It was approaching lunchtime.
Lin Yu and Shen Buyao finally reached their destination.
In front of a large mansion located in the mountains!
They arrived nearly half an hour later than the time estimated by the navigation.
It wasn't that the road was difficult to travel on.
It was because Lin Yu was worried about driving smoothly, so he drove extremely cautiously.
Even so.
After the "Autobacs" on the Akina Mountain,
there were two more strange little driving incidents that almost hindered this journey.
Driving this car was really tiring!
Lin Yu didn't dare to let his mind wander for a moment and drove all the way to the door of Shen Buyao's hometown with full concentration.
Along the way,
he also saw quite a few tourist homestays and shopping spots.
It was true that the mansion was in the mountains, but it wasn't completely isolated from the world.
It's just that there were no other households around her home. It was like "occupying a mountain peak" alone.
Lin Yu looked at the old mansion with high walls from the outside.
It seemed that this big house and the large yard should have been renovated in recent years.
Shen Buyao waved a bunch of keys at Lin Yu.
With an expectant look on her face, she smiled and said,
"Come on, Lin Yu!"
"Let me show you the place where I lived when I was a child. There are a lot of fun things inside!"
"Hehe, there's also a special... treasure - hunting activity this time!"
Shen Buyao was really looking forward to the "treasure - hunting activity" she mentioned.
Little did she know,
Lin Yu's "treasures" were already in his camera bag and backpack!
...
In a Chinese restaurant near the Ghost Market Street.
In a unique private room,
several dishes that Shen Jiuyi liked had been served on the table one by one.
Old Liang himself was holding a teapot and sipping tea, not showing any intention of picking up chopsticks to eat.
Shen Jiuyi, who hadn't had breakfast, was already starving by noon.
Without bothering to be polite and maintain her image, she quickly started eating.
At the same time,
Shen Jiuyi didn't forget to ask about what they had talked about in the car:
"Old Liang, tell me."
"What kind of obstacles did you set up for them?"
Old Liang poured the tea with a soft sound and then took on the tone of a profound and mysterious wise man:
"Miss Jiuyi, do you know why the Shen family's old mansion in the mountains has not been targeted by thieves for so many years?"
Shen Jiuyi nodded and said,
"I've heard my mother mention this. It's because the terrain where we are located is high, and the surrounding area is even steeper."
Old Liang nodded and analyzed,
"Miss Jiuyi is right. There is also a very important point..."
"The walls of the Shen family's old mansion are high!"
Shen Jiuyi paused with her chopsticks and waited for Old Liang to continue.
"There is no suitable point to borrow strength around. If you want to enter the mansion from the outside, there is only one way, which is to go through the door!"
"If the door can't be opened, not to mention getting in to steal, you won't even know what it looks like inside."
"Eventually, you'll have to return empty - handed!"
Shen Jiuyi grasped the key point in Old Liang's words and asked following his train of thought:
"So you tampered with the door lock?"
Old Liang turned the teacup in his hand and said in a deep voice,
"Miss Jiuyi, you must know the 'Kongming Lock', right?"
Shen Jiuyi: "!!!"
"You replaced the door lock with a Bagua Lock?"
Of course, Shen Jiuyi knew about this thing.
She used to play with it a lot when she was a child.
The Kongming Lock, also known as the Bagua Lock or the Luban Lock,
is a lock with a mortise - and - tenon structure.
Nowadays, it is basically used as an educational toy, and no one really uses it to lock the door.
Unless...
"To be precise, it should be the 'Twenty - four - column Lock' among the Kongming Locks."
"If you make a wrong move when disassembling it, you need to put it back together and start disassembling from the beginning again."
"And for each column you disassemble, it's easy to take it off, but difficult to put it back on."
"I spent a long time carefully carving this lock."
"I know Shopkeeper Yao..."
"She promised her friend to take him to the old mansion to play.
If she can't get in, she won't give up."
Shen Jiuyi: "..."
Old Liang was really perverse!
He actually spent time researching such things.
It sounded like an obstacle, but Shen Jiuyi always felt that something was wrong.
It was true that Old Liang knew Buyao.
But he didn't know Lin Yu.
Lin Yu didn't seem like the kind of person who would be easily stopped!
...
Meanwhile,
in front of the old mansion in the mountains.
"Come on... Eighty! Eighty! Eighty!"
"Thud!"
"Thud!"
"Bang..."
Lin Yu was holding a wrench for car repair and only struck three times.
The wooden Kongming Lock was smashed into a pile of large wooden strips.
Lin Yu was very cautious when he made his move.
He only smashed the lock's structure and pulled the wooden strips off without damaging the door at all.
"Yaoyao, has your family's old butler got senile dementia?"
"What kind of normal person uses a wooden lock to lock the door?"
"It was so easy to smash!"
Shen Buyao put away the phone she was about to dial and picked up a wooden strip to try to break it.
Although it was wood, its texture was very hard.
Why did it seem so easy for Lin Yu to smash it just now?
Shen Buyao grumbled crossly:
"Who knows which wire in Old Liang's head is misconnected!
Instead of using a normal chain lock, he's always tinkering with some useless things.
Does he want to keep me outside? Huh?"
Lin Yu never thought that this was an obstacle aimed at him.
Instead, he subconsciously felt that
it was like the old butler was targeting the antique - loving older sister.
Anyway, he had asked for Shen Buyao's opinion before smashing the lock.
With the permission of the owner, he made his move.
It couldn't be counted as breaking into a private house, could it?
Led by Shen Buyao, Lin Yu followed her into the mansion.
However,
just as they entered the door,
a black shadow fell from the sky and rushed straight towards Lin Yu and Shen Buyao.
"Lin Yu, be careful!"
Shen Buyao shouted nervously.
...
In the private room of the Chinese restaurant on the Ghost Market Street.
Shen Jiuyi shook her head and said calmly,
"Old Liang, you still don't understand that man.
If it's him,
maybe he has a way to open the Twenty - four - column Lock.
Just this obstacle may not work at all."
Old Liang took a sip of tea and said confidently,
"Miss Jiuyi, do you want to hear about my backup plan?"
Shen Jiuyi didn't answer.
Indeed,
based on Shen Jiuyi's understanding of Old Liang,
once his perverse interest kicked in,
it wouldn't be as simple as just leaving a lock.
There must be a backup plan!
Old Liang continued,
"If he can successfully enter the door, it means that young gentleman has some skills.
I think he should be a young man with a sharp mind, calm and wise.
When outsmarting doesn't work, breaking through by force becomes particularly important.
When I went out, I accidentally unlocked the chain of the 'Flying Dragon'..."
Shen Jiuyi: "!!!"
"Old Liang, are you crazy? The Flying Dragon will attack people!"
"What if it hurts the guests... It'll be a problem with our way of hosting guests!"
Old Liang: "..."
Miss Jiuyi was someone he had watched grow up.
No matter what emergency happened, she had never shown a panicked look.
But today, she was so anxious because of a man?
Something was not right...
(Here's an extra chapter. I hope you all can support me with your love. Let's go again tomorrow!)

he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...

ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"

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?!

] [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!"