Grand Commander Zhou Mengyan roughly pushed Madam aside, then strode away with Ruan Fei held tightly in his arms.
Madam, seething with indignation, hurried after him, but Zhou Mengyan's steps were far too quick. After a few twists and turns, he shook her off completely. She searched for him in vain for a long while, then returned with a heart full of desolation, only to find the entire military camp already in an uproar.
"Damn, guys, did you all just see that? The Grand Commander was carrying Miss Ruan in his arms, right here in the camp!"
"Is their relationship finally going public?"
"No way it's going public, right? Madam is still breathing down their necks, and besides, the Grand Commander can't afford to lose the support he gets from her. They're probably just keeping things under wraps."
"Keeping things under wraps my ass! That was as out in the open as it gets!"
"The Grand Commander is something else, honestly. Back then, he and Madam took in that destitute girl when she had nothing, and now he's actually fallen for her? Wait, what on earth does he even see in Ruan Fei? She's not even half as pretty as Madam."
"She's young and knows how to stir up trouble, that's what!"
...
Voices, some near and some far, drifted into Madam's ears, like sharp daggers stabbing her heart until it was dripping with blood.
Ruan Fei was nothing but a fisher girl by the river back then, so poor she could barely afford a meal. Out of kindness, she and Zhou Mengyan had supported her all along, hired renowned tutors to teach her, and how... how had they ended up raising not a well-mannered, educated young woman, but a seductress who had now come to steal her husband? Their once secret affair was quickly turning into a blatant, unapologetic grab for what was hers.
What had she ever done wrong?
While Madam was drowning in her own self-pity, Grand Commander Zhou Mengyan had already rushed Ruan Fei in a frantic hurry to their secret spot. It looked like an ordinary military tent from the outside, but the inside was soft and warm, draped in pink hues that made one's mind wander to tender, indulgent thoughts.
"Brother Mengyan, thank you. I knew it, no matter how many people in this world dislike me, you will always be the one who loves me."
Zhou Mengyan set Ruan Fei down gently, tucked the quilt over her carefully, and said softly, "Don't say silly things. You're not feeling well, of course I'm going to take care of you."
"How could I just stand by and ignore you?"
"Now, how do you feel? Do you want me to send for a doctor?"
"No need, Brother Mengyan. As long as you stay right here with me, I'll be perfectly fine." Ruan Fei smiled sweetly, naturally wrapping her arms around Zhou Mengyan's arm, leaning softly against his chest, and before long, she drifted off to sleep peacefully.
The Grand Commander Zhou Mengyan had mountains of military duties to attend to, but he pushed all of his affairs aside to stay by Ruan Fei's side, devoting his full attention to her. Only after several hours had passed did he carefully pull himself away from her to go back and handle the critical state matters waiting for him.
The moment he stepped out of the tent, Ruan Fei, who had looked fast asleep just a second earlier, opened her eyes immediately. The soft, gentle glow in her pupils was gone, replaced by a determined, steely resolve.
"Brother Mengyan, you are mine."
"I will take you away from that old hag, no matter what."
After muttering those words to cheer herself up, almost like a vow to her own self, she calculated the time, got up right away, crept to the tent entrance, peeked left and right to make sure no one was watching, then hurried out.
She was going to find Ning Wanqin.
If she hurried, she would most likely catch up to Ning Wanqin just as she was getting ready to cross the river. Ning Wanqin, who was once her comrade leading an all-female army, was now her closest best friend.
She had to see her off.
Luck was on her side. Just as Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan were about to step onto their boat, Ruan Fei caught up, calling out, "Sister Wanqin..."
The cry drifted along the river breeze, reaching Ning Wanqin's ears. She turned around in pleasant surprise, and the two women grabbed each other's hands tightly. "Girlfriend, I thought you weren't going to make it!"
Ruan Fei said at once, "Sister Wanqin, you're going to meet Lu Chaosheng today, this is such a big deal, how could I not come?"
Ning Wanqin was visibly overjoyed, chattering nonstop while holding Ruan Fei's hands. "I'm so happy you came to see me off."
"With you here to send me off, this time I'm definitely going to get General Lu Chaosheng to defect to our side. Once he's here, he'll be a top general under the Grand Commander, and the Grand Commander's power will grow strong enough that he won't have to be held back by that old hag any longer."
Those words struck a chord deep in Ruan Fei's heart. She nodded emotionally and said, "Sister Wanqin, you're the only one who really gets me."
"That old hag has been acting all high and mighty just because she went through a few hard years with Brother Mengyan in the past. She looks so displeased every time Brother Mengyan treats me even a little nicely."
"She even lectures me whenever she feels like it."
"Saying I wouldn't be where I am today without her support, telling me to know my place... Hmph, but my love for Brother Mengyan is real and true. We are in love. Why won't she just step down and give him to me?"
Ruan Fei grew more and more agitated as she spoke, her tone rising sharply. "Sister Wanqin, this time, after you bring General Lu Chaosheng back, I'll finally have people I can rely on. Little by little, I'll root out all the power that old hag has in the army."
"The navy belongs to Brother Mengyan, and it belongs to me too. It has nothing to do with that old hag. She can't keep claiming it just because she was the one who built it in the first place!"
Ning Wanqin nodded in complete agreement. "You're absolutely right, that's exactly what should happen."
"The Grand Commander and that old hag don't have any love left between them. All that's holding them together now is a faint sense of kinship. So why on earth won't she step aside?"
"She has no moral decency at all!"
"It makes me sick just thinking about it!"
Then Ning Wanqin held Ruan Fei's hands tightly and said, "Little Fei, don't you worry. This time, once I get General Lu Chaosheng here, I'll make sure he's on your side."
"After that, the two of us can team up, and we can even go find Lord Gu Qingyue to get him on our side too. Soon the entire Yangtze River defense line will be filled with our people."
"We both get to have our sweet, perfect love!"
Ruan Fei and Ning Wanqin clapped their hands together as if sealing a sacred pact, both of their faces glowing with joy.
After that, Ruan Fei walked Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan onto the boat, and even stood on the shore waving at them for a long while as they pulled away. Her send-off only made Ning Wanqin more confident than ever in her mission ahead.
As the boat sailed slowly toward the middle of the river, Shen Moyan, who had been holding his tongue for a long time, finally couldn't hold it in any longer. "Wanqin, from what Ruan Fei was saying, getting Lu Chaosheng here isn't just a great achievement for me, it's also for her own personal agenda?"
"What do you mean?"
"Ruan Fei wants to use General Lu Chaosheng's power to go up against Madam, doesn't she?"
"Ruan Fei's trying to be a homewrecker and take her place?"
Shen Moyan felt a bitter, jealous twinge in his chest as he asked. He was so envious that Ruan Fei could actually pull off taking a married man for herself, while he... even though he and Ning Wanqin had their marriage certificate, recognized as a legal couple by the entire Yun capital, he still hadn't even gotten to properly be with her. How could he not be full of envy and resentment?
But to his surprise, Ning Wanqin, who was always so gentle with him, glared at him the second he finished speaking. "Moyan, what nonsense are you spouting?"
"What do you mean homewrecker?"
"Ruan Fei and the Grand Commander are true love!"
"True love conquers all!"
"That old hag the Grand Commander is married to is the real homewrecker!"
After a short pause, Ning Wanqin stressed her point even further. "The one who isn't loved is the one who's the third wheel."
...
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."
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 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?”
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.
