"Hua."
Lin Xuan stopped her. "You don't need to throw it away, really. I actually like this food. Although the flavor is average, since you made it with your own hands, Hua, I think it's delicious."
Su Hua pursed her lips and insisted, "Dump it."
She didn't want her Xuan to suffer.
Even if it was food she had prepared herself, she couldn't bear the thought of her Xuan forcing down something so unpalatable.
Seeing her persistence, Lin Xuan said helplessly, "Alright, throw it out then."
Once the servants had disposed of the food, the furrow in Su Hua's brow finally relaxed.
Lin Xuan couldn't help but ask, "Hua, back when you were an assassin going on solo missions, did you eat your own cooking then, too?"
"Mm."
Su Hua pursed her lips.
She had never really cooked much, nor did she enjoy it.
Only on rare occasions, when she had to fend for herself, would she prepare something to eat.
On missions in the forest, she would pick fruit.
When she absolutely needed meat, she once caught a rabbit and roasted it, but she ended up burning it.
Her stomach ached for a long time after that. Even for someone with her high pain tolerance, it was agonizing enough to make her roll on the ground.
After that, she just ate bloody, raw meat.
She would rather eat raw meat than attempt to cook.
She often ate raw meat until her mouth was stained with blood. Once, someone stumbled upon her and was literally scared into fainting by the sight of her blood-drenched mouth.
Su Hua was afraid Lin Xuan would find her terrifying, so she dared not tell him these things.
A look of heartache surfaced in Lin Xuan's eyes.
If that was the case, Hua must have been eating terrible food like this for a very long time.
And this current meal was made with a chef's guidance.
If Hua had no one teaching her and made it entirely on her own... he didn't dare imagine the result.
"Hua, there are still some vegetables and meat left in the kitchen. I'll teach you myself," Lin Xuan said gently, rubbing her hair.
"Okay." Su Hua nodded.
The two of them put on aprons and walked into the kitchen together.
There wasn't much produce or meat left in the refrigerator.
Lin Xuan decided to make a simple noodle dish.
"Hua, this is how you slice the meat."
Lin Xuan stood behind Su Hua, holding her hand as they sliced the meat together.
Su Hua's mind wasn't on slicing vegetables at all.
Her eyes were filled only with the figure of the man earnestly teaching her.
"Now that the meat is sliced, let's wash some vegetables and the king crab. Once everything is cleaned, we'll boil the soup base first, then add the noodles."
The servants watched the backs of Su Hua and Lin Xuan in the kitchen.
Cupping their faces, they couldn't help but gush, "Miss and Young Master Lin are just so, so sweet."
"Watching the Miss and Young Master Lin be so sweet these past two years, I ran off to fall in love, too. But reality slapped me right back to my original state. Ordinary people shouldn't fantasize about having a relationship as consistently sweet as theirs."
It was simply impossible.
Inside the kitchen.
The noodles were cooked quickly.
"Hua, come and taste the noodles you made." Lin Xuan served Su Hua a bowl.
It was hard to mess up seafood noodles, especially since he had personally taught Hua how to make them.
Su Hua took a bite, and her tightly furrowed brows relaxed slightly.
"How is it? Hua, does the seafood noodle soup taste okay?" Lin Xuan asked.
"Mm. It's quite delicious," Su Hua replied.
Lin Xuan comforted her, "See, Hua? It's not that your cooking skills are bad; it's that someone didn't teach you well."
The chef standing nearby: "..."
Was he catching a stray bullet just by standing there?
Even now, the chef was still wondering which step he had taught the young miss incorrectly to result in such terrible food...
When she was making the beef, he had stepped out to take a phone call, so he wasn't present. It was understandable that it turned out bad.
But how did the other dishes turn out so awful?
The chef racked his brains but couldn't figure out the reason.
"Young Master Lin, President Su, if you don't need anything else from me, I'll be heading back now," the chef said gloomily.
He truly regretted coming to find the Miss and Young Master Lin while they were eating.
He had thought he might get a reward. Who could have guessed that the Miss's cooking would be so unpalatable...
After dinner, it wasn't even ten o'clock yet.
Su Hua went back to work.
Lin Xuan was playing on his phone.
Feeling a bit bored, he tapped into the comment section of the novel he was updating. He wanted to see what everyone thought of his book.
This novel wasn't something he had plagiarized from another world; it was a story he had come up with himself.
Lin Xuan entered the comment section.
However, he didn't see any actual reviews. Instead, it was basically a sea of comments demanding updates.
—Author, you've stopped updating again! Where is the version of you that used to update hundreds of thousands of words a day and finished a million-word novel in just a few days?
—I want to lock the author in a dark room. If he doesn't write, I'll whip him hard with a whip dipped in chili oil!
—Author, you left us on a cliffhanger and haven't updated in days. Where is my 800-meter-long broadsword?! You'd better not let me find you!
—Ahhh, Author, please spare a thought for your poor little readers who are crying out for food.
—Is this the price of having a rich novel author? He updates when he wants and stops when he wants. He's too damn capricious!
Lin Xuan rubbed his nose.
Well then.
He had forgotten to update again.
He had actually written quite a backlog of chapters, but he had simply forgotten to publish them.
Right at that moment, Foxtail sent a message.
He didn't say anything.
He just sent a few screenshots.
One screenshot was of the update page, showing "Updated 4 days ago."
The other seven screenshots were all comments from readers frantically demanding updates.
Feeling guilty, Lin Xuan replied to Foxtail.
[Updating! I'll update right now!]
Foxtail: [Boss, a diligent author shouldn't need to be chased for updates! You should be more self-disciplined! Do you know I wait for your novel update every day until the flowers wither?]
Damn it.
It was all the Boss's fault for making his tastes so picky.
After reading the novel written by the Boss, he couldn't get into any other novels at all.
Lin Xuan: [I'll try hard to update on time in the future.]
Lin Xuan checked his backlog.
There were twenty-four thousand words.
Just enough for six days of updates.
Lin Xuan set up a schedule to publish four thousand words of his backlog per day.
Foxtail received the notification that Lin Xuan's novel had updated.
His eyes lit up.
The Boss finally updated the novel!
He was going to binge-read to his heart's content this time.
Foxtail found a recliner, lay back, and prepared to read the novel in comfort.
But... after reading just two chapters, it was over. It was over...
Foxtail immediately contacted Lin Xuan.
[Boss, why did you only update four thousand words this time? Is this how you treat us readers who are crying out for sustenance?]
Lin Xuan rubbed his nose.
Foxtail continued to frantically tap his phone screen.
[Boss, you know? A person should be diligent and not waste time...]
He typed out a huge paragraph of text and prepared to send it.
Suddenly, a red exclamation mark appeared.
Foxtail: !!!
Damn it!
The Boss actually blocked him!
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!
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!
] [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!"
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)
