"Grandpa, can I go?" Fang Zhiyi asked carefully.
"Go, why wouldn't you?"
Receiving a positive reply, Fang Zhiyi felt reassured.
Almost identical to the original timeline, Wang Hao introduced Chen Yao to him, his face full of smugness.
In the past, Fang Zhiyi's mind would have been entirely focused on Chen Yao, but today was different. He knew his grandpa's spirit was inside his body, and he wondered what his grandpa would think.
"I'm a good bro to you, right? I specifically introduced her to you. This meal is on you today," Wang Hao said, throwing an arm around Fang Zhiyi's shoulder.
Fang Zhiyi nodded. Looking at the table full of food, he muttered to himself. He didn't have much money right now and wasn't sure if it would be enough.
Chen Yao took a phone call and left in a hurry. Fang Zhiyi didn't mind. Because of his grandpa's high demands, the little savings he once had were gone, leaving him completely broke. His mind was entirely preoccupied with paying the bill.
"I have a few more friends coming over. Let's drink a bit longer," Wang Hao said, his face brimming with smugness.
Fang Zhiyi suddenly stood up. "Alright, I'm going to the restroom."
Wang Hao didn't suspect a thing. He just waved him off, pondering how to get Fang Zhiyi to fork over some money to compensate him later. He had extorted quite a bit from that thug, but one could never have too much money.
Seeing his rowdy friends arrive, Wang Hao generously told them to order whatever they wanted, since there was a sucker paying the bill today.
But to his surprise, Fang Zhiyi never came back after leaving.
By the time the group was drunk, Wang Hao was stopped by a waiter.
"My buddy already paid the bill!" he slurred.
"I'm sorry, sir, but no one has paid for this table," the waiter said politely.
"What? This kid actually pulled a disappearing act on me?" Wang Hao's face darkened. Looking at his friends, he gritted his teeth. "How much?"
"The total is 13,538 yuan. We'll round it down to 13,500 yuan."
"What!" Wang Hao was shocked. "What did we even eat?"
The waiter maintained a smile. "Your food bill is 3,000 yuan. You also ordered three bottles of aged liquor, which are 3,000 yuan each, and there's also the beer..."
Wang Hao remembered that halfway through, the waiter had indeed brought in three bottles of liquor, saying a friend had ordered them. He had assumed it was Fang Zhiyi and had secretly mocked the sucker for trying to show off.
"Fang Zhiyi!!!"
At that moment, Fang Zhiyi sneezed. "Grandpa, why didn't we take the liquor?"
"Oh? You're finally catching on?"
"No, I just thought that given your personality, you definitely would have taken the liquor and left Wang Hao with the bill..."
"You son of a... phew." The voice seemed to hold back a curse. "Don't take advantage of things you shouldn't. He invited you to eat, the friends are his, and they drank the liquor. No matter how you argue it, you aren't the one who should pay. Understand?"
Fang Zhiyi nodded. After a moment, he said melancholically, "But this means I won't be able to face Wang Hao anymore..."
"What good is associating with that kind of person? Huh?"
Fang Zhiyi lowered his head and didn't speak. His phone rang again. He thought it was Wang Hao calling again, but looking down, he saw it was Zhong Jiafa.
"Beautifully done! Have you finally grown a brain, kid?" Zhong Jiafa's voice took Fang Zhiyi by surprise.
"Hahaha, that idiot called to borrow money from me. As if I'd lend it to him! He's a degenerate gambler. This is exactly what you should do. Where are you? Let's grab a drink."
The person on the other end didn't give him a chance to refuse, so Fang Zhiyi could only agree. To his surprise, his grandpa didn't stop him.
Fang Zhiyi met up with Zhong Jiafa. For once, Zhong Jiafa didn't scold him. Instead, he opened a bottle of beer for him, and the two chatted as they drank.
"There's seriously something wrong with your brain. I've wanted to say this for a long time. The more I look at you, the angrier I get. I thought you just had no backbone! That idiot called you in the middle of the night to buy cigarettes and deliver them, and you actually went!" Bringing up this topic made Zhong Jiafa a bit worked up again.
"We're all friends..."
"Pfft, you treat them like friends, but they treat you like a fool!"
Fang Zhiyi wasn't happy about this. Although he was honest and naive, he couldn't stand hearing his childhood friend call him a fool.
"Only this childhood friend of yours actually looks out for you." His grandpa's voice abruptly echoed in his mind, making Fang Zhiyi swallow the retort he was about to make. "Think about it carefully. In this world, just because you treat others well doesn't mean they'll treat you well in return. Your kindness has to be given to the right people, otherwise, you really are a fool."
He thought back carefully. It seemed that only when he was with Zhong Jiafa could he say whatever was on his mind without fear of offending him. Spurred on by the alcohol, Fang Zhiyi recalled everything that had happened since his grandpa appeared. Was he really just a naive sucker?
Seeing him stay silent, Zhong Jiafa cursed affectionately and then raised his glass. "Congratulations on finally wising up!"
Fang Zhiyi also raised his glass. Just as he was about to say a few words of thanks, Zhong Jiafa suddenly put his glass down. "Hold on, let's settle something first."
Fang Zhiyi turned his head and saw a few people on motorcycles parking and walking toward them. Wang Hao was strikingly at the very front.
"Fang Zhiyi! After I treated you as a friend, you actually played me?" He looked furious.
"Wang Hao, I..." Fang Zhiyi tried to say something, but Zhong Jiafa cut him off: "Friend? Friend my ass! Do you really think he's a fucking idiot?"
"There's no need to be so blunt," Little Hei commented.
"Zhong Jiafa, this has nothing to do with you. I'm looking for him!" Wang Hao pointed at Fang Zhiyi. He couldn't accept being screwed over by a sucker; he had lost all face.
Zhong Jiafa chuckled. "I was the one who told you he was here. Do you want to guess why?"
Wang Hao was confused. "What are you trying to say?"
Zhong Jiafa stood up and grabbed the small stool from under him. Almost simultaneously, the customers sitting at several nearby tables all stood up, looking at Wang Hao and his group with unfriendly expressions.
Fang Zhiyi was stunned. He truly hadn't noticed what connection these people had with him.
"Zhong Jiafa, don't think you're such a big deal just because you've been running with gangs for a few years!" Wang Hao's face turned somewhat pale.
"You degenerate gambler, I only put up with you before because Zhiyi thought you were his friend. I've never considered you a friend! I've wanted to beat you up for a long time!" Zhong Jiafa charged forward directly, and the people from those tables rushed out alongside him.
On the street, a chase unfolded. Fang Zhiyi stood frozen in place, holding his glass.
"Grandpa, what's going on?"
"If people want to help you, you have to be worth helping. If you can't even think straight yourself, who can you expect to help you? Not everyone who speaks nicely to you is a friend; sometimes, the ones willing to scold you are the real ones."
Fang Zhiyi stood stunned for a moment. He slowly brought the glass in front of him and said solemnly, "Grandpa, a toast to you."
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
