Looking at the two arrogant faces in front of him, Fang Ning really wanted to throw a punch at them, but he held it back and obediently called out, "Second Uncle."
"Boss, that's your second uncle? Wow, I couldn't tell your family was so rich," a lackey exclaimed, staring enviously at the new car behind Fang Zhiming.
"Have you never been to school? Second Uncle just means a relative, an ordinary relative! My family's wealth has nothing to do with his," Fang Huohua said with his chin raised high, sounding as if he were reprimanding them.
Fang Ning's eyes darkened as he turned his head away. "Let's go."
"Little Ning, since we ran into each other, why don't we grab a meal together?" Fang Zhiming called out. However, Fang Ning didn't look back. His father might not know, but he knew perfectly well that his second uncle's family had never looked favorably upon his own.
"That's just how rich people are." A lackey glanced at Fang Ning's faded, washed-out clothes and tried to comfort him. "Just like that guy, Shao Zhijie. His family has a bit of money, and he acts like he owns the whole world."
At the mention of Shao Zhijie, Fang Ning's gaze turned fierce.
"I'll cripple him sooner or later!"
"But Boss, his family is quite rich. I'm afraid we can't afford to provoke him..."
"Shut up! We're out here running the streets, and you're afraid of causing trouble? If we don't teach him a lesson, who will submit to us in the future?" Fang Ning rebuked angrily.
The lackeys exchanged glances and fell silent.
Fang Ning thought of his second uncle's arrogant demeanor again, and the resentment he felt toward his parents grew a bit more.
"I say, what exactly are you planning? If this continues, won't you just be walking down the Original Host's old path again?" Little Hei asked in confusion as he looked at Fang Zhiyi, who was currently counting money, casually whipping the Original Host in passing.
"What do you mean, what am I planning... I'm just being a qualified father. I can't exactly teach my son and daughter to collect debts through violence, can I? Although I prefer things to be simple and direct, it sets a bad example."
"So you... Oh!!! Oh!!!" Little Hei suddenly understood. "You never planned on giving them the money at all, did you?"
Fang Zhiyi rolled his eyes at it. "Nonsense, why should I give away the money I collected with my own skills?" He glanced at the Original Host. "Also, I really have to thank him for his good reputation from before."
The Original Host was furious, but Little Hei's tentacles tightened around his neck, forcing the Original Host to reluctantly shut his mouth.
Hearing the phone ring, Fang Zhiyi was overjoyed. "Good things come in pairs!"
On the other end of the line was Fang Wenxia. "Brother, we got the house. How's the contact going for the renovation we talked about last time?"
Fang Zhiyi ignored the Original Host's anxious expression. "It's all sorted. When your big brother handles things, you can rest completely assured."
"That's good. Junjun, come quickly and say hi to your uncle." The sound of a child's laughter came from the other side. "This child is so naughty. Brother, once this is all done, I'll treat you to a meal!" Fang Wenxia knew very well that dealing with Fang Zhiyi only required a meal and some sweet talk.
Fang Zhiyi narrowed his eyes. "Alright, there's no need to be so polite between family."
The two finalized a few details, and Fang Zhiyi hung up the phone, humming a little tune as he walked out. Behind him, Liu Mei watched his retreating figure, her eyes full of disgust.
Arriving at the renovation market, Fang Zhiyi inquired with several renovation companies. Each one was very welcoming and provided a rough quote, but Fang Zhiyi wasn't very satisfied with any of them.
That was until someone patted him on the shoulder. Fang Zhiyi turned around to see a man with Toad Eyes grinning, revealing a mouthful of yellow teeth. "Boss, looking for a renovation, right?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded. "Yeah."
"I can do it!" The man patted his chest. "I have several brothers with me too! We all make a living doing renovations. Our prices are fair, and we guarantee your satisfaction!"
Fang Zhiyi curled his lips. "How do you know I'll be satisfied?"
"Our prices are affordable!" Seeing him about to leave, the man quickly spoke up to make him stay.
Fang Zhiyi laughed. "Affordable prices, and then what? To tell you the truth, I'm introducing this to someone else. You understand, right?"
Toad Eyes's eyes immediately lit up, and he eagerly pulled out a pack of cigarettes. "Boss, look at you. I know the rules, absolutely no problem!"
The two exchanged a smile as if they were old acquaintances.
"Are they reliable?" Looking at the few men carrying materials onto the site, Li Jianguo frowned a bit. These guys were glancing around shiftily and didn't look like good people at all.
"My brother introduced them," Fang Wenxia whispered in Li Jianguo's ear. "It's cheaper by this amount."
"Really?" Li Jianguo beamed. "Your brother is really warm-hearted."
"This is nothing. Him? His brain isn't right." Fang Wenxia spoke to her husband without any reservations, pointing at her own head. "He's always been like this, putting on airs just because he's the eldest brother. If it weren't for the fact that he has some strength, who would bother paying attention to him?"
"Shh, keep your voice down."
"Believe it or not, when we move in, my brother will even have to give us a big red envelope."
Fang Wenxia's eyes were filled with calculation and greed, while Li Xiaojun, who was squatting to the side, suddenly looked up. "I want a big red envelope from Uncle too!"
"My son is so smart."
That very day, the couple brought Li Xiaojun to visit Fang Zhiyi's house again. However, it was a bit strange; although Fang Zhiyi asked them to stay for dinner this time too, the food wasn't as good as before, and Liu Mei kept a straight face the entire time.
Fang Zhiyi remained enthusiastic, but this time he was obviously taking more care of his own daughter, putting plenty of food into little Fang Ting's bowl.
Fang Wenxia was a bit puzzled but didn't ask anything. It wasn't until Liu Mei got up and left that she asked, "Brother, what's wrong with Sister-in-law?"
Fang Zhiyi waved his hand. "Ah, she's just throwing a tantrum." He wiped Fang Ting's mouth and gestured for her to go play. Fang Ting skipped away happily.
"Her? She complains all day about your second brother borrowing money from me and not paying it back, and she brings up how you guys borrowed money from me for emergencies before. I got annoyed listening to it, so we argued a bit, and now she's like this," Fang Zhiyi said with a bitter smile.
"Uh..." Fang Wenxia felt a bit awkward. Even though her brother didn't mean to pressure them to return the money, saying it out loud like this still made her feel embarrassed.
Li Jianguo exchanged a glance with her and spoke up, "Brother, it's not that we aren't going to pay you back. You know we just bought a house and don't have much money on hand... Junjun's tutoring classes and everything else require money. As soon as things loosen up a bit, we'll pay you back immediately."
Fang Zhiyi waved his hand. "We are family, why say such things! You're being too polite!"
Right at that moment, Fang Ning's furious roar rang out.
"What are you doing!"
The adults looked at each other and hurriedly got up to go inside and check. They saw Li Xiaojun holding a red pen, having scribbled all over the pristine white walls of Fang Ning's room until it was an awful mess. In particular, Fang Ning's schoolbag was completely covered in red pen marks.
Li Xiaojun was clearly frightened. Upon seeing his mother arrive, he immediately hid behind Fang Wenxia.
"Don't be afraid, son, don't be afraid." Fang Wenxia frowned as she took a look, then glared at Fang Ning. "It's not that your aunt wants to scold you, but you're so old now, how can you hold a grudge against your younger cousin? He's still just a child!"
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.
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."
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
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.
