Listening to the Young Emperor recount how perilous today had been, Fang Zhiyi smiled.
He naturally knew; after all, he had secretly followed him the entire way. With his skills, he wouldn't be discovered by those guys.
"It is a pity. Since the guy surnamed Guo could not find trouble with you, the trouble comes to me."
"Grand Tutor?"
"Never mind the Grand Tutor title for now, just memorize these names." Fang Zhiyi handed over a piece of paper with a few unfamiliar names written on it. The Young Emperor read it carefully for a moment before holding the paper over a candle to burn it.
"Today, when Guo and Huang disrespected you, I was observing. Only these few people gnashed their teeth in grief and indignation, while the other examinees were looking around, clearly choosing sides or observing the situation. If you want to achieve great things, you must find the right people." Fang Zhiyi paused. There was a knock on the door. Before the Young Emperor could even speak, the person knocking simply pushed the door open. It could not be helped; neither the Young Emperor nor Fang Zhiyi had much prestige or face.
"Grand Tutor Fang, the Grand Sima wishes to have a word with you."
"Alright, I will go right away."
"Grand Tutor..."
Fang Zhiyi turned his head and glanced at the Young Emperor, whose face was full of worry. He felt a bit comforted in his heart; at least the boy was not an ungrateful wretch.
"Do not give me that look. You still have to write your reflections for today."
The worry on the Young Emperor's face instantly faded by more than half.
"Lord Guo!" Fang Zhiyi's acting skills exploded. He put on a look of extreme grievance, which made the gloomy-faced Guo Qianyue freeze for a moment.
"Grand Tutor Fang, you have taught him well!" After his brief stun, Guo Qianyue still spoke these words with a cold and sinister tone.
Fang Zhiyi's face was filled with panic. "Lord Guo, why do you say this?"
Guo Qianyue continued with a fake smile, "I am praising Grand Tutor Fang for your excellent guidance of the Emperor."
Fang Zhiyi was visibly taken aback. "My Lord, you... you do not think I could teach that little... the Emperor to oppose you, do you?"
Guo Qianyue's gaze never left Fang Zhiyi's face. From the moment Fang Zhiyi stepped into this courtyard, Guo had even thought of his miserable end. But looking at it now, Fang Zhiyi was still the same Fang Zhiyi—subservient and timid as a mouse. This was one of the reasons they had chosen him in the first place.
An old fox like him still had the ability to distinguish truth from falsehood. If he had previously suspected that someone around the Young Emperor was stirring up trouble, Fang Zhiyi's suspicion now seemed the smallest.
"Oh my heavens, I said I should not be this Grand Tutor! My tigress of a wife insisted I take the position just for the extra salary. If I were not the Grand Tutor, I would not have to live in fear all day. It would be so much better to just be a censor, and I would not be caught between you two lords..." Fang Zhiyi wailed and complained to the heavens, looking exactly like a new bride who had married the wrong man. Crying passionately, he even grabbed Guo Qianyue's clothes to blow his nose.
Guo Qianyue frowned and took a step back. He seemed to have caught some information.
"Are you saying that the one surnamed Huang..."
Fang Zhiyi panicked slightly and immediately waved his hands repeatedly. "I did not say anything, my Lord! You and Lord Huang are both top-ranking officials, the heads of the civil and military branches. Please do not make things difficult for me... Why don't you just dismiss me?" Speaking up to this point, Fang Zhiyi seemed to have figured it out. "Lord Guo, tomorrow I will resign in front of all the officials!"
Guo Qianyue looked at him, unable to find any flaws for a long time. All Fang Zhiyi showed was incoherent panic and escapism.
"Lord Guo, although I am resigning, could my salary still be paid as usual..."
Guo Qianyue felt somewhat helpless; he had overcomplicated this fellow in his mind. His eyes shifted, and the smile on his face became gentle. "What are you talking about, Grand Tutor? The Emperor is young and still needs your ample guidance..."
Fang Zhiyi knew that the most dangerous moment had passed.
"However, Grand Tutor, I want to ask one thing. Have any suspicious people approached the Emperor recently?"
Fang Zhiyi paused, thought seriously for a moment, and shook his head. "No. Well, the newly replaced eunuchs have been quite close to the Emperor, but that is perfectly normal."
"Eunuchs..." Guo Qianyue's eyes turned sharp. It seemed all other factors could be ruled out. His informants had been eliminated by that guy surnamed Huang; so this was what he was plotting?
Seeing Fang Zhiyi muttering in panic about resigning, Guo Qianyue felt a bit annoyed. However, he knew very well what a person like Fang Zhiyi was after. He immediately had a servant bring over a few silver notes and shoved them into Fang Zhiyi's hands with a face full of smiles. "Grand Tutor Fang, you must not mention resigning again. Without you, the imperial court would fall into chaos."
Fang Zhiyi looked somewhat in disbelief, his eyes fixed firmly on the silver notes, his greed completely undisguised.
This also completely dispelled Guo Qianyue's final doubts.
"It is just that when the time comes for you to help advise the Emperor, I hope the Grand Tutor will put in a bit more effort."
Fang Zhiyi nodded repeatedly. "Of course, of course!"
Coming out of the Grand Sima's estate, Fang Zhiyi did not go home, but instead went straight into the palace. Seeing the Young Emperor sitting there nodding off, he sighed.
Being a puppet emperor was not easy; he knew this too. So, he softly woke the Young Emperor and told him to go back to sleep.
The Young Emperor was happy to see Fang Zhiyi return safely. He did not know since when, but he felt that in this massive imperial palace, only Fang Zhiyi was on his side.
But Fang Zhiyi's teachings were omnipresent. Right after he asked what the Grand Sima had said to Fang Zhiyi, Fang Zhiyi repeated the entire process. He did not feel the slightest bit of shame for appearing weak and easily bullied. Instead, he asked the Young Emperor, "What principle did you understand from this?"
The Young Emperor shook his head, but then looked at Fang Zhiyi. "I do not know, but... as long as you are alright, Grand Tutor."
Fang Zhiyi also felt a bit helpless. "When the enemy is strong and we are weak, showing weakness is necessary. After all, a person must stay alive to have a chance. If you lose your life for momentary so-called honor, you truly lose everything."
The Young Emperor nodded repeatedly.
"I did three things. First, to confuse the guy surnamed Guo, making him still believe that I, Fang Zhiyi, am just a greedy and cowardly nobody. Second, to make him think that all the recent changes are the doing of Huang Huaili. Third... I accepted his silver. In his eyes, I am now his man."
"But Grand Tutor, if he confronts Chancellor Huang, would you not..."
Fang Zhiyi raised his hand and smacked him on the head. "Are you stupid? Would you go and verify something with your own mortal enemy?"
The Young Emperor covered his head, his face full of shame.
"You are the Emperor. Remember, the truth of some matters is actually not important. What people believe in their hearts is what matters most. He just wanted to hear the news he wanted to hear, so I gave it to him, but I could not give it to him directly..."
"Grand Tutor, what is the use of this?" The Young Emperor lay down, staring blankly at Fang Zhiyi.
"To intensify the conflict and create chaos. If we want to survive, we can only make things as chaotic as possible."
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!"
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.
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."
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
