Struck by Jiang Yangmei's harsh words, Ye Mengfu's expression turned desolate.
She couldn't help but reflect on her life after graduation.
Even if Jiang Yangmei hadn't deliberately sabotaged her back then,
would she have truly excelled at the job she landed?
Apart from painting, it seemed she was good at nothing else...
Painting was all she could do—and the only thing she did well.
She simply didn’t understand the "social niceties" Jiang Yangmei had spoken of.
Someone like her might never become a renowned artist.
Ye Mengfu's breathing gradually quickened, the light in her eyes dimming.
For someone so sensitive, once self-doubt took root,
the abyss beneath her feet felt bottomless...
"Little Fufu? Little Fufu!"
Ye Mengfu: "Huh? I—I'm here."
Hearing Lin Yu's voice, Ye Mengfu snapped out of her thoughts.
What an idiot she was.
Here she was, lost in her own head while standing right beside Lin Yu.
Before they entered the museum, he’d even reminded her—
This was their first date!
How could she let her rotten mood ruin it?
She had to cheer up. She absolutely had to...
Ye Mengfu repeated this to herself, desperately trying to steady her emotions so they wouldn’t affect Lin Yu’s mood.
But she was no social butterfly skilled at pretending.
The harder she tried, the more her cheeks flushed.
Lin Yu saw right through her strained attempt to force a smile.
Gently, he pulled Ye Mengfu toward a temporary seating area around the corner.
"Little Fufu, this is the gift I prepared for you today!"
"Take a look—do you like it?"
With that,
Lin Yu handed her a box of Goubuli pastries.
Ye Mengfu froze as she accepted it: "???"
Goubuli... as in the buns?
Wait, no.
It was pastries.
This gift had completely blindsided her.
It was nothing like Lin Yu’s usual style.
Was there some hidden meaning?
Goubuli...
Was he telling her to ignore Jiang Yangmei’s deliberate jabs?
But that couldn’t be.
He couldn’t have known they’d run into her classmate today when he prepared the gift.
It must’ve just been that Goubuli-brand pastries were delicious.
So,
Lin Yu wanted to share them with her.
That had to be it.
[Ding!]
[Masterful move! Sharing a worldly delicacy with your cultivation partner, deeply touching her heart!]
[Reward: 50 spirit stones.]
"Thank you... I’ll make sure to finish it all myself later."
"It looks... really tasty. I love it."
Ye Mengfu cradled the box, studying the illustrations and text on the packaging.
She wanted to see what kind of pastries were inside.
Lin Yu ruffled her hair, grinning.
"Why do I get the feeling our Little Fufu isn’t entirely satisfied with this gift?"
Ye Mengfu jerked her head up, shaking it vigorously.
"No, really!"
"I... I love everything you give me."
He didn’t need the system’s prompt.
Just seeing the pure, unguarded look in her eyes told Lin Yu she wasn’t lying.
This silly girl.
Even if he gave her a lollipop as a gift,
she’d probably cherish it with all her heart.
The more considerate she was,
the more it tugged at his heartstrings.
The foul mood "Mountain Ogre" had stirred up had even robbed Lin Yu of the chance to give a proper gift.
But for now,
he just wanted to see Little Fufu smile again.
"Little Fufu, have you heard the story behind ‘Goubuli’?"
Lin Yu asked, tilting his head.
Ye Mengfu nodded, glancing at the box.
"I’ve heard of Goubuli... the buns."
"I didn’t know they made pastries too."
Perfect. This was his opening.
Lin Yu continued softly,
"When I was little, anytime someone mentioned Tianjin, they’d bring up Goubuli buns. They were supposed to be amazing, but I never got to try them."
"But every time, I’d get hung up on one thing."
"How could dogs possibly ignore buns? That’s nonsense, right?"
"‘Even a meat bun thrown at a dog won’t come back’—isn’t that the saying?"
"If even dogs wouldn’t touch them, how could they taste good?"
This wasn’t a question unique to Lin Yu.
Ye Mengfu listened intently, nodding like a chick pecking at rice.
She waited eagerly for him to unravel the mystery,
like a diligent student hanging on a teacher’s every word.
"Years later, I finally learned the truth."
"The guy who made the buns had a childhood nickname—‘Gouzi’ (Little Dog)."
"While working, he’d get so focused that he’d ignore customers."
"So people started saying,"
"‘Gouzi? Gouzi! Hey! This Gouzi won’t even acknowledge us!’"
[Ding!]
[Masterful move! Unrestrained humor is key to bonding with your cultivation partner, further closing the distance between you!]
[Reward: 50 spirit stones.]
Lin Yu’s animated storytelling, complete with exaggerated gestures,
instantly drew laughter from Ye Mengfu.
The gloom trapping her earlier seemed to dissipate under his playful antics.
Gazing at her, Lin Yu thought—
This unguarded, genuine smile of hers was truly beautiful.
Noticing his stare, Ye Mengfu shyly bit her lip, suppressing her grin.
"So that’s why it’s called Goubuli..."
"It’s... really funny."
Seeing her cautious expression,
Lin Yu instinctively reached out, brushing his fingers against her cheek.
Ye Mengfu didn’t pull away. She understood—
Lin Yu had noticed her low spirits and deliberately cracked jokes to cheer her up.
Thanks to him,
her heart felt lighter now.
But Jiang Yangmei’s piercing words still lingered, hard to shake off.
"Now, what’s the lesson here?"
Lin Yu suddenly shifted tones, adopting a quizmaster’s demeanor.
Caught off guard, Ye Mengfu blinked in confusion.
"Huh? The lesson...?"
She’d assumed Lin Yu was just being silly to make her laugh.
The idea of a deeper meaning hadn’t crossed her mind.
Now put on the spot, she had no answer.
Lin Yu pinched her cheek lightly, glanced at the gift box in her hands,
then met her eyes with warmth.
"Little Fufu, what I’m trying to say is..."
"Even if you’re the type who keeps to yourself, as long as you focus on perfecting your craft—just like making those buns—you’ll shine eventually. People will notice."
Ye Mengfu stood frozen, her eyes shimmering.
Only now did she grasp
the true weight behind this gift.
She fought to steady her expression,
but tears spilled anyway—
plink, plink—falling one by one...
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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!
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."
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.
