"He is with me, do not ask."
Dongfang Zhixia's slightly hoarse voice came through the phone, causing Shen Qinghan to freeze for a moment.
It was unexpected, but... it also made sense.
Ye Cheng was missing. The most likely place for him to be, other than the restroom, was at Dongfang Zhixia's place. She should have thought of it earlier, she should have...
Another gust of cold wind blew past. Even wrapped in a blanket, it could not block the piercing chill. Shen Qinghan's body subconsciously shivered, letting out a cold tremble.
Leaning against the wall, just as she was about to say something, Dongfang Zhixia's voice came through the phone again.
Her voice carried a hint of exhaustion, as well as a softness that was not usually there.
"Shen Qinghan, what do you want?" Dongfang Zhixia spoke, her tone terrifyingly calm, as if she were negotiating.
Shen Qinghan paused for a moment: "What are you talking about? Give him the phone."
"You know what I am talking about. I want this man. Tell me your conditions and I will do my absolute best to satisfy them," Dongfang Zhixia stated.
As if having made up her mind, she tore away the vague boundaries between the two of them for the first time. She did not want to keep dragging things out with Shen Qinghan like this; it did her no good.
Especially since her parents had already made their move and left a bad impression. At this point, she was not just facing enemies on all sides.
She was confident she could handle Shen Qinghan's side, but Du Wanyi...
Was simply too troublesome.
Even with Dongfang Zhixia's confidence, she did not dare say she could handle a certain unreliable madam. She was practically a carbon copy of Ye Cheng, no one could anticipate her moves, and she never played by the rules. How could anyone defend against that?
Back in his youth, Brother Doudou was the white knight for who knows how many wealthy young ladies in the Da Hai City social circles. With just a single word, he would not even have to pay for meals, there would be plenty of willing heiresses lining up to foot the bill!
Some did not even need Shen Ming to take responsibility and were willing to sign agreements. Others were even more ruthless, just wanting a one-night stand with Shen Ming to leave behind an heir...
It was a rather crazy phenomenon, but it was enough to show just how charming Brother Doudou was in his youth. The prodigy, the chosen son pushed forward by the Shen family over the past century, his true worth was extraordinarily high!
But in the end, he met Madam Du, and directly became Brother Doudou. Eat, sleep, and beat Doudou...
Shen Ming was a living example in their circle. Now that Ye Cheng had appeared, how could Dongfang Zhan and Su Su not be afraid?
In Dongfang Zhan's words... "Brother Shen, how did you end up in such a state?"
The boomerang came back too fast. They never expected that this time, it would not hit Shen Ming, but their own daughter. Another carbon copy had arrived, so how could they not be afraid?
If things continued to develop at this pace, their daughter was almost ninety percent guaranteed to be eaten alive!
There was absolutely no chance of her snapping out of it!
This kind of thing... no way!!!
The old father wept bitterly!
The old mother... whether she wept bitterly or not remained a question mark for now. She had already sensed something was wrong and needed to go down and verify it. All their previous information had to be thrown out and started anew.
There must, absolutely must be some key information they did not know and had overlooked. They had to find it out!
In Dongfang Zhixia's eyes, as long as she convinced Shen Qinghan to back out, she could eliminate the biggest threat. As for Lin Baizhi's side... she was not afraid at all!
The trouble never came from her peers, but from certain remnants of the old era from the previous generation, such as... Madam Du, the leader of the remnants.
Only Du Wanyi could give Dongfang Zhixia pressure. Otherwise?
Otherwise, would the pressure come from a problem child who only knew how to shout "Classmate, classmate"?
Or from a ridiculous childhood sweetheart who was scheming to create some beautiful memories?
Heh...
Right now, she just needed Shen Qinghan to nod, and she could wrap things up directly. She would make everyone in the school envy her, while at the same time, not daring to pry into her man!
They could only watch from afar!
When principles met a racing heart, all principles became nonsense. Dongfang Zhixia's principles had been lowered and changed time and time again. Her intuition, her sixth sense, and her own heart all clearly told her that the person she wanted was that certain guy.
Her other half had appeared!
Opportunities were fleeting, and she was not stupid enough to give other people a chance. Do not even think about it!
Even if she knew that her idea of persuading Shen Qinghan to quit was ridiculous now, she still had to try, even if there was only a one in ten thousand chance. Failure was not scary; what was scary was not even having the courage to accept failure!
If she failed, she failed. She would just start over. But if she succeeded, then it would be a true success!
"I will say it one more time. Give him the phone," Shen Qinghan's calm voice rang out, and a trace of disappointment flashed in Dongfang Zhixia's eyes.
As expected, it still would not work... That made sense. If it were that simple, it would not have dragged on until now.
Moreover... that certain guy was an absolute problem child. How could he compromise so easily?
The softness in Dongfang Zhixia's eyes instantly vanished, and her sharp edge reappeared!
"Him coming to my place was his choice. You are just a classmate. I hope you pay attention to the distance between you two. The school... forbids any relationship other than that of classmates. Do you understand, Shen Qinghan?"
Emphasizing status, declaring sovereignty, the initiative was in her hands!
Based purely on Shen Qinghan's awkward and stubborn personality, Dongfang Zhixia had her completely figured out!
As long as that certain annoying old woman was not around, a mere problem child... was utterly laughable!
There was a long silence on the other end of the phone, as if confirming something. Finally, amidst that long silence, the call was hung up.
It was over.
Dongfang Zhixia breathed a sigh of relief. Looking at the black screen of the phone, she seemed to be thinking about something... Hopefully, she could quickly resolve this trouble. The situation on her end was not too optimistic either.
While thinking about her parents, she turned around to return the phone to Ye Cheng, wanting to continue the conversation they had not had time to start earlier.
The moment she turned around.
With a thud, the little secretary, who had been lying perfectly fine on the hospital bed, suddenly sprang up. With lightning speed, she tackled Ye Cheng, who was still standing there with his hands spread open, ready to brag and give a speech as a wild genius, to the ground.
And non-stop... kissed him fiercely!
Dongfang Zhixia: "???"
Dongfang Zhixia froze for a moment. She was a bit unsure if she was hallucinating due to too much recent pressure. Otherwise... otherwise, why would she see such a bizarre and terrifying scene?
A hallucination?
"Hamster, damn it..." Ye Cheng struggled.
Little Secretary: "(๑˘₃˘๑)"
Dongfang Zhixia: "..."
"Ahhhhhhh-"
Dongfang Zhixia's pupils shrank violently. With a clatter, the phone dropped to the ground, and a piercing shriek echoed through the hospital room. She hurriedly rushed forward to pull the two apart, but the little secretary was hugging him so tightly that she simply could not pry her off...
The breakdown screams continued.
Meanwhile.
On the other side of the hospital.
After hanging up the phone, Shen Qinghan stood in the corridor for a while. Letting the cold wind blow over her for a bit made her mind much clearer. More accurately, because she had caught a cold and was running a slight fever, her head had been feeling dizzy, but the sudden chill from the breeze cooled her down and brought back some clarity.
Shen Qinghan returned to her usual spaced-out demeanor from class, staring blankly out the window, though now she was staring blankly at the sky outside the corridor.
It was so dark...
Feeling her head growing increasingly heavy, Shen Qinghan stopped standing in the wind. Tap, tap, tap. She retraced her steps back to the hospital ward where Ye Cheng was staying and sat motionless in her previous seat, staring at the spot where Ye Cheng had been lying.
It seemed she was waiting for Ye Cheng to return.
Tick, tock, tick...
She looked up at the clock hanging on the wall. It was almost three o'clock, and he still hadn't returned. He probably wasn't coming back.
Shen Qinghan put down the blanket wrapped around her and walked outside. She glanced toward the other direction at the end of the corridor. She knew he was over there.
She subconsciously wanted to walk in that direction, but Dongfang Zhixia's earlier words echoed in her mind.
Him coming to my place is his own choice. You are just a classmate. I hope you mind the distance between you two, the school...
The rest of it was just nonsense to Shen Qinghan. She knew that all that rubbish was just some female gorilla's bluffing, and whether any of it was true was highly questionable.
But there was one thing Shen Qinghan couldn't be certain about.
Ye Cheng hadn't come back and wasn't answering her calls. Was that Ye Cheng's own intention, or Dongfang Zhixia's?
The difference between the two was massive.
If it was the latter, as good classmates, she had every right to go over and save a certain idiot from being exploited and oppressed by a certain female gorilla. But if it was the former...
Shen Qinghan withdrew her gaze and started walking downstairs. Tap, tap, tap. Her footsteps were a little unsteady. Her body temperature was rising bit by bit, and her thoughts were beginning to blur...
She disappeared into the night.
...
As for the truth that Shen Qinghan cared so much about.
Ye Cheng: Damn Hamster, let me go! Stop kissing me, you're getting spit all over my face, fuck!!!
Save me, My Lady!!!
...
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.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
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."
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."
