Fang Zhiyi looked helpless. "All my money is already invested. I can only lend you a thousand to test the waters."
Lin Zhou gritted his teeth. A thousand was a thousand; it wasn't coming out of his own pocket anyway!
"Deal!"
Fang Zhiyi added, "But... you have to write me an IOU. You can pay me back after you make a profit."
Lin Zhou got anxious. "Are you serious..."
Fang Zhiyi interrupted him again. "If you're my brother, don't ask so many questions. I'm doing this for your own good. Writing an IOU at least proves you invested a thousand. Otherwise, I'm afraid that once I see the profit, I won't have the heart to part with it and give it to you."
Lin Zhou's expression shifted constantly. Looking at Fang Zhiyi's earnest face, he even suspected for a moment that Fang Zhiyi might be scamming him.
But he immediately shook his head. He knew Fang Zhiyi too well; he simply wasn't the type to lie.
Little did he know, this was the closest he would ever get to the truth.
Fang Zhiyi watched him write the IOU. "Just keep that project with your 'Good Big Brother' on the back burner for now. You can invest in that after you've made some money here. The more you invest, the more you earn. Just don't forget about me when the time comes."
Lin Zhou still felt a bit uncomfortable, to the point where he even forgot to complain.
Over the next few days, Fang Zhiyi seemed very busy and didn't contact him. Aside from the irritation of not being able to freeload off him, Lin Zhou felt fine. What was there to fear about an IOU? He didn't believe Fang Zhiyi would fall out with him over a measly one-thousand-dollar note. Impossible!
That night, Fang Zhiyi suddenly asked him to meet up, acting all mysterious.
Lin Zhou stared at the pile of cash in front of Fang, completely stunned. Greed, jealousy, suspicion—a complex mix of emotions surged in his heart.
Fang Zhiyi counted out three thousand, then took back one thousand. "Here, your IOU, plus the two thousand you earned this time. Am I a good brother or what?"
Looking at the two thousand cash and the IOU in his hand, Lin Zhou's heart drummed in his chest. It really made money? Fang Zhiyi really hadn't lied to him!
But no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't feel happy. Looking at the money in front of Fang Zhiyi—there must have been at least several thousand, maybe even ten thousand!
"Um, you, how did you..."
Fang Zhiyi glanced at him. "By the way, let me tell you, the next project starts in two days. If you still want to invest, get your money ready." He paused, a look of greed appearing on his face. "Even close brothers must settle accounts clearly... I can bring you along, but I need to take the opportunity to make a bit more for myself too. We're brothers, you understand, right?"
Lin Zhou looked at Fang Zhiyi's expression with mixed feelings. I understand! You, Fang Zhiyi, suddenly got rich and became even greedier!
But he wasn't stupid. He knew he couldn't offend Fang Zhiyi right now. After hesitating for a moment, he kept five hundred and handed fifteen hundred to Fang Zhiyi. "I'll invest this much."
Fang Zhiyi looked at the money he handed over. "Brother, I'm not trying to lecture you, but being this timid won't get you anywhere. Sigh, opportunity knocks and you just can't seem to grasp it."
Despite his words, he still accepted Lin Zhou's money.
Lin Zhou didn't look very happy. Perhaps it was because he hated seeing Fang Zhiyi make money, or perhaps he had noticed the change in him.
Very soon, Fang Zhiyi found Lin Zhou again and handed him five thousand. "Luck was on our side this time; we made a bit extra."
Lin Zhou stared blankly at the money before him. By this point, he had completely forgotten about his "Good Big Brother." He had made five thousand doing absolutely nothing? No, five thousand five hundred! And he hadn't even put up any of his own capital!
He was just about to rejoice when he suddenly remembered to ask Fang Zhiyi, "Will there be more in the future?"
Fang Zhiyi's expression dimmed slightly. "Opportunities are running out. They say there's one last round. I've decided to go all in with everything I have. Buying a car and a house depends entirely on this one shot!" His eyes shone as he patted Lin Zhou on the shoulder.
Hearing him mention buying a car and a house, Lin Zhou instantly felt wretched. He could almost see the image of Fang Zhiyi living in a new house and driving a new car, waving at him. No way! How could he!
"I... I'll invest too!" Lin Zhou gritted his teeth and said it. "We're brothers, you wouldn't leave me out, right?"
Fang Zhiyi laughed. "How could I leave you out? Not only will I include you, but today I'm taking you out to celebrate!"
Hearing this, Lin Zhou's eyes lit up.
That night, they enjoyed a full round of dining, drinking, and entertainment. Fang Zhiyi paid for everything, though he didn't give Lin Zhou any room to show off. In truth, suppressing a parasitic friend is easy; you just have to be more dominant than him. Before, Fang lacked that edge, but now things were different. Lin Zhou knew he had to rely on Fang Zhiyi to make money, so even when Fang cut him off or mocked him, he could only curse silently while keeping a smile on his face.
"Brother, let me tell you a secret," Fang Zhiyi said drunkenly.
Lin Zhou hadn't drunk much; he was constantly calculating. Hearing this, he immediately leaned in.
"Making money this time was all about luck, you get it? How many times does a man get lucky in his life? So I... I'm telling you, I mortgaged my parents' house. I'm going to soar to the skies!" Fang Zhiyi spread his arms, mimicking a takeoff.
Lin Zhou was shocked. Fang Zhiyi actually mortgaged the house?
Even after he returned home, his mind was still filled with Fang Zhiyi's words and the luxury of the entertainment venues they had visited. Lin Zhou reached into his pocket and touched the money inside. Suddenly, a wave of jealousy surged up, accompanied by a sense of panic.
He was afraid. If Fang Zhiyi became rich, he might not be so easily manipulated anymore. What would happen then? No, he had to think of a way too. But what could he do? Tell his dad that Fang Zhiyi had a project to invest in? That old man didn't have much money, ten or twenty thousand at most.
Suddenly, his eyes lit up. Fang Zhiyi said he had mortgaged his house.
Did that mean he could do the same?
He actually knew someone for this. He remembered his "Good Big Brother" telling him that if he ever needed money, he should come to him. He had a buddy named Yang Laowu who specialized in mortgage loans.
Lin Zhou's heart churned. To say he wasn't nervous would be a lie, but every time he touched the money in his pocket, he felt a sense of reassurance.
Just this once. Just once!
After this one time, no one would look down on him ever again!
His hand trembling, he dialed the number. "Hello, Big Brother?"
"Who is it?" The voice on the other end was very impatient.
"It's me, I'm Lin Zhou."
"Oh, f*ck off! Do you see what time it is?" The person on the other end unleashed a torrent of abuse. It wasn't until Lin Zhou mentioned he wanted to borrow money that the tone improved.
"Alright, come find me tomorrow. I'll make the introductions. Hanging up now."
Lin Zhou put down the phone and lay on the bed. Gradually, he fell fast asleep. In his dreams, he lived in a villa, drove a luxury car, and had a beautiful woman by his side...
The next day, Lin Zhou actually went through with it. Under the introduction of his so-called "Good Big Brother," he met Yang Laowu. Incidentally, he produced the property deed he had stolen. Because his name wasn't on it, the amount he could borrow wasn't as high as he had imagined.
Little Hei told Fang Zhiyi about this.
Fang Zhiyi smiled. "Do you believe that if he suddenly comes into a large amount of money, he definitely won't be able to hold onto it?"
Little Hei looked a bit innocent. "Why?"
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."
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
ng to die together with you." Lin Xuan is dead, his body thrown into the river by his scumbag lover and her accomplice. She, the president of the Su Group, is decisive, ruthless, and ice-cold. For three days and three nights, she had his body fished out of the river, and without hesitation, she kissed the bloated corpse of Lin Xuan. She laid down beside him in a cold coffin, their fingers intertwined, a smile lingering on her lips as she closed her eyes. The noble and cold-hearted woman, only bending for one man—Lin Xuan. Lin Xuan, with his golden finger, is reborn and returns to the day of his wedding to the treacherous woman. Su Qiang comes to steal the bride. Lin Xuan's eyes light up, eager to pledge his loyalty on the spot, but instead, her kiss transfers a glass of drugged wine into his mouth, causing him to pass out... 【Male Protagonist with Single Female Lead】【Yandere Tycoon】【Action-Packed】【True vs. Fake Heir】
