Lin Zhou, who had completely broken down, chose what he believed to be his only remaining option: getting money.
By any means necessary.
After he severed two tendons in Sun Xiaoming's feet, Mother Sun, whose heart ached for her son, finally gave in.
"You want money, right? Take it! Take it! But we don't have that much. That wretched girl pocketed a hundred thousand for herself! We only have two hundred and eighty thousand!"
Lin Zhou began to laugh. "Is that so? That bitch actually lied to me on the second day of our marriage."
"Where is she?"
Sun Xiaomei got off work as usual. Originally, she was supposed to leave with Chen Xuan, but Chen Xuan seemed to be very busy lately. She didn't know what Chen Xuan was busy with, and whenever she asked her about the divorce, Chen Xuan always seemed distracted.
As she walked near Chen Xuan's place, Sun Xiaomei inexplicably felt a chill run down her spine.
But a moment later, she sneered at herself. How could that be? She was overthinking things.
She wondered how that poser was doing now. Her mother had said that after being separated for a certain period, she could directly file for divorce, and by then, she wouldn't have to pay back a single cent.
He actually expected her to pay him back? Bah!
Just as she was thinking this, her phone rang.
"Hello, Mom."
"Your brother, your brother is in the hospital!"
"Oh." Sun Xiaomei frowned, her attitude cold. Were they trying to ask her for money again? Absolutely not.
"That Lin Zhou..."
"Sun Xiaomei."
Sun Xiaomei subconsciously turned her head. At the same time, her mother's voice came through the phone: "He's gone mad! He's coming to find you! He used your brother to threaten us..."
She didn't hear the rest of the sentence, because Lin Zhou, with a terrifying expression on his face, was charging at her with a knife raised.
"Ah!" Sun Xiaomei immediately chose to turn and run as fast as she could.
Lin Zhou, after all, had been beaten up a few times recently, so he wasn't very fast, but he still followed closely behind her like a relentless ghost.
"It wasn't me! It wasn't me! It was my best friend!" Sun Xiaomei thought Lin Zhou was coming after her because she had hidden from him. "It was Chen Xuan who said you were a hypocrite and a poser, and told me to divorce you! I was hesitating!"
Lin Zhou was taken aback, but his feet didn't stop. These words somehow sounded very familiar.
With Lin Zhou closing in, Sun Xiaomei frantically looked around and suddenly spotted a familiar figure at the corner. It was none other than her best friend, Chen Xuan, who was staring at her in a daze.
"Xiaomei, why did you say I was the one who told you to get a divorce?" Hearing it with her own ears was entirely different from guessing it, and Chen Xuan's heart suffered a heavy blow.
Sun Xiaomei acted as if she had seen her savior. "Xuanxuan! Hurry, come over here quickly!"
She had it all figured out. As long as Chen Xuan took a few steps forward and she ran a few steps toward her, she could immediately shove Chen Xuan toward the disgusting man behind her to stall for time! Then she would have enough time to run upstairs and hide in her apartment!
As for whether Chen Xuan lived or died, that was no longer her concern.
"Xuanxuan! Save me!"
Chen Xuan ultimately couldn't bear to just watch. Just as she was about to step forward, someone suddenly grabbed her.
She turned to look at Fang Zhiyi behind her. Fang Zhiyi was standing on the other side of the corner, out of Sun Xiaomei's line of sight.
"I advise you not to go over there if you want to live."
"But someone is chasing her!" Chen Xuan tried to shake off Fang Zhiyi's hand.
"You must have never seriously studied personal safety guidelines. When encountering an armed assailant in the act of committing a crime, your first choice should be to call the police. If the other party is holding a deadly weapon, you need to ensure your own safety while calling the police, instead of going up there to give him a double kill."
Chen Xuan shook her head. "No, I have to go help her..."
Fang Zhiyi let go of her hand.
In the time it took to exchange those few sentences, Sun Xiaomei's hair was grabbed. She hastily pointed at the approaching Chen Xuan and cried out, "It's her! She taught me everything! Let me go! I'm your wife! That woman is jealous of me, so she drove a wedge between us to make me divorce you!"
Chen Xuan's footsteps halted. The Sun Xiaomei before her eyes became incredibly ugly, and the scenes from her dreams resurfaced in her mind.
Lin Zhou glared at Chen Xuan, then leaned in close to Sun Xiaomei. "Don't panic. I just want money. Give me the money. Your mother and the others already gave me theirs, so all you have to do is give me yours." He held Sun Xiaomei firmly in his grasp. "I even hacked your brother. Didn't you always say you hated your brother the most? I did it all for you. Just be a good girl and give me the money, and we can go back and live a good life together."
Sun Xiaomei nodded, trembling. "Okay! Okay!"
The sound of police sirens rang out.
Chen Xuan looked back at Fang Zhiyi, who spread his hands. "I didn't call the cops."
Lin Zhou froze, his expression turning ferocious. "What the hell is wrong with your parents? Didn't we agree not to call the police? They knew I was coming for you, and they still dared to call the cops?"
Sun Xiaomei replied shakily, "You don't understand them..."
"Pay me back!" Lin Zhou's last shred of hope was shattered. He fully realized now that he had no place left to hide. In his emotional agitation, the knife slashed across Sun Xiaomei's face, causing her to let out a bloodcurdling scream.
Seeing her in this state, Lin Zhou also panicked a little. "I... I didn't mean to. It's all because your parents called the police, and I got nervous. It's not my fault, it's not my fault..."
Even as he was escorted into the police car, he kept muttering that it wasn't his fault.
Lin Zhou was sentenced to twelve years in prison for multiple crimes, including armed assault and home invasion robbery.
The Sun family didn't fare well either. With their daughter disfigured and their son crippled, the parents spent all day sighing in despair at home, blaming one person or another. The family's mindset had been unhealthy to begin with, and now it had become even more twisted.
To pay for plastic surgery, Sun Xiaomei wanted to use her hundred thousand bride price, but her parents forcefully took the money away to treat their son's legs. This made the family dynamics even more tense. Sun Xiaomei wanted to move back to the apartment Chen Xuan had rented, only to find that Chen Xuan had completely moved out and even changed her phone number.
Before changing her number, she had sent a message cutting off all ties.
Looking at the final words of the message, "Wishing you eternal kindness and innocence, and a long-lasting relationship with your lover," Sun Xiaomei turned blue with anger.
"She definitely did this on purpose! She's intentionally trying to piss me off!"
Chen Xuan no longer needed to work. Right after this incident passed, Fang Zhiyi returned her original investment capital along with the profits she had earned. This money was more than enough for her to do things she actually enjoyed.
Father Lin was also driven insane by various debt collectors. He hadn't even known that his son owed so much money; there were dozens of debt collection agencies coming after him. Now, the moment he heard a knock on the door, he would grab a kitchen knife and try to hack people. Over time, everyone started saying that an old lunatic lived in that house.
"Several illegal gambling rings have been busted in our city... An enthusiastic citizen who wishes to remain anonymous provided accurate tips..."
"Today, several illegal high-interest loan companies were placed under investigation. The leads and evidence were once again provided by a Mr. Fang, who wishes to remain anonymous..."
Lin Zhou's life after entering prison was miserable. He was beaten up badly in there, and after trying to stir up trouble a few times, he was completely isolated by the others. When he saw these two news reports, he suddenly remembered something and hurriedly pounded on his cell door, shouting that he wanted to earn merit by providing information.
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...
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.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
