After he took the children back home, he found the house empty; clearly, Liu Mei had already left.
Fang Zhiyi didn't care about this at all. That was the Original Host's wife, not his.
He carefully washed his daughter's face and feet, then coaxed her to sleep. Fang Ning watched everything unfold before his eyes, feeling it was incredibly surreal. Was this still his father? Could he be a fake?
Whatever, he needed to sleep too. Tomorrow he still had to take some people out to settle a bit of trouble.
Fang Ning tossed his bellyful of doubts aside.
The children were all asleep, and Fang Zhiyi lay alone on the sofa, humming a little tune.
Little Hei looked at the Original Host with a teasing expression, "Did you understand that?"
The Original Host froze for a moment, then let out a "woo-woo" sound. Little Hei raised a hand and delivered a sharp slap.
"I forgot you can't speak."
That night, Fang Zhiyi slept very well. The problems of this world were easy to solve; it was almost like being on vacation.
Liu Mei, who had originally run away from home, returned. Her face was cold and indifferent, giving everyone she saw the cold shoulder. Fang Zhiyi ignored her.
Anyway, with him around, she couldn't stir up any trouble.
"Big brother, I have a matter I need to bother you with." Unsurprisingly, Fang Zhiming made his appearance.
Fang Zhiyi looked at the guy in front of him, whose eyes were full of calculation, and sneered inwardly.
"What is it?"
"I have a project, and my cash flow is a bit tight right now, so I wanted to ask for your help." Fang Zhiming watched Fang Zhiyi's expression, then patted his own chest and said, "We are blood brothers, you wouldn't refuse to help me, right?"
"Helping you is fine... it's just that I've run into a bit of trouble myself." Fang Zhiyi sighed.
Fang Zhiming froze, instantly becoming alert. Was he going to ask him to pay back the money he owed?
Fortunately, Fang Zhiyi's next words made him breathe a sigh of relief.
"I was laid off from the factory and am now unemployed. Zhiming, do you have any good job opportunities to introduce to me?"
"Well..." Fang Zhiming hesitated, his eyes darting around rapidly. "Big brother, I don't really have any good connections. You see, I can barely even take care of myself right now..."
Fang Zhiyi looked melancholy. "Sigh, what should I do then? The kids' tuition fees are due soon..."
Fang Zhiming felt a bit restless and fidgety. It took him a long time to squeeze out a sentence, "Big brother, if I had known you were in a tight spot, I wouldn't have brought this up..."
Fang Zhiyi looked at the Original Host's younger brother, countless ideas popping into his head. Should he fake a kidnapping of his son, dig a massive pitfall for him, or... Suddenly, Fang Zhiyi saw his daughter hugging a doll not far away. Fang Ting was curiously listening to the conversation between her uncle and her father. Seeing her father look at her, Fang Ting narrowed her eyes and smiled, looking incredibly cute.
Fang Zhiyi sighed inwardly.
"How about this, Second Son, I do have a way, but I need your help first."
"What way?"
"If it works out, I'd even be willing to mortgage this house and lend you the money."
"Really? Big brother."
"Am I the kind of person who goes back on his word?"
Fang Zhiming only hesitated briefly before nodding immediately, "Tell me, big brother, what do you need my help with?" He was already calculating the value of his brother's house.
"Sigh, it's about your sister-in-law wanting to divorce me."
"What?" Fang Zhiming was somewhat shocked. "Sister-in-law wants to divorce you? Is that true?"
"Have I ever lied?" Fang Zhiyi frowned.
"No, but why?"
"Why else? She just feels that since I'm married to her, I shouldn't be taking care of you guys anymore. What other reason could there be?" Fang Zhiyi mocked himself.
Fang Zhiming was speechless for a moment. Thinking about it carefully, Fang Zhiyi's words made sense.
Right at that moment, Liu Mei came home. She still maintained her indifferent demeanor. Seeing Fang Zhiming, she just glanced at him and went straight to her room.
"See that?" Fang Zhiyi smiled bitterly and shook his head.
"Sigh, this... it's not that I don't want to pay back the money, it's just that I'm also in a difficult situation..." Fang Zhiming was still trying to defend himself.
Fang Zhiyi cut him off, "I'm your brother, it's only right for me to help you. But you also know that half of this house belongs to Liu Mei, and now she's making a fuss about a divorce... Sigh."
"Then, should I go beg her? Let me go put in a good word for you?" Fang Zhiming thought this was what Fang Zhiyi meant.
Fang Zhiyi stopped him. "No need. I've thought about it. It's better to just..." He formed a knife with his hand and made a chopping motion downwards.
"Big brother, isn't that inappropriate? Even though sister-in-law is asking for a divorce, you don't have to just kill her..."
"Screw you, is that what I meant?" Fang Zhiyi almost kicked him. "I mean making a clean break. This house is worth about 400,000. I'll give her 200,000, and the house will be mine. Then I can mortgage it, and won't you have the money for your turnover?"
"Ah? This..."
Fang Zhiyi patted his shoulder. "You know me. If your big brother wasn't out of options, I wouldn't have come up with such a method. Sigh."
Fang Zhiming rapidly calculated the gains and losses. His big brother meant for him to find a way to scrape together 200,000, then pay back 200,000 to him, and conveniently borrow 200,000 out of it. No matter how he calculated it, it was a guaranteed profit without any loss. But the only variable was...
He couldn't help but glance at Fang Zhiyi, various past events flashing through his mind.
At this moment, the Original Host, being held in Little Hei's hand, was full of anxiety, continuously making "woo-woo" sounds. But no one paid attention to him. Little Hei let out a standard villainous laugh; it really enjoyed seeing this fool look so anxious.
"Alright! Big brother, but..." Fang Zhiming still kept his guard up. "I don't have that much either, I estimate..."
Fang Zhiyi stopped him, saying, "Don't worry, your big brother has friends too, I can scrape together some."
Fang Zhiming looked at Fang Zhiyi's sincere eyes and nodded after a moment. This fool couldn't possibly deceive people; he cared too much about his pride.
In the end, Fang Zhiming scraped together 110,000. Fang Zhiyi said it didn't matter and that he would figure out the rest. Fang Zhiming waited happily. As long as this was done, he would have another 400,000 in operating funds. Of course, he called it operating funds, but who knew what it really was?
Feeling happy, Fang Zhiming took his son out for another good meal.
Just as the father and son got out of the car, they happened to see Fang Ning. Fang Ning was leading a few followers who looked like little delinquents towards the arcade. Fang Zhiming narrowed his eyes and beckoned his son over. "See that? Don't play with your cousin. He's completely gone bad, hanging out with little hooligans all day, acting nonsensically."
As coincidence would have it, the last two sentences drifted into Fang Ning's ears.
He turned around and glared angrily at his uncle. Fang Zhiming immediately assumed the posture of an elder. "Little Ning, why are you here? If you don't study hard, how can you face your parents' hard-earned salaries?"
"Dad, forget it, just don't tell Uncle," his cousin also spoke up.
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.
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.
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."
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?"
