Ghost Market Street, Treasureless Pavilion.
After parking the car in the underground lot and stepping out,
Shen Buyao felt like every step was a struggle.
Damn Lin Yu!
Couldn’t he have shown some restraint?
Didn’t he know she was coming back tonight and had to open the shop at Ghost Market Street?
Of course,
running the shop wasn’t the scary part.
The scary part was facing the Big Cow!
For as long as she could remember,
every time Shen Buyao lied or hid something out of guilt,
Shen Jiuyi would sniff it out immediately.
Not only that,
she could even piece together the truth just from Shen Buyao’s wording.
It wasn’t that sleeping with Lin Yu was something she couldn’t tell Shen Jiuyi.
She just didn’t want her to know.
That after their very first date, she hadn’t kept her pants on.
At the very least,
she should’ve waited till their fourth or fifth date before admitting they’d slept together.
That was the normal pace for couples, right?
Shen Buyao wasn’t entirely sure herself.
All her "knowledge" came from the internet.
Arriving at the shop entrance,
Shen Buyao patted her cheeks, loosening the tension in her face.
Don’t panic, don’t panic…
No matter how much the Big Cow suspected or what questions she asked,
Shen Buyao had one golden rule:
Deny till death!
After steeling her resolve, she swung her arms with exaggerated nonchalance and strode into the shop.
The moment she entered, she spotted Shen Jiuyi lounging in a chair in the main hall.
"I’m back, Big Cow!"
"Did you eat yet? Or were you so helpless without me you couldn’t even feed yourself?"
Shen Buyao sauntered over with exaggerated flair.
Spotting the full glass of water in front of Shen Jiuyi,
she snatched it up with feigned brattiness and downed it in one go.
What’s with that look on the Big Cow’s face?
Grief? Melancholy? Resentment?
Why does she look like she’s the one who lost something today?!
Already prepared with counterarguments,
Shen Buyao resorted to a tactical water break, buying time to avoid verbal sparring.
As soon as she finished drinking, Shen Jiuyi asked out of nowhere:
"How’d it taste?"
Shen Buyao’s eyes widened. "???"
"What do you mean? It’s just water!"
"Unless you slipped something in it?"
Shen Jiuyi replied with eerie calm:
"Mhm. I did. Morning-after pills."
Shen Buyao: "…"
"!!!"
"Goddammit—!!"
"Gag…"
For a second, Shen Buyao considered playing it cool.
But then it hit her—
knowing the Big Cow’s unhinged personality, she might’ve actually done it!
Who the hell takes morning-after pills so casually?!
"Alright, stop gagging."
"I was just messing with you."
"Though your reaction suggests you want to get pregnant."
Shen Buyao slowly pulled her fingers out of her mouth,
murder in her eyes.
Right now,
she couldn’t tell which was the real joke:
the pills being in the water, or not being in the water.
She’d prepared for countless ways Shen Jiuyi might grill her.
But never in her wildest dreams did she expect
the conversation to take this turn!
Thrown completely off balance, she had no idea how to respond.
Well… freaking out over possibly ingesting morning-after pills was a normal reaction, right?
Stick to the original plan—double down!
"Big Cow, what the hell is wrong with you?!"
"You think any woman wouldn’t freak out over that crap?!"
"Listen, if you’re gonna judge me, I just took Lin Yu to check out the old house."
"Pregnant? Don’t even joke about that, you hear me?!"
"Cough…"
Shen Buyao touched her throat and asked again with lingering unease:
"You really didn’t put any in, right?"
"If I dared to, you’d better believe I’d pay you back with something way stronger!"
Shen Jiuyi remained silent.
It seemed she had no intention of continuing the discussion on this matter.
However.
Just as Shen Buyao was about to let her guard down—
Shen Jiuyi suddenly blurted out:
"Buyao, I think we should be honest with each other about everything."
"Just like how I never hid Old Liang’s whereabouts from you."
Shen Buyao: "..."
Oh no!
The emotional card!
Since when did this big cow start playing moral blackmail?
Wasn’t she always the type to deduce the truth from answers?
Now.
She’s resorting to such shameless tactics?
Shen Buyao’s heart wavered:
"W-what exactly do you want to ask?"
"Stop beating around the bush with all this nonsense."
"If I have no morals, you can’t blackmail me!"
Shen Jiuyi stood up and walked to the table.
Right in front of Shen Buyao, she pulled a pill-shaped object from her pocket and dropped it into an empty glass.
Then.
She picked up the water pitcher, poured half a glass, and asked coldly:
"I’ll only ask this once. If you lie or refuse to answer, I won’t ask again…"
"Did he bring one today?"
Shen Buyao: "!!!"
"I’ll bring you—"
Before the curse could fully leave Shen Buyao’s lips,
the glass with the pill was thrust in front of her.
Shen Jiuyi’s gaze was icy, her voice razor-sharp:
"I’m not joking. I just want the truth."
"You…"
"Do you really want to bring a child into this world, only for them to suffer the same childhood as yours?"
"The pain of growing up without a father—no one understands it better than you."
"Do you think Lin Yu’s fate can withstand how many more times?"
Every word Shen Jiuyi spoke was deadly serious.
And.
It struck right at Shen Buyao’s deepest wounds.
Growing up without a father by her side,
even though her mother and grandparents had given her endless love,
a gaping void of paternal care still lingered in her heart.
Back then,
the reason Shen Jiuyi discouraged Shen Buyao from getting too close to men
was partly due to fate,
but also because Shen Buyao couldn’t tell what truly made a good man.
Countless real-life examples had proven it:
Girls who lacked a father’s presence from childhood to adolescence
often grew up too trusting of men once they entered society.
This was something Shen Jiuyi had laid bare to Shen Buyao before.
On the surface, Shen Buyao had brushed it off with a defiant, "I’m a great judge of character!"
But deep down,
she had no confidence at all.
"Buyao, do you really think I’d ever harm you?"
Seeing the confusion in Shen Buyao’s eyes,
Shen Jiuyi pressed on.
Her tone hadn’t sharpened,
yet the words sent a shudder through Shen Buyao.
Her gaze drifted for a long moment before she slowly raised her hand,
reaching for the glass Shen Jiuyi held out…
But then—
Shen Jiuyi abruptly pulled the glass back and downed the water and pill in one go.
Shen Buyao: "???"
Shen Jiuyi: "Gulp, gulp…"
Shen Buyao: "Y-you… what was that?"
Shen Jiuyi: "Lunch with Old Liang was a bit greasy. A digestive pill might help."
Shen Buyao: "…"
Shen Jiuyi: "…"
Shen Buyao lunged forward fiercely:
"You damn cow, I’ll fucking kill you!!"
Shen Jiuyi had anticipated this, effortlessly dodging around the hall’s pillars like the Emperor of Qin evading assassins, all while taunting:
"Buyao, are you so overwhelmed with pleasure that you’d silence your own aunt? I never forced you to admit anything."
"Relax, Lin Yu won’t die trapped in there, and he definitely won’t kick the bucket later."
"I’m dying to know—what kind of moans are we talking about? Traditional Chinese style or full-on Western?"
...
(First update today! There’ll be bonus chapters later, folks. Take a sec to check out an ad—thanks a million!)
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?!
] [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!"
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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!
