"Of course it's true. Huaihai is my roots, and besides, you're here. How could I not come back?" Zhou Yi's words carried a faint hint of ambiguity.
Qiao Xi was naturally delighted to hear this. She extended her pinky finger toward him and said in a soft, pleading voice, "Then pinky promise with me, okay? Whoever breaks their word will... will... never be loved for the rest of their life."
Zhou Yi indulged her childish gesture, hooking his pinky with hers. "It's a promise."
The moment their fingers intertwined, warmth spread from their fingertips. Their gazes locked, and Qiao Xi felt her heart begin to race uncontrollably again.
The sorrow of Zhou Yi's impending departure and the comfort of his promise left her with mixed emotions—both joy and sorrow intertwined.
One thing was certain: her feelings for Zhou Yi were growing deeper by the day.
Even if he would soon be far away, her affection for him wouldn't diminish in the slightest.
After leaving the milk tea shop, Zhou Yi drove Qiao Xi home.
Just as she stepped out of his car, holding her sketchbook, she ran into Qiao Yu, who was returning from work.
Qiao Yu stared in disbelief at the man standing beside her younger sister.
That person was... Zhou Yi!?
Her eyes flickered with suspicion. How was this possible? Why would Zhou Yi be with her useless little sister?
Zhou Yi gently patted Qiao Xi's head. "Go on inside. It's cold out. If anything's bothering you, you can always talk to me—don't keep it all bottled up." He added, "If home ever feels unbearable, you can move out early. Once I leave for City A, you can stay at my place if you'd like."
Qiao Xi felt a warmth spread through her chest. She smiled and nodded. "Okay. No matter what, I know I have Yi-gege backing me up. That’s enough to keep me from worrying."
From a distance, Qiao Yu narrowed her eyes and approached.
"Xiao Xi!"
Hearing her sister's voice, Qiao Xi turned, her expression instantly shrinking with unease.
"Jiejie, you're back from work."
"Mhm. Is this a classmate of yours?"
Clearly, Qiao Yu’s interest wasn’t in Qiao Xi but in Zhou Yi.
Qiao Xi stepped slightly in front of him, shielding him from her sister’s gaze—a rare moment of bravery for her.
She still remembered how rudely Qiao Yu had spoken to Zhou Yi over the phone last time.
Afraid her sister might say something unpleasant, she tugged at Qiao Yu’s sleeve. "Jiejie, let’s go home. Dad’s probably waiting."
Qiao Yu gripped her wrist tightly, forcing Qiao Xi to let go with a wince.
"Jiejie, you—"
"Aren’t you going to introduce your friend? It’s rare to see you with anyone."
Zhou Yi’s Rolls-Royce was impossible to miss, and Qiao Yu’s eyes briefly flickered between him and the luxury car.
The Qiao family was well-off, but compared to the Su and Kong families—let alone Zhou Yi—they were merely upper-middle class. To Qiao Yu, Zhou Yi was nothing short of a golden opportunity.
She was already at the age where marriage prospects were being considered, and Qiao Zhengguo had lined up a few suitors for her.
The mediocre ones she dismissed, while the truly elite were out of her reach.
But this Zhou Yi...
Young, accomplished, handsome, with his own company—Qiao Yu made up her mind in an instant.
Zhou Yi had no idea about her scheming, but he was well aware of the dynamics in Qiao Xi’s family and held no favorable opinion of her sister.
He offered a polite but distant smile. "I’m Qiao Xi’s senior. My name is Zhou Yi."
Unlike most men, who fawned over her the moment they saw her, Zhou Yi remained composed. Strangely, this only intrigued Qiao Yu more.
She smiled warmly. "I’ve heard so much about you, Zhou Yi. Why don’t you come inside? It’s not often Xiao Xi brings a friend home."
Qiao Xi worried that bringing Zhou Yi in might upset Qiao Zhengguo and instinctively refused. "Jiejie, Senior is tired today. He has other things to do. Maybe next time."
Qiao Yu thought her sister was a fool for not seizing the chance to keep a man like Zhou Yi close. She shot Qiao Xi a disapproving glance before turning back to Zhou Yi with a bright smile.
"Now that you’re already here, it’d be impolite not to come in."
"Xiao Xi, Dad’s been telling me to encourage you to socialize more—especially with outstanding people like Zhou Yi. Don’t be so inconsiderate. This isn’t how the Qiao family treats guests."
With Qiao Yu laying it on so thick, refusing would make Zhou Yi seem discourteous. Qiao Xi, never one to win arguments against her sister, could only lower her head and silently will Zhou Yi to leave.
Instead, Zhou Yi smirked and took Qiao Xi’s hand. "Since we’re here, I might as well take a look around Xiao Xi’s home."
Qiao Xi blinked in surprise, but Qiao Yu didn’t give her a chance to protest, quickly pulling her along.
"Come on, your friend already agreed. I’ll tell the housekeeper to prepare extra dishes—Zhou Yi will be joining us for dinner."
The whole situation felt surreal to Qiao Xi.
Her sister, who usually had little patience for men and had been outright hostile to Zhou Yi over the phone, was now acting completely different.
She couldn’t make sense of it.
Zhou Yi, however, understood perfectly—it was all because of his changed status.
The Qiao residence was in an upscale neighborhood where every inch of land was worth a fortune. As they walked, Qiao Yu chatted animatedly about the area while subtly probing for details about Zhou Yi.
Unlike Qiao Xi’s reserved nature, Qiao Yu was a smooth talker.
When Zhou Yi mentioned his connections with the Kong and Su families, or how his investments ran into the hundreds of millions, her enthusiasm grew even more pronounced.
Zhou Yi didn’t mind revealing these things—none of it was a secret anyway.
The more Qiao Yu learned, the more pleased she was with him.
She couldn’t care less that this was her sister’s crush. She’d been stealing Qiao Xi’s things since they were children—what was one more man?
"We’re here! This is our place. Let me get the door."
Qiao Yu opened the door to reveal Qiao Zhengguo sitting in the living room, reading a book with his glasses on.
A stern and traditional man, he had few hobbies outside managing the company and reading.
When Qiao Yu entered, he barely glanced up. "You’re back."
"Dad, I brought a friend over. He’ll be staying for dinner."
She introduced Zhou Yi as her own guest, not Qiao Xi’s.
Only then did Qiao Zhengguo look up, studying Zhou Yi with a scrutinizing gaze. After a moment of silent assessment, he set his book aside and stood.
"Come with me for a moment."
Qiao Yu followed him into the study, leaving Zhou Yi and Qiao Xi alone in the living room.
Qiao Xi awkwardly explained, "I’m sorry, Yi-gege. My father is just... very traditional. He doesn’t mean to be rude."
Inside the study, Qiao Zhengguo asked bluntly, "Who is that outside? Someone you’re seeing?"
Qiao Yu answered vaguely, "Mhm. What do you think of him, Dad?"
Qiao Zhengguo frowned. "He's too pretty for a man. A face like that—can't be trustworthy."
In Qiao Zhengguo's time, even men were praised as "pretty," but to him, Zhou Yi looked like some delicate pretty boy, the kind that spelled trouble.
Qiao Yu, however, tilted her head with a playful grin. "Dad, forget his looks for a second. Guess who he is?"
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!
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?!
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
