The words "allowance" directly hit Xie Liu's weak spot, nearly making him jump up. He stammered, "Adjust it again?"
"It must be adjusted!" Wang said firmly. "If I don't adjust it, you won't know how hard it is to earn money, and you'll keep spending recklessly."
"From now on, your monthly allowance will be cut from five wen to three wen."
Xie Liu quickly protested, "No, no, that's too little, way too little. What can three wen even do? I can't even buy a pancake outside occasionally."
Hearing this, Wang grew angrier. "If it's not enough, bring food from home. It's not like you don't know how to cook."
"I knew it. The root of your reckless spending is right here. With a few coins in your hand, you forget your place and squander money without a second thought."
"Your allowance must be cut."
"Three wen, and that's final."
"Starting next month, your monthly allowance will be strictly limited to three wen."
"Only then will you understand that money doesn't come easy."
Xie Liu's face collapsed in despair.
He looked like a criminal sentenced to death, or a fish stranded on the shore, without even a chance to struggle.
"Alright, alright..." Wang saw how utterly disheartened Xie Liu was and tried to console him. "I'm already giving you a decent allowance. As long as you don't spend it, it's absolutely enough."
Xie Liu's mind buzzed.
The words that reached his ears had lost all meaning for critical thinking.
Only instinct remained.
But he sensed something was off.
What did she mean by "as long as you don't spend it, it's enough"?
If you don't spend, of course it's enough.
Not only enough, you could even save it!
"Alright, eat up first. After you're done, get to work. Didn't you say the officers from Pukou City have arrived? Seize this chance to work hard and let them see your diligence. Who knows, they might even give you a promotion."
"The more you earn, the looser our household finances will be."
With that, Wang turned and went back to her room. Xie Liu watched her retreating figure grow blurrier, the confusion in his mind slowly turning into pain.
A dull, throbbing ache.
"Master Xie, Master Xie..."
A subordinate appeared beside him without Xie Liu noticing, until the man called out several times, snapping him back to reality.
"What's wrong?"
"Is there a problem with the sweet potato shipment?"
Xie Liu's face tensed with anxiety.
If even the smallest issue arose and led to a deduction from his monthly pay—even just a few wen—it would be a catastrophe for him.
"No, no..." the subordinate quickly said. "Everything's fine. The sweet potato loading and transport went smoothly. In fact, the officers from Pukou City were quite satisfied."
Whoosh!
Xie Liu let out a long sigh of relief.
Then he asked, "So what's the matter?"
"Why come to me at this hour?"
The subordinate looked mysterious. "Master Xie, let's talk somewhere private."
The two walked one after another out of the courtyard, out of the Xie residence, and into a secluded spot. The area was empty and silent, with a rather eerie feel.
Xie Liu's heart began to pound.
He wondered if this was a plot to rob and kill him.
But he quickly dismissed the thought.
To rob him, the thief would need to find something worth taking.
His pockets would soon be emptier than his face. What was there to steal?
"Master Xie, there's a letter for you."
The subordinate finally explained, pulling a letter from his bosom. "Someone asked me to deliver this to you, sir. I was worried it might be exposed, so I hid it for you first."
He paused, then added, "It's a personal letter from General Zhang Shi."
Xie Liu looked confused. "General Zhang Shi?"
"Who's that? One of General Zhou Xiong's men?"
The subordinate sighed in exasperation. "General Zhang Shi is a court official, a general under Duke Ren Tianye. He's currently near our Pikou City."
"Oh."
Xie Liu nodded, his face emotionless.
The truth was, he was just a low-level laborer who couldn't even hold onto his meager wages. He spent his days calculating if he could save an extra coin, so he had no time to worry about the state of the realm.
Let the world collapse if it must.
In the worst case, he'd end up exactly where he was now.
With a little luck, he might even live better.
Still, he was curious about the letter from General Zhang Shi. He tore open the envelope right in front of his subordinate.
Pulling out the contents, he read line by line.
Gradually, an expression of disbelief spread across his face.
It took him a long moment to close the letter.
The subordinate, who clearly hadn't read the contents, eagerly asked, "Master Xie, what did General Zhang Shi say in the letter?"
"Is the Lord Duke really coming?"
"Will our Luofeng Slope fall under the Lord Duke's jurisdiction?"
Xie Liu nodded instinctively, then shook his head. "General Zhang Shi said he wants me to join them..."
"Master Xie!!!" The subordinate's voice shot up an octave, pure joy bursting across his face like fireworks in the night sky. "This is wonderful news! Incredible news!"
"General Zhang Shi is inviting you to join them."
"From now on, your days of happiness are about to begin."
"Happiness?" Those words clearly struck a chord with Xie Liu. He asked eagerly, "Are you sure there'll be happiness?"
"Of course," the subordinate said with conviction. "Master Xie, haven't you heard? Life under the Lord Duke is truly good."
"They crack down on love-brain thinking and govern with discipline for both the people and the army."
"Everyone says that when the Lord Duke arrives, the blue skies will return."
"How could it not be good?"
The moment the subordinate finished, Xie Liu cut in impatiently, "I don't care about all that. I just want to ask..."
"If I join General Zhang Shi's ranks, will the money I earn all go into my own hands, and not to anyone else?"
"If so, I'll surrender immediately."
"Without a second thought."
At his last words, Xie Liu was practically grinding his teeth.
The subordinate was taken aback.
He hadn't heard of such a policy in the Lord Duke's territory, but he was quick to adapt and extrapolate. "Under the Lord Duke, love must be based on equality."
"Master Xie, your situation is far from equal."
"So I'll bet that under the Lord Duke's rule, you'll feel as refreshed as if you've stepped into a whole new world."
Xie Liu suddenly brimmed with enthusiasm.
Equality!
Under the Lord Duke, there would be equality!
Then what was there to hesitate about?
Just then...
From the darkness, a voice like a lion's roar suddenly erupted.
"Xie!!!"
"Liu!!!"
Each syllable blasted through the night like a giant trumpet, shattering the stillness like a bomb dropped into a dead pond.
The peace was broken.
Xie Liu trembled all over from the fright.
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.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
