Beauty Clinic
With a towel wrapped around her entire head, leaving only two eye holes, Li Naer walked into the consultation room.
"Take it off and let me see," the doctor said plainly.
Layer after layer of towels were removed to reveal a swollen and chapped face.
The doctor held her chin and studied her face closely for a while before asking, "Minor improvements or major reconstruction?"
"What would you suggest?" said Li Naer, seeming somewhat wary without her beauty.
The doctor patiently explained, "In cases like yours with severe tissue necrosis, major reconstruction has a chance of restoring your original appearance. With minor improvements, you'll probably end up with something like the currently trendy 'internet celebrity face'."
"Internet celebrity face? No, no, I want major reconstruction."
An average person would be quite content with a pretty internet celebrity face.
But this was Li Naer.
She had once made the campus beauty rankings. How could she allow herself to be nondescript?
The sea is difficult to contain, the sorceress mountain cannot simply be a cloud.
The doctor did not say anything more, he simply quoted a price: "Major reconstruction will be one million yuan, cash or bank transfer."
One million yuan.
Li Naer was a little shocked. All her time spent cozying up to Chen Ming had only yielded a little over 200,000 yuan.
Unwilling to give up her beauty, Li Naer persisted.
"Let me go to the bathroom first."
Li Naer hurried off towards the bathroom and took out her phone to call Chen Ming.
At that moment, Chen Ming was questioning his whole life.
Seeing the incoming call, he absently answered.
"Hello, brother Chen Ming?"
Although disfigured, Li Naer's voice was still pleasant.
"Oh, Li Naer," said Chen Ming, sounding very cold.
Having lost his dignity, he could no longer engage in such affairs.
He now had zero interest in his former goddess.
"That's right, brother Chen Ming, could you lend me some money, not much, just one million?"
Based on what Li Naer knew of Chen Ming, a mere million was nothing to him.
Usually a little sweet talk with hints would get money out of him.
"I won't lend it. Piss off," said the irritable Chen Ming, flatly refusing instead of agreeing to lend money as she had expected, and immediately hanging up.
After trying several times, her phone finally gave an English prompt.
Li Naer finally confirmed that she had been blocked by Chen Ming.
It seemed hopeless to rely on others.
She was no longer naive enough to expect getting something for nothing in her state.
Moreover, her reputation in social circles was already in tatters.
Although she had done nothing, no one would believe her.
They only believed what they could see.
"Doctor, I've thought about it. Just do the minor improvements," said Li Naer, getting straight to the point when she returned to the consultation room.
She only had a little over 200,000 yuan.
The doctor had thought she was going to be a big customer. He did not expect her budget to suddenly shrink, and his tone became somewhat colder too: "Minor improvements will be 200,000 yuan. Pay the deposit upfront, cash or card?"
Li Naer took out the card containing just over 200,000 yuan. "Card."
Swipe
Swipe again
Swipe again
The doctor's expression grew increasingly awkward. He handed the bank card back to Li Naer. "Use a different card."
"What's going on? Let me check."
Li Naer clearly remembered transferring the money from the pigeon signal onto this bank card.
Opening her mobile banking app, a notification appeared:
Dear customer, your account is suspected of illegal activity and has been frozen. Please visit your local bank for inquiries if you have any questions.
"I'll come back another time."
Li Naer put the card back into her bag and hurriedly left.
With issues on her bank card, there was no point staying any longer.
She still had to rush to a nearby bank to figure out what exactly had gone wrong.
Bank
After waiting for about 10 minutes, Li Naer's queue ticket number was finally called.
Sitting down at the bank teller's window, she passed over her bank card and asked, "Please help me check why this bank card was frozen."
"Sure."
"Ma'am, over 200,000 yuan of funds in your account came from problematic sources."
The bank staff worked efficiently, quickly identifying the issue from their back end system.
"What's the problem? That was money someone else gave me."
Li Naer was a little puzzled. What did her bank account have to do with money someone else decided to give her?
"It's like this, ma'am. The account providing you with funds has unknown origins, so your account is suspected money laundering and transactions have therefore been frozen," the staff member still responded kindly.
"I didn't launder money, I don't know anything. Someone else just gave me that money."
Li Naer was getting somewhat emotional. She had never done anything illegal.
The staff member quickly tried to reassure her, "Please don't get excited, ma'am. If you can prove your account funds come from normal sources, you can provide the information to the police to resolve this."
Provide information?
How?
Could she say it was money from selling silver that the buyer hadn't even received yet?
Looking dejected, Li Naer walked out of the bank. She knew there was no getting that money back.
Her face also most likely could no longer be fixed.
The one who caused all this was that man, that scammer.
Hospital
The scammer Li Naer spoke of was currently going through discharge procedures.
"What do you mean the card won't work? That can't be right. I used this card to make a payment before."
"Yes sir, there is something wrong with your card. Please provide another one."
"Try it again."
"Sir, there really is an issue with your card."
Just as Chen Ming wanted to argue further, a squad of police officers suddenly appeared in the lobby.
They scanned the lobby and marched straight towards Chen Ming.
Flashing their badges, "Hello, Mr. Chen Ming. You are suspected of counterfeiting. Please come with us for questioning."
Counterfeiting?
Chen Ming's mind buzzed. When had he ever done anything like that?
"No, officers, you must have the wrong person. I'm a law-abiding citizen."
Chen Ming waved his arms around in agitation, startling the officers.
"Don't move. If you continue resisting, we will consider it obstructing officers on duty which carries severe consequences. Let's talk more at the station," said the officer in charge, pulling out a gun and pointing it directly at Chen Ming.
Scared stiff, Chen Ming did not dare to move a muscle, allowing the officers to put silver handcuffs on him.
Interrogation Room
"Officers, I really didn't counterfeit anything. You must have the wrong person. I'm innocent, you have to believe me!" Chen Ming pleaded incessantly from the interrogation chair, he was so frightened by just two officers despite having the System for a short while.
"It's like this. We detected multiple unverified deposits in your bank account. Please explain," said one of the officers.
The sources of funds entering Chen Ming's bank account were dubious, appearing as if they had materialized out of thin air.
The officers had reason to suspect hacking into bank systems to modify data.
Although differing from traditional counterfeiting methods, fundamentally there was no difference.
"It's the System, I have a System."
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."
lan, the Luo family, tracked him down - along with the babies in their arms. Mo Xuan stared pensively at the paternity test results from over a dozen top institutions, both domestic and international, showing a 99.99% match between himself and the two baby girls. At 23, Mo Xuan, a doctoral student, had become the father of two three-year-old children. The kicker? The mothers weren't even the same person! He gradually realized he was being lured step by step into an elaborate trap designed by these two yandere sisters. "Be good, little Xuan. Sister's life belongs to you entirely." "Brother, if you try to run away, I'll have no choice but to tie you up." Mo Xuan: "Do whatever you want, ladies. I give up."
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.”
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.
