She was just feeling shy and wanted to ease the awkwardness.
She never expected Wu Zhishang to actually place the medicated oil on the coffee table, turn around, and go back to work without saying another word.
Zhang Xinyan suddenly felt a pang of sadness, wondering, "Is he angry?"
Her mind kept wandering all the way until almost quitting time. She began to grow curious about Wu Zhishang's past, curious about his inner world.
At that moment, Zhang Xinyan suddenly realized she seemed to be falling into a man's trap.
Because she knew that liking someone often starts with curiosity.
Suddenly, the phone rang. Seeing it was her mother, Zhang Xinyan answered with some trepidation.
Her mother's "concerned" voice came through the phone.
"Xinyan, can you bring your boyfriend home for New Year's this year? Your grandmother's health is getting worse and worse. I'm afraid she might not make it until next year. If you don't bring a boyfriend home, she might die with regrets."
Zhang Xinyan replied, "Huh? How is grandma worse again? But you said pretty much the same thing last year."
Zhang's mother sighed. "Before, your grandmother was critically ill. Now she's in the terminal stage. Her old wish was to see you get married and have children. Now we don't dare hope for that anymore. We just hope you can bring a boyfriend home for her to see this year."
Zhang Xinyan's already sorrowful mood grew even more distressed. Her grandmother had doted on her since she was little, and she really couldn't bear to sadden her.
"I... I'll ask him."
That's right, Zhang Xinyan had a boyfriend.
One she made up herself.
Just to fool her family and avoid being constantly pestered.
But who knew that after inventing a boyfriend, the pressure would shift to marriage?
Thinking about her whole family of marriage-pushing maniacs gave Zhang Xinyan a splitting headache.
Suddenly, she had a brainwave.
"Maybe renting a boyfriend to take home isn't a bad idea. The main thing is making grandma happy."
Thinking this, Zhang Xinyan seemed to find a glimmer of hope and mentally patted herself on the back for her cleverness.
But where to rent one? And the New Year holiday was so close.
Just then, Wu Zhishang walked out of his office, looked at Zhang Xinyan, and asked, "It's quitting time, why aren't you leaving?"
Zhang Xinyan's eyes suddenly lit up, staring straight at Wu Zhishang.
And wasn't there a ready-made candidate right here?
Wu Zhishang felt a bit unnerved by her stare. "Well, if there's nothing else, get off work. I'm leaving too."
"Boss Wu, wait, I need to ask you a favor..."
Upon hearing Zhang Xinyan's request, Wu Zhishang refused outright.
How could a fine young man like him go along with a subordinate to deceive her family?
Zhang Xinyan raised the price from ten thousand to thirty thousand.
Wu Zhishang looked exasperated. "Do I look like I need money?"
No matter how Zhang Xinyan pleaded, Wu Zhishang kept refusing, until the young woman started to cry.
"If I can't bring a boyfriend home again, my grandma will die with regrets, wuwuwu."
Wu Zhishang: Huh? What nonsense are you talking about?
Zhang Xinyan sniffled softly and told Wu Zhishang what her mother had just said.
Thinking of her grandmother eagerly awaiting her back home, she deeply regretted not having found a real boyfriend.
Finally, moved by Zhang Xinyan's filial piety, Wu Zhishang agreed.
As for whether there were any private desires involved, no one knew.
During the New Year holiday, Wu Zhishang informed his family and left with Zhang Xinyan.
Wu's Father and Wu's Mother didn't ask their son why he wasn't coming home for New Year's. The child was grown and had his own ideas; no need to pry.
They believed their son would never act without reason. If he wasn't coming back, he must be busy with something important.
Zhang Xinyan finally got her wish and brought her "boyfriend" home.
Her home was far away, in Xinjiang. After the plane landed, Wu Zhishang felt a twinge of regret.
But after arriving at the Zhang household, he relaxed. The Zhang family was very warm and particularly liked this young man who looked honest and reliable.
Zhang Xinyan's father was from Shandong. He came here in response to the agricultural policies back in the day, later married a local woman, had children, and was now doing quite well.
Zhang Xinyan's mother was from Xinjiang, a classic local beauty. She was also the women's director in their village, having successfully matched many couples, yet unable to find a match for her own daughter.
The happiest of all was Zhang Xinyan's grandmother. Watching the old lady bouncing around with joy, Wu Zhishang was full of questions.
Are you sure this is a dying old lady?
Zhang Xinyan was also dumbfounded. So she had been deceived all this time.
Now that she had a boyfriend, the old lady stopped pretending.
However, Wu Zhishang was very professional and did not expose Zhang Xinyan.
The warming up of their feelings happened that night.
The Zhang family wasn't some old-fashioned, conservative family. On the contrary, they were very open-minded and eager for Zhang Xinyan to get married sooner.
They used a little trick to arrange for the two young people to share a room.
Zhang Xinyan felt somewhat embarrassed and told Wu Zhishang to sleep in her bed while she would sleep on the floor.
Wu Zhishang agreed.
Zhang Xinyan pouted but didn't say anything, since it was her suggestion.
That night, Zhang Xinyan couldn't sleep, and neither could Wu Zhishang.
It was the first time for both of them to sleep in the same room with someone of the opposite sex. Even though Wu Zhishang had been with Zhao Miaomiao for so long, they had never slept together.
The feeling was strange, as if even the sound of breathing could trigger wild thoughts in the other person, and it was impossible to ignore.
Zhang Xinyan broke the silence first. "Boyfriend, can't sleep either?"
"Hmm."
"Let's chat then. Maybe we'll fall asleep."
"Hmm."
"Do you still like Zhao Miaomiao now?"
"Hmm... Maybe it's more about unwillingness to accept it."
"Why unwilling?"
"Because I loved too much and received too little. In loss, a person slowly becomes numb. When you finally wake up one day, you realize how ridiculous you were..."
As they talked, Zhang Xinyan "fell asleep," though it was only on the surface.
She suddenly discovered that this seemingly successful, impressive CEO was actually a very vulnerable young man who evoked pity.
His kind of view on love was probably what many girls dreamed of.
Yet such a boy, who gave his all for love, had met the most wrong person.
It's so heartbreaking.
Zhao Miaomiao, you had the best. Why didn't you cherish him?
How could you bear to hurt someone who loved you?
"Asleep?" Wu Zhishang asked, hearing Zhang Xinyan's even breathing.
Zhang Xinyan didn't speak. She didn't know how to comfort Wu Zhishang, so she continued pretending to sleep.
Naturally, Wu Zhishang couldn't wake a woman pretending to be asleep. He sighed helplessly and mocked himself.
"Such a cliché story, but the soporific effect is quite good."
Zhang Xinyan really wanted to sit up and tell him, "Your story isn't cliché. It's that Zhao Miaomiao didn't understand you. I could understand you."
But she didn't move, because she wasn't yet sure of her own heart.
. 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!"
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.
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.”
