"Old Lin, where are you?!"
"Can't see you—make some noise!"
An Yi called out several times.
Gazing at the vast expanse of colorful yet slightly foul-smelling garbage in the dump, he sighed faintly.
"So much trash. Who knows where he went? Searching like this is exhausting, not to mention filthy."
At least the wheelchair was intact. Bringing it back would at least give Yaoyao some closure.
With a sorrowful expression, An Yi picked up the knockoff wheelchair and prepared to leave.
Bang! Bang!
Two gusts of cyan wind erupted, blasting the garbage aside and slashing toward the sky.
The mountainous piles of trash were sent flying, scattering like a dense curtain of rain.
"I'm here!"
Lin Chen's cold voice rang out.
An Yi froze for a moment before his eyes reddened, and he rushed over with overwhelming grief.
"Old Lin! I—I finally found you!"
"Get lost!!"
Night fell.
Leaning on his crutch, Lin Chen picked up a towel and dried his damp black hair, staring through the window at the nightscape outside the hotel.
After an entire afternoon of scrubbing, the stench of garbage on him had finally faded.
Buzz buzz buzz—
His phone vibrated.
Lin Chen glanced at the caller ID and answered. "Hello, Yaoyao."
Qin Yao's clear, melodious voice carried a hint of hesitation as she whispered, "Lin Chen... no, Brother!"
"Brother?"
Hearing the term, Lin Chen frowned slightly.
"Brother... I... I met Mom."
Qin Yao's voice trembled as she spoke, recounting everything.
A look of shock flashed across Lin Chen's usually icy face.
"Brother... are you okay?" Qin Yao asked softly when she didn’t hear a response.
"Yeah."
Lin Chen nodded slowly.
After hanging up, he stared at the nightscape outside the window, a bitter smile tugging at his lips.
"Fate... truly unpredictable."
"Hey, Old Lin, time to change your bandages!"
An Yi's voice came from outside the door.
"I need some peace."
Lin Chen closed his eyes, exhausted, and lay back on the hotel sofa.
"Hey, Lao Bai, do you know who 'Peace' is?"
"My elementary school classmate was named Peace."
"Got it. Invite her over—Old Lin's craving a woman."
Jiangbei City.
Qin Family Villa, living room.
Lin Mei'er sat on the sofa, leisurely sipping tea.
Across from her, Qin Zhengwei sat stiffly, beads of sweat forming on his forehead without him realizing.
Feeling that, as the brother-in-law, he shouldn’t appear so intimidated, Qin Zhengwei cleared his throat.
"Ahem... Meimei—"
"Hmm?"
Lin Mei'er’s peach-blossom eyes shot him a cold glance.
"Cough... Miss Lin, if you have something to say, please speak directly." Qin Zhengwei forced a smile.
Lin Mei'er set down her teacup and snorted. "Yaoyao is with my sister. Did you know?"
"The Underworld?!"
Hearing this, Qin Zhengwei immediately shot to his feet, furious. "What the hell is she doing in that godforsaken place?!"
"Last night, the girl lied on the phone, saying she was having fun in the capital and didn’t want to come back yet. Who’d have thought she’d run off to the Underworld?!"
"My sister’s there—why panic?" Lin Mei'er scoffed.
"How can I not panic?! You know exactly what kind of place the Underworld is!"
Qin Zhengwei scratched his head frantically.
The Underworld was one of the world’s top assassin organizations, handling all sorts of dirty, shadowy dealings.
And now, his daughter was at their headquarters!
He’d been careless. How could he have guessed that Qin Yao attending a simple banquet would spiral into this?
Lin Mei'er frowned at Qin Zhengwei’s frantic pacing. "Grow a spine. What’s there to panic about?"
"What the hell is Lin Lan thinking?! Why does she want to see Yaoyao now? We agreed back then—no contact!"
Qin Zhengwei, now too angry to fear Lin Mei'er, snapped back.
When Qin Yao was still in swaddling clothes, she had been quietly sent back to Jiangbei with one condition—complete separation from Lin Lan.
Lin Lan, as a member of the Underworld, carried too much baggage.
The organization’s intricate power struggles, external interference, endless scheming—it was all too dangerous.
Raising Qin Yao in that environment would have been unthinkable.
That’s why Qin Zhengwei had chosen to bring her back to Jiangbei to grow up safely.
Yet now, at the height of the Underworld’s turmoil, Lin Lan had taken Qin Yao back.
"Yaoyao’s identity has been exposed," Lin Mei'er said gravely.
Qin Zhengwei’s frown deepened. "What do you mean?"
"Remember the last kidnapping attempt by the Butcher’s Blade?"
Lin Mei'er’s voice darkened. "They’ve already made their move. Yaoyao isn’t safe here anymore."
At this, Qin Zhengwei’s face paled.
Many of the major financial groups in the country had hired assassins from the Heaven Organization.
He’d initially assumed it was just some business rival targeting him.
But hearing that Qin Yao was now in the crosshairs of the entire Heaven Organization, his hands trembled.
"The Underworld may be unstable now, but compared to here, it’s safer. Besides... it’s been twenty years since mother and daughter last saw each other. This is a rare chance."
Qin Zhengwei clutched his hair and sighed.
"You bastard, what are you sighing about?! If it weren’t for your debauched ass seducing my sister back then, none of this mess would’ve happened!"
Lin Mei'er glared at him, her anger flaring.
Back then, Lin Lan had already been engaged to the young master of the Hong family, a powerful financial dynasty in the U.S.
It should’ve been a perfect match—wealth, status, beauty.
Who could’ve predicted that some small-time playboy from Jiangbei would swoop in and ruin it all?
The thought made Lin Mei'er hate her younger self even more.
At just ten years old, out of sheer curiosity, she’d dragged Lin Lan into a bar—where they’d run into this degenerate.
Lin Lan, barely eighteen and naive in love, never stood a chance against Qin Zhengwei’s smooth-talking charm.
Within days, she was completely smitten.
By the time they returned to the Underworld, Lin Lan was already pregnant.
The fallout was catastrophic—the Hong family alliance collapsed, and the Underworld’s old faction leader, who’d long seen them as a threat, seized the opportunity to suppress them...
Lin Mei'er exhaled sharply, fists clenched, her rage simmering as she stared at Qin Zhengwei.
This man was the root of all evil.
Feeling her murderous gaze, Qin Zhengwei shivered. "Don’t look at me like that! I’m a victim too!"
Back then, he’d been young, rich, and handsome—a textbook high-society playboy.
He’d just wanted a one-night stand with a pretty girl at the bar.
How was he supposed to know she was from the Underworld?!
From that moment on, his carefree life as a wealthy heir spiraled into the murky world of international power struggles.
Worse, he’d been brutally beaten by an eleven-year-old girl—left hospitalized for six months with injuries that still made him shudder twenty years later.
Just seeing Lin Mei'er now sent chills down his spine.
Lin Mei'er massaged her temples. "Right now, I’m more worried about your son."
"Son?!"
Qin Zhengwei nearly jumped out of his seat. "Lin Mei'er, don’t you dare slander me! I’ve been loyal to Lin Lan—heart and soul! What son?!"
Lin Mei'er: "..."
"Why are you so worked up?"
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
ap a wealthy young lady? Or else I'll be eliminated by the system? Ye Feng, who awakened the Kidnapper System, originally wanted to live a peaceful life but never imagined he would become a kidnapper of young women. However, after some time, he discovered that all the girls the system ordered him to kidnap were far from ordinary. "Big brother Ye Feng~ You've kidnapped my heart, and now you're not allowed to leave me ever again~" "Ye Feng~ You kidnapped me back then, now it's my turn to capture you♡" "Little Feng, you're mine! You can only be mine!" "Ye Feng, none of them deserve you. Only I love you the most♡" ... This is madness, they've all gone mad! Wait, what? Why are all the girls I kidnapped yanderes?!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
] [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!"
