Lifting Long Aotian's shirt, Li Qingxue saw a large red swelling on the right side of his back, with a faint scar across it—though it had stopped bleeding by now.
"Long Aotian, were you beaten up?" Li Qingxue's voice trembled as she took in the sight of the injury.
Long Aotian turned and lightly flicked her forehead with a scoff. "Do I look like someone who gets bullied easily?"
"You can't even see it yourself. It's so swollen—no wonder you were in so much pain."
Li Qingxue didn’t fully understand men’s resilience. For her, even a minor scrape could hurt for ages. Seeing such a large bruise on his back, she could only imagine how much it must ache...
"Hey, hey, don’t cry. It’s not what you think." Long Aotian then explained everything—how after registering for school, he’d gone out to eat with his roommates and ended up intervening when he saw someone being harassed.
"You idiot! Always sticking your nose where it doesn’t belong. But did you even stop to think? What if that lunatic had thrown a knife instead?..."
Li Qingxue huffed, though she knew this was just who Long Aotian was. Only he would do something so reckless.
Wasn’t that how they’d first met, after all?
Back when she was at her lowest, a meddlesome boy had said just one thing—and she’d remembered him ever since...
"I’ll go buy you some ointment. Wait here."
"Heh, look what I’ve got!" Long Aotian pulled a tube of cream from his pocket and waved it in front of her.
"You’re still laughing? I thought you’d been hurt, and here you are grinning like an idiot!"
Long Aotian’s smile faded as he lifted his shirt for her to apply the medicine.
"Qingxue, don’t tell Yuying about this, okay?"
"Ouch—be gentle!"
"Oh, so you *do* feel pain?" Despite her words, her touch softened, and she even blew lightly on the wound to help the ointment absorb.
"Yuying worries too much. If she found out, she’d cry—and I can’t stand seeing her cry. You have no idea how long that girl can go on sometimes." A faint smile tugged at his lips, as if recalling something.
"I know. The way you forced yourself to act normal at the restaurant—I could tell you didn’t want Yuying to notice."
"But I think Hu Yuying is stronger than you give her credit for." Li Qingxue said this based on how Yuying carried herself at school.
"That’s good."
"‘That’s good’? You’re always thinking of others—why can’t you care about yourself for once?"
"Pfft, it’s just a scratch. My skin’s thick. It’ll heal in a couple of days."
Li Qingxue jabbed a finger near the edge of the bruise. "Then why hide it from Yuying?"
"You’re the most stubborn person I know."
Long Aotian tugged his shirt back down. "It’s not stubbornness. There’s no point making a fuss over nothing. I’d just look weak."
"You’d rather suffer than swallow your pride."
"So you *want* to see Hu Yuying cry?"
"No."
"Exactly. Why worry her over nothing?"
"And you’re one to talk! The way you were earlier, anyone would think I’d done something terrible to you. So dramatic." Long Aotian laughed.
Li Qingxue rolled her eyes and sat beside him. "You’re really good to Yuying."
"Yeah, well, call me ‘Big Brother Long,’ and I’ll take you on as my second sidekick."
"As if!" She smoothed her clothes, stealing a sidelong glance at him. She opened her mouth as if to say something but hesitated.
A quiet moment passed.
“Let’s head back. Nothing else to do here, and we’ve got military training soon.” Sitting this close to Li Qingxue for so long, Long Aotian suddenly felt awkward.
In his memories, Li Qingxue was always bright and cheerful, as if all the world’s joy lived in her. Just being near her was enough to lift anyone’s spirits.
But now, arms crossed and lips pursed, she radiated an uncharacteristic tension.
Long Aotian turned to study her.
Noticing his gaze, Li Qingxue fidgeted. "Wh-what are you staring at?"
"Your makeup’s smudged."
"Huh? Really?" She touched her face—girls took these things seriously. "I only wore a tiny bit today, it shouldn’t be—"
Mid-sentence, she caught his smirk and pinched his waist. "Jerk! Making fun of me!"
She knew he was just trying to lighten the mood. What a fool...
Her laughter dissolved the tension.
"Let’s go."
Watching Long Aotian walk ahead, Li Qingxue felt both amused and exasperated. In many ways, he was wonderful—helping Hu Yuying grow, saying the words she’d needed to hear, stepping in when others were bullied.
Yet when it came to himself, he brushed everything off like it was nothing. A strange guy.
He seemed out of place in this world, yet he kept trying to belong.
He looked like any other eighteen-year-old, but there was something undeniably different about him...
---
**Room 301, 3rd Floor, Girls’ Dormitory 12**
Hu Yuying bit her lip hard, her clenched fists turning white at the knuckles.
"Yuying, you’re back?" a roommate called.
Forcing a smile, Hu Yuying murmured a quiet "Mm" and retreated to her bed.
She tried to steady her breathing, but tears spilled over anyway.
As Long Aotian’s most devoted follower, no one understood him better than she did.
If Li Qingxue had noticed, how could *she* have missed it?
The instant his body had stiffened, she’d known.
But Long-ge had kept smiling, pretending everything was fine—so she pretended, too.
If he didn’t want her to know, she wouldn’t let him know she knew.
She’d seen Li Qingxue texting him secretly.
Even if Li Qingxue hadn’t, *she* would have.
So she’d overheard his words.
Seeing that bruise on his back—her heart ached more than she could bear.
But Long-ge knew her too well. He feared her worry, her tears, so he played it off like it was nothing.
He was always looking out for her. When Li Qingxue mentioned she was doing well at school, he’d just smiled and said, ["That’s good."]
One thing he’d said was true: her heart *was* small.
Too small...
"Brother Long, before I met you, I thought life was just like that—nothing special. But after meeting you, I’ve forgiven all the hardships the world has thrown at me."
Gazing at the photo of herself and Brother Long happily linking pinky fingers, Hu Yuying carefully pressed the picture against her chest.
"Meeting you felt like... I just really, really like you..."
"You wanted to see me grow stronger, become better—so I will. I’ll grow stronger, become better. One day, I’ll climb over that wall in your heart..."
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
ither go to a cultivation world where a single sword strike can defeat ten thousand enemies. Or they travel back to historical dynasties to alter history and wield imperial power. At the very least, they'd go back a few decades to get rich using their future knowledge and build a harem. Who the hell would transmigrate here!
+【Epic Battles!】 "Your Highness, they say Linxi Temple is miraculous. Won’t you make a wish?" "A wish? It should be making wishes to me." "That may be so, but since you’re already here..." "..." "Fine. Then grant this princess a consort to play with." "He must be obedient, devoted, and utterly infatuated with my body—so much so that he’d kneel and kiss my feet." "Your Highness, that’s not a consort. That’s a dog." "Then add clever, witty, heroic, ambitious yet pragmatic..." "Hmm, that’s enough for now. I’ll add more later." After tossing out these words half in jest, Princess Anle departed the temple—only to catch a fleeting glimpse of the Bodhisattva statue smiling at her. Meanwhile, Yang An, fresh out of university, was having a very bad day. Good news: He’d transmigrated into another world with a cheat granting tenfold combat power. Bad news: He’d immediately fallen into the clutches of a certain villainess. Good news: Said villainess possessed peerless beauty and royal status. Bad news: She was absolutely monstrous!!! In the frozen wilderness, Yang An knelt beneath Qin Guo’er’s feet, drenched in sweat despite the cold. Desperately clutching her porcelain-perfect foot—the very one poised to crush his throat—he could only think: How do I survive this?! Need answers NOW!
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
