“The unloved one is the mistress!”
Those words instantly made Shen Moyan’s eyes light up again.
That was right. The unloved one was the mistress!
As long as Lu Chaosheng no longer loved Ning Wanqin, then he, Shen Moyan, would be Ning Wanqin’s true husband. Besides, he and Ning Wanqin had already registered their marriage. He was the one who was truly her husband!
He could rightfully possess Ning Wanqin.
He could explore every side of her!
Before he knew it, his gaze drifted toward Ning Wanqin’s slender, alluring figure. A fierce heat flared within him, and his throat went dry.
Of course…
Shen Moyan was not foolish enough to lose sight of what mattered. He knew that the most important thing at present was to establish a firm foothold along the Yangtze defense line. Thus, although the thought surged violently within him, he did not reveal it.
For now, serious matters took precedence.
The two of them soon reached the Jiangbei fortress complex by boat.
They had traveled in a small boat. Although the riverside defenses of the Jiangbei fortress complex were tightly guarded, they had no reason to station soldiers at every landing where a small boat might dock. The two of them therefore came ashore without a hitch.
Once on land, they both gazed into the distance and saw the military camp blazing with lights.
“Wanqin, let’s sneak over first and find someone to ask where Lu Chaosheng is. Then I’ll write him a letter… No, you write him another letter.”
“All right!”
Having made up their minds, they immediately crept forward. Both of them had once belonged to the Jiangbei fortress complex and were thoroughly familiar with the terrain, so small matters such as writing and delivering a letter posed no difficulty at all.
Before long, the letter, written in Ning Wanqin’s own hand, was delivered to Lu Chaosheng.
“What sort of letter is this?”
Inside the military camp, Lu Chaosheng stared at the letter. It bore no signature, and there was not even a mark on the envelope. He was quite puzzled.
His personal guard hurriedly replied, “General Lu, I don’t know either. It was simply tossed into the camp and landed on the ground. But it bears one of the marks we used in the past, so I thought it might be an important letter.”
Lu Chaosheng’s heart tightened.
When he had been the actual commander of the Jiangbei fortress complex, he had used several special marks as a means of sending messages. If a letter carried one of those marks, then it truly warranted attention.
He opened it at once, but the moment he saw the handwriting, his entire body froze.
“Ning Wanqin’s handwriting?”
Lu Chaosheng and Ning Wanqin had grown up together as childhood sweethearts. They had even nearly become husband and wife, and he was extremely familiar with her handwriting.
With one glance, he recognized it as hers.
He quickly read on.
Before long, a look of bewilderment appeared on his face.
“Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan went to seek refuge with Zhou Mengyan, the Grand Admiral of the Navy?”
“And now they’ve come back?”
“They have something to discuss with me?”
“No, what could they possibly want to discuss with me?”
“They surrendered to the Grand Admiral of the Navy, Zhou Mengyan, and are no longer on the same side as me. We should be enemies!”
Lu Chaosheng could not make sense of Ning Wanqin’s intentions.
He was utterly baffled.
But the next moment, his eyes suddenly lit up.
“No, wait… No!”
“Shen Moyan and Ning Wanqin belong to the Yangtze defense line, while I now serve under Lord Duke. If they’ve come looking for me… doesn’t that mean they’ve delivered themselves right into my hands?”
“If I capture them and hand them over to Lord Duke… that will be another accomplishment!”
In the days since he had begun following Zhang Shi, Lu Chaosheng had grown increasingly indifferent toward matters of the heart. Moreover, Ning Wanqin had wounded him too deeply in the past. In his heart, all ties between them had long since been severed.
Now, he no longer had the slightest affection for Ning Wanqin.
All that remained was… merit.
The light in Lu Chaosheng’s eyes was frighteningly bright.
Yet he did not act immediately.
He felt that this matter should first be reported to Lord Duke. It would be unwise to make a decision on his own.
Having made up his mind, Lu Chaosheng left the camp without hesitation and rode to Lord Duke’s tent at full speed.
The moment he entered the tent, he knelt down.
“This subordinate, Lu Chaosheng, has a matter to report.”
He then explained everything concerning the letter and presented it to Lord Duke.
Ren Tianye accepted it and read through it. He, too, found the matter rather inexplicable. By rights, Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan had already fled across the Yangtze. Why had they now returned?
He could not understand it. Still, they posed little threat, and after a brief moment of thought, Ren Tianye made much the same decision as Lu Chaosheng.
“General Lu, since Ning Wanqin has delivered herself to your door, make proper arrangements for her.”
“Have a good talk. Rekindle your affection.”
Lu Chaosheng immediately understood what Ren Tianye meant and answered, “Yes, Lord Duke. This subordinate understands.”
He rose, hurriedly mounted his horse, and rode back. He then sent men out with the identifying mark to search for them. In less than two hours, his personal guards returned—and accompanying them were Ning Wanqin and Shen Moyan.
“Chaosheng, it’s been so long. Have you…?”
“Have you missed me?”
The moment they met, Ning Wanqin asked in a gentle, affectionate tone.
Beside her, Shen Moyan did not know why, but the instant he saw Lu Chaosheng, he felt an overwhelming sense of superiority. The restraints and oppression he had suffered along the Yangtze defense line vanished at once. He immediately said with a smile, “General Lu, I’ve come as well.”
“I imagine you missed me too, didn’t you?”
The two of them once again acted in perfect harmony, and the fury Lu Chaosheng had buried deep in his heart—fury he had thought would never be stirred again—surged violently to the surface.
Seeing how intimate they still appeared only made the anger more difficult to contain.
However, burdened by the orders Lord Duke had given him, Lu Chaosheng did not act rashly. Instead, he asked, “What brings the two of you here?”
“Can’t I come to see you for no reason?” Ning Wanqin blurted out. “Our feelings run so deep, and we were just about to marry. Wherever I am, wherever I go, I think of you constantly and cannot bear to part from you. Now I’ve come back to find you. Why aren’t you happy?”
“Why do you insist on asking such a question?”
“Chaosheng, you’ve changed.”
“In the past, you tolerated even my smallest moods without complaint. But now, just because I registered my marriage with Moyan and helped him establish a foothold across the Yangtze, you can’t get past it.”
“Is that marriage certificate really so important?”
“The most important thing is that I love you!”
Lu Chaosheng felt every hair on his body stand on end.
Ning Wanqin had spoken such sweet, tender words to him many times before. In the past, he had always found them delightful.
But now…
A wave of disgust rose from the depths of his heart, so intense that he even felt nauseated.
Unable to bear it any longer, he said, “What exactly do you want?”
“Speak quickly. I’m busy with military affairs and have no time to stand here listening to your nonsense. If you have nothing to say, then forgive me for not keeping you company!”
Tears had already gathered in the corners of Ning Wanqin’s eyes, and her heart ached terribly. Of course, what she felt even more strongly was disappointment in Lu Chaosheng.
How could a perfectly good man have changed so completely in the blink of an eye?
As expected, men were fickle creatures!
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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?”
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."
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.
