In the hospital room.
Tap, tap, tap. The only sound that could be heard was Dongfang Zhixia's footsteps moving around the room. She walked to the hospital bed, set down the bowl of plain congee in her hands, turned her head to glance at her father first, and then shifted her gaze to Ye Cheng, who had fallen to the floor and was coughing incessantly.
"Why did you get out of bed?" Dongfang Zhixia's voice was very calm, yet at the same time, excessively gentle.
At the very least, it was entirely different from her usual tone. Hearing this, Su Su's eyebrows twitched wildly on the sidelines... Something was definitely wrong!
Other than being this patient with that little girl from the Li family, when had their daughter ever treated anyone else like this?
Let alone a guy!
All the rumors, all the evidence and files, none were as shocking as this single sentence from Dongfang Zhixia just now. It was true. Everything she and her husband had suspected before was true!
Their daughter really was bewitched by this despicable gold-digger, and a mentally unstable one at that!
No, Zhixia!!!
Without realizing it, Su Su's face had contorted into a mask of pure agony.
Ye Cheng was also panicking inwardly right now. He had been too busy enjoying the air conditioning and feeling good, completely failing to notice the President's footsteps. Now he was caught red-handed.
Fortunately, there was a certain old geezer taking the heat in front. Since that was the case... sorry, old man!
Ye Cheng didn't hesitate for a second and immediately started playing dead. He bet that Dongfang Zhixia wouldn't know he was recovering well like a typical rich miss would, and would instead focus on caring for him.
What?
You ask what happens if he fails?
What else could happen? He'd just pick a favorite vegetable, wrap himself up, and be made into a dumpling.
"Cough, cough, I think I just hallucinated. It's so hot... cough, cough... I don't know if it's a post-surgery symptom, but my head is still a bit dizzy... cough, cough..."
Ye Cheng basically used his coughs as commas. With every cough, the look on Dongfang Zhixia's face grew a bit darker and gloomier.
Correspondingly, Dongfang Zhan's face turned a bit paler...
This little bastard, he was just jumping around full of energy a second ago!
Dongfang Zhan's eyes twitched. He distinctly remembered that Ye Cheng's coughing frequency hadn't been this high earlier. Now that it suddenly spiked, it was obvious he was doing it on purpose to mess with him.
Or rather, he was deliberately deceiving his daughter!
What a scheming gold-digger!
At this moment, Dongfang Zhan finally acknowledged Ye Cheng's title as a "despicable and shameless" gold-digger. He had previously thought the posts he read exaggerated things a bit... but looking at it now, it was all true!
That's right, the vibe coming from Ye Cheng, wasn't it exactly like a certain nightmare he had grown up with?
As for who it was, damn it, it was so hard to guess...
Ye Cheng's acting was somewhat clumsy, but not in the sense that he acted poorly, rather it was a bit abrupt. What normal person coughed like that?
Standing on the side, Su Su's eyelids twitched as she watched Ye Cheng cough "weakly," but she didn't make a sound, wanting to see exactly how her daughter would handle this.
Could she see through such clumsy acting? He was obviously fishing for sympathy!
Su Su admitted that Ye Cheng might have had surgery and his body would be relatively weak, but judging from his performance just now, Ye Cheng was definitely not weak to this extent. He only became like this after their daughter returned!
Ye Cheng was faking it!
Zhixia, don't fall for it!
The two of them had come straight here without saying a word. Showing up at the hospital put them in the wrong to begin with, and Su Su still hadn't figured out how to bring this matter up without making her deeply poisoned daughter too agitated.
She wanted to see exactly what her daughter's attitude towards Ye Cheng was, which would determine what she would say next and how she would handle the situation.
Looking at it now... it was going to be very difficult.
That damn gold-digger!
"It must be that the anesthesia hasn't worn off yet. I told you not to run around, honestly..." Dongfang Zhixia blamed Ye Cheng while carefully helping him up from the floor.
Although her words were full of blame, anyone with eyes could see it was nonsense; her heartache was practically overflowing!
Su Su: "!!!"
No, Zhixia, no!!!
Wake up, Zhixia! He is just a despicable gold-digger playing with your feelings. Open your eyes and look, Zhixia, he is lying to you!!!
Su Su had now become an incompetent mother, only able to stand aside and watch helplessly as her daughter fell into the scheming man's trap. She was powerless; she couldn't do anything, she couldn't achieve anything...
It hurts, it hurts so much!
With such clumsy acting, if Dongfang Zhixia's IQ was online and she viewed Ye Cheng normally, without any guilt or feelings of owing him, she would absolutely have seen through it.
And she would have already started teaching the playing dead Ye Cheng a lesson.
But not now. Right now, because of the little secretary incident, the President had already been hit with several layers of negative buffs. Her reason was still intact, but her emotional side had been maxed out.
She was no longer able to process things with normal logic. When it came to Ye Cheng, she subconsciously favored him to alleviate the guilt and debt she felt towards him in her heart.
Ye Cheng lay back down on the bed, put the oxygen mask back on, and returned to the state Dongfang Zhan and his wife had seen earlier, coughing every now and then.
Dongfang Zhixia stood by, her expression complex. "Rest well. I'll find the best doctors to make you get better as quickly as possible."
Ye Cheng: "..."
Why did that sound so familiar?
To avoid being settled with and beaten up by the President, Ye Cheng ultimately decided to stay silent and keep playing dead. He just coughed a couple of times in a delirious manner and nodded as a response to Dongfang Zhixia's words.
The conversation ended, and Ye Cheng entered sleep mode, closing his eyes and going AFK.
Ma'am, if I ever believe you again, I'm a dog!
As for Du Wanyi, she was currently still exchanging dragon breaths with Lin Baizhi.
Lin Baizhi: "Ptooey!"
Du Wanyi: "Ptooey!"
Lin Baizhi: "Ptooey, ptooey, ptooey..."
Du Wanyi: "Ha-tui~"
Inside the ward, it was terrifyingly quiet.
"Dad, come out with me for a moment. I have something to tell you." Dongfang Zhixia withdrew her gaze from Ye Cheng and aimed her spearhead at her old father, who had been silent for a long time.
"Daughter, this kid is faking it. You just..." Dongfang Zhan looked at Ye Cheng, who was lying in the hospital bed wearing an oxygen mask, and ground his teeth in hatred.
"Enough!" Dongfang Zhixia's sharp reprimand echoed in the room, her voice growing significantly colder.
Seeing that the situation was turning bad, Su Su hurriedly spoke up, "Husband, how can you say that about her classmate?"
Dongfang Zhan: "???"
No, wife, you...
His teammate had suddenly defected. Dongfang Zhan's face was left with nothing but an old man's shock and disbelief. He had thought she would provide an assist and help him explain, but who knew she would just ruthlessly stab him with a knife?
Su Su shot Dongfang Zhan a look, the meaning of which was very simple.
Husband, don't open your mouth. You just take the hit alone, otherwise our daughter won't listen to a single word later...
To put it simply, this was a sacrifice strategy. Husband and wife are like birds in the same forest, but when disaster strikes, they fly their separate ways. Seeing her daughter's attitude towards Ye Cheng, Su Su decisively changed her previous plans and sacrificed her own husband in exchange for a chance to have a proper conversation later.
Otherwise, if the couple took the damage together, the result would be an explosive tantrum, them getting kicked out, and their daughter refusing to come home. Just thinking about that scenario made Su Su break out in a cold sweat.
Dongfang Zhixia already had a significant portion of the family's assets in her hands and completely did not need to rely on the Dongfang family.
If she said she was going to move out and establish her own household right now, she would run off immediately without a single ounce of hesitation.
Everything has two sides. Since they enjoyed the benefits of their daughter's strong capabilities and high degree of independence, they had to face her rebellious nature and domineering temper.
Dongfang Zhixia believed her family was right, but she believed in herself even more.
However, Su Su wasn't a pushover either. While speaking up and selling out her husband, she didn't forget to passively-aggressively throw some shade at Ye Cheng.
"This student is already lying here, could he be faking it? Hubby, how could you think so badly of people? This child doesn't look like a scheming person at all. You've really disappointed me!" Su Su deliberately raised her voice quite a bit.
Dongfang Zhan: "???"
Wait... why is there more!
Stop talking, wife. If you say any more, our daughter is going to ignore me forever...
As for Ye Cheng... he didn't feel dissed at all.
Sorry about that, what scheming or not scheming? His throat was just a little itchy, and his head coincidentally felt a bit dizzy just now!
"Dad, I'll ask you one last time, are you leaving or not?" Dongfang Zhixia narrowed her eyes, her voice cold. Even when speaking to her family, she maintained this domineering tone.
Dongfang Zhan took one last look at Ye Cheng.
Good boy, I'll remember you!
Dongfang Zhan braced himself and said, "Alright, daughter, let's talk outside."
Hearing this, the expression on Dongfang Zhixia's face finally softened a bit, and she walked outside. Dongfang Zhan followed behind her. Right before they left, Su Su didn't forget to give some final instructions.
"Hubby, don't talk back. You know what our daughter's temper is like. Just give in and let it pass, otherwise she really might run off with someone..."
Dongfang Zhan: "..."
Dongfang Zhan clenched his fists, the muscles on his face stiffening and the veins on his forehead bulging. He had never suffered such a grievance in his life.
At his age, to actually be played like this by a scheming boy—he truly felt he was doing a disservice to his status as the head of the Dongfang family. But at the thought of his daughter, Dongfang Zhan forcefully swallowed his anger again.
He had a stubborn temper, but wasn't his daughter the exact same?
Both husband and wife could foresee that if they started arguing now, tomorrow... oh, no, before midnight tonight, their daughter would run away.
Running away was easy, but getting her to come back later would be incredibly difficult. Furthermore, they were the ones in the wrong regarding this matter to begin with, having rushed straight to the hospital without giving any prior notice.
Step, step, step. With the departure of the father and daughter, the only people left in the room were Ye Cheng, who was lying on the bed playing dead, and Su Su, who was grinding her teeth in hatred.
After all those things she had just said, Ye Cheng actually didn't react at all?
Su Su glanced at the heart rate monitor connected to Ye Cheng. It was frighteningly steady. He truly had nerves of steel and wasn't afraid in the slightest!
What thick skin!
"Student, can we talk?" Su Su took a deep breath, a gentle and elegant smile appearing on her face.
Ye Cheng: "Cough, cough..."
Su Su: "..."
Until the President returns, I won't say a single word!
Also, Madam, if I ever trust you again, I'm a dog. Where did you go!!!
Ye Cheng was quite slippery, only choosing to engage in situations that were advantageous to him. Now that the President had left, leaving behind a "supersized President," only an idiot would speak up now. Who knew if she would turn on her phone's voice recorder or something...
"It's fine, student. If you're feeling unwell, you don't need to speak. I can do the talking." Su Su was also a shrewd person. Unlike a young girl fresh out of society, she knew Ye Cheng could hear her and simply didn't want to talk to her.
She simply started talking to herself.
As long as Ye Cheng was a smart person, he should know how to choose after hearing her words.
"Student, let's be frank. You do have some tricks up your sleeve, and I know you've prepared for this opportunity for a long time. Our Dongfang family admits defeat!"
Su Su's tone was very peaceful.
"I acknowledge your personal abilities, but Zhixia's father doesn't really like you..."
Quietly, she pinned the blame on a certain old man again. Anyway, since he wasn't here, she might as well throw whatever she could at him and make the most of the situation...
"Name a price. This money will be delivered to you in the safest way possible. You don't have to worry about any subsequent troubles. Our Dongfang family is willing to accept our loss and can afford to pay."
Su Su took a deep breath and said the words "accept our loss."
In her eyes, for her daughter to be taken down by a scheming boy like Ye Cheng without anyone noticing was a failure on their part as parents. Since it was their negligence, they should bear the consequences.
They would just treat it as spending money to buy a lesson. A situation like this absolutely could not happen again in the future!
Su Su rummaged around for a moment and took out a pre-prepared check. A... blank check!
It already had Dongfang Zhan's signature on it, which meant it was legally binding. There were a total of nine boxes, representing nine digits. This meant that as long as Ye Cheng wanted to, he could fill them all with 9s and walk away with a billion!
Naturally, a billion in cash was impossible, but it could be converted into other stocks, real estate, and funds... In short, this billion would make Ye Cheng very satisfied.
"Student, our Dongfang family admits defeat. We also hope you will be magnanimous and let our Zhixia go."
The smile on Su Su's face disappeared, becoming earnest and serious.
Ye Cheng seemed to smell the scent of money and swoosh, he opened his eyes... blinded by greed!
He counted carefully. There were nine digits in total, which meant... one billion!
"Beep beep, beep beep, beep beep..."
At a speed visible to the naked eye, Ye Cheng's heart rate began to rise!!!
Seeing Ye Cheng's excited appearance, Su Su secretly breathed a sigh of relief in her heart... She wasn't afraid of Ye Cheng asking for too much; she was afraid of Ye Cheng not wanting anything at all. If Ye Cheng didn't want it, it meant he was dead set on their daughter, which was the most terrifying prospect.
If Ye Cheng wanted it, they would give it!
Ye Cheng was instantly revived with full health and perked up: "Auntie Su, your sincerity has moved me!"
Su Su: "???"
Su Su looked at Ye Cheng with a confused expression, but soon the confusion in Su Su's eyes turned into shock... Scratch, scratch, scratch. Ye Cheng wrote down a specific number on the check!
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!
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?!
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."
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.
