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.
ing gift was a patch of barren land, and disciples were all picked up along the way. He spent fifty years diligently building three "ramshackle little sects," thinking he could finally live a carefree life relying on his disciples. But right at the fifty-year mark, he was suddenly swept away by a spatial rift and exiled to the Chaos Desolation, the Disorderly Ruins. There was no spiritual energy there, only slaughter. Relying on the cultivation feedback from his disciples, Gu Changyuan hacked his way through a sea of blood for eleven hundred years. When the system finally fished him back out, he discovered the ramshackle little sects he'd built back then had developed a rather... unusual style. Hold on... I vanished for a thousand years, so how did my ramshackle little sects become holy lands?!
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!
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
] [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!"
