Shen Jiuyi looked at the effect of the archer's ring on Lin Yu's hand.
Her expression remained calm as she said:
"Lin Yu, you might not know its origins."
Lin Yu agreed, saying:
"You can skip that kind of obvious nonsense."
"If I knew its origins, why would I even ask you?"
"If I actually knew the history of your family's things, wouldn't that be even stranger?"
Hearing Shen Jiuyi say this, Lin Yu knew his guess was correct.
This jade-inlaid-with-gold archer's ring had more to it.
It most likely had intricate connections to Ghost Market Street or the Shen family.
Shen Jiuyi pointed at the ring and said:
"Lin Yu, do you see it? There's a golden bean on the jade archer's ring."
"This craft is called 'jade inlaid with gold.' It's different from the commonly heard 'gold inlaid with jade'—the techniques are not the same."
Lin Yu responded:
"Understood. The craftsmanship is much more complex. I've heard of that little bit of common knowledge."
Shen Jiuyi: "Oh, so you have heard of it."
Lin Yu: "Mhm. Get to the point."
Shen Jiuyi: "That's it."
Lin Yu: "That's it?"
Shen Jiuyi blinked: "Yes."
Lin Yu blinked back: "Yes... So it's just a plain archer's ring."
Shen Jiuyi fell silent for a moment, then asked in return:
"Does it have some other fancy name in your hometown?"
Lin Yu raised his voice, saying with annoyance:
"In anyone's hometown, it's called an archer's ring! A big ring!"
"No backstory?"
"Then why were you being so mysterious, saying 'you might not know its origins'?"
"You had me thinking this thing was some kind of token."
Shen Jiuyi gave a thumbs-up, gripping it with her other hand, and said:
"It's not a token. The reason I chose to give you this archer's ring is..."
"I thought its size would fit your thumb perfectly."
Lin Yu: "..."
That reason was very much in Shen Jiuyi's style.
Especially paired with her poker face that showed no change in expression no matter what she said.
The effect was instantly maximized!
Lin Yu's temper was also about to max out!
With too many girls around lately, it's really hard to keep the fire in check!
"Xiao Jiu, please stop that unseemly gesture."
"Anyway, thank you for the gift. The size really does fit me perfectly."
"I'll wear it often. Thanks, thanks."
"Now it's my turn to return the favor!"
As he spoke.
Lin Yu squatted down, stacked the two boxes together, and began writing a greeting card for Shen Jiuyi.
...
[Are you a clear spring in the vast world, or that mysterious peacock by the spring?]
[Before meeting your soul, let greed take advantage of the fire.]
Shen Jiuyi looked at the words on the card, wanting to ponder their meaning.
Little did she know.
Years later, this would become a somewhat popular song, though not widely sung.
Back in elementary and middle school, Lin Yu had copied lyrics into his notebooks plenty of times.
Who would have thought.
He'd still be copying lyrics in university!
"Xiao Jiu, where is your companion hiding on the third floor?"
"She's not in a dangerous place like the small balcony, is she?"
Lin Yu pointed towards the direction of the small balcony outside the corridor.
That could be considered one of the apartment's few "forbidden zones"!
Because the space was small and the railing was somewhat loose, it had never been repaired.
So, the door to the small balcony was always closed, and no one ever went up there.
Just because people usually didn't go didn't mean no one would today.
Shen Jiuyi averted her gaze and said:
"Companion? I don't have a companion. I don't know what you're talking about."
Lin Yu couldn't help but complain:
"Xiao Jiu, if you can't lie, just don't lie next time."
"Your lying skills are truly terrible."
"Or do you really think I'm an idiot?"
"You didn't have a companion helping you? Did the two boxes fly up there by themselves?"
Shen Jiuyi knew Lin Yu would bring this up and hung her head in shame.
She just had to make one attempt for the sake of her "teammate."
What if Lin Yu didn't notice?
Seeing Shen Jiuyi's reaction, Lin Yu knew his judgment was correct.
There really was someone bold enough to go to the dangerous small balcony.
Come to think of it.
There weren't many people in the apartment with that kind of courage!
"Technician Xiao Jiu, go wait for me on the first floor."
"I'll take responsibility for bringing the person back safely. I won't let anything happen to her."
Lin Yu pointed towards the staircase and swaggered off.
Leaving Shen Jiuyi alone in a state of disarray.
...
Arriving near the small balcony.
Lin Yu didn't need to search very carefully at all.
The unlocked door... the deliberately drawn curtain... the clearly outlined silhouette of an airport behind the curtain...
Every detail exuded the foolish aura of "protesting one's innocence too much."
This wasn't hide-and-seek; it was an intelligence test!
"Ahem, I'm here. Some people should be careful, try not to get scared."
"It's best to come out right now, and everyone will be happy!"
Lin Yu walked step by step, deliberately raising his voice to make noise.
He was afraid the genius behind the curtain might get a sudden fright and have some kind of extreme reaction.
The third-floor balcony was no joke!
Even if it wouldn't kill someone, the possibility of causing a serious injury was still high.
Lin Yu's "kind reminder" seemed, in the other person's eyes, more like "bluffing."
Because through the shadow, Lin Yu clearly saw the girl covering her mouth, laughing!
She showed no intention of coming out and was still watching the show?
Lin Yu was baffled.
Who should be laughing at whom here?
Why is she laughing?
It seemed the indirect approach wouldn't get her to come out.
So.
Lin Yu switched to another tactic...
He went to the balcony door and took a photo of that large, clear silhouette.
Then, quickly sent it to Shen Buyao.
"Ding!"
The WeChat message notification sounded incredibly clear.
Lin Yu: "..."
Playing this kind of game and not even setting the phone to vibrate.
So unprofessional!
Immediately after.
"Buzz!"
The vibration sound came from the balcony again.
Lin Yu: "..."
What's the use of setting it to vibrate now?
You're already exposed!
Lin Yu didn't do anything extra, just stood there waiting.
Because from the shadow's feedback, Shen Buyao was already looking at her phone.
"Wow! That clear?"
"The sunlight is totally cheating right now, it completely gave me away."
"Lin Yu, I'm telling you, if it weren't for the sunlight betraying me, you absolutely would not have found me."
Shen Buyao said this as she walked back from the balcony.
Lin Yu didn't refute Shen Buyao's words, simply reminding her:
"Can you not go to such dangerous places next time?"
Shen Buyao spread her hands, completely unconcerned, and said:
"Dangerous? Just how big is your courage, Lin Yu?"
"It's just an ordinary balcony. I'm not scared at all."
Lin Yu cut in:
"You're not scared, but I am!"
Shen Buyao was stunned for a moment, then gradually blushed...
...
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!
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.
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...
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?!
