"You knew all along, didn't you!"
"Wuwu... you knew from the very beginning!"
"You've been teasing me, playing with me... admit it, yes or no!"
"..."
Small, feeble fists pounded against Lin Yu's back and waist.
As if that wasn't enough,
she pulled them back and started hammering his chest wildly.
The rainstorm of tiny punches couldn't exactly be called painful—more like completely ineffective.
Even so,
Lin Yu pretended to be in agony, gritting his teeth and groaning:
"Oww... ugh..."
"I'm dead, dead, dead... totally finished."
Only then did Chi Qingshui stop, her delicate hands retreating behind her back as she stood before Lin Yu with her head lowered.
Just a minute ago,
her only thought had been to bring Lin Yu back no matter what.
But now, after revealing her true identity,
she hadn't given a single thought to how this relationship would unfold.
The only certainty was
the overwhelming peace in her heart at this moment.
Especially when she realized Lin Yu had known all along that "Sinking Dream Listening to Rain" was her—it filled her with... hundreds of times more relief.
It proved one thing:
Everything Lin Yu had said and done regarding Lv Rou
was just an act to make her reveal herself.
He hadn't actually imagined a "lover" into existence in real life.
Lin Yu leaned closer, gently wiping the tears from Chi Qingshui's eyes:
"If we're talking about playing games, Qingshui, you're the real master."
"A single WeChat alt account fooled me for over a year."
Chi Qingshui's pupils trembled: "!!!"
"I—I wasn't fooling you..."
"It's just that I..."
At this point,
Chi Qingshui couldn't bear the thought of Lin Yu doubting her feelings.
Maybe at first, it really had just been curiosity driving her to reach out.
But... wasn't that how most couples' relationships started?
Only in the past few days
had Chi Qingshui fully realized:
It wasn't that Lin Yu couldn't live without her—she was the one who couldn't live without him now.
"Hold off on the explanations. Let me think about how to punish you first."
Lin Yu rested his chin on one hand, as if racking his brain for ideas.
Chi Qingshui stayed silent, head still bowed.
From Lin Yu's perspective,
she had known his identity all along while pretending to be his cold, tsundere classmate.
So being punished now... was only fair.
"The rain's so heavy today—the roads are practically flooded."
"Taking a cab back doesn't seem very safe right now."
"Got it! Your punishment is..."
"Let's find somewhere warm to rest for a while?"
"Just the two of us."
"Only us!"
Chi Qingshui: "!!!"
This conversation...
This request...
It felt... exactly like her dream?
Had she somehow dreamed a "prophetic dream" last night?
For a moment,
Chi Qingshui couldn't tell whether she was awake or still dreaming.
Acting on impulse,
she pinched her own cheek.
"Ouch...!"
It hurt!
Not a dream.
An outsider might not understand her actions,
but Lin Yu knew exactly what she was thinking.
He quickly added:
"Hey hey hey, self-harm doesn't count as punishment!"
Chi Qingshui bit her lip and whispered, almost inaudibly:
"Where exactly is this 'only us' place?"
Lin Yu smirked.
Internally, he felt immensely grateful.
Thankfully, in his girlfriend's dream last night, he'd maintained a positive, wholesome image—no wild misbehavior.
That subconscious priming was paying off now,
making the usually cautious honor student less guarded than usual.
......
The underground parking lot of Wanda Plaza was massive.
A security gate connected directly to the neighboring Century Grand Hotel.
Given the steep prices of high-star hotels,
apart from business travelers and tourists,
locals rarely chose such places for... private meetings.
Lin Yu and Chi Qingshui descended to the parking level,
walking slowly through the dim space, their closeness palpable.
When alone, they held hands intimately;
when passing someone who might be a fellow student, they'd separate and walk side by side.
They might as well have been the leads in a teen romance film, stealing secret touches on campus.
The thrill of secrecy gave Lin Yu a rush of youthful exhilaration.
Inside the hotel,
it was Lin Yu who handled the check-in, presenting his ID at the front desk.
Chi Qingshui stood nervously far away, unable to even meet the receptionist's eyes.
They'd agreed—just staying for a short while.
Once the rain stopped, they'd take a cab home together.
Unfortunately,
Chi Qingshui didn't know:
This downpour would last well into the night.
There would be no natural end to the rain—only their own decision to leave.
The elevator carried them up to the sixth floor.
Chi Qingshui clung anxiously to Lin Yu's hand, her voice uneasy:
"Over five hundred? The cheapest room is really over five hundred?"
"We're only staying an hour or two—there's no need to spend so much."
"Lin Yu, let's get a refund?"
"We could just sit at KFC for a while, couldn't... couldn't we?"
The more she learned about the room's cost,
the more restless she became.
KFC might not offer privacy,
but at least they could sit together for hours for just a few dozen yuan.
She knew Lin Yu had earned substantial royalties from his writing,
but she hated the thought of wasting his hard-earned money.
In reality,
five hundred was just the tip of the iceberg.
The actual price of this luxury suite exceeded fifteen hundred.
If Chi Qingshui knew the real cost,
she'd probably snatch the key card and beg for a refund herself.
"Hotel rooms can't be refunded once booked."
"If you're uncomfortable here, we don't have to stay. We can go to KFC downstairs instead."
"Let's return the key."
With that,
Lin Yu made a show of turning to leave.
"Wait!"
"Five hundred yuan though..."
Chi Qingshui immediately grabbed his arm.
Leaving without even entering would be a complete waste of money!
Seizing the opportunity, Lin Yu said:
"Qingshui, this was your own decision to stay."
Chi Qingshui: "..."
......
"Beep."
The key card unlocked the door.
They stepped inside one after the other.
Before them,
the understated luxury of gray-and-white decor drew a soft gasp from Chi Qingshui.
Nothing like the dingy motel from her dream—this looked like a setting straight out of a high-end fashion spread.
Paired with the gloomy rain outside, the atmosphere was... dangerously romantic.
"Expensive hotels really are different—even the TV is huge."
"Lin Yu, what do you like to wa—AH!!"
Before she could finish,
Lin Yu swept her up in a sudden bridal carry.
Caught off guard, she instinctively wrapped her arms around his neck, terrified of falling.
When she regained her bearings,
the intimacy of their position and the heat in Lin Yu's gaze left her breathless.
"Lin Yu, you... what are you doing? I thought we were just resting..."
Chi Qingshui asked, her eyes fluttering nervously.
Lin Yu stared unblinking at her lips:
"You call me 'Lin Yu' in public because others are around."
"But now it's just us—still using that name?"
"You never called me that when we chatted privately."
Chi Qingshui: "!!!"
......
(Bonus chapter delivered! More to come tomorrow—will polish the writing carefully to pass Shenhe's standards in one go.)
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!
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 + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
