Jiang Shuqin's eyes brimmed with tenderness.
Indeed, Li'er resembled her son far more than Lin Xuan ever did.
The mention of Lin Xuan made Jiang Shuqin recall Lin Li's earlier hesitation, and her expression darkened abruptly.
She clenched her fists.
It had to be Lin Xuan’s fault!
Their family had been perfectly fine before—until Lin Xuan came along, that jinx. It was because of him that Lin Chang had strayed.
She truly regretted giving birth to Lin Xuan.
And worse, she shouldn’t have been soft-hearted and merely abandoned him—she should have strangled him at birth!
---
Su Corporation.
Though Shen Qianqian’s people had been staking out the place, Su Hua had no trouble slipping into the company without their knowledge.
She had already been coming to work for two days, yet Shen Qianqian’s men remained oblivious.
"President Su." Jiang Qing knocked and entered the office. "Young Master Lin has sent people to tail Shen Qianqian."
Su Hua frowned. "What is A-Xuan planning?"
Jiang Qing replied, "President Su, don’t worry. There’s no way Young Master Lin would have any interest in Shen Qianqian. If he’s having her followed, it must be for some other purpose."
Worried that Su Hua might misunderstand Lin Xuan, Jiang Qing launched into a frantic explanation.
"If Young Master Lin wanted anything to do with Shen Qianqian, he wouldn’t need to go to such lengths. She’s utterly obsessed with him—just a flick of his finger, and she’d come running. There’d be no need for all this trouble."
Su Hua’s red lips parted slightly. "I trust A-Xuan."
A woman like Shen Qianqin could never catch A-Xuan’s eye.
The only reason Su Hua disliked her was because of that ridiculous childhood marriage pact—and the fact that Shen Qianqian dared to covet her A-Xuan.
"However," Su Hua’s gaze turned icy as she narrowed her beautiful eyes at Jiang Qing, "Secretary Jiang, you seem awfully trusting of A-Xuan. You’re always speaking up for him."
Alarm bells rang in Jiang Qing’s mind.
Oh no, the President sounds jealous. She might even suspect I secretly have feelings for Young Master Lin!
I’m innocent! I’m thirty years old—what would I want with a young man?
Besides, the only reason I defend him is to keep the President from losing her temper over his affairs. If she gets angry, we subordinates are the ones who’ll suffer!
Jiang Qing carefully weighed her words.
For the sake of her own survival, she had to answer perfectly.
"President Su, it’s not that I trust Young Master Lin—it’s just that he’s utterly devoted to you." Jiang Qing smiled. "His eyes see no one else. How could he possibly spare a glance for another woman?"
Su Hua’s expression softened with satisfaction.
"Double bonus this month."
"Thank you, President Su!" Jiang Qing beamed.
As expected, clinging to Young Master Lin’s coattails never fails.
Honestly, those coattails are ridiculously thick.
"Oh, President Su, what should we do about Young Master Lin having Shen Qianqian followed?" Jiang Qing asked.
"Leave it be."
Su Hua paused. "But report any developments immediately."
"Yes, President Su."
Jiang Qing nodded, though inwardly she sighed.
Even though Su Hua chose to trust Lin Xuan now, those two years of his desperate escape—and the betrayals of everyone else around her in the past—had left a lingering unease.
A fear that losing him might mean this happiness was nothing but a fleeting illusion, like flowers reflected in a mirror or the moon cast upon water.
So Su Hua still wanted to know everything Lin Xuan did.
He was like a kite, free to soar the skies, but she was the one holding the string, keeping him firmly within her grasp.
No matter how high he flew, he could never escape her control.
Jiang Qing could only hope that one day, Lin Xuan would dispel the last traces of Su Hua’s insecurity.
---
Meanwhile, Lin Li left the Lin residence under the pretense of school business and headed straight for the detention center.
Wang Yajun had confessed to plotting Du Hui’s murder and would soon be sentenced.
"Li'er!"
The moment Wang Yajun saw Lin Li, she became visibly agitated.
"Stay calm," a guard barked.
Wang Yajun shot a cautious glance at the officer and forced herself to sit still, picking up the phone.
"Li'er, it was all Lin Xuan’s doing." Wang Yajun’s eyes burned with hatred. "If not for him, my affair with Lin Chang would never have been exposed. And the car accident—I could’ve gotten away with it!"
"Li'er, you have to help me."
Help me get revenge.
Wang Yajun mouthed the last words silently, not daring to be too obvious under the guard’s watchful gaze.
"Mom?"
The guard’s ears perked up.
He recognized Lin Li—his scandalous exposure at the birthday banquet, where footage of his affair went viral, had been juicy gossip for weeks.
But wasn’t Lin Li the son of Lin Chang and Jiang Shuqin?
Why was he calling this mistress Mom?
Did that mean the mistress’s son had been planted in the legal wife’s household and raised as her own?
Now that’s some explosive tea!
The guard’s eyes sparkled with excitement.
Lin Li’s voice was low but firm. "Mom, don’t worry. I won’t let him get away with this."
Lin Xuan had ruined him—he’d make sure to repay the favor.
"Li'er, it’s not just Lin Xuan. Jiang Shuqin, her three daughters—none of them deserve mercy!"
Wang Yajun’s face twisted with venom. "They stole my happiness! I should’ve been Lin Chang’s rightful wife, not reduced to this!"
Lin Li nodded. "I know."
"Li'er..." Wang Yajun’s eyes reddened. "Without me by your side, you must be careful at Starlight Group. Don’t let them suspect anything, or they’ll destroy you."
"Time’s up. Hang up now," the guard said flatly.
Wang Yajun begged, "Just a little longer, please!"
She turned back to Lin Li. "To avoid raising suspicions, don’t visit me again until you’ve taken control of Starlight Group."
With great reluctance, she set the phone down.
As she was led away, she kept looking back at Lin Li.
Li'er…
My happiness depends on you now.
You must—you absolutely must—seize Starlight Group.
---
Lin Li stepped out of the detention center, lifting his face to the glaring sun.
A steely resolve flashed in his eyes.
He wouldn’t admit defeat.
Lin Xuan, just you wait.
---
That night, Shen Qianqian and Zhang Li partied late at a bar.
By the time they left, the streets were nearly empty.
Shen Qianqian had deployed all her men to surveil Su Hua or stake out Su Corporation, leaving her without a single bodyguard.
While waiting for her driver outside the bar, a black car suddenly pulled up in front of them.
Two men in black suits, their faces hidden behind masks and sunglasses, stepped out.
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.”
. 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!"
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?"
