“Brother Lin, shouldn’t we think of a way to deal with this?”
Shen Ming was unusually quiet. He hesitantly voiced the question, because what had happened in the restaurant was happening all over again—another passionate elbow-fighting match between the young miss and Sister Lin!
What happens when two evenly matched fighters are paired against each other?
A glorious battle!
The conflict between the two seemed impossible to reconcile. No, that wasn’t quite right. It was the conflict between Lin Baizhi and every woman who appeared around Ye Cheng that seemed impossible to reconcile.
Even if they switched opponents, Lin Baizhi would charge forward without hesitation and unleash the Sister Lin Combo. Like, say, against the President…
Whether she could actually win was another matter entirely.
As luck would have it, courage was the one thing Lin Baizhi had in abundance!
Even if her opponent was a physically powerful stat monster who could pin her to the ground with one hand and trigger a defeat CG, the President would still charge forward fearlessly!
Brother is mine!!!
ORA ORA ORA!!!
A furious barrage of combination punches rained down on the young miss. The young miss refused to back down either, returning the attack with a series of combination punches of her own. Their movements were so fast they were impossible to follow.
Unfortunately… the numbers floating above their heads were a little too absurd.
Lin Baizhi’s health bar: -1, -1, -1…
Shen Qinghan’s health bar: -1, -1, -1…
Lin Tianxiong: “……”
Shen Ming: “……”
The two fathers sighed in unison before squatting down to discuss how they could get their daughters to stop fighting.
“Young Master, I’ve brought the people over!”
The dorm matron’s excited voice echoed across the strangely quiet courtyard of the orphanage, brimming with the pride of someone reporting a job well done.
The Du family had one especially distinctive trait: practically every member of the family possessed an extremely strong sense of honor and belonging. Of course, there was another way to put it…
They were shamelessly devoted followers.
Though their devotion was reserved exclusively for the Du family head and the young master. Every time the dorm matron saw the young miss, she became incredibly enthusiastic.
Even though the young miss never paid her any attention, that enthusiasm had remained unchanged ever since the young miss was born.
Such a sweet and soft young master…
Loyalty!!!
The Chen family members: “……”
No, seriously? You’re not joking?
The dorm matron’s change of attitude had been far too fast. The difference between her previous and current demeanor was so enormous that the Chen family members, who had just witnessed her cruel and savage side, began to question their entire understanding of reality.
They wondered if they were still dreaming. How could a person have such a drastic contrast?
One second, she had been a vicious, cold-faced judge of the underworld. The next, she had turned into a devoted bootlicker…
Did she really have absolutely no dignity?
Shen Ming, who had been at a loss for a solution, heard the dorm matron’s voice and saw the Chen family members she had brought over. His tightly furrowed brows immediately relaxed.
Wonderful! The answer had arrived!
“I’ve got it, Brother Lin. Wait here!” Shen Ming shouted excitedly before hurriedly running into the orphanage.
“Hanhan, they’re here. Stop fighting, or we’ll waste time and won’t be able to find Xiao Cheng.”
At those words, the two women stopped their elbow fight at the exact same moment and exchanged a glance. Shen Qinghan had just started to get up and go over when Lin Baizhi immediately grabbed her, refusing to let her leave.
Lin Baizhi gathered her strength and pinned Shen Qinghan beneath her, intending to make a run for it. She got there first, but then… Shen Qinghan pinned her down again.
The two of them were like a pair of nesting dolls, endlessly pulling at each other. They rolled around until they were covered in dirt, tumbling across nearly two mu of ground, only to end up farther and farther from their target.
Shen Ming: “???”
This… this wasn’t quite how he’d imagined things going.
Suddenly, Shen Ming caught sight of a figure passing out of the corner of his eye. His eyes lit up. “Niece Zhixia, are you looking for these people too?”
His voice was neither too loud nor too soft—just loud enough for the two people wrestling on the ground to hear. They stopped at the same time yet again, then turned their heads in unison toward the entrance.
Without even turning her head, Dongfang Zhixia went straight toward the Chen family.
What a move… expertly redirecting the trouble elsewhere.
The two of them stopped playing their rolling-around game as well. They scrambled to their feet and charged toward the entrance, following Dongfang Zhixia.
The battlefield had been successfully relocated!
Well… how should one put it? At least they weren’t rolling around on the ground anymore. That was something.
Lin Tianxiong: Nicely done, Brother Shen. As expected of Dahai City’s lady-killer—you really know what you’re doing!
Su Su narrowed her eyes. First, she looked in the direction of the Chen family. Her daughter had gone over ahead of everyone else and clearly had the advantage, but then… some despicable man had interfered and thrown everything into chaos.
At last, Su Su’s gaze fell on Shen Ming, her eyes filled with hostility.
Shen Ming sensed the unfriendly stare, but pretended not to notice. He walked over to the side and began chatting with Lin Tianxiong.
“Brother Lin, I just heard the dean call you Boss Lin. You two know each other?”
He was asking despite already knowing the answer. Ye Cheng’s background had been thoroughly dug up long ago, so how could Shen Ming not know about Chen Youliang?
Besides, Ye Cheng and Lin Baizhi had known each other since childhood, and Lin Baizhi had openly expressed her feelings for Ye Cheng. She even seemed to have a bit of a yandere streak…
As for whether she truly counted as a yandere, that was still up for debate.
The reason was simple. It wasn’t that Lin Baizhi’s methods weren’t extreme enough—it was that Ye Cheng was simply too formidable. Whenever Lin Baizhi tried one of her extreme tactics, he always found some unexpected way to defuse it.
Lin Baizhi had been driven completely out of ideas. She had finally worked up the courage to be bold for once, only to transform into a timid lizard the moment Ye Cheng recognized her.
Just kidding… She could never really bring herself to be bold.
Although she was already an adult and had spent many years making her way in society, every time Lin Baizhi saw Ye Cheng, her heart still began to race. Her breathing quickened, and the tips of her ears flushed faintly red.
Every meeting was a moment of love at first sight. If that weren’t the case, Lin Baizhi’s constitution wouldn’t be this frail.
“Yes. Over the years, I’ve donated quite a bit of money to the orphanage. After all, this is where my daughter used to live.”
Lin Tianxiong’s answer was still carefully worded. He didn’t mention anything about Ye Cheng, and even said that his donations were simply because of his daughter.
Of course, continuing to say things like this at a time like this—especially in front of someone as perceptive as Shen Ming—was more or less an exercise in covering one’s ears while stealing a bell. Still… having an excuse was better than having nothing, wasn’t it?
If he admitted it outright, all their cards would be on the table. That would make things difficult.
Su Su let out a cold snort. “Are you two putting on a little two-man act for me?”
Shen Ming: “……”
Lin Tianxiong: “……”
They’d been seen through that quickly?
Neither of them had expected this little trick to fool Su Su for long, but they hadn’t expected her to call them out so bluntly, either.
Dongfang Zhixia’s tendency to throw straight punches came largely from Su Su. Su Su looked delicate and spoke gently, but beneath that softness was an iron will.
When it came to certain matters, she could be remarkably forceful. Once she made up her mind, even Dongfang Zhan couldn’t interfere.
Just like now…
Realizing that her husband might have been duped by some despicable schemer, she had simply proposed a showdown and taken complete control of the situation. Her head was clear, and so was her daughter’s.
Now, all they had to do was catch Ye Cheng…
And get the job done!
That was right—get Ye Cheng taken care of, immediately!
That was Su Su’s true line of thought, and it was practically identical to Sister Lin’s…
The celebratory champagne had already been opened for you, so don’t get too excited too soon…
Sister Lin had suffered precisely because she celebrated too early. She’d already opened the champagne, only for Ye Cheng to run off. See? That was the consequence of popping the champagne before the match was over. The brother you thought you had secured slipped away—happy now?
Su Su hadn’t originally been in such a hurry. But after witnessing the eldest young lady’s stubborn, single-minded determination, along with Lin Baizhi’s attitude of wanting the man at any cost…
She still felt it was necessary to speed things up.
The things the Dongfang family swallowed down had never been returned.
By the same logic… neither would anything swallowed by the other two families.
Strictly speaking, the Lin family wasn’t qualified. Even if they were the foremost family beneath the Big Three, they were still not quite on the same level. The Big Three were the Big Three—their standing was right there, in a league of their own.
But… Ye Cheng and Lin Baizhi had shared that incident in their childhood, and that instantly made up for the disparity in their backgrounds.
All three families had been brought back to the same starting line. From here on out, it would come down to who moved fastest…
Su Su was completely confident that her daughter could win Ye Cheng over. Their Zhixia wasn’t like some other family’s daughter, who went around calling him “classmate” this and “classmate” that…
The only thing still stubbornly hard about her was her mouth.
The troublesome one was Lin Baizhi.
With the way Lin Baizhi wanted the man and didn’t care what it cost, she might very well make her move even faster…
At the thought, Su Su couldn’t help frowning. Lin Baizhi’s way of doing things was even more ruthless than Lin Tianxiong’s had been in his youth—an exemplary case of the student surpassing the master.
Su Su felt rather lucky. Fortunately, Lin Baizhi hadn’t come to her senses back then and used any “underhanded” methods on Ye Cheng. Otherwise…
Just kidding. She’d wanted to use them for ages; she’d simply never had the opportunity.
That was also why Lin Baizhi would furiously elbow her own father whenever Ye Cheng came up nowadays, calling him “old bastard” with every other breath. What a heartwarming display of fatherly love and filial affection.
When all was said and done, she was still holding a grudge. Why on earth had he insisted on grooming a successor? Couldn’t he have gotten Ye Cheng taken care of sooner?
Two children in one year, three in two years, and in three years…
A whole football team!
Just thinking about it was enough to get Lin Baizhi excited. What a pity that it was all just wishful thinking. In reality, all she could do was sneakily turn off the lights at night and then…
Damn you, old man! It’s all your fault! Brother ran away, so let’s perish together and go find Mom!
Lin Tianxiong: “…”
The poor old father had endured no small amount of elbowing and “vicious remarks” from his own daughter whenever no one else was around… Fortunately, he was mentally tough. Otherwise, he might have ended up depressed.
He knew Ye Cheng was popular, but he hadn’t realized just how popular. Who would have thought that two of the three major families would get involved?
Just kidding… Actually, it was all three.
Lin Tianxiong and Su Su were both relieved that no one from the Tang family had gotten involved. Otherwise, things would have become even more troublesome. After all… the Tang family was even more anxious than the other two. In another two years, their daughter would officially be an overage leftover single woman.
She was at the golden age for “getting things done,” especially compared with their own daughters, who had only just reached adulthood… The advantage was simply too overwhelming.
Fortunately… the age gap between them was a little too large. They weren’t even of the same generation. Otherwise…
“Let’s go, Boss Lin. We’ll talk inside.” Su Su raised an eyebrow, folded her arms, and looked at Lin Tianxiong.
Shen Ming also turned his gaze toward them. As it happened, he had the same idea. It was obvious that something was going on between Lin Tianxiong and Chen Youliang—and it was clearly something they didn’t know about.
The more they could find out now, the better it would be for them…
Lin Tianxiong: “…”
Although he wasn’t particularly willing, it seemed that if he didn’t reveal something today, they weren’t going to let him leave so easily.
“Hahaha, all right, we’ll talk inside. The younger generation can handle their own affairs. Come on, this way.”
Lin Tianxiong laughed as he spoke. He glanced toward his daughter in the distance, then withdrew his gaze and took over as host in Chen Youliang’s place, leading them into the welfare home.
At Su Su’s signal, Chen Youliang was also escorted over by the Dongfang family’s bodyguards…
At the same time, on the other side of the entrance—
Dongfang Zhixia folded her arms and looked at the battered and bruised Xu Jingfu in front of her, as well as the unconscious Chen Qiao.
“What happened to these two?”
The dorm matron shook her head. “I don’t know. They were already like this when they arrived.”
The Chen family members: “…”
Awesome!!!
Shen Qinghan and Lin Baizhi also came over. Just like Dongfang Zhixia had done earlier, Shen Qinghan first swept her gaze across the group. When she saw Xu Jingfu and Chen Qiao, a trace of confusion flashed through her eyes.
“What happened to these two?”
“Young Mistress, could you come over here for a moment?” The dorm matron beamed, rubbing her hands together excitedly like a fly.
Shen Qinghan nodded. “Mm.”
Dongfang Zhixia: “???”
“Wait a second. Didn’t you just say you didn’t know?” Dongfang Zhixia stared at her in disbelief and demanded an explanation.
“Huh? Miss Dongfang, this old woman’s memory isn’t very good. Did I say that just now?” The dorm matron blinked, putting on an utterly “innocent” expression.
Dongfang Zhixia: “???”
The Chen family members: “…”
Shen Qinghan and the dorm matron were about to walk off to the side and close the door to whisper their “little secret.” Dongfang Zhixia and Lin Baizhi were having none of it.
They moved at the same time, grabbing Shen Qinghan from either side.
“Stop!” they shouted in unison.
“Talk right here!” Dongfang Zhixia and Lin Baizhi spoke at exactly the same time once again. They were so perfectly synchronized, it felt like they could join *Pacific Rim* and pilot Gipsy Danger to fight monsters—no compatibility testing needed. They could climb straight in and achieve a hundred percent synchronization!
“Are we that familiar with each other?” Shen Qinghan asked calmly, radiating an unmistakable don’t-come-near-me attitude.
The three of them… got into another scuffle!
Ora ora ora!!!
Muda muda muda!!!
The Chen family members: “…”
Badass!!!
e school belle recognized by the whole school, a genius girl from the kendo club. She also has a hidden identity, the youngest legendary demon hunter. Chen Shuo just transmigrated and found himself turned into a weak, helpless little vampire. He was caught by Su Xiyen and taken home at the very beginning. Since then, Chen Shuo's life creed only had two items. "First, classmate Su Xiyen is always right." "Second, if classmate Su Xiyen is wrong, please refer back to item one." Many years later, Chen Shuo, who had turned back into a human, led a pair of twins to appear in front of all the vampires to share the secret of how he turned back into a human. "It's simple, I tricked a female demon hunter into becoming my wife!"
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
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.
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."
