"Xiao Xuan."
Lin Qingwan called out Lin Xuan's name again urgently.
"You..." Lin Qingwan bit her lip. "Will you really never return to the Lin Family?"
"What do you think?" Lin Xuan retorted mockingly.
Lin Qingwan tightened her grip on the phone.
"I understand." As she spoke these words, it was as if all the strength had drained from her body. "I won’t force you to come back anymore."
Lin Xuan could hear the thick layer of guilt in Lin Qingwan's voice.
Guilt?
Hah. Lin Xuan felt not the slightest bit moved.
Belated affection is cheaper than grass.
It was only in this lifetime, after he had changed, that Lin Qingwan felt remorse. In his previous life, he had died without receiving even a shred of concern from the Lin Family.
No matter how much guilt or compensatory gestures the Lin Family showed now, his heart remained completely unmoved.
Lin Xuan hung up the phone expressionlessly.
The dial tone buzzed from the phone. Lin Qingwan let her hand drop to her side, her face a picture of devastation.
She felt utterly ridiculous.
All this time, she had wanted Lin Xuan to return to the Lin Family, believing that their parents would eventually see his worth.
But what had happened?
It was their own mother who had abandoned Xiao Xuan with her own hands!
"How could this be?" Lin Qingwan murmured to herself, repeating the words over and over.
She drove back to the Lin Family home.
Today was Jiang Shuqin's birthday. Apart from Lin Chang, everyone in the Lin Family was gathered in the villa’s living room, chatting and laughing with Jiang Shuqin.
"Eldest Sister, you're back. Everyone’s been waiting for you," Lin Qingyan said with a smile as she walked up to Lin Qingwan.
Lin Qingwan’s face was pale. Step by step, she approached Jiang Shuqin.
"Mom," she began, her voice strained. "There’s something I want to ask you."
"What is it? Go ahead." Jiang Shuqin, still in high spirits, replied kindly.
Lin Qingwan clenched her fists. "That day at Li’er’s wedding, what you said… about personally abandoning Xiao Xuan—was it true?"
Jiang Shuqin’s expression darkened. "Why are you bringing this up now?"
"Mom, did you do it or not?" Lin Qingwan’s eyes bore into Jiang Shuqin’s.
"No!" Jiang Shuqin couldn’t meet her daughter’s gaze.
How could she admit to something like this?
Jiang Shuqin knew full well that no matter her reasons, abandoning Lin Xuan was a disgraceful act.
They say even a vicious tiger wouldn’t harm its own cub. If it got out that she had personally discarded Lin Xuan, leaving him to grow up as an orphan, people would point fingers at her behind her back—even if she had her reasons.
And if her children found out, how would they look at her?
"Eldest Sister, why are you bringing this up again?" Lin Qingxiu asked, puzzled.
"Mom." Ignoring Lin Qingxiu, Lin Qingwan pushed a file of investigation documents in front of Jiang Shuqin. "But I had someone look into it. It was you."
"You personally left Xiao Xuan at the gates of an orphanage!"
Jiang Shuqin’s face turned deathly pale.
Especially under Lin Qingwan’s accusatory and disbelieving stare.
Her mind went blank.
She had thought this secret would stay buried forever. Yet now, Lin Qingwan had uncovered it.
Lin Qingyan and Lin Qingxiu exchanged horrified glances.
Xiao Xuan… had been abandoned by their own mother?
Lin Qingyan picked up the file from the coffee table and flipped through it.
Inside, it clearly documented the entire process of Jiang Shuqin abandoning Lin Xuan when he was just a baby.
There were even photographs!
Jiang Shuqin had no way to deny it.
"Mom," Lin Qingyan said, her voice thick with pain. "How could you abandon Xiao Xuan? He was your son!"
"So what if he was my son?"
Faced with the condemning stares of her three daughters, Jiang Shuqin reacted fiercely. "I carried him for ten months and gave him life. If I gave him his life, I have every right to take it back!"
"And I didn’t even kill him—I just left him at an orphanage! I even made sure he had a place to go. What more do you want?"
There wasn’t a trace of remorse in Jiang Shuqin’s voice.
No—
She did regret something.
She regretted not strangling Lin Xuan back then, instead of just abandoning him and arranging for his care.
If she had, Lin Xuan wouldn’t have grown up to ruin Li’er, turning him into a eunuch and destroying his reputation.
And if it weren’t for Lin Xuan’s curse, she and Lin Chang would still be happily in love, instead of him cheating with Wang Yajun and other women!
It was all Lin Xuan’s fault!
"Mom, why would you do this?" Lin Qingwan’s eyes were red, her voice trembling with anguish. "Xiao Xuan was your own flesh and blood!"
"Because he was a curse!"
Jiang Shuqin’s voice was icy. "After he was born, everything went wrong for me. I even fell seriously ill."
"A fortune-teller told me Lin Xuan was a curse, that he was draining my luck. He said if I got rid of him, everything would improve. So I abandoned him—and sure enough, after that, my health recovered, and my life became smooth again."
"I gave him life, and in return, he cursed me. Was I supposed to keep him and worship him like some deity?"
"Mom, maybe there was a misunderstanding. Xiao Xuan isn’t some curse," Lin Qingwan said, choking back tears.
"What misunderstanding?" Jiang Shuqin sneered. "Look at everything that’s happened since you brought him back into this family!"
"Ever since Lin Xuan returned, our family hasn’t known a single day of peace. Your father cheated, I lost my unborn son, and Li’er—he’s been turned into a eunuch!"
"And now, Lin Xuan has founded a company called Skyline Group, directly competing with Starlight Group, trying to ruin us!"
"I regret not strangling that cursed child back then. If I had, none of this would have happened!"
Lin Qingwan clenched her fists.
But if they hadn’t treated Xiao Xuan so terribly, he wouldn’t have retaliated.
And as for their father’s infidelity and their mother’s miscarriage—what did those have to do with Xiao Xuan?
Yes, Xiao Xuan had exposed Li’er’s crimes, but there was no proof he was behind Li’er’s kidnapping or castration.
"Mom," Lin Qingyan said, her eyes also red. "How could you believe those fortune-tellers? They’re nothing but frauds. Everything you mentioned could just be coincidence."
"What coincidence? It’s obvious!" Jiang Shuqin scoffed coldly.
"All of you—my own daughters—are standing here accusing me, siding with Lin Xuan against your own mother. Fine! If you’re so righteous, then don’t acknowledge me anymore! Leave this family, just like Lin Xuan did!"
With that, Jiang Shuqin stormed upstairs.
Lin Li, looking worried, said, "Eldest Sister, Second Sister, Third Sister, Mom doesn’t seem well. I’ll go check on her."
"Alright," Lin Qingwan nodded.
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.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
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?"
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.”
