triumphant schemer.
Just as he predicted, this selfish, parasitic family could be torn apart with money. Imbalance in interests would destroy them from within. But it wasn’t enough—their reckoning was far from over.
The five from the small workshop now worked openly for Fang Zhiyi. Paired with English practice tapes or Hong Kong-Taiwan pop music cassettes from Guang City, the repeater sparked a buying frenzy. The once-deserted factory gates now teemed with queued trucks and dealers daily.
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.
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
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."
