That day, Zhong Jiafa didn't manage to catch up with Wang Hao. Wang Hao ran too fast. He returned to the barbecue restaurant indignantly and downed two bottles of beer by himself. Fang Zhiyi wanted to say something to him, but Zhong Jiafa stopped him from speaking.
"You're not beyond saving yet, otherwise I wouldn't even plan to acknowledge you anymore," Zhong Jiafa said to himself. "When you were bullied in school, I stood up for you, but you ended up saying they were just playing with you, making me look like the bad guy."
"Later, you went to work in the factory, and I was hustling outside. When that degenerate gambler asked to borrow money, you just gave it to him. I tried to stop you, but you said you were friends, so I put up with it."
"Today, if you had tried to stop me just now, I would have cut ties with you completely." Zhong Jiafa clinked his glass against Fang Zhiyi's. "You're a good guy, but you really make people angry."
Fang Zhiyi lowered his head.
He seemed to understand what his grandfather was trying to tell him.
When he received a message from Chen Yao, Fang Zhiyi hesitated about whether to reply.
"Reply!" Grandpa was exceptionally excited, like a wolf that had spotted its prey.
Fang Zhiyi accepted Chen Yao's invitation for a date. This time, his grandfather didn't stop him, but instead busied himself with coming up with schemes and strategies for him, though... they honestly didn't sound very reliable.
Chen Yao was very pretty and outgoing. Walking outside with her, Fang Zhiyi felt like all the other pedestrians were looking at him.
"Don't flatter yourself, it's not like that. People are busy, who has the time to look at you?" Grandpa's cold water was poured right on cue.
But going on dates cost money, and Fang Zhiyi started to get anxious again. He couldn't possibly ask his family for money, could he? Fortunately, Grandpa pointed him in the right direction, and he found a job that didn't require much of a diploma.
And under Grandpa's suggestion, his first client was Chen Yao.
When she found out that Fang Zhiyi wanted to gift her a car, Chen Yao was elated. She followed Fang Zhiyi to the 4S dealership, picked out a beautifully contoured sedan, and then looked at Fang Zhiyi with shining eyes. She had never expected that a backup guy she had casually strung along would actually be so wealthy!
Watching Fang Zhiyi run around handling the paperwork for her, Chen Yao felt very comfortable. Honestly, this Fang Zhiyi seemed honest and had money, wasn't this much better than Zhou Kai?
Chen Yao's mindset underwent some changes.
In order to tie Fang Zhiyi down, she hid her gold-digging nature during their dates out, frequently fighting to pay the bill instead. Even when Zhou Kai reached out to her to get back together, Chen Yao pretended not to see the messages.
She was still thinking about it; although Zhou Kai had some money, he had never been this generous to her.
Fang Zhiyi also suited her desires perfectly. Not only did he appear whenever she needed him, but he also took the initiative to propose visiting her parents. Faced with this request, Chen Yao did not refuse.
"So you are Yaoyao's boyfriend?" Chen's Father asked with a condescending look.
Chen Yao's younger brother, Chen Mingli, also scrutinized him. This brother-in-law who seemed to only know how to smile foolishly didn't look like a rich person.
"We only have this one daughter in our family, and her standards are very high," Chen's Father continued.
Fang Zhiyi smiled apologetically and nodded repeatedly.
"The bride price must be at least two hundred and eighty-eight thousand. If you can accept that, then you can continue dating Yaoyao. If not, then break up early and don't waste each other's time."
Fang Zhiyi was a little nervous. "Grandpa, what do I say?"
"What, this, this, this, isn't this..."
Faced with Chen Yao's expectant gaze and the disdain of Chen's Father and Chen's Mother, Fang Zhiyi subconsciously blurted out: "If I'm marrying a wife, I'll give a bride price of eight hundred and eighty-eight thousand, plus an apartment on top of that!"
He was completely tense when he said this.
Wasn't Grandpa just talking nonsense?
Hearing this, the Chen family was stunned. Fang Zhiyi watched as Chen's Father's attitude instantly shifted, changing from condescending to amiable and friendly.
"Oh my, old woman, what are you doing? Xiao Fang has been here for half a day and you haven't even prepared tea for him? Bring out the tea leaves that someone gave me and brew them!"
"Brother-in-law, change into these slippers, make yourself at home."
The sudden attentiveness made Fang Zhiyi somewhat at a loss.
He felt very uncomfortable eating this meal. The Chen family kept flattering him as they chatted, and even called someone to calculate an auspicious date for him and Chen Yao to get married.
Prompted by Grandpa, Fang Zhiyi released another shocking statement: "I can give the apartment right away! Consider it a gift for Yaoyao!"
As soon as these words came out, the Chen family's faces were filled with joy.
It wasn't until he came out of the Chen house that Fang Zhiyi asked with a bitter face, "Grandpa, I've already bragged about it, what do we do next?"
The voice in his head was unhurried: "Next? Next, you just give her an apartment."
"Ah?"
Chen Yao now had absolutely no intention of answering Zhou Kai's phone calls, and even blacklisted him. In her eyes, Fang Zhiyi was ten thousand times better than Zhou Kai! Thinking about her future life, Chen Yao smiled so hard her eyes crinkled shut.
Wang Hao had also contacted her, saying that Fang Zhiyi was just a scumbag. Chen Yao didn't believe it at all. A scumbag? You were the one who said he was an honest guy in the first place, alright? Besides, what kind of scumbag would gift her a car without blinking an eye? She only felt that Wang Hao was trying to break them up.
When Fang Zhiyi came to take her to see the apartment, Chen Yao even feigned a bit of modesty, verbally blaming Fang Zhiyi for spending money recklessly, but her feet quickened their pace. She completely failed to notice that the eyes of Fang Zhiyi beside her were full of shrewd calculation.
Fang Zhiyi said that the apartment would be registered solely under her name, and took her ID card to handle the paperwork. Chen Yao remained immersed in her joy.
After a full afternoon, the paperwork was finally completed. Holding the keys, Chen Yao could hardly suppress the excitement in her heart, while Fang Zhiyi's expression beside her was very bizarre, one moment anxious, the next wearing an eerie smile.
To draw a clear line with Zhou Kai, who had been pestering her, Chen Yao asked him out.
"Don't pester me anymore." Chen Yao dangled the car keys in her hand. "I met someone better than you. He treats me so much better than you ever did."
Zhou Kai gritted his teeth in anger: "Do you really have no feelings for me left in your heart?"
Chen Yao hummed a little tune. Looking at this man she had once loved, she inevitably felt a bit sympathetic: "I do, but not much..."
Zhou Kai looked at her gloomily: "What he can give you, I can give you too."
Chen Yao pondered for a moment, her foot under the table gently brushing past Zhou Kai's calf: "But he's about to get engaged to me."
Zhou Kai's heart stirred, and he revealed a playful smile: "You aren't married yet, are you?"
Chen Yao thought of Fang Zhiyi. Although he treated her very well and was very generous to her, his flaw was exactly that he was too honest; he hadn't even taken the initiative to hold her hand.
Looking at her old lover, Chen Yao couldn't help but start to waver, until Zhou Kai touched her leg.
The hotel room was booked that very day, and the door was opened an hour later. A completely naked Chen Yao hid under the covers, looking at her parents and younger brother, whose faces were full of anger, as well as Fang Zhiyi standing behind them. Her brain crashed.
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?!
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
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.
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
