Talk is cheap; regardless of what had been said, the immediate problem still had to be dealt with.
Lin Zhou, however, wasn't nervous. He knew the money was at Sun Xiaomei's house, so he wasn't afraid. Besides, Sun Xiaomei had a job.
Sun Xiaomei, on the other hand, was filled with regret. How could she have been so blind as to marry him?
Just as she was wallowing in annoyance, the door suddenly opened. Father Lin walked in, followed by several other people.
"Dad, why are you back..." Lin Zhou composed his expression, but his greeting was met with a sharp slap to the face.
"What have you done!"
Lin Zhou was slapped dizzy. "I didn't do anything!"
"They said you owe money!"
Hearing this, Lin Zhou looked at the group of people. He had only just borrowed the money; surely they wouldn't be collecting the debt so soon?
But when he spotted a friend of his "good big brother" among them, he instantly understood.
"The deadline hasn't arrived yet. Bro, why are you guys here..." Lin Zhou cursed silently in his heart.
The leader of the group looked at him. "We heard rumors that you can't pay up and are planning to run. I just came to check in early. You know how it is—risk management." He looked around the room as he spoke. "The time is just about up anyway. Why don't you pay it back early? I'll waive one installment of interest for you."
Lin Zhou looked panic-stricken, glancing first at his furious father and then at his shocked wife.
"Bro, can you give me a little more time..."
"No money? Then I'm taking the house." The man pulled out a contract and the property deed to show them. "Sir, our actions are entirely legal."
Father Lin's eyes looked ready to spit fire; his name was clearly written on the property deed.
"You bastard!" He swung his fist to strike. Lin Zhou held his head and screamed repeatedly, while Sun Xiaomei stood completely frozen. Just how big of a scam had she fallen for?
"Stop hitting me! It was Fang Zhiyi! Fang Zhiyi told me to borrow it!" Lin Zhou shouted that name again.
Hearing Fang Zhiyi's name, Father Lin's rage intensified. "Him again!" But his hands didn't stop. "He tells you to borrow, so you borrow? Is he your father, or am I?"
Listening to Lin Zhou's miserable screams, the loan sharks watched with interest. They had seen this kind of thing plenty of times.
"Ahem, I don't care about your family drama. You have three days to move out. I'm coming to collect the house in three days. If you haven't moved by then... well, I have my ways on both sides of the law. Little brother, you know how it works." The man even winked at Lin Zhou.
"You just try it! This is my house! I'm not moving! I didn't borrow money from you!" Father Lin roared. He abandoned Lin Zhou, turned around, rushed into the kitchen, and grabbed a cleaver.
Seeing this, the loan sharks immediately backed out the door.
"Heh, playing tough, are you? Fine, let's see what happens."
Father Lin watched them leave, then pointed a trembling finger at Lin Zhou, his eyes red. "You... you get out too! I don't have a good-for-nothing son like you!" He caught his breath. "And you! You get out too!"
"Dad, it's really not my fault. Fang Zhiyi tricked me into borrowing the money..." Lin Zhou was still struggling to explain.
Hearing this, Father Lin strode out the door. Soon, the sound of a cleaver banging against a door echoed in the hallway.
"Fang Zhiyi! Get out here!"
After banging for a long time with no reaction, Father Lin, who had always been short-tempered, went back home to rummage for tools and began to forcibly break the door open. However, the moment the door swung open, he stood there in a daze. The Fang family home... aside from large pieces of furniture, everything else was gone.
"What is this?"
Lin Zhou quickly chimed in, "Fang Zhiyi mortgaged his house too, and he couldn't pay it back either... He was the one who told me there was a project that could make money and told me to mortgage the house. That's why I believed him. I didn't expect..."
Father Lin glared at him furiously. "You idiot!"
Lin Zhou glanced at the knife in his father's hand and retreated several steps.
He was still kicked out of the house, along with Sun Xiaomei. The two of them stood at the door, staring at each other.
Lin Zhou subconsciously clutched the pillow in his arms, which contained the wedding gift money collected yesterday. Sun Xiaomei, on the other hand, was calculating the balance in her card and figuring out how to get rid of Lin Zhou.
"I only have you left, wifey." Lin Zhou launched his charm offensive.
Sun Xiaomei felt nauseous, but she had no choice but to play along for now.
"Just wait until I find Fang Zhiyi. I'll make him pay!" Lin Zhou declared.
Their previous rental lease had expired, so they had to find a temporary place to stay. However, neither was willing to spend money. They negotiated to split the eighty-yuan room fee fifty-fifty.
But that very night, Sun Xiaomei secretly slipped away.
If Lin Zhou had money, she would have tolerated him even if he treated her poorly. But clearly, Lin Zhou was now a massive liability, and she wanted no part of it. It was just a marriage certificate, after all!
She went to her best friend's house in the middle of the night. At 3:00 AM, she was weeping and venting, complaining first about Lin Zhou, then about Fang Zhiyi. Chen Xuan comforted her, but recalling Fang Zhiyi's confident demeanor, she wondered if her best friend had misjudged him. If she had to choose someone to believe, Fang Zhiyi was obviously more credible than Lin Zhou.
When Lin Zhou woke up, he found his wife missing and her phone unreachable. He paced around anxiously. That was three hundred and eighty thousand yuan! No, more than that—he had to rely on her for his future!
Unable to find her, Lin Zhou decided to find Fang Zhiyi. Fang Zhiyi had to take responsibility!
But Fang Zhiyi's phone was also unreachable. He tried going to the Fang family home to check, only to receive shocking news: the Fang house had been sold. The new owner hadn't moved in yet, but upon discovering their front door had been demolished, they immediately called the police. Consequently, Father Lin was arrested.
Lin Zhou sat slumped on the ground, still unable to comprehend where things had gone wrong.
Habitually, he wanted to find someone to complain to, but he didn't know who to turn to.
Meanwhile, Fang Zhiyi was looking at a university student with innocent eyes not far away, as well as the system floating beside him.
"Is that guy the male lead?" he confirmed with Little Hei.
Little Hei nodded. "Yes, but that doesn't really have anything to do with you, does it? If we have to force a connection, it's just that the future Lin Zhou will be one of his antagonists—a vicious supporting character."
Fang Zhiyi nodded, then walked straight over.
At that moment, Jiang Feng was communicating with the thing claiming to be a system and was startled by the sudden appearance of a stranger.
"Hello?"
Fang Zhiyi flashed a standard smile, showing exactly eight teeth. "Kid, there are some things you can't handle. Mind lending it to me?"
"Huh? What are you talking about?" Jiang Feng was confused. First, a system had suddenly appeared and bound itself to him today, and now a strange person had shown up.
"It's settled then. I'll return it to you later," Fang Zhiyi continued.
Jiang Feng had no idea what was going on.
But in the next instant, he realized the inexplicable system was gone.
Fang Zhiyi waved at him. "See you around!" With that, he strode away.
Jiang Feng stood frozen for a moment, looking left and right. "What the hell? What just happened?" He began to suspect that the wild mushrooms he ate yesterday hadn't been fully cooked.
The tiny system was currently shivering in fear, looking at the man with the sinister grin and the monster baring its fangs and claws before it. "You... what are you guys going to do?"
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down 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."
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
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.
