Li Yun didn’t bother explaining herself to anyone. She knew all too well that often, explanations only serve to cover up and end up making things worse.
So she kept waiting for Xu Mu. But now that he was right in front of her, she found herself at a loss for words.
Xu Mu noticed the worry on Li Yun’s face and asked curiously, “Auntie, what’s wrong?”
“I…”
Li Yun hesitated for a moment before deciding to speak up. “Xiao Mu, come with me.”
Xu Mu followed Li Yun outside the main hall.
“Lately, there have been rumors going around that I… am your lover.”
Li Yun glanced around to make sure no one was nearby before finally revealing the matter. “I can tell by the way they look at me—it’s different now.”
Xu Mu frowned slightly. Rumors like these were common enough.
In any company, when a woman suddenly gets promoted, such gossip is inevitable.
Especially if she’s attractive, people will assume she must have slept her way to the top.
That’s just human nature—if others gain benefits while you don’t, it must be because they cheated.
“Do you want me to find out who’s spreading these rumors?”
Xu Mu was clearly annoyed. He hated being accused of something baseless.
If she really were his lover, then fine—he could accept that.
But the truth was, he and Li Yun had nothing to do with each other.
“No need. These things only get worse the more you try to explain.”
Li Yun shook her head gently.
At her age, she wasn’t afraid of rumors.
What she feared was her daughter, Zhao Yingying, finding out.
If Yingying started thinking along those lines, how could she ever face her again?
“It’s okay, Auntie. Being called my lover isn’t so bad. It means no one at work will dare to mess with you.”
Seeing Li Yun’s anxious expression, Xu Mu smiled reassuringly. “When I say ‘lover,’ it’s in quotation marks, of course.”
Only then did Li Yun breathe a sigh of relief.
If Xu Mu was serious about that, she didn’t even know how to respond.
Reject it? She owed him too much.
Agree? Her conscience wouldn’t let her.
“Get back to work.”
Xu Mu waved his hand. “As long as you work hard, the gossip will die down.”
[Affection +10]
“You’re right. If I’m just a pretty face, then that’s settled. But if I work harder than anyone else, no one will have anything to say.”
Li Yun smiled and headed back toward the company’s lobby.
Xu Mu returned to his car, reclined the seat, and rested for a while.
About an hour later, his phone vibrated.
He glanced at it and saw it was a call from Meng Wanyue, so he answered.
“President Xu, I’m outside the company.”
Meng Wanyue’s voice came through.
“Okay, I’m on my way.”
Xu Mu planned to take Meng Wanyue’s car instead—his own was too conspicuous and not convenient for moving around.
He got out of his car and quickly walked toward the company entrance, spotting a Wuling Hongguang parked by the roadside.
He got in, sitting in the passenger seat.
Meng Wanyue had just seen Xu Mu when black text appeared above her head.
[Affection +10]
“Well, Wanyue, what’s going on today? You seem to be in a good mood.”
Xu Mu looked at Meng Wanyue with interest.
Today, she wore a black tracksuit, a faint smile playing on her handsome face.
“President Xu, I can now fully perform the Phantom Sword technique.”
Meng Wanyue glanced at Xu Mu, her eyes full of gratitude. “If nothing goes wrong, it should be thanks to the marrow-washing pill.”
Xu Mu smiled and said, “That helped, but the most important thing is your own ability.”
[Affection +5]
Meng Wanyue smiled softly, well aware that it was indeed the marrow-washing pill that made the difference.
“President Xu, where are we headed?”
“To the Feng Family Manor. Let’s circle around the perimeter first.”
Xu Mu’s purpose this time was simple: to plant pinhole cameras around the Feng estate.
He knew the routine—Dai Xiao and Chen Cai most often conducted their business in Feng Kang’s study.
…
On the way, Xu Mu briefly explained the plan to Meng Wanyue.
She nodded silently, then drove to the Feng Family Manor.
They both lived in the suburbs; Meng Wanyue circled the manor once in the car.
“President Xu, their security is really tight. Sneaking in unnoticed will be extremely difficult.”
Meng Wanyue parked the car by the roadside at a distance and spoke in a low voice.
While circling, Xu Mu used his perception to scan the interior.
Sure enough, there were numerous guards patrolling.
The security here was at least two to three times that of the Xu family estate.
If they wanted to secretly record footage, it had to be without anyone noticing. Forcing their way in would definitely raise alarms.
Leaning back in his seat with his eyes closed to rest, Xu Mu realized they would have to ask Feng Jian for help.
But speaking of Feng Jian, his thoughts drifted to Feng Yue.
He wondered if this woman might have a solution.
So, Xu Mu made a call.
“Young Master Xu, don’t tell me you’re coming to bother me again—I’m a little scared,” Feng Yue’s voice came through, tinged with mock grievance.
“I’ve already started dealing with the Feng family. Now I need to install pinhole cameras in Feng Kang’s study,” Xu Mu said into the phone. “But their guards are too many. Do you have any ideas?”
“The Feng family? Is Feng Kang home?”
Feng Yue’s tone became serious.
“No, they’re not.”
Xu Mu was sure.
Earlier, when they circled to the back of the manor, his perception had covered the entire large villa inside.
If he couldn’t see inside, it meant no one was home.
“To be honest, I do have a way. Remember those ‘honey trap’ videos you gave me before?”
Feng Yue laughed on the other end.
“Honey trap videos?”
Xu Mu was momentarily stunned, then looked at Meng Wanyue and recalled.
That time in Yang City, he had come with Ye Tong, Ye Yu, and Meng Wanyue.
One night at the hotel, they encountered a new type of honey trap.
Xu Mu had confiscated their phones, and Meng Wanyue had organized and summarized the videos on the phones overnight.
Later, Xu Mu handed the videos over to Feng Yue.
“That’s right. You wouldn’t believe it, but one of the people in the videos is from the Feng family—the security captain, Sun Wei.”
Feng Yue chuckled on the other end. “I’ve been keeping that lead all along. Didn’t expect it would come in handy now.”
“That setup before, the one with the honey trap—nothing actually happened, right? Can it really threaten him?”
Xu Mu frowned slightly.
“You don’t know the full story. Sun Wei’s wife is the daughter of the Feng family’s housekeeper,” Feng Yue explained. “In the video, Sun Wei was very proactive. The housekeeper must have realized he stood to gain something good.”
Hearing this, Xu Mu couldn’t help but smile. “Not bad. So, what’s your plan?”
“Threaten him. Have him set a fire in the front yard to burn through the estate’s power lines. The guards will rush out to put out the fire, and with the electricity cut, the security cameras will be disabled.”
Feng Yue’s voice came over. “Xu Shao, what do you think of this idea?”
“Good! Very good! As expected, you always have the cleverest ideas.”
Xu Mu praised her with a smile.
As they spoke, he suddenly noticed Meng Wanyue sitting nearby, her mood seeming a bit off.
Could she be jealous?
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
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.”
pression Bureau] Transported to a fantasy world overrun by demons and monsters, Gu Qingfeng becomes a jailer in the Demon Suppression Prison of the Great Yan Dynasty's Demon Suppression Bureau. From this point on, bizarre cases frequently occur in the Demon Suppression Prison, once known as hell on earth and infamous for its gloomy, terrifying atmosphere! Why do the demons and monsters in the prison wail miserably every night? Why has the corpse demon, capable of transforming into various beauties, donned black stockings and switched careers to become a foot massage therapist? Why has the eye demon, expert in soul-snatching and illusions, turned into a VR headset? Why is the fox spirit performing otaku dances? Are all these occurrences a twisted expression of demonic nature, or a descent into moral depravity? After peeling away layer upon layer of mystery, all clues ultimately point to a jailer named Gu Qingfeng. Gu Qingfeng: "Hehehe... My dear demons and monsters, whose card shall we flip today?"
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.
