“Hiss… This is a bit troublesome. The screw snapped. I hope it didn’t do too much damage to the motherboard.”
Ye Cheng held two thin steel wires in his hands, carefully adjusting his line of sight bit by bit. He had pushed his enhanced eyesight and hearing to an entirely new level.
He was using his eyes as a magnifying glass. Pupils dilate, pupils constrict…
You know what? This thing was seriously useful! Who had come up with it, anyway?
Ye Cheng was repairing the phone while Da Huang crouched nearby, watching him. In a sense, dogs were naturally nearsighted, so everything was blurry to them and they had to get very close to see clearly.
Just like Da Huang right now. Its snout was practically pressed against the phone’s casing, and it was still nudging forward with all its might.
“Smack!”
Under the forceful elbowing of Da Huang’s snout, the phone Ye Cheng had placed on a rock fell to the ground. In an instant, the already battle-scarred phone was smashed into pieces.
Ye Cheng: “…”
What shattered this time wasn’t just Madam’s phone. Ye Cheng’s heart had shattered too.
Silently, Ye Cheng set down the two little steel wires in his hands. Then he stretched his neck and searched from side to side in the dim cave for something. In the end, he spotted the burlap sack he had previously used to carry Da Huang.
It was fine. Take a deep breath, Mengde. The dizziness was normal. Oh, right…
In your next life, be a good dog!
Go to hell!!!
Ye Cheng got up and ran to the other side of the cave to retrieve the sack. Just as he was about to touch it, someone picked it up first.
Ye Cheng: “???”
Ye Cheng froze. Was there someone else in this cave?
He thought about it. There shouldn’t be anyone else, right?
As for Madam… she didn’t count. In a certain sense, Madam was practically a human-skin monster. Otherwise, had anyone ever seen a person bend steel bars apart with their bare hands?
That was ridiculous. Madam had to be a human-skin monster.
“Uh, Madam, why are you holding the sack?” Ye Cheng asked, pointing at the sack Du Wanyi had just picked up from the ground.
Du Wanyi glanced around as if she didn’t know he was talking to her. After a good while, she finally “realized” that Ye Cheng was the one who had spoken.
“Huh? Little Cheng-Cheng, are you talking to me?”
Ye Cheng: “…”
Madam, are you really human…? Could you maybe listen to what you’re saying? Is there anyone else in this cave besides the two of us?
“Uh, never mind. Madam, how’s it going over there? Have you found a way to contact the people outside?”
Ye Cheng pretended not to know anything. At the same time, his eyes remained fixed on the burlap sack in Du Wanyi’s hands.
He had a feeling that this sack was dangerous.
That didn’t make sense. Shouldn’t a burlap sack be the natural counter to a certain dog-shaped bastard? Why did he feel threatened by it?
Could it be… that he was also a dog-shaped bastard?
A rigorous process of logical substitution was taking place in Ye Cheng’s mind. In the end, he arrived at the equation: Ye Cheng = Da Huang.
He felt as if his brain had gone slippery.
While Ye Cheng was still lost in thought, he failed to notice that Du Wanyi was inching closer during that brief interval.
The distance between them grew smaller and smaller, so stealthily that he didn’t notice at all…
The burlap sack in Madam’s hands was practically trembling with anticipation, waiting for the perfect opportunity to strike and deliver a fatal blow—taking revenge for the insults she had just suffered.
On the surface, the two of them were discussing the situation. In reality, both were playing a game of eight hundred-layered mind games. Finally…
At a certain critical moment, Ye Cheng let his attention wander. Then, in an instant, everything went black before his eyes, followed by a vicious beating!
“Take that for insulting me! Take that! Take that…”
Ye Cheng: “???”
A few minutes later.
Ye Cheng, aching all over, held the burlap sack in his hands and began repeating the same routine.
“Da Huang, do you feel dizzy lately? Any soreness in your body?”
Ye Cheng looked at Da Huang with utmost seriousness.
Da Huang thought for a moment, then shook its head.
“Don’t worry. You will soon.”
As soon as Ye Cheng finished speaking, he dropped all pretense. He swung the burlap sack over Da Huang and began beating it with the exact same viciousness Madam had used earlier.
You dog-shaped bastard! I’m repairing a phone, and you’re sitting there watching God-knows-what! All you do is cause trouble!
Damn it!
A few minutes later.
Da Huang was dizzy and aching all over, lying there half-dead and “resting.” Judging by its appearance, it should be “fine.”
Ye Cheng, meanwhile, picked up the scattered phone components and continued repairing the phone. As for the beating he had just received from Madam…
Beating? What beating? He couldn’t remember any such thing.
That was the amazing part. After Madam beat Ye Cheng, he wouldn’t even ask why. He would simply take the beating obediently and leave it at that.
If he foolishly went over to ask questions or showed any sign of defiance, he might get beaten again—or receive another elbow from Madam.
Once you’ve been beaten into a meatball, you learn to behave…
This was where Brother Doudou had suffered from being too educated. He was always fond of digging into the details and asking why. After being beaten, he would ask why, hoping that he could remember it and avoid making the same mistake in the future.
But the moment he asked, he would get beaten again…
This bad habit had persisted for more than a decade. Until the day he died, Brother Doudou believed he was being beaten because he hadn’t memorized enough. It never once occurred to him that something might have gone wrong in the process.
See? If he had been like Ye Cheng—quietly taking the beating without saying a word—it would have been over, wouldn’t it?
Really?
Really my ass!
Damn you, Madam. Just you wait. When I get back, I’m telling the Young Miss. Waaaah…
Silently, Ye Cheng made a note of Madam in his little revenge notebook—a very large note, in fact. Once he had the chance to return, he would tell the Young Miss everything.
Young Miss, I’ve suffered so much while you were away…
Another day of missing the Young Miss…
Madam, just you wait. Once I get back, I’ll…
“Hm? Little Cheng-Cheng, why do I feel like you’re dissatisfied? Were you secretly cursing me in your heart?”
Du Wanyi, who had been crouching there “playing with mud,” suddenly raised her head for no apparent reason and stared straight at Ye Cheng, lifting an eyebrow.
Ye Cheng: “…”
“How could I? Madam, you’re imagining things. Let’s hurry up and keep repairing this, or who knows when we’ll be able to get out…”
“True enough. Let’s continue.”
Du Wanyi thought about it and decided that made sense. She nodded and continued “playing with mud.”
Ye Cheng let out a sigh of relief and wiped the cold sweat from his forehead. He didn’t dare challenge Madam’s Observation Haki again. He had already suffered plenty at the hands of the Young Miss. As for Madam…
Once you’ve been beaten into a meatball, you learn to behave.
Repair the phone. Repair the phone…
Ye Cheng muttered those words twice and continued adjusting his pupils as he worked on the phone.
Late that night.
Ye Cheng finally completed the last simple connection. Now, only the final step remained!
Come forth!
The ancient method of charging!
Ye Cheng picked up a small stone and threw it at Da Huang, who was still lying on the ground, “suffering from aches and pains.”
“Hey, stupid dog! Get over here. It’s time for you to repay the organization.”
Da Huang’s head had been smacked by a rock, and he propped himself up, looking back to see who it was. When he realized it was Ye Cheng, he flopped back down again, looking utterly defeated, as if to say, “I’m no good anymore.”
Ye Cheng: “…”
In silence, Ye Cheng put down his phone and went back to where he had left the sack…
By the time he returned with it, Da Huang was already standing beside the phone, wagging his tail furiously with a broad grin on his face, as if he were saying: You’re such a stickler. I was only fooling around with you just now. Teehee.
Ye Cheng tossed the sack aside, held down the phone’s back cover, and ordered Da Huang, “Come on, take a bite. Make sure you control your strength—don’t bite through the battery!”
Da Huang nodded, then… bit down!
The phone lit up!
Ye Cheng: “!!!”
Fuck yeah!
He was a goddamn genius!
Ye Cheng had even considered doing it himself—no, wait, using his mouth to give the battery a try—but the most important thing in an experiment was controlling the variables.
Timing was crucial too. You could conduct the exact same experiment under the exact same conditions, and it might succeed in the morning but fail at night. Wasn’t that ridiculous?
Things were tough right now. He had no room for trial and error at all. With no choice, Ye Cheng had abandoned that idea and pinned his hopes on Da Huang instead.
That one bite… had been absolutely insane!
Fortunately, it had worked.
Ye Cheng immediately flipped the phone over and started searching for his contacts and sending his location…
He had already found Big Brother Doudou’s chat window when he suddenly froze.
Wait… Something seemed off.
For example…
Was there a chance—just maybe—that he was currently on the run?
The problem hadn’t even been solved yet. Why the hell would he go back?
Was he trying to cosplay Cheng from The Quintessential Quintuplets?
Ye Cheng: “…”
Quietly, Ye Cheng exited the chat and returned to the home screen. He found the game on Madam’s homepage—Happy Match—and gleefully played two rounds.
“Good!”
“Great!”
“Excellent!”
“Uh… nobody!”
“Unbelievable!!!”
What a thoroughly satisfying effort at calling for outside help!
Just as the phone was about to run out of its final bit of power and shut down, a message suddenly popped up on the screen—a notification from WeChat.
The contact name was…
Little Han-Han (Kissy-Kissy Version).
“Where are you right now? That idiot is with you, isn’t he? Send me your location…”
“The other party has invited you to share your location…”
Ye Cheng: “???”
That single message left Ye Cheng drenched in cold sweat. He nearly wet himself from fright!
Oh, shit!
Had the young lady left location sharing on?!
By accident, Ye Cheng tapped into the chat window, causing the message to change from “unread” to “read, no reply”!
At the exact moment the status updated, the phone completely burned through the last bit of power Da Huang had supplied with his “ancient charging method.” The screen went black, and the phone shut down!
Nearby, Du Wanyi, who had finally finished making the “mud,” suddenly perked up at the sound.
“What was that?”
“The phone had power!”
“No, wait. Why did that sound like Happy Match just now?”
“Little Cheng-Cheng, what are you doing? What are you hiding?”
Du Wanyi raised an eyebrow, shook the mud off her hands, narrowed her eyes, and walked toward Ye Cheng…
Ye Cheng: “…”
Yamero! Please don’t come any closer, Madam!!!
No!!!
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.”
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
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."
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
