“What?”
The midwife thought she’d misheard.
Playing Pai Gow?
No, right now, off to play Pai Gow?
“After I finish a round of Pai Gow, I’ll track down some of my old brothers for a good long drink. I haven’t had a drink with them in ages. I miss it terribly.”
“Then, I’m going fishing. I want to bob around out on the open sea for a while.”
“After that, I’ll get myself a solid sleep. I’m planning to sleep for three days and three nights.”
“And then... I’ll take some time to clear my head.”
…
Guo Zhou spoke faster and faster, as if these thoughts had been bottled up inside him for far too long, driving him crazy. Now that his task was finally done and he could relax, he couldn’t wait to let loose all at once.
But the midwife was utterly dumbfounded.
She knew that many husbands bustled around frantically before their wives went into labor, working themselves ragged.
After it was over, they’d unwind a bit.
But this… wasn’t how you unwound, was it?
At the very least, he should glance at the child first!
But by now, the midwife couldn’t stop him.
Guo Zhou’s steps as he walked out were not only quick but almost bouncy. In three strides, he was gone, vanishing from the small courtyard.
“D-Did he really just leave?”
“Before this, he was so responsible—you rarely see that kind of dedication in this world. And now, in a blink… he’s gone?”
“Is he too happy?”
“Hasn’t gone crazy, has he?”
The midwife muttered to herself.
Originally, the money she’d been paid was simply to ensure the child was delivered safely. But the midwife was a kind soul. Now that Guo Zhou had disappeared and there was no one else in the little courtyard, if she just abandoned everything and ran off, Madam Yu would surely suffer terribly.
After all, there was a newborn life and a fragile woman involved.
Reluctantly, the midwife went in to take care of Yu Zhen.
A long while later, Yu Zhen, having gathered her wits, asked, somewhat puzzled, “Can visitors still not come in yet?”
“Is Guo Zhou still waiting outside?”
“Tell him to come in and take a look.”
“This child is his to raise, after all.”
The midwife had been waiting for that very remark.
She promptly replied, “Madam, Guo Zhou left. He rolled up his sleeves and made a grand, dashing exit. He didn’t even look back. I called after him, but he wouldn’t stop.”
“W-What?”
Yu Zhen froze. “He left?”
“Where did he go?”
“To buy me something good to eat?”
“I can hardly eat anything right now. Has he no sense at all?”
The midwife quickly added, “No, no. He said he’s off to play Pai Gow, and that he’s going fishing, and that he wants to sleep…”
Yu Zhen was even more bewildered.
“Has he lost his mind? At a time like this, what does he need to go fishing for? And sleep—how can he sleep?”
“You, go drag him back here this instant.”
The midwife stammered, “Me?”
“Madam, please don’t put me in a difficult position.”
“I’m just a midwife.”
“I came to help you give birth.”
“Now that the child is safely delivered and you’re fine, let me tidy up for you, and then I ought to be on my way.”
“Whatever’s going on between you and your husband, you’ll have to sort it out yourselves.”
The midwife was no fool. By now, she sensed there might be some hidden trouble in all this.
Since it had nothing to do with her, she had no intention of getting tangled up in their mess. Helping people was fine, but that didn’t mean she had to drag herself into it, right?
So she got up and bid farewell.
She ignored Yu Zhen’s calls from inside the room.
—It wasn’t her place to handle it anyway.
But Yu Zhen was in agony.
She had just given birth, and there wasn’t a soul around!
What was she supposed to do?
Who would soothe the baby if it cried?
Herself?
She could barely stand her own misery!
Crumbling under the weight of it, her emotions surged, and hatred swelled. Yu Zhen’s impression of Guo Zhou plummeted to freezing point.
Nine months of his attentive care were wiped clean in an instant. In that moment, Yu Zhen felt nothing but resentment toward him.
“You bastard, Guo Zhou! For this alone, I will never marry you! You can rot as a bachelor for the rest of your life!”
She shouted loudly, then murmured softly.
But venting her anger did nothing to solve the immediate crisis.
Yu Zhen was on the verge of collapse.
Suddenly, she heard a sound from outside the house.
Exhausted as she was, Yu Zhen somehow mustered a fresh surge of strength. Her hoarse voice shot up an octave, piercing the air like a scream.
“Guo Zhou! Where the hell have you gone off to?”
“Get in here this instant!”
“Creak!” The door was pushed open a crack, revealing a stranger’s face.
“Um… I’m not Guo Zhou.”
“I’m the landlord!”
“I’ve come to ask—are you still renting this house?”
Yu Zhen blinked. “What?”
“I mean, are you still renting this house or not?”
The landlord didn’t dare step inside. On one hand, he didn’t want to disturb a woman who had just given birth; on the other, tradition forbade him from entering.
But this was no trivial matter—it was about the rent on his property.
This was a significant source of income for him, a critical means of improving his family’s life, so he had to ask.
“When Guo Zhou rented this house, he paid the rent through this month. Now it’s almost the end of the month. Are you renewing the lease or not?”
“If you’re staying, you need to prepay the rent.”
“If not, then you’ll have to move out soon.”
The landlord had initially wanted to demand a penalty for breaking the lease—the contract required a two-month advance notice if they weren’t renewing—but seeing this woman who had just given birth, he didn’t want to be too harsh. He figured just asking them to move out would be enough.
What the landlord didn’t expect was that even though he had made a concession, Yu Zhen shrieked, “What do I care about renting a house? Go talk to Guo Zhou about that! Why are you telling me?”
“I’m not the one who rented it from you!”
The landlord was a little angry but held his temper. “I’ve been looking for Guo Zhou but can’t find him. I saw you here, so I figured I’d talk to you. Just pass the message along to him, alright?”
“Fine, fine. You’ve just given birth, so I won’t bother you anymore.”
“I’ll come back at the end of the month.”
“But let me make this clear: if the rent isn’t paid before the end of the month, I will be taking the house back.”
“You and Guo Zhou better be ready for that.”
“Bang!” The landlord slammed the door shut.
He turned and left.
A sudden panic rushed over Yu Zhen. Overwhelming fear surged through her like a tidal wave.
“Guo Zhou only paid the rent through this month? What does he mean by that? I’m right in the middle of my lying-in—he should be paying ahead! How could he forget something so important?”
“No. Where is Guo Zhou?”
“I have to find him!”
“Otherwise, what am I and the baby going to do now?”
…
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!
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
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.
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?!
