Chi Qingchi: "!!!"
The rest of the club members: "!!!"
Lin Yu: "???"
A broken guitar string? Now of all times?
Classic trope alert!
What’s youth without a little drama, right?
Only two more performances before their turn.
Without their lead guitarist, how the hell were they supposed to pull this off?
This wasn’t some anime where a busted guitar could magically pull off slide techniques with a flick of the wrist!
Even if Lin Yu could manage, the performance would still take a massive hit.
Lead singer absent!
Guitarist’s string snapped!
This timed mission was turning into a nightmare.
One cliché after another—could it get any worse?
Lin Yu quickly asked,
"Xiao Ou, did you bring spare strings?"
All eyes immediately locked onto Xiao Ou, waiting for his answer.
Xiao Ou, flustered, nodded while racking his brain:
"They should be in my backpack upstairs, but…"
"Changing strings takes at least ten to twenty minutes. There’s… there’s no way we’ll make it in time…"
Only two acts stood between them and the stage, each lasting about five to six minutes.
Add in scoring and the host’s transitions, and they had fifteen minutes at most.
As a guitarist, Xiao Ou knew exactly how long restringing took.
Switching their performance order last minute? Nearly impossible.
Just as despair settled in,
Lin Yu suddenly exclaimed,
"Perfect! We can make it!"
"I’m fast with strings—five minutes!"
"Give me five minutes, and I’ll hand you a fully functional guitar!"
Chi Qingchi grabbed Lin Yu’s arm, her hands trembling uncontrollably:
"Lin Yu, r-really? Just five minutes? You’re sure?"
Lin Yu patted her hand reassuringly:
"Trust me. Five minutes is all I need."
Zhao Yuhao reset his watch, setting a new countdown: [00:15:00].
They had to be backstage before the timer ran out.
Zhao Yuhao: "Move! Upstairs, now. If Lin Yu says he can do it, then he can."
Lin Yu: "!!!"
At a time like this…
Zhao Yuhao actually had his back?
Now that was a man with taste!
Zhao Yuhao’s reasoning was simple.
Standing around backstage talking wouldn’t solve anything.
Right now, trusting Lin Yu was their only option.
Ever since Xiao Lie, their lead singer, lost his voice to a fever,
Hadn’t Lin Yu been stepping up like some god-tier protagonist, saving the entire club?
If they couldn’t trust today’s "main character," who could they trust?
The group immediately dropped what they were doing and bolted for the third-floor lounge.
Who could just sit around waiting at a time like this?
Of course they all ran, desperate to see if their crisis could be resolved in time!
Nearby, the Shiman Dance Team was touching up their makeup.
They’d overheard everything.
Little Flower #1: "Their guitarist’s string broke? So unlucky, right before their turn!"
Little Flower #2: "They’ve got like, what, fifteen minutes? No way they’ll fix it in time."
Little Flower #3: "Might work in our favor. That song of theirs hits hard."
Xiang Tiange cut in sharply:
"Knock it off. We don’t win by default just because someone else messes up. Focus on yourselves."
Her expression darkened as she watched Chi Qingchi’s figure vanish through the backstage door.
---
Countdown: [00:13:50]
Turns out,
Getting from the first floor to the third took 1 minute and 10 seconds.
Since they were moving as a group, Lin Yu had to match their pace.
If he’d sprinted alone—ignoring the chaos it’d cause—
He could’ve made it in under 30 seconds.
Countdown: [00:13:09]
The three otaku girls from Hejia Huan also returned to the lounge.
Jiajia, watching the show from the audience, had noticed the group rushing out.
Sensing trouble, the trio ditched their seats and hurried back.
Countdown: [00:12:20]
Countdown: [00:11:15]
Countdown: [00:10:29]…
In the lounge,
Xiao Ou was sweating bullets, dumping his backpack’s contents onto the floor.
Wire cutters, string winder—both crucial tools were there. But…
"I swear I packed spare strings before leaving!"
"Did I leave them at home?!"
"Ugh—let me check again!"
Lin Yu sighed.
Of course.
Nothing ever went smoothly.
Even the most skilled hands couldn’t fix a guitar without strings.
Worst-case scenario?
Xiao Ou’s parts would fall to Lin Yu.
He could adjust the dual-guitar harmonies—the impact wouldn’t suffer much.
As for the solo? Handing it to anyone else might’ve been risky, but Lin Yu?
No problem.
The real shame was this:
They’d already lost Xiao Lie, who’d prepped for months. Now Xiao Ou might miss out too.
Shining on stage, captivating the crowd—
That didn’t matter much to Lin Yu.
But for the others who lived for this? It meant everything.
Reality was just that cruel.
Lin Yu: "Xiao Ou, if we can’t find them—"
Zhao Yuhao cut in: "013-056 phosphor bronze strings! Xiao Ou, that’s what your guitar uses, right?"
The entire room whipped around to stare at him: "???"
Xiao Ou, stunned, nodded:
"Y-yeah, that’s right. But Vice President, how did you—"
Zhao Yuhao: "I have some. In the minibus parked out back."
Club members: "!!!"
No time for explanations.
Zhao Yuhao reset his timer, urgently confirming with Lin Yu:
"Lin Yu, five minutes to restring—you’re absolutely sure that’s enough?"
Lin Yu glanced out the window at the rain-soaked parking lot.
Their minibus hadn’t moved.
"Five is plenty. If we’re tight, four will work."
"I’ll go get them. I’m faster."
Sprinting from the third floor to the back lot, grabbing the strings, then rushing back—
For most people? Over three minutes each way.
And that didn’t account for the pouring rain and slippery pavement…
Even if they brought the guitar downstairs, the others wouldn’t make it back in time.
But Lin Yu could.
He was their only shot.
Yet—
Zhao Yuhao snapped: "No!"
"You’re the lead singer. You can’t risk getting drenched!"
Chi Qingchi jumped in, voice shaking:
"I-I’ll go! I’m fast too! And I’m not performing!"
Zhao Yuhao shook his head, turning to her:
"3 minutes and 47 seconds!"
"Little Chi, you don’t know where the strings are placed—just trust me this once..."
"Lin Yu! Wait right here for me, I’ll definitely make it back in time!"
"I swear..."
"I’ll get those strings into your hands on time, I promise!"
Lin Yu’s eyes widened:
"Vice President, we... Huh? Hey!"
Before he could finish his sentence, Zhao Yuhao had already sprinted off.
What Lin Yu wanted to say was...
We could just wait on the first floor!
This is the third floor—won’t that just waste more time?
3 minutes and 47 seconds!
Running out into the pouring rain to grab something and then rushing back?
With Brother Hao’s build, Lin Yu couldn’t help but worry!
Why is this suddenly turning into some kind of dramatic moment?
...
(First update for today. There will still be bonus chapters later, so keep supporting with your power-ups! The convention arc is wrapping up today!)
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
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?!
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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!
