"What time is it now?" Fang Zhiyi asked weakly.
"He Xiaoxiao has already started working at the brothel."
"You!" Fang Zhiyi jumped up. "Couldn't you have told me earlier? She's already gone!"
The system, unusually apologetic, replied, "This is the time we arrived. I can tell you which brothel she's in."
Fang Zhiyi didn’t waste another moment, pushing the door open and rushing out.
In the brothel’s backyard, Qin Lan gripped He Xiaoxiao’s shoulders, shaking her back and forth. "Why? Why would you degrade yourself like this?"
He Xiaoxiao shook her head, tears slipping down her cheeks. "I didn’t… I didn’t."
"Don’t you know how to protect your dignity? You’re a girl!"
"I…" He Xiaoxiao fell silent. This sheltered young lady had no idea of her struggles. To her, everything was just a matter of principle.
"Well, well, what do we have here? Two pretty little things!" A staggering figure approached.
Instinctively, He Xiaoxiao pulled Qin Lan behind her. She wasn’t afraid—she had smeared cheap rouge on her face before work, making it look like a birthmark, just to protect herself.
The burly man stepped forward, eyed her, then shoved her aside. He Xiaoxiao’s frail frame couldn’t withstand the force, and she fell hard onto the ground.
"This one’s got some fire! Real feisty!"
"What do you think you’re doing? Get away from us!" Qin Lan hugged herself, her voice trembling as she shouted.
Seeing the man reach for Qin Lan’s clothes, He Xiaoxiao clenched her teeth, wiped her face with her sleeve, and tugged her own collar open. "Sir, look at me. Look at me instead."
The man turned, his eyes lighting up. This girl wasn’t bad either—and she seemed willing, unlike the other one who just cried.
He Xiaoxiao mouthed to Qin Lan, "Run!"
Qin Lan understood. After only a brief hesitation, she fled.
He Xiaoxiao wondered if she’d call for help—but who would come? Her father? Impossible. Her uncles? They’d probably just extort money from the brothel’s madam.
Closing her eyes in despair, she felt the man fumbling with his pants. Then, a gust of wind brushed past her.
"Go to hell!"
At the familiar curse, He Xiaoxiao’s eyes flew open in disbelief—only to see the last person she wanted to face.
"Second Uncle…"
Fang Zhiyi glanced back at her. "Pull your damn clothes together! What kind of mess is this?"
Used to being scolded, He Xiaoxiao obediently tightened her collar.
Fang Zhiyi brandished a wooden stool, pointing it at the drunkard writhing on the ground with a hand over his face. "Listen here, you bastard! She’s my niece. I can yell at her, I can beat her, but if any outsider lays a finger on her, I’ll break every bone in your body!"
With that, he tossed the stool aside, grabbed He Xiaoxiao’s arm, and dragged her away.
He Xiaoxiao was stunned. What did Second Uncle mean by that? After years of neglect and harsh words, why did she feel… happy?
As they walked, Fang Zhiyi berated her. "Lucky for you, a friend of mine spotted you. Where else would I have looked? Running away from home just to end up in a place like this?"
He Xiaoxiao hunched her shoulders. She’d probably get beaten when they got home, but at least her innocence was intact.
Fang Zhiyi kept scolding all the way back. He shoved the door open and yanked her inside. "Go boil water and take a bath!"
Without protest, He Xiaoxiao lowered her head and headed inside.
Lanhua, Fang Zhiyi’s wife, came out at the noise. Seeing He Xiaoxiao, she sneered. "This little slut sure knows how to run. Just wait till we marry you off to Master Jia—let’s see you try escaping then!"
To her shock, Fang Zhiyi turned and snapped, "Shut your damn mouth and get back inside!"
Lanhua’s eyes widened. "Fang Zhiyi, have you lost your mind?"
Fang Zhiyi tilted his head. "Remember what Mom said before she died?"
"She said this house must keep a room for Xiaoxiao—no matter how poor we are, it stays hers! I thought marrying her off was fine, especially since I heard Master Jia was rich. Turns out the bastard’s a damn old man! What would people say about me, huh? That Fang Zhiyi sold his niece to a decrepit old coot for money? I still have some pride!"
He ranted on, knowing the original owner of this body was a scoundrel—but he had to clean up his own image while he was at it.
The shouting drew Fang Wenrui and his wife, though they stayed inside. The youngest uncle was away at school.
Lanhua stormed back to their room in a huff.
He Xiaoxiao, having finished boiling water, stepped out timidly. "Second Uncle, it’s ready."
Fang Zhiyi glared. "Then go wash up! Why’re you telling me?"
He Xiaoxiao flinched, then froze in disbelief. She was always the last to bathe—why the change today? Under Fang Zhiyi’s impatient urging, she enjoyed a rare, warm bath, though his grumbling never stopped outside.
When she finished, Fang Zhiyi brought her a bowl of noodles.
"Take it."
After a long hesitation, He Xiaoxiao accepted it.
Fang Zhiyi mentally cursed himself at her wary reaction but kept his expression stern. "You turned sixteen recently. Should’ve celebrated, but you vanished. Consider this your belated birthday."
He Xiaoxiao was stunned again. A birthday? The last time anyone remembered was when Grandma was alive.
"What’s that look for?" Fang Zhiyi reached out to pat her head, but she shrank back. Awkwardly, he scratched his own head instead. "I know I’ve got a temper, but you’re still my sister’s child. Before, making you do chores—that was Lanhua’s idea, said it’d toughen you up. I thought girls should learn housework anyway. But now I realize—that woman’s just plain cruel!"
Thankfully, most of the beatings came from the women in the house. Fang Zhiyi had mostly just yelled—otherwise, he’d have a harder time justifying this turnaround.
Still, it was a shaky start.
He turned to leave. "Finish eating, wash the bowl, then move into your grandma’s old room. Clean it up yourself!"
He Xiaoxiao stood frozen. She’d been sleeping in the kitchen—and now Second Uncle was giving her Grandma’s room?
Fang Zhiyi paused, then added, "I’m not one for deep thinking, but after you ran away… I dreamed of your mother. My sister. She cried so hard…" He faked a sigh. "Eat up and get some rest."
Watching him leave, He Xiaoxiao stared at the noodles, then bit her tongue hard. The pain confirmed it—this wasn’t a dream.
Had Second Uncle really dreamed of Mother? At the thought of her mother, her eyes dimmed.
But hunger won out. She devoured the noodles.
Hidden in the shadows, Fang Zhiyi muttered, "What’s the mission objective?"
"There isn’t one."
"What?"
"Host, missions fall into two types: petitions and assignments. The last two worlds were assignments. This one’s a petition—someone felt Fang Xiaoxiao suffered too much, so you’re here."
"Easy, then. Just cut off the tragic plot ahead."
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.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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."
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.
