Big brother Liu Chengjun was dressed in a tailored high-end suit, wearing a smile, his demeanor refined and courteous, as he thoughtfully set the tableware for Liu Tiancheng.
"Father, try this. The kitchen made it specially for you today."
Liu Tiancheng didn’t even glance at the bowl of soup, his gaze cold and distant.
Second brother Liu Xiao and third brother Liu Feiyu sat at the other end of the table, both with their heads down, silently eating the food in front of them, indifferent to everything around them.
Coldness was the main theme of this household.
Chen Guan’s eyes lingered on Liu Feiyu for a moment. He could sense that Liu Feiyu appeared calm, but the fingers gripping his knife and fork were tense.
Mrs. Liu stirred her soup with a silver spoon and suddenly muttered a complaint.
"The food is salty again today."
With a sharp crack, Liu Tiancheng slammed his chopsticks onto the table, startling Mrs. Liu.
"If you don’t like it, get out!"
The entire dining room went silent in an instant—even the clinking of knives and forks faded away.
Liu Chengjun immediately stepped in to smooth things over, his flawlessly genial smile still in place.
"Father, please don’t be upset. Mother was just speaking casually. I’ll have the kitchen remake the dishes."
An Changqing also spoke up at the right moment, his voice warm and steady.
"Chairman Liu, Mrs. Liu, it’s not good for your health if the food gets cold."
His words were appropriate and helped ease the tension, but they couldn’t dispel the icy chill that hung so thickly over the dinner table.
Chen Guan watched all of this quietly.
He noticed that although Liu Tiancheng lashed out at everyone, most of his vigilance was directed at his eldest son, Liu Chengjun.
Baal’s voice drifted lazily through his mind.
"What an interesting family dinner."
"This old man is about to crack. The smell of fear is practically pouring off him."
"Three sons—one wants to kill him, one wants to watch him die, and one... wants him to die slowly."
"Heh, what a loving family. You humans are endlessly entertaining."
As Baal chuckled to himself, dinner reached its midpoint.
Suddenly, Liu Tiancheng broke into violent coughing. His face flushed red, as if he couldn’t catch his breath.
The old butler, who had been standing nearby, quickly stepped forward, patting his back gently while pulling a small pill bottle from his pocket. He shook out a pill and fetched a glass of warm water.
"Sir, it’s time for your medicine."
Liu Tiancheng stared at the white pill in the butler’s palm, and the fear in his eyes erupted completely.
His face turned pale, and he swept the glass and pill out of the butler’s hand with a single motion.
The glass hit the floor with a sharp crack.
He pointed at the old butler, whose face was equally stunned, then turned to Liu Chengjun beside him, his voice trembling with terror as he rasped.
"You... you’ve conspired together!"
"You’re trying to kill me!"
For the first time, a crack appeared in Liu Chengjun’s usually flawless smile. He stood up, his eyes filled with pain.
"Father, what are you saying?"
His voice trembled, heavy with the grievance of being wronged.
"How could I ever harm you?"
The old butler also fell to his knees in fright, his face pale.
"Sir, you’ve been taking this medicine for years. How would I dare—"
Liu Tiancheng refused to listen. His shaking finger darted back and forth between Liu Chengjun and the old butler, his bloodshot eyes wild with madness.
"You’re all in this together!"
"You ungrateful son! You just can’t wait, can you!"
At the table, Liu Feiyu set down his knife and fork, letting out a soft sigh that cut through the deathly silence of the dining room.
"Father, please don’t get worked up. Big brother... I’m sure he didn’t mean it."
His words sounded like a placation, but they only added fuel to the fire.
Liu Xiao remained silent, deaf to the unfolding drama around him, quietly cutting into the steak on his plate as the knife scraped faintly against the porcelain.
He felt like that steak—just meat on a chopping board, waiting to be carved up.
The city was a maze of traps. If he could, he’d rather go back to the Academy.
"Get out. All of you, get out!"
Liu Tiancheng grabbed a porcelain plate nearby and was about to hurl it at Liu Chengjun.
"Chairman Liu."
A voice rang out. It wasn’t loud, but it instantly cooled the boiling tension in the room.
Chen Guan had spoken.
Every pair of eyes turned to him.
But Chen Guan wasn’t looking at Liu Tiancheng. His gaze was fixed on the white pill lying on the carpet.
"Is this a standard prescription from your doctor?"
Liu Tiancheng paused mid-swing, breathing heavily and staring at Chen Guan, as if trying to figure out what this young man was up to.
Chen Guan continued. "We’ve taken on this security detail, so it’s our responsibility to account for every possible risk."
"That includes every bite of food you take, every glass of water you drink, and every pill you swallow."
He raised his head and looked at Liu Tiancheng.
"If you don’t mind, we can have this pill—along with the broken glass—sent for lab testing right away."
"That’s the most direct way to settle this."
An Changqing quickly added, his voice composed and convincing.
"Chen Guan is right, Chairman Liu."
"Rather than suspecting each other, let the facts speak for themselves."
"Until the results come back, the four of us will stay by your side around the clock, guaranteeing your absolute safety."
The logic was sound, giving Liu Tiancheng a way out while offering a concrete solution.
Liu Tiancheng’s chest heaved violently. He glanced at his eldest son, whose face was full of hurt, then swept his eyes over his other two sons, who remained silent, before finally settling his gaze back on Chen Guan and An Changqing.
The madness in his eyes slowly receded, replaced by bone-deep exhaustion as reason returned to him.
"Fine..."
The family dinner ended in disarray.
……
In the guest room of the Liu estate.
Long Ao paced the room restlessly.
"What a mess. This whole family is insane."
Hong Yuan leaned her massive battle-axe against the wall, equally baffled.
"That Liu Tiancheng looks like he could drop dead at any moment. Who would even bother to assassinate someone like him?"
"He’s not dying."
An Changqing sat on the sofa, his expression more solemn than they had ever seen.
"He genuinely believes someone wants to kill him."
He looked at Chen Guan. "Liu Chengjun’s reaction was too perfect."
"A son truly misunderstood by his father would react with shock and anger. Instead, his performance was the right amount of grief and grievance."
"Every word he said felt like scripted lines."
Long Ao stopped pacing. "So you’re saying he really wants to off his old man?"
"I don’t know."
An Changqing shook his head. "But someone in this house definitely wants Mr. Liu dead."
Baal’s voice echoed lazily in Chen Guan’s mind.
"This kid’s got a sharp eye."
"But the truly interesting thing isn’t something these pups could pick up."
Chen Guan asked mentally, "What did you find?"
Baal chuckled softly. "There’s a presence in this estate that doesn’t belong to anyone in the Liu family."
"Like a viper lurking in the weeds, waiting for its prey to come close."
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!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
nto another world, I bought a slave for the first time, never expecting the silver wolf girl to be so cute... Lin Feng: I know it's cold, but you don't have to sneak into my bed! Yuna: Just sharing body warmth, if you dare do anything naughty, I'll definitely...
