"Are you doing alright at school?"
Hu Yuying nodded softly. "I'm fine, though I still feel a little unadjusted sometimes."
Unadjusted to being alone, unadjusted to not being able to cook for Long Aotian every day. It seemed like everything in this city felt unfamiliar.
She had grown used to being by Long Aotian's side, accustomed to his maturity and his occasional playful, unserious demeanor.
Her classmates acted childish, often doing meaningless things just to get her attention.
But she got along well with her roommates—not just in the dorm, but in class too.
No one bullied her anymore.
"What about you, Long Aotian?" Hu Yuying asked in return.
"Not bad. It’s a little different from what I imagined, but I’m happier than I expected." Long Aotian thought of his three self-proclaimed "adopted sons" in the dorm and couldn’t help but chuckle.
It was like they were determined to make up for every missed opportunity from high school now that they were in college.
"Long Aotian, I think you’ve changed a little," Hu Yuying said, tilting her head as she studied him seriously.
"How so?"
"I don’t know." She sighed in frustration. She couldn’t pinpoint exactly what was different, but she could feel it.
If she had to put it into words, he seemed more at ease, as if some invisible wall inside him had shifted without notice...
But no matter how he changed, he was still her Long Aotian.
"Long Aotian, um… can I message you when I’m free?" Hu Yuying murmured. "Or if you have time, you could message me too..."
The last time she’d reached out, he’d been busy eating with his roommates, and she’d worried about disturbing him.
Hearing this, Long Aotian smiled sheepishly. He *had* been neglecting his little follower lately, too caught up in goofing off with his dormmates. "Sure."
Delighted by his answer, Hu Yuying happily shared more stories from her past few days at school—down to what she ate every day, how cheap and delicious the campus food was, and so on.
With Long Aotian, it seemed she always had endless things to say.
Li Qingxue returned from the restroom and took her seat, glancing at the tableware that had already been rinsed with hot water. She lightly smacked Long Aotian’s back. "Thanks."
Long Aotian’s brows twitched imperceptibly before he forced a smile and stretched his back. "Just eat your fill later."
Li Qingxue’s eyes flickered, but she grinned. "Fine. I’ll eat you broke."
"I’ll leave you here as collateral and make a run for it with Hu Yuying!"
"You *dare*! If I catch you, I’ll bite you to death!" She burst into laughter, reminded of how Gao Quan had once been left as "collateral" at a barbecue stall by Ye Liangchen.
"Long Aotian, don’t leave Qingxue here as collateral," Hu Yuying giggled, tugging lightly at his sleeve.
"See? Hu Yuying and I are the real besties. Watch out, or we’ll leave *you* behind!"
Though the meal wasn’t extravagant, it brought endless laughter to the three of them, all far from home.
"Full?"
"Full x2."
"Can you two ride bikes?" Long Aotian asked.
Li Qingxue rolled her eyes. "I was the one who biked over with the fruit and snacks for you. Can’t you pay attention?"
"I can ride too," Hu Yuying chimed in, happy that Long Aotian cared enough to ask.
"Then let’s go. I’ll take you back." With a wave of his hand, Long Aotian led the two of them to the bike-sharing station.
He pulled up the navigation app, switching to cycling mode—3.2 kilometers in total.
The three of them pedaled through unfamiliar streets, Long Aotian in front and the two girls trailing behind.
From the moment they started riding, the smiles on their faces never faded.
Even back when they’d first learned to ride bikes, following their families hadn’t felt as joyful as this.
Or maybe it had—but that was so long ago, the happiness couldn’t compare to now.
At this age, they were still too innocent to understand why some would say, *"I’d rather cry in a BMW than laugh on a bicycle."*
But at least in this moment, they were happy.
"Damn, this looks even more impressive in person." Long Aotian stared up at the gates of University A. "No wonder it’s the top school in the capital."
"The campus is huge too. Want to take a look inside?" Li Qingxue offered.
"Another day. You two head back."
As he watched them walk away, his phone buzzed twice.
It was Li Qingxue, who had just left. The message was brief: *"Wait, don’t leave yet!"*
Confused but obliging, Long Aotian lingered. They were all from the same hometown, after all. Helping each other out was natural.
Before long, Li Qingxue came sprinting back, panting. She shot him an exasperated look—here she was, exhausted, while he stood there surrounded by female classmates asking for his QQ handle...
She marched up to him. "Come with me."
Without waiting for a response, she turned and walked away.
Long Aotian smiled apologetically at the girls. "The person I’m waiting for is here. See you."
He caught up to Li Qingxue. "Hey, what’s up?"
"What, scared I’ll sell you off?" She quickened her pace.
Once they reached a quieter spot, Li Qingxue suddenly stopped and turned to face him.
Long Aotian frowned under her intense gaze. "Do I have something on my face?"
Li Qingxue didn’t answer, just kept staring until her eyes began to redden.
"Wait, what’s wrong? Don’t tell me you’re about to cry—I’ll punch you!" Long Aotian couldn’t handle girls crying in front of him. The moment tears fell, logic went out the window—suddenly, everything was *his* fault.
"What’s wrong with *me*? What’s wrong with *you*?"
"Me? What did I do?" He was still lost.
"What happened to your back? Did you get into a fight?"
Li Qingxue had heard about University T—full of athletes. Had they ganged up on Long Aotian because he was an outsider?
He’d been fine yesterday, but now, after just one night, even a light touch made him wince and tense up.
And he’d tried to play it off like nothing was wrong—but she’d noticed!
"My back is just—hey, hey! No groping—"
"Stay still, or I’ll tell Hu Yuying." Li Qingxue sniffled, her voice thick.
Amused but obedient, Long Aotian stopped resisting...
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!
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.”
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."
