"What are you looking at?" Shen Mengjie asked softly, glancing at her slightly reddened hand.
Long Aotian shook his head. "Nothing. Just thought that person's silhouette looked familiar, but I can’t quite remember where I’ve seen them before."
Shen Mengjie also turned her gaze toward the fading figure. "There are so many people in the world, and countless silhouettes look alike. If it really was someone you knew, they would’ve greeted you just now."
"You’re right."
Long Aotian withdrew his gaze and looked at Shen Mengjie’s hand. "Let’s head back first. Get some ointment for that burn—it shouldn’t be serious."
With that, he stood up to pay the bill.
As they walked, Shen Mengjie gave Long Aotian a strange look.
"If you have something to say, just say it. That hesitant expression of yours is making me anxious."
"I promised to give you advice today, but I ended up ruining it myself. Did it… affect your mood?"
Long Aotian chuckled. "What are you talking about? How would that affect me? Besides, you got burned too."
"Actually, your analysis of that girl’s personality earlier was spot on in some ways. It gave me an idea."
That girl was such a good person—not as fragile as she seemed. She was brave, determined to change.
How many people dared to take that step?
But his little girl had done it, and so far, she was doing well.
If the characters in a storybook were fixed NPCs, then his little girl had already broken free from her predetermined path.
The life she was striving for now was likely the one she truly wanted.
Maybe it wasn’t as dazzling as the original story.
But Long Aotian firmly believed she would make her life wonderful in her own way.
Besides, she had him by her side. He might not be extraordinary, but at the very least, he could protect her and keep her happy. That was enough.
After hearing his words, Shen Mengjie’s expression grew even more peculiar. "You know, you’re a really strange person."
"Strange? How so? I think I’m more of a lucky person."
"That’s exactly what’s strange. Who goes around calling themselves lucky?"
"In this vast, colorful world, meeting someone and getting to know them—I really do think I’m lucky."
Shen Mengjie shook her head and scoffed. "If luck like that really exists, why have I never experienced it?"
"You will."
Shen Mengjie paused. "What?"
"I said you will. When you’re upset, haven’t there always been people willing to lend you a hand?"
"Long Aotian." Shen Mengjie suddenly stopped walking, shedding her usual carefree demeanor as she looked at him with rare seriousness. "In your eyes, what kind of person am I?"
It was strange. She’d always claimed not to care about others’ opinions, yet she desperately wanted to know how Long Aotian saw her. She was too conflicted...
She’d asked him this before but never got a real answer.
She considered herself proud and strong-willed—always had been.
But around Long Aotian, that pride and strength felt fragile.
Her upbringing had taught her from a young age to read people, to see through their hidden motives.
So she’d always navigated effortlessly around men with ulterior motives, getting whatever she wanted.
Did she want money? Not necessarily. Maybe it was the thrill of victory, the joy of manipulating others, the satisfaction of holding them in her palm.
She thought her life was a mess. Maybe she’d once wanted to change, but in the end, she’d given in.
Long Aotian thought carefully before answering. "You’re someone who’s flippant yet impossible not to love and hate at the same time."
Hearing this, Shen Mengjie glanced at him, a faint smile playing on her lips as she murmured, "Actually, I’m a bad woman."
"Yeah, you’re definitely frustrating."
By then, they’d reached the small pharmacy where Wan Ning had once bought ointment for him.
"Let’s go in."
The burn wasn’t serious. Some ointment would help reduce the swelling.
"Thank you."
Long Aotian handed her the tube. "No need for thanks. Just stop being sarcastic with me every time we meet."
Shen Mengjie looked slightly ashamed. "I’ll try."
"‘Try’? What kind of answer is that? Is teasing me that fun?"
"You’re the one who always bullies me." Shen Mengjie lowered her eyes and kicked a pebble on the ground.
Long Aotian was baffled. "Who’s bullying you?"
"You used to scold me all the time, even knocked me on the head. I’m a grown woman, yet you made me feel like a kid..."
Long Aotian burst out laughing, remembering now. He had scolded her before—he just hadn’t expected her to hold a grudge this long.
"And I never once got the upper hand. You never let me win!"
"Fine, I’ll let you win next time."
"That’s so half-hearted!"
"Wow, you’re really something. If I don’t let you win, you complain. If I do, you say I’m being insincere..."
"You’re so blunt! Isn’t this how girls usually are?" Shen Mengjie couldn’t understand. If she’d said this to anyone else, they’d have taken it as her being playful and sweet-talked her.
She truly couldn’t figure this man out. But the more she couldn’t, the more she wanted to understand. And the closer she got, the more she felt an inexplicable pull...
Long Aotian shook his head. At least his little girl wasn’t like this. She always went along with him.
Even when he teased her and she found out, she’d just say, "Long-ge, you’re so mean. I’ll never believe you again!" Yet she always trusted him in the end—a silly, kind-hearted girl.
Seeing the faintly doting smile on Long Aotian’s face, Shen Mengjie pursed her lips, her eyes flickering as she tentatively asked, "Long Aotian, have you ever thought about what you’d do if you and your girlfriend disagreed on something and ended up fighting?"
"Then it’d definitely be my fault. I’d let her have her way." Long Aotian answered without hesitation.
Having a treasure like his little girl was his luck. When the cage opened and she flew back to him, right or wrong, it would always be his fault.
"No two people in this world are perfectly matched. Lasting relationships take compromise. Mutual effort makes it beautiful. I understand my little girl, so I’m willing to be patient and accommodating. She’s the one who gives my life meaning..."
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
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?”
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."
