Seeing the blood, Hu Yuying was startled.
Long Aotian, who had just picked up a fruit beer and poured himself a glass, frowned slightly at the sight and raised his hand to cover Hu Yuying's eyes.
He whispered softly in her ear, "It's okay, don't be afraid."
Hearing Long Aotian's gentle voice, Hu Yuying's heart miraculously calmed down immediately.
It seemed that as long as Long Aotian was by her side, she would become very brave, so brave that she wasn't afraid of anything.
Feeling the warmth from Long Aotian's palm, Hu Yuying quietly opened her eyes.
Her eyelashes fluttered slightly, brushing against Long Aotian's palm, tickling him. He instinctively pulled his hand away a little, ensuring that Hu Yuying's eyelashes wouldn't brush against his palm while still blocking her view.
As Long Aotian's hand moved slightly away, Hu Yuying saw that his palm was red.
It was still radiating heat.
She suddenly remembered how Long Aotian had used chopsticks with his right hand and peeled shrimp with his left—it must have been hot, right?
Her gaze fell to her own palm.
Her palm had also been burned earlier, leaving a similar red mark.
"Brother Long, shall we go?" She reached out and grabbed Long Aotian's fingers. They had already eaten most of the food, and they could take the rest home to make a stew for dinner.
She didn't want to stay here any longer, but she was afraid of dampening Long Aotian's mood.
In the end, though, she had still been affected.
Holding Long Aotian's fingers, feeling the warmth from his hand, Hu Yuying pressed the back of her hand against his palm, trying to cool it down.
"Let's go, then," Long Aotian patted Hu Yuying's hand, his tone gentle, as if soothing her.
After all, in Long Aotian's mind, Hu Yuying was a timid little girl.
Hearing Long Aotian agree to leave, Hu Yuying broke free from his hand and ran toward the front desk.
After just two steps, she felt a large hand grip the back of her neck: "Are you looking down on your Brother Long?"
Hu Yuying looked up at Long Aotian, gently shaking his arm, her big, sparkling eyes feigning a pitiful expression. Her long hair cascaded over her shoulders, giving her a clean and pure aura, making Long Aotian hesitate to say anything.
"You've really learned how to act spoiled, haven't you?"
Seeing that Long Aotian didn't scold her, Hu Yuying's eyes curved into a smile, her expression radiant. It was only in front of Long Aotian that she could show such happiness.
Looking at Hu Yuying's smile, Long Aotian awkwardly averted his gaze, pressing a finger against her forehead and gently pushing her away: "When Brother Long invites you out, it's not a woman's place to pay. Go pack up the leftovers."
From beginning to end, neither of them glanced at Ye Liangchen, as if they had completely forgotten about him.
This kind of disregard was more painful than any insult.
Ye Liangchen, covering his nose, watched the two of them leave, feeling as if he couldn't catch his breath. If Long Aotian had just cursed at him, Ye Liangchen wouldn't have felt so terrible.
This feeling of being ignored was far more painful than if Long Aotian had slapped him twice.
At least if Long Aotian had hit him, it would have been a sign of hostility.
At least it would have made Ye Liangchen feel like he and Long Aotian were on equal footing.
But being ignored like this made him feel like a clown.
Clenching his fists tightly, he thought, "Long Aotian, the humiliation you've brought me today, I will repay it a hundredfold in the future!"
"Brother Chen, Long Aotian didn't really do anything. You were the one who bumped your nose and made it bleed," Gao Quan reminded him softly.
Ye Liangchen turned sharply to look at Gao Quan: "What do you know? If Long Aotian hadn't scared me, would I have been so agitated and hit my nose?"
As he spoke, an idea suddenly flashed in Ye Liangchen's mind. He took out his phone: "Quick, take a photo of me."
While Ye Liangchen was busy striking a pose, Long Aotian and Hu Yuying had already come downstairs.
"Brother Long," Hu Yuying looked down at her skirt and shoes, calling out softly.
"Yeah."
"Thank you for buying me clothes and shoes today. I really like them, but... but... I want to say, give me some time, and I want to buy clothes and shoes for you too."
Hu Yuying mustered up the courage to say it all at once.
Even when Long Aotian treated her to a meal at the cafeteria for less than ten yuan, Hu Yuying felt like she owed him, let alone now when he had bought her clothes and shoes worth hundreds of yuan.
As Hu Yuying herself had said, she was just frugal. She actually had some savings.
She had saved up this money bit by bit to pay for her university tuition.
For someone like Hu Yuying, who came from the countryside, education was her only way out.
Her parents were gone, and her grandparents were old. The only person she could rely on was herself.
That was why, no matter how much she was bullied, she never gave up.
As Li Qingxue had said, studying hard was about taking responsibility for her own life.
And for Hu Yuying, studying hard was entirely about taking responsibility for herself.
"Alright, after the college entrance exams, when you have money, you can treat Brother Long to a nice outfit. Your Brother Long is quite picky, you know."
Long Aotian understood Hu Yuying's feelings very well.
If he said no, it would only make Hu Yuying feel more guilty.
But if he agreed, it would at least ease her mind.
This strange feeling—it was like suddenly having a direction, or a sense of hope.
"Aren't you afraid I might go back on my word after the exams and run away? Then Brother Long would lose a few hundred yuan," Hu Yuying was taken aback. It felt so good to be trusted.
"I'm not afraid. If you dare to run, I'll chase you to the ends of the earth and give you a good beating!" Long Aotian joked, "Are you scared?"
Hu Yuying shrank her neck: "Yes, I'm scared."
"Then study hard and earn money to buy Brother Long a custom outfit!"
"Okay, then let's go back and study now?"
Hearing this, Long Aotian stopped in his tracks: "Actually, I think studying should be balanced. Taking breaks and relieving stress might make it more effective."
Boys are naturally playful. As the saying goes, men remain boys at heart until they die.
Long Aotian was no exception, acting a bit like a wild horse that had broken free.
This kind of behavior is quite common, like when someone looks at a table full of delicious food and firmly says, "I'm going to lose weight, but I'll start after this meal."
Or when, after school on Friday, they want to go to an internet café but see their classmates still studying hard, so they say, "Next week, I'll definitely study hard too."
"No, Brother Long, you need to study hard too," Hu Yuying was very strict when it came to studying.
She pulled Long Aotian toward home.
At that moment, Hu Yuying was like the reins on a wild horse. No matter how unruly the horse was, once the reins were on, it had to follow her obediently...
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.
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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."
