The following days passed with all the freshmen across various colleges and universities enduring the grueling ordeal of military training. Even Long Aotian, after these days, was so exhausted he could barely move.
Every day, Hu Yuying would share some amusing anecdotes with him. Today, as he looked at the photo she sent, he noticed someone new standing beside her. The sight of this person made Long Aotian chuckle.
Since that day, Li Qingxue had stopped actively sharing her daily fun with him. It seemed she was still a little upset.
"Yuying, who’s that ugly duckling next to you?"
The moment he sent the message, he was bombarded with a flurry of replies—all from Li Qingxue.
The gist of it could be summed up in one sentence: "How am I ugly? I’m pretty too, you know!"
"Oh, so you’ve finally decided to show up? I thought you’d quit QQ altogether."
The chat screen kept displaying [The other party is typing...], but before Li Qingxue’s response came through, Hu Yuying’s message arrived first: "Long-ge, stop teasing Qingxue. She’s about to lose it (sneaky laughing emoji)."
Just from the text Hu Yuying sent, Long Aotian could almost picture her struggling to hold back laughter while Li Qingxue sulked in frustration.
He decided to initiate a video call.
The other side picked up almost instantly.
The first thing he saw was Hu Yuying’s smiling face, her eyes brimming with mirth.
It had been days since they last met, but the military training hadn’t darkened her complexion. Instead, it had given her a certain unspoken air of spirited determination.
Military training was meant to temper one’s will and character, and it was clear Hu Yuying had excelled.
"Long-ge, you’ve gotten darker… and thinner," Hu Yuying remarked with a smile.
Compared to before training, Long Aotian had indeed tanned a bit and slimmed down, but overall, he seemed to have become even more handsome.
"Thinner? I can’t tell," Long Aotian mused. He ate a lot after training every day and hadn’t noticed any weight loss.
"You are. Your jawline’s sharper now," Hu Yuying insisted with certainty.
She had been secretly looking at his photos in her dorm every day, so she was absolutely sure.
Only someone who cared this much would notice even the slightest change.
"You better not get any darker, or you’ll turn into a lump of charcoal," Li Qingxue grumbled, suddenly appearing on-screen.
Seeing her, Long Aotian couldn’t help but wonder—do pretty girls just not get sunburned?
"Well, well, who do we have here? Your eyes are practically rolling into the back of your head."
At his teasing, Li Qingxue bit her lip lightly, shaking a tiny fist at him through the screen. But then she asked, "Are you… doing okay?"
Long Aotian knew exactly what she meant. He stretched his arms demonstratively. "Fit as a fiddle."
"Such a show-off," she huffed before disappearing from view again.
Judging by Hu Yuying’s gaze, she was still nearby.
"How have you been these days?"
"Pretty good, except it’s so hot sometimes," Hu Yuying admitted. She was the type to speak her mind only around Long Aotian.
"When we get a break, I’ll take you out for something delicious."
"Mhm." Hu Yuying nodded, though it wasn’t the food she was looking forward to—it was finally getting to see Long-ge again.
But instead of spending money eating out, she’d much rather cook for him herself.
Too bad she didn’t have the tools here, and renting in the capital was ridiculously expensive.
When Hu Yuying first arrived in the city, she’d planned to find a part-time job and rent a place—after all, if she worked odd hours, she didn’t want to disturb her roommates.
But after checking rental prices in the capital, she quickly abandoned the idea.
"What’s with that face? Not happy about me treating you to good food?" Long Aotian noticed her sudden sigh and found her utterly adorable.
"It’s nothing. I just miss cooking for you, Long-ge." Hu Yuying thought if he could eat her meals every day, he’d never lose weight.
Back during summer break, she’d even managed to make him gain a little…
"Once I’m rich, I’ll buy a big place here, and then you can cook for me every single day," Long Aotian joked.
"Pfft. If you actually buy a place here, I’ll come clean it for you every day," Li Qingxue’s voice chimed in through the call.
Property in the capital was insanely expensive—way beyond what a student could afford.
Renting? Sure, she could believe that. But buying? That was a stretch.
"So I’ll have a free live-in maid, huh?"
"Excuse me, not a maid—a domestic goddess, maybe." Li Qingxue shook her head. "Wait, no—you haven’t even bought a place yet! What domestic goddess?!"
She glanced at Hu Yuying, who was nodding earnestly, and nudged her shoulder. "You can’t possibly believe him, right?"
"Mhm." Hu Yuying nodded firmly. When it came to Long-ge, she trusted him unconditionally—because to her, he was truly amazing.
"See? Learn from Yuying. Have a little faith in me, will you?"
"Fine, fine. I’ll try to have some faith in you," Li Qingxue reappeared on-screen, her expression feigning annoyance, though the curve of her lips betrayed her amusement.
"Not convincing at all. Yuying’s the only one who really believes in me!"
He didn’t mean anything by it, but the words sent a faint tremor through Hu Yuying. A delicate blush crept onto her cheeks.
Did Long-ge just call her his Yuying?
Even if he hadn’t meant it that way, the thought alone made her heart flutter.
"You’re a grown man—why are you so hung up on this? Alright, fine, I do believe in you. Happy now?" Li Qingxue turned her head away with a huff.
It was just an ordinary video call, yet the warmth and joy between them had already surpassed mere friendship.
Hu Yuying knew it.
Li Qingxue knew it too.
But Long Aotian, tangled in the middle, remained oblivious.
He could give others advice because he understood everything—yet his inability to see his own place in the situation stemmed from that same understanding.
Sometimes, being too perceptive was its own curse.
A person shouldn’t be too selfless—sometimes, they needed to care for themselves too.
Not when they were already knee-deep in their own mess, yet still trying to comfort others.
Hu Yuying grasped a sliver of this, which was why she trusted Long Aotian without question. Wasn’t that, in itself, a form of love?
Li Qingxue understood a little as well, which was why she brought him joy. Wasn’t that her own way of caring?
Even Lin Wanning, who had only recently met him, was slowly trying to unravel the enigma of this boy—someone she couldn’t quite figure out, yet felt inexplicably safe around.
The truth was, those who understood everything were often the ones who suffered the most...
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."
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.
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
end. Thus one must continue to cultivate, and become a saint or great emperor, in order to prolong one's life. Chen Xia, however, completely reversed this. Since his transmigration, he has gained immortality, and also a system that awards him with attribute points for every year he lives. Thus between the myriad worlds, the legend of an unparalleled senior appeared. "A gentleman takes revenge; it is never too late even after ten thousand years." "When you were at your peak I yielded, now in your old age I shall trample on you." - Chen Xia
