The villa of Xia Tongxin at Daehai City’s Noble Academy.
It was another day off, and the little maid of the Xia family had the day off as well… though it was a last-minute arrangement.
In the enormous villa, there were only three people.
Upstairs, Xia Tongxin was fast asleep, hugging a stuffed cow and seemingly caught in a nightmare. Downstairs, the head maid and the lady of the house sat opposite each other at the coffee table.
It was time for a heart-to-heart.
The lady of the house had questions to ask, and the head maid knew that her mistress had questions for her. Yet neither of them said anything.
The commotion caused by Ye Cheng’s disappearance had been anything but small. The most obvious sign was that the people dispatched by the Du and Dongfang families to search for him had practically turned the entire school grounds upside down.
Naturally, the head maid had never expected to keep what had happened here a secret. Her mistress was bound to have found out about some of it.
For example… her relationship with Ye Cheng was far closer than her mistress had imagined.
“Xiaoyu, your birthday is coming up soon, isn’t it?” the lady of the house asked with a light smile, breaking the strangely tense silence in the hall.
The head maid nodded. “Yes, ma’am. The New Year is only a month or two away.”
The head maid had been born around New Year’s, which made her birthday easy to remember. The New Year arrived, and she grew another year older. She rather liked the holiday, since she could eat some things she normally never got to have.
Of course, that had been when she was young. Back then, the head maid had struggled to survive in the slums. Every day, the happiest thing in her life was eating until she was full—or… having a good meal in her dreams at night.
It was a plain and modest wish: simply to have a bite to eat. A simple desire born from struggling on the very edge of starvation.
Even after all these years, when everything had changed completely, that original desire had never left her. Deep down, the greatest source of happiness and security for the head maid was still having enough to eat.
It was an obsession, a fixation born of poverty—a longing to live.
That was also why, after spending some time with Ye Cheng, she had increasingly felt close to him and instinctively wanted to draw nearer. When it came to poverty and the desire to survive, the two of them had a shared language.
Besides, Ye Cheng was even more outstanding in that regard. A powerful individual naturally attracted her.
“Are you going back to visit them this year?” the lady of the house continued.
The head maid was silent for a moment before shaking her head. “No. I’ll just send the money back on time. That’s all they need.”
Her parents… did not love her.
Of course, they still “loved” her now—but only on the condition that she could be turned into money. She was a money tree to them, not a daughter.
The lady of the house nodded. “Very well. Xiaoyu, you’ve always been an independent child. You’re also the one who gives me the least cause for worry.”
“Life is very long. I used to long for familial affection. Later, I found love and friendship. In the end, I realized that only family could truly be relied upon. Love is like a gust of wind. No matter how fiercely it blows, eventually, the wind will pass…”
Memories surfaced in the lady’s eyes as she recalled the events of her youth.
Then she returned to the present.
“Xiaoyu, you know that Tongtong has always regarded you as her older sister, and I’ve always treated you as my own child. We’re a family, aren’t we?” the lady of the house suddenly changed tack.
The head maid came back to herself. Without much hesitation, she nodded. “Yes, ma’am. We’re a family.”
Her tone was somewhat flat, but there was not the slightest hint of wavering in it. This was something the head maid had decided long ago. It was her mistress who had taken her away from that nightmare of a place.
For the rest of her life, all she needed to do was repay her mistress and help her young lady. That was her creed.
Everything else had to come afterward—even the major matters of her own life…
“Then… Xiaoyu, if I asked you to get married, would you hate me?” The lady of the house looked at her calmly.
The head maid’s pupils contracted. Her hands clenched tightly. After a brief hesitation, she accepted the result.
“No.”
Her voice had become much more desolate, but there was still no resentment in it.
“You’re not going to ask who?” the lady of the house asked.
“There’s no need.”
The head maid’s tone was calm and decisive.
Because this was what her mistress wanted. So… there was no need to know who it was. She only needed to do as she was told.
“No, you do need to know!” the lady of the house said with absolute certainty.
She had seen every detail of the head maid’s reaction. After all these years, she still trusted her own judgment.
Meeting the head maid had been one of the great blessings of her life. She was also grateful to heaven for taking pity on her and giving her another family member she could rely on and trust.
Her words had been cruel, resembling the way her own family had once arranged her fate and chosen a marriage partner for her when she was young—the same lofty, condescending manner of someone bestowing charity.
She hated those people. She hated those so-called “family members.”
Human emotions were complicated. They were not as black-and-white as television dramas portrayed them, nor could everything be solved simply by dying.
She had accepted her own fate, just as the head maid had struggled and hesitated for a brief moment before finally accepting hers.
It was as if she were looking at her younger self.
That weak, helpless, pitiful version of herself, swept along by forces beyond her control…
It shouldn’t be this way!
The lady of the house took the head maid’s hand and gently soothed her emotions. Looking at her, she spoke in a soft yet firm voice.
“Xiaoyu, it shouldn’t be this way. No one should be forced to do something they don’t want to do—not even by me!”
The head maid’s pupils contracted. She stared blankly at the lady of the house. “Ma’am, I…”
“You and Tongtong are both my children. If anyone tries to bully either of you, they’ll have to step over my dead body first.”
Those words instantly reddened the head maid’s eyes. Tears spilled uncontrollably from them and slid down her cheeks… drip, drip, falling onto the table between them.
Each tear sent ripples across the surface.
The touching moment passed very quickly. After laying the groundwork for a while, it was finally time to get to the real subject. The lady of the house changed the topic and began the actual conversation.
Naturally, everything she had said before had been sincere as well. But… to make the conversation that followed go more smoothly, she had added just a tiny bit of groundwork.
After all, the lady of the house truly regarded the head maid as her second child. She did not want any estrangement or cracks to appear between them.
“Do you know who I wanted you to marry just now, Xiaoyu?”
Confusion appeared in the head maid’s reddened eyes. She gave a slight shake of her head.
“Grandpa Niu.”
The head maid: “???”
In an instant, the air seemed to freeze. The head maid stiffened where she sat, the confusion in her eyes transforming into shock and disbelief.
The lady of the house saw every bit of it. The corners of her lips curled into a smile so subtle it was almost imperceptible.
Wonderful. Judging from Xiaoyu’s reaction, her earlier thoughts and predictions had most likely been correct!
The lady of the house had often wondered what would happen if she were gone one day, or if some accident prevented her from continuing to care for Tongtong.
Even if the head maid were there, she would eventually get married too.
As the saying goes, once a woman gets married, her heart changes too—she starts favoring her husband’s family. The Madam herself was a perfect example, which was why she feared that the Head Maid might become partial in the future. What would happen to their Xia Tongxin then…
She had never been able to find a solution that would satisfy everyone, until…
Grandpa Niu appeared.
All her problems seemed to resolve themselves at once!
Especially when Ye Cheng and Shen Qinghan appeared together at the game center. In that instant, the Madam felt as if her acupoints had all been opened at once, revealing an entirely new possibility.
The only drawback was that it was, well… something that might earn her a little moral condemnation.
But it was fine. She was a fairly traditional woman herself, and as the family’s “Ninth Madam,” she had an innate tolerance for this sort of thing.
A battle-hardened warrior of feudalism!
The Madam!
“Madam, what… what are you talking about?” The Head Maid’s face flushed bright red, and her voice was noticeably flustered. She tried to retreat, but the Madam was holding both her hands, leaving her no way to break free.
The Madam froze when she saw the Head Maid’s reaction.
She had originally expected a fairly indifferent response at most—perhaps a lack of disdain or disgust. But this…
She was blushing?
She was nervous?
Could Grandpa Niu really be that impressive? Had he already won Xiaoyu over?
Plans had changed. Time to move straight on to the next step!
The Madam’s original plan had been to open the door little by little, first persuading the Head Maid to accept Ye Cheng, then slowly raising their favorability toward one another. As long as Xiaoyu’s favorability reached the maximum…
Ye Cheng would be unable to escape. After that, she could slowly raise Xia Tongxin’s favorability. They were all here anyway—there was no way he could run.
The only difficult part was that the Head Maid might strongly resent the idea, or even refuse to accept Ye Cheng altogether. This had troubled the Madam greatly. If Xiaoyu truly disliked him, she would have to think of another way.
After all… the Head Maid was her daughter too. She did not want to sacrifice one child in order to fulfill the other.
Who could have expected Ye Cheng to deliver such a huge surprise?
In all these years, it was the first time the Madam had ever seen the Head Maid look so young and bashful. She was exactly like a girl in love!
Wonderful! Absolutely wonderful!
“Hmm… I’m sorry, Xiaoyu. Just pretend I never said anything…” The Madam sighed, pressing her red lips together as she put on an apologetic expression.
A strategic retreat!
Acting too eager at a time like this would make it seem as though she had an ulterior motive, so she deliberately did the opposite. At the same time, she could observe the true feelings in Xiaoyu’s heart and see whether she really…
The Head Maid seemed to realize what was going on. She suppressed the strange feeling inside her and returned to her usual composure.
“Madam, I’ll give this serious consideration. I’ll always stay by the young lady’s side!”
The Head Maid had phrased it rather tactfully, but if one translated her words, they meant: She would always stay by her young lady’s side; the young lady would always stay by Ye Cheng’s side; and she would always stay by Ye Cheng’s side.
The Madam: “!!!”
Xiaoyu, you little…
Neither of them said it outright, but they both understood the other’s meaning and quietly laid their cards on the table. This was the conversation of clever people. If a certain little golden-haired girl had been there, she would have been reduced to…
“Bla bla bla bla bla.”
The matter on this side had been temporarily settled. Next came another issue.
The Madam took a deep breath. “Xiaoyu, do you know where Grandpa Niu is right now? I want to meet him. I won’t tell anyone about this!”
The Head Maid looked troubled…
…
Meanwhile.
In some remote corner of Da Hai City.
“Da Huang, have you found him yet? Are you sure this is the right place?”
Da Huang led the way, sniffing as he went, while Du Wanyi followed behind him…
Together, they formed the ultimate person-and-dog search team!
A blood-pumping combination attack!!!
“Woof!”
Da Huang raised his head and barked toward a certain direction.
“This way?”
Du Wanyi’s eyes lit up. She hoisted Da Huang over her shoulder, transformed into a blur, and vanished from the spot, rushing toward… the shady bus stop where Ye Cheng had last stayed in Da Hai City!
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?!
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!
saw a female celebrity tied up and stuffed in the trunk! Little did he know, countless cameras were aimed at him at this moment - this was a new type of reality show. The first randomly selected passerby was caught in less than an hour. But when Xu Moru was selected, things started to take an unexpected turn. "Damn, this isn't how the script goes. This Xu Moru is too bold, he's not following the rules at all." "Crap, is this guy taking it seriously?" "The female celebrity has been scared to tears!"
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.
