"Also, Xuan, my SIM card is damaged, and I can't log into WeChat. I'll contact you with a new WeChat account," Su Hua added.
Cheng Da pinched his throat and nodded emphatically, "Mhm."
As soon as Su Hua hung up, her icy gaze fell back on Jiang Qing.
Jiang Qing looked utterly bewildered. "President Su, what's wrong?"
Why was President Su staring at her with such a terrifying expression?
She hadn’t done anything wrong, had she...?
"You seem very concerned about Xuan?" Su Hua suddenly remarked.
Jiang Qing: "!!!"
So that was it!
This was not a misunderstanding she wanted to have!
"No, no, no!" Jiang Qing hurriedly denied. "President Su, don’t misunderstand. I was only concerned about Young Master Lin because if he hasn’t recovered by the day after tomorrow, the plan you arranged won’t proceed smoothly, right?"
Only then did Su Hua withdraw her cold stare from Jiang Qing.
The day after tomorrow—it truly was an important day. The dance she had practiced would finally be put to use.
Jiang Qing let out a long sigh of relief.
Thank goodness she was quick-witted.
Otherwise, she might not have survived President Su’s scrutiny.
Su Hua returned to her seat, added Lin Xuan on WeChat, and then closed her eyes to rest.
Suddenly, something occurred to her, and she opened her eyes again.
That last "mhm" in Xuan’s messages didn’t quite sound like his voice.
Soon, another message from Lin Xuan arrived on Su Hua’s phone:
[Lin Xuan]: Hua Bao, I just took my medicine. I’m a bit tired, so I’ll sleep now.
This message had also been pre-written by Lin Xuan, with Cheng Da simply copying and pasting it to send.
[Su Hua]: Mhm.
Su Hua opened the surveillance feed on her phone and saw Lin Xuan place his phone on the table after their exchange before lying down to rest.
She pinched the bridge of her nose.
She must have been overthinking it. How could this not be Xuan?
There was no way Xuan could escape from Night Garden.
Yet, as Su Hua watched the man on the screen, she felt no trace of affection—only an overwhelming sense of unfamiliarity.
After more than ten hours on the plane, Su Hua’s flight finally landed.
Meanwhile, at the Shadow Organization’s base—
Derkson emerged from the medical room once again, exhaustion evident in his eyes.
"Master Derkson, our leader requests your presence," said a man with a scar running from his eye to the corner of his mouth, bowing respectfully.
"Understood."
Derkson nodded and followed the scarred subordinate to Zhao Long’s room.
"Mr. Zhao," Derkson greeted.
"Master Derkson, how is Lin Xuan’s memory recovery progressing?" Zhao Long sat on his bed, still twirling his prayer beads between his fingers while murmuring Buddhist scriptures under his breath—praying for longevity.
"It’s complete," Derkson confirmed. "Now, he just needs to sleep for another dozen or so hours before waking up."
"Excellent, truly excellent." Zhao Long smiled in satisfaction.
Derkson continued, "Mr. Zhao, about the payment you promised..."
"Don’t worry. Once everything is settled, I’ll deliver the full sum—$20 million USD, not a cent less," Zhao Long assured.
Derkson chuckled. "Mr. Zhao is indeed a man of his word."
"Master Derkson, you’ve been working nonstop for hours. You must be exhausted. Let my men escort you to rest for a while," Zhao Long suggested.
"That would be best." Derkson nodded and left with Zhao Long’s men.
The other subordinates in the room also prepared to leave, allowing Zhao Long to rest alone.
"Wait."
Zhao Long suddenly called them back.
"Boss, is there anything else you need?" the two subordinates asked respectfully.
Zhao Long smirked. "Things are progressing so smoothly. It’s been over ten hours since Ling was separated from her boyfriend. She must be worried sick about him by now."
Ling was a killing machine he had personally trained—how could he bear to see her distressed?
A perfect killing machine should have no emotions at all.
"Go," Zhao Long’s eyes darkened. "Find a way to inform Ling that Lin Xuan is in the hands of Shadow. If she wants to save him, she must come in person."
"Alone," Zhao Long emphasized.
"Yes, sir!"
The subordinates immediately carried out Zhao Long’s orders.
Zhao Long’s smirk deepened.
Soon.
The show was about to begin.
All that was left was for Ling to arrive and meet Lin Xuan—now with his memories restored.
Zhao Long closed his eyes, resumed chanting sutras, and continued spinning his prayer beads.
The two subordinates knew the gravity of the situation. Unlike before, they didn’t just send a text to Su Hua.
They called her instead.
[The number you have dialed is currently unavailable. Please try again later.]
A cold, robotic female voice sounded from the phone.
They tried several more times, but the result was the same.
The subordinates frowned.
Why was her phone still off?
Puzzled, they contacted Jiang Qing instead.
"You’re Jiang Qing, President Su’s secretary?" the Shadow subordinate asked.
Jiang Qing frowned. "Yes, I am. And you are...?"
The subordinate replied, "Nothing important. Just passing along a message—Lin Xuan is now in Shadow’s custody. If you want him alive, tell your President Su to come to the address I’ll send you."
With that, he hung up.
Jiang Qing scoffed.
So, they were trying to get her to inform President Su about Young Master Lin’s situation?
Shadow’s plans were about to fail spectacularly.
She and Young Master Lin had gone to great lengths to keep this plan hidden from President Su—why would she reveal it now?
One subordinate prepared to inform Zhao Long that they couldn’t reach Su Hua directly.
The other stopped him. "What are you doing?"
"Something feels off. I think we should tell the boss that Ling’s phone is off," the subordinate explained.
"You’re going to bother him with something this trivial? It’ll just make us look incompetent," the other snapped.
This was a critical moment for his own advancement.
He couldn’t afford to leave a single bad impression on the boss.
"But what if something goes wrong? We can’t take that responsibility," the first subordinate argued.
What if Jiang Qing never told Ling about Lin Xuan’s capture?
"Fine. Let’s send someone to check if Ling is on her way. If she hasn’t left yet, then we’ll report it," the second subordinate proposed.
"Agreed." The first nodded.
An hour passed.
"Men." Zhao Long’s voice rang out from his room.
"Boss." The two subordinates entered.
"Well? Has Ling arrived?" Zhao Long asked.
"W-well, you see..." One subordinate stammered, unable to answer.
"Spit it out!" Zhao Long snapped, opening his eyes.
Just then, the subordinate’s phone buzzed with a new message.
uu
. 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!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
