After Evelyn dragged Luo Wei out to sneak away...
The new housekeeper, Ella, walked into the office carrying a stack of documents. She glanced around in confusion, only seeing Annie fast asleep and Monica scratching her head with a miserable expression.
"Huh? Where is... um, the head of the household?"
Monica looked up irritably. "She eloped with some wild man."
"Eh?" Ella made a puzzled sound.
"What about these accounts...?" The new housekeeper hesitated before piling them all onto Monica's desk.
The head of the household had instructed that Monica was in charge during her absence, so it was only right to hand everything over to her.
"There's still this much?!" Monica let out a wail. "Isn't this supposed to be her job? Who's the real head of the household here?!"
Monica suddenly realized—she'd been tricked! Evelyn had totally played her!
...
Meanwhile, after leaving Thornflower Castle, Evelyn led Luo Wei along the foot of the snowy mountains until they arrived at a manor not far from a human town.
Even in the height of summer, the climate here remained pleasantly cool. Luo Wei gazed into the distance, where a glacial lake shimmered like a blue mirror. The manor by the lakeside wasn’t large, but nestled between the mountains and water, the scenery was breathtaking.
"Mother bought this manor back then. I used to come here all the time as a child."
Evelyn looked fondly at the azure lake, her eyes glimmering as if lost in memories.
"Whenever Mother and Father had a fight, she’d bring me here to stay. Father would always come to take us back."
"But the last time... after Mother told me a few things, she never returned. So now, this place belongs to me!"
She held Luo Wei’s hand, proudly showing off. "The scenery’s nice, isn’t it?"
Luo Wei watched Evelyn’s smile as she continued recounting stories from her childhood.
Back then, after her mother abandoned her and her father no longer doted on her as before, young Evelyn’s status in the family plummeted, leaving her isolated and mistreated.
Whenever she felt wronged, she would sneak out here. The manor was free of the family’s troubles, and she’d stay for days at a time—no one came looking for her. Eventually, Annie would always drag her back, much to her reluctance.
But as she spoke of these memories, Evelyn’s expression wasn’t bitter at all. Luo Wei listened quietly; this was the first time she had shared so much of her past with him.
The two stepped into the manor’s hall. Since Annie sent people to clean periodically, it was still tidy.
Excited, Evelyn took Luo Wei on a tour, pointing out traces of her childhood everywhere.
"So this was when Teacher first became interested in the human world, huh?" Luo Wei picked up a little girl’s toy. Given the manor’s proximity to human settlements, there were all sorts of trinkets Evelyn had bought from human markets.
"Yep, exactly!" Evelyn turned back to Luo Wei, only to find him staring intently at something on the table with a strange smirk.
"Huh? What are you looking at...?"
Luo Wei had spotted a photo frame. The moment he saw the adorable young Evelyn, he couldn’t look away.
"Teacher was so cute as a kid!"
Little Evelyn had chubby cheeks, round with baby fat, and big, jewel-like emerald-green eyes—utterly adorable.
And from the photo, it was clear she’d always had that tsundere streak—her lips pursed stubbornly, as if she’d been forced to pose for the picture.
"Don’t look at that! I was so fat and ugly..." Evelyn, feeling like her dark history had been exposed, pressed the frame down with a sigh. "Let me show you something else."
"Not at all! I think you were adorable..." Luo Wei reluctantly tore his gaze away. The younger version of his teacher was criminally cute...
Next, Evelyn showed off her collection—vintage dresses and handbags filling several wardrobes. Apparently, her shopping addiction had started early.
After all, from that point on, Evelyn had been left alone. Perhaps indulging in retail therapy in the human world had become her only remaining joy.
After lighting the fireplace together, the crackling flames warmed the slightly chilly living room. The two sat side by side on the sofa, silently admiring the blue lake outside the window.
After a long while, Evelyn leaned her head against Luo Wei’s shoulder. "After you leave... you’ll miss me, right?"
"Of course," Luo Wei chuckled. "How could I not miss you, Teacher?"
Evelyn pouted. "Maybe not. Once you find someone new, or that ‘kind and gentle’ saintess comes back, you’ll forget all about me. I’ll just be stuck here in the cold north, all alone, staring into space like I waited for Mother—waiting forever for someone who never comes..."
Her tone was a mix of resentment and pitiful whining, making Luo Wei laugh.
Just as he was about to reassure her, she suddenly added:
"Maybe I should ask Witch Chaotilis to make me a ring too—one that lets me monitor you anytime! Then you’ll never escape my grasp!"
"Hey, no way!" The mention of rings made Luo Wei groan. Why was everyone so obsessed with spying on him? He had a right to privacy!
"Oh? Feeling guilty?" Evelyn leaned in, narrowing her eyes. "Relax, I was just joking. Asking Tilis for a ring? As if that’d ever happen!"
"Not at all..." Luo Wei said defensively. "I’m not guilty of anything."
Meeting her emerald-green eyes up close, he said seriously, "I promise I’ll think of you every day! Once I master teleportation magic, I’ll come here for meals daily. You’ll probably get sick of me..."
"Hmph, who knows how long that’ll take? I’m not holding my breath..."
Evelyn’s eyes sparkled mischievously before she giggled. "Once I sort out the family affairs, I’ll dump all the tedious work on Monica! Then I can travel again—I can’t miss Saint Callen’s limited-edition seasonal releases!"
Luo Wei muttered, "Sometimes I think handbags excite you more than I do..."
Evelyn burst out laughing. "Just kidding! The family’s a mess—I can’t just leave. Soon, Mother’s people from the City of Cain will arrive, and Thornflower Castle will be chaos again..."
The castle would inevitably become a battleground for endless disputes between factions. Just thinking about it made Evelyn slump back on the sofa in frustration.
"Ugh, this is so frustrating..." She kept rubbing her temples in exasperation.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
