What ignited the Chen family was the youngest son's sentence.
"It was the Fang family who gave them the money."
He had found the money order, but was caught as he was stuffing it into his pocket.
That one sentence made Chen Nian, whose mind was already in turmoil, widen her eyes: "Really?"
Her little brother was somewhat fearful; he had never seen such an expression on his sister's face before—terrifying, with eyes bulging. "I swear, I really saw it. The name was that person, what's-his-name... someone related to Fang Mingyu."
Chen Nian suddenly laughed, and as she laughed, she began to cry.
"Human jealousy is truly terrifying, so malicious," she murmured.
Father Chen was grunting and groaning at this point, while Mother Chen's chest heaved with rage.
Not only did they snatch their family's money, but they also resorted to violence? Hitting her son and her man?
Seeing Chen Nian muttering incessantly, Mother Chen also found it a bit eerie. Already furious, she was further frightened by Chen Nian's appearance, which only fueled her anger. She raised her hand and slapped her: "You worthless wretch, what are you blabbering about? If you had any ability, how could you not keep hold of that cash cow? Couldn't you have just climbed into his bed?"
Seeing this, the little brother became less afraid: "Exactly!"
Chen Nian turned her head away, a dangerous glint flashing in her eyes.
That night, Auntie Pang was sleeping soundly when she suddenly saw a shadow standing by her bedside. Her scalp crawled, but before she could cry out, the iron hammer in that person's hand came crashing down.
She couldn't dodge in time and took a solid blow.
The person who hit her was momentarily stunned, then turned and fled, also taking the money she had hidden away. The last thing she saw was the raging flames outside the window.
The next day, two major events shook the village. Auntie Pang had been struck on the head and was sent to the hospital; the money at her home had also been stolen. It was estimated that someone, tempted by wealth, had broken in with intent to steal and kill.
The second event was a great fire. The Chen family home was burned to the ground, and Auntie Pang's house was half destroyed. Fortunately, her two children escaped.
No one from the Chen family survived.
It was only discovered later that both of Chen Nian's parents had obvious blunt force trauma wounds on their foreheads, and their youngest son had been tied up and burned alive.
The prime suspect was the missing Chen Nian.
Chen Nian fled, wanting to find Fang Mingyu. Fang Mingyu could help her! He had helped her before! He could do it now too!
But she didn't get her wish. Just after getting off the train, she was reported by someone, forcing her to turn around and continue her flight.
Fang Mingyu saw his own father while giving a speech as an outstanding representative at the year-end summary meeting. That unreliable old man was dressed very smartly, sitting in a shareholder's seat watching him.
Fang Mingyu felt a tumult of emotions. He wanted to get a paternity test; he must have been picked up by Fang Zhiyi.
And the first task Fang Zhiyi gave him was to return to his hometown and distribute dividends to those relatives who had pooled money for him back then.
"Remember, give more to those who gave more, less to those who gave less, none to those who complain it's too little, and give a beating to those who didn't give a single cent back then and still talked trash," Fang Zhiyi instructed. Fang Mingyu stared at him dumbfounded. Fang Zhiyi lifted his foot and gave him a kick. "If you want to do good deeds but don't even have the ability to bear the risks, how dare you try? Now that I'm letting you do it, you're standing there like a block of wood!"
Fang Mingyu lowered his head and hurried away. He felt his own fate was rather bitter too. His wife was now often abroad, he had worked diligently all this time, and in the end, it turned out his own father was a major shareholder.
Life is truly strange.
Looking at the relatives before him, Fang Mingyu felt somewhat emotional. They were the ones who had exploited him, but they were also the ones who had helped him before.
Fang Zhiyi's words echoed in his ears: "People, they have more than one side. Of course, when I look, I only see the side they choose to show."
"My dad said, the money you all pooled for him back then will be converted into shares. From now on, as long as there's profit, it will be distributed proportionally." Fang Mingyu tried hard to recall his father's arrangements, then handed the paper bag in his hand to Second Uncle Fang. "Second Uncle, my dad said you'll be in charge of distributing this money from now on."
Second Uncle Fang was extremely excited, nodding repeatedly. With him stepping forward, none of the others dared to express dissatisfaction. Even if there were any, they were immediately suppressed on the spot.
Meanwhile, Fang Zhiyi was looking at the news before him. It was foreign news, captured on a mobile phone.
"A foreign woman has illegally crossed the border and is currently missing in the region bordering the two countries. The jungle there is extremely dangerous, currently occupied by rebel forces."
The footage was zoomed in many times, so it was very blurry, but Fang Zhiyi still recognized the figure of that ungrateful wretch.
He put down his phone and looked at his daughter-in-law before him.
"I never intended to hide it from you. So, what do you say, fight it out here or...?" Fang Zhiyi was planning the best escape route.
Lin Wei laughed but didn't answer directly. "I originally thought you might overlook the mastermind behind it all. I didn't expect you'd still catch on. The Hunter is indeed formidable."
Fang Zhiyi thought of Auntie Pang's family and chuckled. "Stole your job, did I?"
Lin Wei shook her head. "No, no. I really enjoy the environment of each world, so I had a great time playing this time."
Fang Zhiyi raised an eyebrow. "I'm curious, if it were you, what would you do?"
Lin Wei thought for a moment. "Confront them head-on, tear off their masks, and then slap them hard in the face."
Fang Zhiyi instinctively glanced at the system on her shoulder, somewhat envious. "Really convenient."
But the next moment, Lin Wei's action made Fang Zhiyi's hair stand on end. Her gaze also fell upon Little Hei. "Yours is quite... natural. Not bad either."
"What's going on?" Fang Zhiyi turned to look at Little Hei, who also looked utterly confused.
"Don't be nervous. I'm not interested in you. It's just a mission from the Quick Transmigration Bureau. I don't want to make an enemy of you over this." Lin Wei raised her hands to show sincerity.
Her system trembled slightly. "Host, but a Hunter has been detected..."
An extremely powerful aura suddenly erupted from Lin Wei. Fang Zhiyi's eyes widened. This person! No! She was definitely not human!
"I told you, you're just a system. You and I are not equals. Do I need to educate you again?" Lin Wei's gaze was extremely dangerous. The system quieted down.
"This thing is always disobedient," Lin Wei said with a laugh. She glanced at Little Hei again, licking her lips. "Seriously, it looks quite tasty."
Little Hei hugged itself and hid behind Fang Zhiyi.
Lin Wei smiled. "Let's part ways here. Don't worry, no one will reveal your whereabouts."
She was very decisive. In an instant, that imposing aura dissipated. Lin Wei opened her eyes again, looking at Fang Zhiyi with surprise. "Dad? I... I fell asleep?"
Fang Zhiyi stood up and walked a few steps. "Tell Fang Mingyu, if I don't have a grandchild within next year, I'll make him the deputy captain of the security team for the rest of his life!"
Lin Wei nodded foolishly. "Dad, how many people are in the security team?"
"Two! I'm the captain!"
Lin Wei shrank her neck, feeling her memory was a bit muddled. Perhaps it was because she hadn't rested well lately. But for her husband's future, she needed to work hard with him.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
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."
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
