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: "…"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
young master of the Shen family—a figure of immense power and wealth beyond measure—and awakened the "Destined Ultimate Villain System"! His starting scenario? Running into his icy fiancée who shows up with a mountain-descending divine doctor to break off their engagement. The divine doctor arrogantly taunts: "What does your Shen family have besides a bit of stinking money? You're not even worthy of tying Qingxue's shoelaces!" Shen Fei just smiled. He completely defied the usual script: "Fine, I agree to break off the engagement. Also, notify the finance department to withdraw all investments from the Su family." Minutes later, with its capital chain severed, the Su Group teetered on the brink of bankruptcy! The once aloof and proud ice queen CEO was thrown into utter panic. That very night, she went to Shen Fei's villa, casting aside all dignity to beg and plead desperately... From then on, in this world teeming with Sons of Destiny, Shen Fei embarked on a path of extreme dimensional suppression! A mountain-descending divine doctor? Peerless medical skills? Shen Fei: "Reporting you for practicing medicine without a license! I'll gladly take your ancient medicinal cauldron and twin sister assassins." The Crooked-Smiling Dragon King? Commanding a hundred thousand soldiers with a single order? Shen Fei: "Illegal assembly and suspected treason! Let a fleet of attack helicopters sanitize the area and teach you what the state apparatus really means!" A reborn tycoon? Knows all the golden opportunities of the next decade? Shen Fei: "A trillion in capital to reverse and pump the stock market, making you blow your margin and jump on the very first day of your rebirth!" What Chosen Ones? What bearers of Heavenly Fortune? In Shen Fei's eyes, they're all just chives (i.e., suckers/marks) waiting to be harvested! Shen Fei: "Sorry, but as the Destined Ultimate Villain, I don't play by the rules of honor. I only play the game of dimensional suppression."
