Dusk fell as the Eternal Moon rose.
During dinner, Bobo kept bad-mouthing the [Marinated Beef Tripe].
“Chen Miemie, you know tripe is really dirty, right? And its purine levels are off the charts—eat too much and you’ll get gout,” Bobo lectured.
“Yes, yes,” Chen Miemie replied, exasperated. Bobo had been rambling all afternoon.
The one most upset after the daytime evaluation meeting was Bobo.
First there was the [Fake Scent Mask] that neutralized him, and now the [Marinated Beef Tripe], which could even self-repair on a small scale. As soon as Bobo got back, he was jumping up and down with anxiety, terrified that Chen Miemie would bring some new food into the house.
Qinghua picked up Bobo. “Don’t worry, the [Marinated Beef Tripe] is just another mysterious item like your [Moon Phase Cheese]. It can’t compare to you.”
The group laughed and carried on until it was time to open the shop.
The [Yellow-Coated] shopkeeper got ready for business.
It wasn’t long before the sound of the door being pushed open came.
This guest was very cautious. She pushed the door halfway, waited for a long moment, and only then slowly entered, her movements full of tentative probing.
“Welcome, guest,” Loop greeted her at the entrance.
“Is this place...?” the girl asked.
“A mysterious shop, guiding those who are lost toward their direction.”
“Lost? Maybe I am.”
“Please, come in.”
The girl passed through the entrance hall and entered the main room.
She took a seat, and tea was served.
Before Chen Miemie could speak, the girl asked a question first. “May I ask how I should address you, sir?”
“Just call me Shopkeeper.”
“So, this place can help with feeling lost?”
“Helping guests solve their problems is indeed the shop’s core business.”
“What price must be paid?”
“That depends on the problem you want to solve.”
Before Chen Miemie sat a girl even more wrapped up than he was. He couldn’t even make out her face.
“Sorry, Shopkeeper sir, I can’t trust matters beyond my control. I’ll take my leave. Goodbye.” The girl didn’t touch her tea and stood up directly.
Chen Miemie waved a hand, signaling “as you wish.”
Just as the girl rose from the sofa and left the reception area,
Chen Miemie’s light voice came from behind her. “Until we meet again, Miss Witch.”
The girl spun around sharply. “How do you know I’m a witch?”
“I have many witch friends. The jingling sound of their gems is the same as the stones hidden under your robe.”
The girl slowly pulled back her hood, revealing a head of brown hair and the ornaments in it.
She sat back down on the sofa. “I don’t have any gems. These are just pretty stones I picked up by the river.”
What the girl wore in her hair were indeed just ordinary stones.
“Gems are only ordinary stones. What is a ‘treasure’ to you is a gem,” Chen Miemie said, taking a sip of tea.
“Sorry, I find it hard to trust strangers right away. That was rude of me earlier.”
“It’s fine. Caution isn’t a bad trait. My witch friends are all like that. On the flip side, once you become friends, a witch is someone you can truly trust.”
“Thank you for understanding. After I tell you my problem, could I hear the price first before deciding whether to ask for your help?”
“That’s only fair. But first, could you tell me your name?”
“I... I’m called Shi’er Shi.”
It was obviously a false name.
“Miss Shi’er Shi, you may begin your story.”
“I’m very interested in a boy, but he seems to avoid me. According to witch tradition, if you want something, you take it. But I’m not powerful enough, and on the other hand, I feel that doing so would make me hateful. So now I’m torn.”
“Can I equate this ‘interest’ with romantic love for a man?”
“I’m not sure. I just feel he’s especially warm. As you can see, I’m very suspicious, but somehow I can trust him easily.”
“Where does this warmth come from?”
“We live in the same building. One day, a huge beast appeared in the building by accident.
Everyone was running for their lives.
When he was escaping, he found me injured and risked carrying me out on his back.”
“Did he know you back then?”
“This wasn’t recent. We were both very young at the time. We were actually quite familiar then, but now he doesn’t remember what happened.”
“You said earlier that he seems to avoid you. Why is that?”
“Maybe in the past year or two, every time I talked to him, it stirred up hostility from another classmate, which caused him some trouble.”
“So what is your specific request?”
“I want to be with him. What’s the price?”
Chen Miemie gulped down another mouthful of tea. He was already full of it.
“I’m sorry, but our shop doesn’t handle this type of request.
As for matters between men and women, you can handle them yourself. This hesitation itself is part of youth. What’s meant for you will come without any price.”
“Then let me change my request. I want to gain power. With power, I can take him.”
Good, that was a very witch-like thought.
“Miss Shi’er Shi, maybe it doesn’t have to be so complicated. Why don’t you try telling him what happened back then and how you feel now?”
The girl paused. After a long while, she spoke slowly:
“I don’t dare tell him. The truth is, that huge beast back then... I let it out by accident. He was so scared, trembling the whole time.”
Loop saw the girl out and came to the table to clear the tea set.
The tea on the table was untouched.
“What a cautious little girl,” Loop said with a smile. “Miemie, do you think they’ll finally open up to each other?”
Chen Miemie collapsed onto the sofa, looking drained of life.
“Who knows? You think I’m an expert at this?
Honestly, I just realized I’m better at handling grown-ups’ problems, and I’m still just a big kid myself.
But come to think of it, desires are infinite while human strength is limited. Those who firmly believe power can get them everything will, sooner or later, encounter something they want but cannot have.”
In any case, gaining a new customer put Chen Miemie in a good mood.
But that mood didn’t last long.
He received a message from the Scholar Institute staff.
The [Gravity Moss] he had his eye on was snatched away from him.
The original owner of the [Gravity Moss] ignored Chen Miemie’s higher bid and directly chose to barter with another buyer.
The Scholar Institute staff even disclosed the buyer’s information.
The buyer was none other than the president of the Book Seal Society Alliance and one of the Six Scholars, the "Geometry Jailer," President Yu.
Chen Miemie leaned back on the sofa, squinting slightly.
“This message was prompted by the Stone Speaker, wasn’t it? What does he mean by that? Is he trying to stir up a conflict between me and this President Yu?”
. 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!"
to panic—he has a system. As long as an investment target dies, he can claim a reward. And since he is immortal, the one thing he has plenty of is time. ... Countless years later. “Immortal Emperor of Longevity? I invested in him.” “Supreme Celestial Venerable? I invested in him.” “Undying Empress? I invested in her.” “...” “Heh. Once they’ve all died, even the Heavenly Dao will have to kneel and call me Dad.”
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."
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.
