The morning sunlight slanted through the ventilation windows of the underground garage, casting crisscross patterns of light and shadow across the concrete floor.
When Su Bai came out of the master bedroom, Zhou Jialu was still curled up in bed like a cat, wrapped tightly in the blanket, only her flushed face visible. The Chateauneuf-du-Pape from last night had quite a kick, and since it was her first time drinking that much, she probably wouldn't be up until noon.
Su Bai didn't disturb her. He quietly closed the door and walked down the spiral staircase.
The underground garage of Donghu Club was on the first basement level, covering about five to six hundred square meters. It housed his collection of treasures—a Koenigsegg Jesko, a Mercedes-Benz GLE, a custom Porsche Panamera, and the modified Volkswagen Golf GTI that Wan Xinyue had been practicing on lately. The garage was equipped with a constant temperature and humidity system, the air was dry and crisp, and LED strips ran along the entire ceiling, making it as bright as daylight.
Just as he reached the bottom of the stairs, he heard a series of metallic clinks and clangs coming from deep within the garage.
Su Bai raised an eyebrow and followed the sound.
The modification area was at the far end of the garage, a dedicated space with anti-slip rubber mats on the floor, various wrenches, screwdrivers, and torque wrenches hanging on the walls, and several boxes of modified parts stacked in the corner. At this moment, a petite figure was crouched in front of the workbench, her back to him. She wore her hair in a neat ponytail, a loose white T-shirt, and denim shorts, revealing two fair, slender legs.
Wan Xinyue.
She was focused, a screwdriver in hand, carefully tinkering with a small silver-gray stove in front of her. Scattered around were a few small parts, a coil of copper wire, and a can of spray paint on the workbench.
Su Bai stepped closer and stood behind her, curiously peering over her shoulder.
It was a standard portable gas stove—the kind commonly used for outdoor camping. Palm-sized, with a silver-gray metal shell and a knob to control the flame intensity. But right now, the stove was mostly disassembled, its internal gas pipes and nozzle exposed. Wan Xinyue was carefully using tweezers to insert a thin copper wire into the nozzle.
"Xinyue, what are you up to?"
Su Bai's sudden voice startled her.
She spun around, and when she saw it was Su Bai, she froze for a moment before a blush spread across her cheeks. She quickly tried to hide the stove behind her back. "Brother Su Bai! How… how are you up so early?"
"Just woke up and came downstairs." Su Bai smiled, walking over and crouching beside her. "What are you hiding? I already saw it—a portable gas stove. What's there to modify on that thing?"
Wan Xinyue bit her lower lip, hesitated for a few seconds, then reluctantly brought the stove out, speaking softly. "I'm… I'm modifying the nozzle aperture and angle."
"Modifying the nozzle?" Su Bai's interest was piqued. "What for?"
Her face grew even redder, her voice barely a whisper. "I want the flame… to be shaped like a heart."
Su Bai was briefly stunned, then couldn't help but laugh. "A heart-shaped flame? Are you serious?"
"I'm serious!" Wan Xinyue said urgently, raising the portable stove to show him, pointing at the nozzle. "I've been researching it for days. A regular portable stove has a single-hole nozzle, so the flame is just a simple round shape. But if I insert a cross-shaped copper-wire support inside the nozzle and adjust the angle of the gas passage, the disturbed airflow will split the flame into two symmetrical arcs. Put them together and you get—"
"A heart," Su Bai finished for her, a look of surprise and admiration in his eyes.
Wan Xinyue nodded vigorously, her eyes sparkling. "Exactly! I tried it last night, and the effect was pretty good, but the flame was a bit unstable and flickered easily. So I got up this morning to readjust the thickness and position of the copper wire."
Su Bai crouched down to take a closer look at the disassembled stove. Wan Xinyue had indeed put a lot of thought into it—inside the nozzle a very thin, cross-shaped support made of copper wire had been welded in, each of the four arms precisely angled. The inner walls of the gas channel had also been polished to ensure even airflow.
"Where did you get these tools and materials?" Su Bai asked.
"I bought them online," Wan Xinyue confessed honestly. "Remember when I learned car modification from you for a while? I got interested in mechanical stuff. Then I saw a video online where someone modified a regular lighter to produce a heart-shaped flame, and I thought, why not try it on a portable gas stove? After all, we go camping a lot, and a plain stove is so boring."
As she spoke, she picked up the spray paint can and sprayed a layer of matte white primer on the stove's shell. "Once the flame is adjusted, I'll spray the shell with a cherry blossom pink paint and draw some little patterns on it. That way it'll look even nicer."
Watching her work with such earnestness, Su Bai felt a warmth surge through him.
"So, this stove… is it for me?"
Wan Xinyue's hands paused, and even the tips of her ears turned red. She lowered her head and said, "Mm… it's for Brother Su Bai and Yusheng. I heard you two are planning to go camping in a couple of days. Out in the wild, you'll need to cook, right? So I thought, a regular stove is too ordinary. If I could make a stove with a heart-shaped flame, then when you cook, the flame would open into a heart shape. How romantic would that be?"
Her voice grew softer and softer, almost turning into a mumble to herself. "And… I can't cook, and I can't tag along and disturb your time alone. So the only thing I can do is make something small, so whenever you use it, you'll think of me…"
Seeing her shy and sincere expression, Su Bai reached out and gently patted her on the head.
"Xinyue."
"Hmm?"
"This thoughtfulness of yours—I accept it."
Wan Xinyue looked up, meeting Su Bai's gentle eyes. Her eyes were slightly red, but a smile couldn't help creeping onto her lips.
"So… Brother Su Bai, do you like it?"
"Yes, I do." Su Bai smiled. "But, seriously, can this stove really create a heart-shaped flame? Don't tell me when you turn it on, the flame comes out crooked—or worse, the thing just explodes."
"It won't explode!" Wan Xinyue said anxiously, quickly grabbing the stove and pointing at the nozzle. "I calculated the ratio of the gas flow to the nozzle aperture. The copper wire bracket is 0.3 millimeters thick, just enough to disturb the airflow without blocking the channel. Also, the copper wire I used is heat-resistant, with a melting point above 1,000 degrees Celsius. The flame temperature of a portable stove tops out at around 700 to 800 degrees Celsius, so it's completely fine!"
As she spoke, she picked up a lighter, twisted the knob on the stove, and with a click, lit it.
A blue flame shot out from the nozzle. At first, it was just an ordinary round shape, but after a few seconds, the flame began to tremble slightly, then slowly split into two symmetrical arcs, converging in the air to form a clear, distinct heart shape.
The flame danced, its blue glow flickering gently in the air, as if a real heart were beating.
Su Bai stared, slightly stunned.
"It actually can be modified into a heart shape…" he murmured.
Wan Xinyue let out a proud little hum, turned off the stove, and extinguished the flame. "Of course! I’ve been researching it for days! And I made another version too—putting two nozzles side by side, one adjusted high and one low. When the flame comes out, it forms two hearts stacked together, like a couple’s set."
Su Bai couldn’t help but laugh. "What’s going on in that clever head of yours, always cooking up stuff like this?"
"Because..." Wan Xinyue looked up at Su Bai, a hint of seriousness and reliance in her eyes. "Because I want to make Brother Su Bai happy. I don’t have much talent. I can’t do research like Yusheng, or manage things like Jialu, or network like Xialin. All I can do is some small handicrafts, modify cars, and cook. If I can make something small that brings you joy, that’s enough for me."
As she spoke, she lowered her head and continued fiddling with the stove in her hands, her voice soft. "Besides, you’ve been so good to me—buying me race cars, signing me up for training, letting me do what I love. I have to do something to repay you, right?"
Su Bai looked at her lowered eyelashes and focused profile, and a soft spot in his heart was gently touched.
He crouched down to meet Wan Xinyue’s eyes, reached out, and pinched her chubby cheek. "Xinyue, you don’t need to repay me anything. If you’re happy, I’m happy."
Wan Xinyue looked up, her eyes slightly red, but a smile hung at the corners of her mouth. "Then... Brother Su Bai, you have to make sure to bring this stove when you go camping."
"I definitely will," Su Bai said with a smile. "When Yusheng and I cook, we’ll turn it on, and there’ll be a heart-shaped flame. She’ll definitely be touched by your thoughtfulness."
Wan Xinyue chuckled softly, then bent down again to keep adjusting the stove, murmuring to herself, "I still need to tweak the flame’s stability so it won’t flicker when the wind blows..."
Su Bai stood up, watching her busy back. He felt both amused and warmed inside.
This girl—usually so quiet and gentle—who knew she had such a romantic streak? She’d actually modified a gas stove to produce a heart-shaped flame, secretly researching it for days, just to add a little romance to his and Chen Yusheng’s camping trip.
He turned and walked toward the garage door, took a couple of steps, then glanced back.
Wan Xinyue was crouched at the workbench, her ponytail gently swaying with her movements, humming an unfamiliar little tune, focused and earnest.
A smile curled unconsciously at the corner of Su Bai’s mouth.
This girl... she was becoming more and more endearing.
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!
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."
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.”
