Maomao obediently sat down beside Lin Yu.
The next moment.
Lin Yu handed the ice cream he had just brought over back to Maomao, miming the motion of tearing it open.
Maomao: "Yu, you... don’t want to eat it?"
Lin Yu: "..."
Even in dreams, she’s just as slow!
Did she completely miss the gesture he just made?
Wasn’t his meaning obvious?
Lin Yu sighed helplessly:
"I meant for you to open it for me!"
Only then did Maomao react, nodding:
"Oh, I thought you didn’t want any..."
Midway through the motion, Maomao paused again.
She shot him a suspicious look and asked:
"Yu, why don’t you open it yourself?"
"Are you too tired to even do that?"
Lin Yu: "..."
If he’d known it would turn out like this,
he would never have tried this little flirtatious move on her.
Instead of setting the mood, the whole situation just turned awkward!
Lin Yu snatched the ice cream back and tore open the wrapper with a loud "rip" right in front of Maomao.
Maomao fell silent: "..."
Yu really was a strange one.
He could clearly do it himself.
So why did he need her help?
She couldn’t understand what was going on in his mind.
After just a few seconds of curiosity, Maomao asked again:
"Yu, you still haven’t told me—what’s the ‘trouble’ you mentioned?"
Having had her romantic mood ruined, Lin Yu replied irritably:
"Of course, it’s about cleaning!"
"Think about it—no matter how tightly you fit puzzle pieces together, there are still gaps, right?"
"Those are perfect spots for dirt to hide."
"It’s a real pain to clean!"
Maomao blinked at him with an innocent expression.
Lin Yu: "Why are you looking at me? Do you think I’m wrong?"
Maomao shook her head: "No, you’re absolutely right. But... I could just hire a housekeeper, couldn’t I?"
Lin Yu: "..."
He was left speechless!
Maomao wasn’t wrong at all…
Rich people always hired help, didn’t they?
And if not, they could always call a cleaning service.
Lin Yu had never lived a life where he didn’t lift a finger.
His mindset just didn’t account for that possibility.
Maomao, on the other hand, had grown up in that kind of luxury.
After seeing her do a bit of housework recently, Lin Yu had almost mistaken her for someone like himself.
Sigh.
Even though Lin Yu had come into money lately,
his mentality hadn’t fully caught up yet.
And here he was, getting schooled by Maomao.
Seeing Lin Yu lost in thought, Maomao suddenly seemed to realize something:
"I get it now, Yu."
"You mean…"
"To live independently, you have to get used to doing things yourself, right?"
"Just now, my first instinct was to take a shortcut. Ying’er taught me a phrase for moments like this…"
"Only you would think of that!"
Lin Yu: "???"
Ying’er really taught her everything!
Hearing that from Maomao was as bizarre as hearing Agumon say "Darn weeds."
Maomao added earnestly:
"Yu, you really know how to live life!"
Lin Yu was even more dumbfounded.
Know how to live a hard life?
Thanks a lot!
If there was no need to suffer, why force it?
Hiring a housekeeper sounded perfectly fine.
Lin Yu had already realized his mistake and stopped talking.
Why was she still rubbing it in?
Should he just slap himself twice now?
Shaking off the pointless thoughts,
Lin Yu quickly steadied his emotions.
The bad mood from his senior’s dream shouldn’t spill over into this one.
Stay calm, stay calm.
It’s over now.
This is a new dream, and Maomao hasn’t done anything wrong.
Completely unaware of Lin Yu’s inner turmoil,
Maomao looked at the two thick stacks of puzzle pieces and asked excitedly:
"Yu, do you know how to build a castle?"
Lin Yu followed her gaze:
"With puzzle pieces?"
Maomao nodded seriously:
"When I was little, my family didn’t have puzzles, but I saw the neighbor’s kids build one—a big, beautiful castle."
"After I moved in with Aunt Ruxue, I never played with puzzles again."
Honest people never hide their desires.
As she spoke, Maomao’s eyes sparkled with anticipation.
It was clear—
she really wanted her own "tiny castle"!
Lin Yu quickly finished his ice cream, stood up, and clapped his hands:
"Alright, let’s do it! It’s just building a house, right?"
"When I was a kid, I built the best forts out of couch cushions!"
Maomao’s face lit up with joy:
"Yu, really? You can actually build one?"
"Will you help me?"
Lin Yu replied:
"Don’t just sit back and watch—you’re in charge of handing me the pieces, and I’ll build."
"We’ll work together to finish faster."
Fulfilling a child’s dream in a dream—
let it be a sweet one.
Even long after waking up, she’d still remember it fondly.
This… shouldn’t count as work, right?
Ah, whatever.
"Maomao, do you have any ideas for the puzzle castle?"
"What kind of style or design do you want?"
Maomao thought carefully before answering:
"I want a rectangular castle. It doesn’t have to be big—just enough to fit me inside."
"Preferably something cozy and private, where I can lie down safely."
Lin Yu: "..."
To be precise…
What she was describing sounded a lot like…
a coffin!
Could that even be called a castle?
Still, Maomao’s abstract description gave Lin Yu some direction.
"Got it. Let’s get to work!"
With Lin Yu’s command, the scene quickly became lively.
After all, this was a dream.
He didn’t actually need to move his hands—just a thought, and the puzzle pieces assembled themselves into shape.
Soon,
a small, house-like 3D puzzle stood on the bedroom floor.
Lin Yu deliberately made the entrance small—
so small that even Maomao would have to crawl to get in.
A bigger door would ruin the sense of privacy.
[Ding!]
[Masterful craftsmanship! The Saint’s divine skill leaves the outer disciples in awe!]
[Reward: 50 Spirit Stones.]
Divine skill…
The reward almost made Lin Yu blush.
Apparently,
Maomao was very satisfied with his castle.
"If you want to know if it’s what you imagined, why not try going inside?"
Lin Yu pointed at the "tiny castle," inviting Maomao to test it out.
Even without his suggestion,
Maomao was already planning to do so.
She took off her shoes and crawled through the entrance.
The door was small, but the inside wasn’t cramped.
Sitting inside, Maomao’s head still had plenty of space from the "ceiling."
What kind of castle would it be if there wasn’t even room to move?
Aside from being cleverly designed, the castle was also incredibly sturdy.
Lin Yu had infused it with the power of laws, turning it into an "iron fortress."
As long as Maomao’s dream lasted,
even if the apocalypse came, no zombie could break through this puzzle castle!
Of course,
if Lin Yu used the last two pieces to "lock the door" later…
the fortress would become an "inescapable prison."
...
(Bonus chapter delivered! That’s all for today—see you tomorrow. If you have time, please show your support—much appreciated! Goodnight, everyone!)
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
