Chi Qingchi immediately wiped her face upon hearing this:
"That's because earlier, my sister was..."
Halfway through her sentence, Xiao Chi realized the deeper meaning in Lin Yu's words:
"Hey! Xiao Lin!"
"Are you calling me a dog?!"
Lin Yu chuckled innocently, spreading his hands:
"Honestly, that wasn’t my intention at all, I swear!"
The clever Chi Qingshui chimed in:
"It was Zhu Bajie who helped eat the mountain of noodles in heaven."
Hearing this, Chi Qingchi puffed up even more, looking ready to settle the score with Lin Yu:
"Xiao Lin, I hate it most when people make fun of my 'hobbies'!"
Seeing Xiao Chi charging over, ready for a "big reckoning," Lin Yu muttered softly:
"Just the other day, when I took someone out shopping..."
"What did someone promise me?"
"Something about sore hands and feet, wasn’t it?"
At Lin Yu's words, Chi Qingchi immediately made a shushing gesture.
If her sister found out
that she’d gone so far as to "play servant" just to get Lin Yu to take her out,
she’d definitely get an earful once they were back in their room.
Luckily, Chi Qingshui, busy at the stove, didn’t catch their whispers.
Chi Qingchi quickly clasped her hands in a pleading gesture:
"Brother Xiao Lin, the dining area’s crowded—can we talk about this later?"
Watching Xiao Chi turn into a "tree statue," Lin Yu rolled his shoulders and lowered his voice:
"Tsk, my neck and shoulders are really sore."
"A person should always take responsibility for what they say, you know."
Chi Qingchi didn’t have time to think it through and hastily whispered back:
"When no one’s around, okay? I promise—I’ll take full responsibility!"
Lin Yu stood up.
With his back to Aunt Qimeng and Chi Qingshui, he lightly tapped the back of Chi Qingchi’s head three times.
Chi Qingchi: "..."
After all her efforts to guard against boys,
she still ended up trapped in Xiao Lin’s grasp.
Now it felt like "You wouldn’t want others to know, would you?" had become her reality.
Who could blame her? She’d been desperate to visit the anime district and ended up verbally signing a "servitude contract" with Lin Yu.
Chi Qingshui had no time to notice her sister’s antics.
The dough drop soup she’d made was already done.
All it needed was a splash of vinegar to perfect the flavor.
It could be served to everyone any moment.
But she still hadn’t figured out how to bring it up with Lin Yu.
She’d run through several excuses in her head,
but none satisfied her.
No matter which one she picked,
it would sound like more than just "ordinary classmates" or "ordinary neighbors."
The more she worried about Lin Yu reading too much into it, the more she spiraled into overthinking.
Lin Yu, watching his little girlfriend absentmindedly swirling the vinegar bottle, teased her on purpose:
"Smells amazing—who knew you had a talent for cooking?"
[Ding!]
[Masterful move! Compliments between lovers deepen bonds!]
[Reward: 50 spirit stones.]
"Don’t act like you know me so well. There’s plenty you don’t know," Chi Qingchi retorted, her tone haughty but her heart secretly delighted.
Little did she know,
her tiny crush had been completely exposed by the system.
If he let his tsundere girlfriend stay happy too easily, where was the fun in that?
Lin Yu continued:
"Tsk, what a shame."
"I don’t like the taste of vinegar, or I’d definitely have a bowl."
"You two enjoy it. I’ll grab a rolled egg pancake and eat upstairs."
Chi Qingshui: "!!!"
He… doesn’t like vinegar?
So Lin Yu has that kind of dietary restriction?
She actually had no idea at all!
Was Lin Yu leaving already?
He was already on his way out!
What should she do?
If she really let him go, wouldn’t all her morning preparations be for nothing?
It wasn’t like she even liked vinegar that much.
In the dough drop soup, vinegar wasn’t a must-have ingredient anyway, so maybe…
Noticing Lin Yu had already started talking to Aunt Qimeng, seemingly about to leave,
Chi Qingshui didn’t have time to overthink it:
“No, it’s fine without vinegar too!”
Lin Yu almost couldn’t hold back his laughter:
“Oh? Really?”
Chi Qingshui: “!!!”
What an idiot she was.
What was she even saying without thinking?
Now it sounded like she wanted Lin Yu to eat her… dough drop soup!
[Ding!]
[Masterful move! Your partner is willing to compromise and make concessions for you, subtly affirming your dominance in the relationship!]
[Reward: 50 spirit stones.]
Lin Yu listened to the system’s notification.
This was exactly the effect he wanted.
But being the top student she was, her mind worked quickly.
Realizing her words had exposed her true feelings,
she immediately backtracked to fix the slip-up:
“You look like you really want to try it. If I didn’t let you have any just because the vinegar isn’t added yet,
it’d make me seem petty—and I’m not a petty person.
Besides, didn’t you treat me to food yesterday? Consider this returning the favor.”
Lin Yu mentally gave himself a thumbs-up.
Oh really?
That’s how you wanna play?
Sooner or later, he’d have to check if her mouth was the hardest part of her.
Well then, let’s keep going…
“Thanks! Today’s not just about enjoying Aunt Qimeng’s breakfast,
but also getting to taste our top student’s cooking. What a great day.
Mind if I take a picture first?”
Chi Qingshui didn’t stop him: “…”
Dough drop soup wasn’t exactly photogenic food.
And he still wanted to take a picture?
Was he planning to send it to her alternate account later?
Just as Chi Qingshui suspected,
after snapping the photo, Lin Yu returned to the table with his phone,
wearing a “blissful” smile as he typed away.
Chi Qingshui’s mood was complicated.
For online couples, actively sharing every little detail of daily life could indeed feel sweet.
But taking a picture of “another girl’s” breakfast to send to his “girlfriend”…
What exactly was Lin Yu planning to say?
The top student began rationally analyzing. There were only three possibilities:
1. Claim it was his own breakfast without mentioning who made it.
2. Emphasize it was his breakfast and say either he or Aunt Qimeng made it.
3. Straight-up admit it was his female roommate’s cooking, just to tease her and stir up some jealousy.
Translated, that meant…
1. Avoidant lying.
2. Intentional lying.
3. Zero emotional intelligence and sheer narcissism.
“Let’s all sit. The soup’s ready—I’ll serve it.”
Chi Qingshui gestured for everyone to take their seats.
While fetching spoons and bowls,
she swiftly and skillfully switched to her alternate account, eager to see what Lin Yu had sent.
Naturally, she didn’t forget to mute her phone first.
A top student’s talents shone in every aspect.
Her ability to serve soup while secretly checking messages under three pairs of eyes?
She definitely had the makings of a spy.
[Lin Yu: (Picture of dough drop soup)]
[Lin Yu: Saw my roommate’s soup this morning and thought of your stomach issues. Wanted to try a bowl and learn how to make it for you.]
"Lin Yu: If... just if, I had the chance to see you, I could make it for you myself."
"Lin Yu: I was worried you'd get jealous, so I specifically told my roommate..."
"Lin Yu: Don't add vinegar!"
] [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!"
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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!
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?!
