His subordinate also shivered and quickly said, “Um, Master Xie, it sounds like your wife is calling you. You should hurry back.”
“Remember, you can’t delay General Zhang Shi’s reply. The futures of the brothers all rest on your shoulders, Master Xie. Don’t let us down…”
“I know, I know…” Xie Liu cut his subordinate off and strode home, his head buzzing. All the past few days’ scenes flooded his mind automatically, and he analyzed them as he hurried back.
“That’s not right. I haven’t done anything lately to upset her. Why is she so angry?”
“She hasn’t blown up like this in a long time.”
Xie Liu couldn’t find an answer, so he quickened his pace. When he finally arrived, he stood at the threshold, looking at his wife, Wang, but dared not enter.
“What are you standing around for? Get in here.”
Wang bellowed, then turned, revealing a… small box in front of Xie Liu.
The box was shabby and faded, utterly colorless, basically at the level of something to be thrown away, but it had a lock.
Now, the lock had already been opened.
The box’s contents were exposed.
It was…
Copper coins!
“No!!!”
Xie Liu screamed inwardly, like a groundhog’s shriek. He dashed to the inner hall with lightning speed, cold sweat pouring down his face.
He reached for the box, but Wang smacked his hand away with a feather duster. “Fine, just fine, Xie Liu! You’ve really grown some nerve, hiding private money behind my back?”
“Are your skin itching for a beating?”
“Looking for a punishment?”
“Don’t you know that hiding private money from your wife means you don’t love her? That’s the law in Cloud Capital. You lack all husbandly virtue—you deserve to be drowned in a pig cage!”
Xie Liu didn’t care about being drowned in a pig cage.
He just stared fixedly at the copper coins.
Three hundred and twenty-seven of them, saved one by one over the years, scrimping and scraping.
Saved behind Wang’s back.
But now… discovered.
It meant… they were gone!
Years of effort, gone!
There’s a saying: The greatest sorrow is a dead heart.
That was exactly how Xie Liu felt.
But Wang didn’t notice the death of his heart. Not only did she not notice, she grew even angrier.
“Xie Liu! Back then, I must have been blind to marry you!”
“Other women’s husbands either get promotions or get rich.”
“But you? You’re the most useless. Still just a minor Colonization Commissioner after all these years, with a monthly salary of twenty taels, not a single rise in that time.”
“And that’s not all. I’ve suffered so much hardship following you, and yet you actually dare to hide money behind my back?”
“Dare to have your own little treasure chest?”
“Do you even know how to spell ‘husbandly virtue’?”
Wang’s scolding grew fiercer, numbing Xie Liu’s heart.
Yes, after all these years, why hadn’t he made any progress?
Was it because he wasn’t diligent?
Was it because he didn’t work hard?
Or because he didn’t do things well?
No, there had been opportunities. All he had to do was spend a bit on gifts, treat colleagues to meals, bribe his superiors. Then he wouldn’t still be a petty Colonization Commissioner.
But how much of his earnings ever ended up in his own hands?
With his constant emptiness of pocket, how could he have the confidence to do anything beyond his duties?
How could he dare to make even a single attempt?
At that moment, Xie Liu felt utterly devastated and numb, with a sense of hopelessness. He had done his best, worked so hard, handed over every ounce of his salary. He had given everything.
But what was the result?
Repeated scolding, humiliation!
They made him bow his head, then bow it even lower, into the dirt!
Living like neither a man nor a ghost!
“Speak! Cat got your tongue?”
“Hmph, don’t think staying silent will make this go away!”
Wang’s shrill voice rang in his ears.
Xie Liu’s mind drifted to the past.
Wang hadn’t always been like this. At least not when she first married him. But over the years, as Cloud Capital’s fashion for love and emotion grew, and some ideas and words spread more fiercely, Wang changed.
Someone said: If he doesn’t give you his money, he doesn’t love you.
So, he had to hand over all his money.
Someone said: Someone who truly loves you will accept everything about you.
So, his wife, Wang, cared less and less about him.
He lived, more and more, like a dog.
“Xie Liu…” Wang issued her final ultimatum. “Today, you must give me an explanation, or else…”
“We’ll get a divorce!”
Xie Liu’s heart began to calm.
The past was like smoke, beyond recall. After all these years of willing sacrifice, he felt he had been true to the Wang of twenty years ago. So Xie Liu, who had been a coward all his life, suddenly lifted his head.
His gaze burned. “Divorce it is!”
“Oh?”
His wife, Wang, was startled.
She hadn’t expected that, during her outburst, Xie Liu would actually talk back. He truly didn’t love her anymore. How many people in Cloud Capital said: if you’re not compatible, just break up!
So…
“Fine!”
“Xie Liu, you’ve got guts!”
“We’re getting a divorce. No question about it!”
The two immediately drew up an agreement. As soon as Xie Liu pressed his thumbprint, Wang said impatiently, “Good, it’s settled. But this house is my compensation.”
“You no longer belong in this house.”
“Get out!”
The next moment, Xie Liu was kicked out the door.
The gate creaked shut behind him, pushing him into the cold wind.
The night was deep, and the wind grew fierce.
Xie Liu’s clothes weren’t thin, but neither were they thick. He shivered in the cold, finding it bitterly hard to bear. But more than the body’s chill, the coldness in his heart made him feel life held no hope.
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?”
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
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."
