"Wait a second, I almost forgot." Long Aotian returned to his bedroom and brought out a tin of cookies. "Li Qingxue asked me to give this to you."
"If Brother Long likes them, you should have them all," Hu Yuying said with a smile, since Li Qingxue had already told her about it over the phone.
But she felt it didn’t matter whether she ate them or not—if Brother Long enjoyed them, he should have them all.
"Take them. Last time you didn’t get to try any, and Li Qingxue scolded me for ages."
"She was even more naggy than you."
"But these really are delicious. Go on, try one."
Looking at the cookies placed in her hand, Hu Yuying nodded gently. "When we get to Capital City, I’ll make something delicious for Qingxue too."
Riding his bicycle, Long Aotian took Hu Yuying back to her rented apartment.
It had been a week since he last visited, but the place felt even cozier than his own home.
"So, Brother Long, would you like spicy stir-fried chicken or duck blood vermicelli soup today?" Hu Yuying asked as soon as they got home, already preparing to cook for him.
"Hold on, I just had breakfast not too long ago."
"Oh, right—you haven’t eaten yet, have you?"
Hu Yuying shook her head. "I’m not hungry."
Back when she lived alone, she rarely ate breakfast. It was only when Brother Long was around that she bothered making it.
"Come on, let’s go eat." No sooner had they arrived than he took her back out again.
Now that Hu Yuying had earned enough for tuition and living expenses, set aside some money for her grandparents, and still had a little left for herself, she didn’t feel too guilty about spending.
......
Lying on the bed, Hu Yuying turned her head to look at Long Aotian, her eyes brimming with unspoken delight. "Brother Long."
"Hm? What’s up?"
"I’m feeling a little nervous and excited." Hu Yuying took a deep breath, her delicate collarbones rising with the motion, tracing a perfect curve.
"Don’t be nervous, don’t be excited. Brother Long’s here. Close your eyes and relax," Long Aotian soothed softly.
Hu Yuying nodded obediently, but as she glanced outside, a hint of reluctance flickered in her gaze.
When she first arrived in this city, she had felt the same mix of excitement and fear.
Though she had suffered hardships here, she had also met Brother Long.
Now that she was leaving, she couldn’t help but feel a little wistful.
Lying on the narrow sleeper berth, she couldn’t sleep—partly because she was afraid of dozing off too deeply and having her things stolen.
She sighed lightly. The silk pants she wore were comfortable but too form-fitting; the hidden pockets she had sewn in bulged noticeably whenever she stored anything inside.
Brother Long had told her not to stash things there, but keeping them in her bag made her feel insecure.
"Brother Long, what are you doing?" Hu Yuying whispered.
"Checking stocks." Long Aotian had switched to a smartphone, making it much easier to use apps that weren’t compatible with his old button phone.
Hu Yuying blinked. "Brother Long, do you understand stocks?"
Long Aotian shook his head decisively. "No, but I know what to buy to make money right now."
"Really?"
"Want to invest a little?" Long Aotian chuckled at her curious expression.
Hu Yuying shook her head again. "I’d rather not."
For now, she still felt safest keeping her money close.
Long Aotian just smiled. Some things were best learned through experience, and he didn’t want to influence her too much.
She had her own path to walk. If he interfered, it might not necessarily be bad—but it wouldn’t be the life truly meant for her.
From nothing to something, Long Aotian was quite satisfied with his modest assets.
He wasn’t exceptionally talented, but he planned to take advantage of the upcoming housing market crash in Capital City and Qianshen in a couple of years to buy a few properties.
His current savings weren’t enough, but with a certain cryptocurrency about to skyrocket to $30 in its first major surge, he decided it was the perfect time to cash out.
After this spike, the value would plummet—but he could reinvest when it bottomed out, knowing it would surge again later.
Hu Yuying rolled onto her side, resting her cheek on her hand as she watched Long Aotian focus on his phone.
"Brother Long, you’re so kind."
"Brother Long, you’re also really handsome."
"Brother Long is the gentlest Brother Long."
After saying all this in one breath, she inhaled deeply, then slowly realized—she wasn’t blushing this time. Delighted, she giggled. "Brother Long, look! I didn’t turn red this time. Does that mean I’ve become thick-skinned now?"
Long Aotian’s hand paused mid-scroll. He didn’t look at her. "I’m starting to regret teaching you how to be shameless!"
Then he turned to face the wall.
Though she couldn’t see his expression, the tips of his ears were visibly red.
Hu Yuying noticed and grinned even wider. "Brother Long, are you blushing?"
"Don’t talk nonsense. You’d blush before I ever would."
She didn’t argue further—because she’d already seen the proof.
No amount of denial could change that.
Sleeping on a train wasn’t easy. At the very least, neither Long Aotian nor Hu Yuying felt the slightest bit drowsy yet.
The journey from Haibin to Capital City would take about eleven hours, arriving around 8:50 to 9:00 the next morning.
"Brother Long, I can’t sleep."
"What do you want to do, then?"
Hu Yuying’s cheeks flushed as she parted her lips slightly, gazing at him with innocent, pleading eyes. "I want to sleep with Brother Long... Only when I’m with you do I feel safe from being bullied~~"
Hearing this, Long Aotian stiffened slightly.
But seeing her pitiful expression, something in him relented. With a resigned sigh, he said, "You’re impossible. Just this once, okay? Come here."
"But no funny business, got it?" he added sternly.
"Mm-hmm, I promise. I’ll be good. Thank you, Brother Long!" Overjoyed, Hu Yuying threw back her blanket and slipped under his.
......
Hu Yuying blinked, puzzled as she watched Long Aotian, already asleep, still smiling.
"I wonder what kind of wonderful dream Brother Long is having. His smile is so lovely."
Listening to his soft snores, she suddenly remembered the first time they met—when he’d just vowed to study hard, only to fall asleep the next second.
Just like now. One moment he’d been wide awake, scrolling on his phone, and the next, after turning away, he was out like a light.
Quietly, she took out her phone and snapped a picture of him.
Then she retreated to her own berth, staring at the photo until she felt even more awake.
As dawn neared, she tucked her phone and bag under her pillow and finally dozed off for a short while...
[May you all have sweet dreams as well.]
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.
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?!
