After leaving the hospital, the girl returned to the orphanage, seemingly resuming her usual life. The difference this time was that she wasn’t alone anymore—someone was by her side.
"Listen up, dummy, the old folks here in this place? All dressed up like decent people, but their hearts are blacker than anyone’s."
"Not long ago, a kid with good looks showed up, and within a couple of days, they were sold off. Tsk tsk tsk..."
The girl froze for a moment upon hearing this and instinctively retorted, "Sold off? Are you sure you don’t mean adopted?"
"Oh, slip of the tongue. Honestly, there’s not much difference. I figure the only reason they’re being careful now is because inspections are tight. Otherwise, us ‘defective goods’ would’ve been priced and parceled out long ago—10,000 here, 20,000 there, piece by piece..."
The girl fell silent.
The little boy started rambling about things she couldn’t quite grasp at first, but eventually, she understood. It was about... well, something too dark to dwell on.
In a place like Great Sea City, too many eyes were watching, leaving little room for shady dealings. At most, they could only scam some government subsidies.
And when it came to scamming subsidies, the louder you wailed about how tragic your kids were, the more you got. After all, if no one played the game, who’d foot the bill for the director’s BMW?
In short, the orphanage wasn’t as rosy as it appeared on the surface. Few people bothered with things that didn’t turn a profit.
Through the boy’s "hints," the girl finally realized what he was getting at.
He was warning her. Even though she was sick, to the orphanage—to the black-hearted, BMW-loving director—she wasn’t a burden. She was a goldmine.
Because of her condition, the orphanage could milk her story for sympathy, using it as positive publicity to rake in attention.
Smack!
The boy slapped a newspaper he’d swiped from somewhere onto the table in front of her. In an inconspicuous corner, a headline read:
"Touching Story: Great Sea City Orphanage Refuses to Give Up on Any Child—Girl with Congenital Heart Disease Rescued Multiple Times..."
The girl stared blankly at the article, only to hear the boy remark dryly,
"Eat well, drink well. From now on, the director’s BMW upgrades are on you. So yeah..." The boy rambled on with a straight face while the girl kept staring at the newspaper in her hands.
So... this was the truth? She wasn’t a burden?
She didn’t know how the boy had dug up all this, but she was certain he’d gone to great lengths, spending who knows how much time, just to ease her guilt.
He must’ve sensed the gloom hanging over her.
All these days, listening to him spout dark, cryptic nonsense, she’d thought he was just trying to mess with her head. But in the end... he was messing with her head—just in a way she’d never forget.
Suddenly, her eyes stung. Not with the helpless, lonely tears she was used to, but with something unfamiliar—a warmth spreading through her chest.
"Thank you..." she mumbled softly. After all these years, it was the first time she genuinely meant it.
"Hey, we’re bros. If you really wanna thank me, just make me the primary beneficiary on your life insurance, dummy!" The boy grinned, completely unfazed.
The girl: "..."
"Why do you keep calling me dummy? I’m way smarter than most people here!" she huffed, indignant. She wouldn’t claim to be smarter than him, but compared to the rest of the orphanage? No contest.
The boy blinked, then grabbed the name tag on her wrist, squinting at the characters.
"Lin... Bai... dummy? Hah, so ‘little dummy’ isn’t even a stretch!" He rubbed his smooth chin, pretending to ponder.
The girl: "???"
"Who taught you to read like that?" she gasped.
"Nobody. I taught myself. Since I’m not in first grade yet, I had to use a dictionary. Isn’t this character ‘dummy’?" He blinked back, dead serious.
The girl: "..."
It took forever, but she finally managed to correct him—sort of. Good news: he stopped calling her "dummy." Bad news: he still called her "little dummy."
She wasn’t a dummy! Ugh, so annoying...
Big bro’s such an idiot...
......
"Listen up! This Ye Cheng may be broke, but he’s no pushover! No money here—just my life!!!"
Ye Cheng struck an exaggerated exorcist pose, leaving the girl in front of him utterly speechless. Sure, popping up behind him with a lighter was a bit startling, but did he really have to mistake her for a ghost?
So mean...
Lin Baizhi’s cheeks puffed up visibly as she glared at Ye Cheng.
"It’s me! Don’t you remember?"
"Nice try. Latest scam—‘It’s me, it’s me’ fraud?" Ye Cheng sneered, refusing to fall for it.
Lin Baizhi: "..."
Good news: big bro’s terrifying singleness skills hadn’t changed over the years, so no scheming women could weasel their way in. Bad news: she seemed to be locked out too... So annoying!
Finally, she rolled up her sleeve to show him the scar on her wrist—the one she’d gotten when he’d knocked her over on the playground. It was the only proof of her identity.
"Now do you believe me?" Lin Baizhi’s voice was icy, her eyes practically radiating enough resentment to rival an actual ghost.
Ye Cheng squinted, studying the fuming girl and her half-healed scar.
"Ohhh... right! The scammer!"
Lin Baizhi: "..."
"I wasn’t scamming you!" she snapped.
"Then I don’t know you. I only know the scammer." Ye Cheng turned to leave, leaving Lin Baizhi gaping in disbelief. Even after all this time, big bro’s antics were impossible to predict.
Panicking, she quickly backtracked, afraid he’d bolt: "Fine, fine! It’s me! I’m the scammer!"
"So it's you, kid. No wonder you looked so familiar. Alright, let's cut to the chase—how about you pay me 80 or 100 grand, and we’ll call it even? I won’t even hold it against you for trying to scam me. So, what’ll it be? QR code or bank transfer?"
Ye Cheng smoothly pulled out his phone and flashed the payment QR code, shoving it right in front of the girl.
The girl: "…"
reezy rom-com) Good news: Jiang Liu is quite the ladies' man. Bad news: He’s lost his memory. Lying in a hospital bed, Jiang Liu listens to a parade of goddesses spouting "absurd claims," feeling like the world is one giant game of Werewolf. "Jiang Liu, I’m your first love." "Jiang Liu, you’re my boyfriend—she’s your ex." "Jiang Liu, we’re close friends who’ve shared a bed, remember?" "Jiang Liu, I want to have your baby." The now-lucid Jiang Liu is convinced this must be some elaborate scam... until someone drops the bombshell: "The day before you lost your memory, you confessed your feelings—and got into a relationship." Jiang Liu is utterly baffled. So... who the hell is his actual girlfriend?! ... Before recovering his memories, Jiang Liu must navigate this minefield of lies and sincerity, fighting to protect himself from these women’s schemes. But things spiral even further out of control as more people show up at his doorstep—each with increasingly unhinged antics. On the bright side, the memories he lost due to overwhelming trauma seem to be resurfacing. Great news, right? So why are they all panicking now?
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."
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
