The autumn in Jingzhou was fleeting.
It seemed as though the ginkgo trees had shed all their leaves overnight.
The world was changing, and changing fast—so fast that many couldn’t make sense of it.
The strategic pivot of Abyssal Dragon Tech, the risk contingency plans of the Mo Group, the resource deployment of the Qin Group…
These massive maneuvers beneath the surface remained invisible to outsiders.
What the business world saw was that after the resounding success of its "Polaris OS," Abyssal Dragon Tech didn’t press its advantage. Instead, it made a series of baffling moves.
...
Early morning, 6:30.
In the apartment at Cloud Peak One, sunlight had just crept over the horizon.
Lu Chenyuan had already finished his morning workout and was preparing breakfast in the kitchen.
The coffee machine hummed softly as it ground the beans.
In the frying pan, eggs sizzled.
Mo Qingli emerged from the bedroom, wearing one of Lu Chenyuan’s white shirts—its hem just long enough to graze her thighs.
Her hair was slightly tousled, carrying the languidness of someone freshly awake. She wrapped her arms around Lu Chenyuan’s waist from behind, resting her chin lightly on his shoulder.
"Morning," she murmured, her voice still husky.
"Morning," Lu Chenyuan replied without turning, deftly handing her a slice of warm, freshly toasted bread.
Mo Qingli took a bite, leaning against him as she watched him methodically prepare two identical breakfasts.
The apartment was nothing like it had been a year ago.
The study now held an entire wall of books on art history and economics—hers.
On the balcony, succulents and pothos thrived under her occasional care.
The living room sofa was draped with her favorite cashmere throw.
In the walk-in closet, his suits and her dresses hung side by side—distinct, yet perfectly harmonious.
This place finally felt like a home.
As they ate breakfast, Lu Chenyuan’s private terminal lit up with an encrypted message from Ren Qian:
"President Lu, the location for the first vocational college has been finalized."
"'Abyssal Dragon Tech Vocational College.'"
"As per your requirements, the admission criteria are limited to graduates with bachelor’s degrees or higher. This… might be too stringent? The industry is laughing at us, calling it a pipe dream, a waste of money."
Lu Chenyuan read it but didn’t reply.
Mo Qingli glanced up. "Trouble?"
"Not trouble," he said, sipping his coffee. "Just a lack of understanding."
"They want technicians who can hit the production line immediately," Mo Qingli cut to the heart of it.
"Whereas you want craftsmen and engineers willing to endure a decade of obscurity—until they become masters of their fields."
Lu Chenyuan smiled.
"You know me too well, Qingli."
"So, ignore them," she said, setting down her fork and dabbing her lips with a napkin. "Time will prove everything."
"Mhm."
After breakfast, they changed and, ten minutes later, stepped out of the apartment side by side—two impeccably dressed titans of industry.
To the outside world, they were just another couple in the city, commuting together.
Except their battlefield was the entire world.
...
Time was the ultimate witness.
A year passed.
Lu Chenyuan’s name appeared less and less in the media.
In his place stood Lin Yuan, Abyssal Dragon Tech’s co-CEO, who became a steady presence at business summits and events.
He was calm, pragmatic, sparing with words—but every one carried weight.
He executed Lu Chenyuan’s vision flawlessly, becoming the company’s unshakable public face.
Meanwhile, Lu Chenyuan receded into the shadows like a ghost.
He gave no interviews, attended no public functions.
Jingzhou’s business circles gradually lost track of him.
But the legends about him only grew.
Some said he’d succumbed to indulgence, keeping a hidden lover.
Others claimed his ambition had burned out, that he was preparing to retire.
No one knew the truth: this man was reshaping the future in ways beyond imagination.
"Verdant Tech" lurked like a leviathan in the deep, silently devouring the vast funds funneled from Abyssal Dragon Tech, diving ever deeper into the abyss of foundational science.
"Ridge Tech" spread like a global net, binding Abyssal Dragon’s products and standards to suppliers and markets worldwide.
As for the much-mocked "vocational college," its first cohort of two hundred students had completed their foundational coursework.
They weren’t sent to assembly lines for internships.
Instead, Lu Chenyuan spent a fortune to dispatch them collectively to A Country, J Country, H Country—nations with the world’s most advanced semiconductor industries—for a six-month "research exchange."
The decision ignited another media frenzy.
"Abyssal Dragon Tech has lost its mind!"
"They’re funding their competitors’ talent pool!"
"What is Lu Chenyuan thinking?"
The uproar never reached Lu Chenyuan’s ears.
Today, he and Mo Qingli were at a farm on the outskirts of Jingzhou.
It was strawberry-picking season.
Lu Chenyuan carried the basket while Mo Qingli did the selecting.
She wore a beige casual outfit and a straw hat, her face relaxed and smiling.
Plucking the ripest strawberry, she wiped it lightly and popped it straight into Lu Chenyuan’s mouth.
"Sweet?" she asked, tilting her face up at him.
"Sweet," he replied, chewing as he gazed into her eyes.
The sunlight caught her face, but her eyes outshone it.
"They all say you’ve gone mad," Mo Qingli said, picking another strawberry for herself.
"Mhm," Lu Chenyuan answered absently.
"Sending our brightest minds straight to our competitors."
"You’ll never build the best car by working behind closed doors," he said.
"How can you see farther than giants unless you stand on their shoulders?"
"I’m not sending them to steal technology."
"I’m sending them to learn, to experience, to understand—how those a hundred steps ahead took each of those steps."
"To study their management, their standards, their trial and error."
"These are things you’ll never grasp locked in a lab."
Mo Qingli listened quietly.
She knew this man was playing a long game—so vast that he was willing to bear the scorn and pay an exorbitant price.
"Chenyuan," she said softly.
"Yes?"
"Are you doing all this for Abyssal Dragon, or for…" She trailed off.
Lu Chenyuan was silent for a moment.
His eyes drifted to the horizon, where the sky stretched endlessly blue.
"Qingli, I’ve told you about the village where I grew up."
"I remember."
"It was poor, but the people were kind. They believed education was the only way out. The village’s lone schoolteacher held on for forty years—taught hundreds of students."
"He used to say something."
"He said every student he sent out was like planting a tree."
"Hundreds of trees, taking root elsewhere. One day, a whole forest might return to shelter that village."
Lu Chenyuan turned back to look at Mo Qingli.
"I'm not that teacher. But I want to learn from him—to be someone who plants trees."
Mo Qingli's heart was gently stirred.
She stepped forward and took his hand.
"Then I'll stay with you," she said. "I'll help you water them, nourish them."
Lu Chenyuan tightened his grip around hers.
"Alright."
ions, keeping it grounded and realistic】 After quitting his job, office worker Su Yang accidentally binds with the "Enjoy Life System." As the name suggests, simply by indulging in life's pleasures, he can earn random rewards from the system—no need to spend money on beautiful women or grovel before anyone. Just enjoy, and the money follows, making it all about effortless fun. The system comes with a scanning feature, allowing him to establish a favorability bond with women rated 85 points or above. Every 20-point increase in favorability unlocks additional rewards. After suffering through over twenty years of hardship, Su Yang trembles with excitement, his dull eyes suddenly gleaming with newfound hope. "Enjoy life? How hard could that be?"
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.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
orn and Humiliation】【Forced Love】 In his past life, Lin Ran was betrayed and murdered by his girlfriend and family, while the yandere female aristocrat, who had treated him as a mere plaything, avenged him by doing in his enemies. Upon seeing the yandere female aristocrat lying in the same coffin, ready to die with him, Lin Ran realized how profoundly mistaken he had been. Reborn, he abandoned the fickle campus beauty and wholeheartedly embraced the yandere female aristocrat's arms. "Ran! If I dig out your eyes and turn them into a specimen, you'll only be able to look at me!" Lin Ran: "Darling, kiss me!" "Ran! If I break your legs, you won't run away anymore, right?" Lin Ran: "Love, hold me tight!" "Ran! If..." Lin Ran: "Hush now! Love me more!" Luo Yao: ... Seeing his scumbag dad: "Take him out!" Seeing his stepmother: "Get rid of her!" Seeing his brother: "Eliminate him!" Seeing his white moonlight: "Send that to Southeast Asia!"
