Two days later, at the Royal Hotel in Gedo.
When Lu Qianqian and Ji Wushuang arrived at the suite door, travel-worn and weary, Mo Qingli, along with the recently arrived Lou Mengling and Lin Shuhan, froze in disbelief.
"Qianqian?"
Mo Qingli could hardly believe her eyes.
Lu Qianqian stared at Mo Qingli.
At the simple, elegant loungewear she wore, and at the shackle around her ankle—more glaring in person than it had appeared in the news.
Her face, which had always managed to smile through war and hardship, instantly crumpled.
Tears fell like broken strings of pearls, streaming down uncontrollably.
She rushed forward, throwing her arms around Mo Qingli, sobbing like a child who had suffered unbearable injustice.
"Qingli-jie… How could they do this to you… Wuwuwu…"
"How dare they!"
All her strength, all her pretense, collapsed the moment she saw her loved one.
Mo Qingli held her, gently patting her back, her own eyes glistening with tears.
Lou Mengling and Lin Shuhan, both mothers now, turned away, discreetly wiping their eyes.
Lu Chenyuan walked over and ruffled his sister’s hair.
"Alright, no more crying."
"Your brother isn’t dead yet."
Lu Qianqian looked up at him, her face wet with tears, then punched him hard, laughing and crying at the same time.
"Brother! You too! You scared me to death!"
The family was finally reunited—in this foreign "cage," of all places.
The scene was absurd, yet undeniably warm.
……
The wedding was scheduled for the next day.
The venue: the Xia Embassy in Country J.
Here, on Xia soil—sacred and inviolable.
There were no elaborate ceremonies, no hundreds of guests.
Not even a white wedding gown.
Mo Qingli simply wore a traditional red silk dress that Lin Shuhan had brought from Xia.
The crimson fabric made her skin glow like snow, her beauty breathtaking.
Lu Chenyuan wore a simple red modern-style mandarin-collar suit, his posture as straight as an unsheathed sword.
The witnesses were few:
The two mothers, Lou Mengling and Lin Shuhan.
Lu Qianqian and Ji Wushuang.
And Ambassador Li Wenbo, who officiated.
The embassy’s small hall was decorated simply yet solemnly, with only a bright national flag hanging at the center.
Ambassador Li Wenbo stood beneath it, looking at the couple before him with solemn emotion.
He had presided over countless events, witnessed many historic moments—but none had stirred him like this.
This was no ordinary wedding.
This was a vow made under the world’s gaze, amid the enemy’s fire.
The bravest, most romantic, and most tragic resistance of two of Xia’s finest.
"Lu Chenyuan, do you take Mo Qingli to be your wife, to love and cherish her, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, till death do you part?"
Lu Chenyuan turned to Mo Qingli.
His gaze was as gentle as an ocean.
"I, Lu Chenyuan, take you, Mo Qingli, as my only wife."
His voice was steady and clear.
"From this day forward, your shackles are mine."
"Your freedom is the rest of my life."
"I will stay here until we go home—together."
He didn’t say "I do."
His vow was a promise sealed with his very being.
Mo Qingli’s tears welled up but never fell.
She simply smiled at him.
Ambassador Li turned to her.
"Mo Qingli, do you take Lu Chenyuan to be your husband, to love and cherish him, in sickness and in health, for richer or poorer, for better or worse, till death do you part?"
"I, Mo Qingli, take you, Lu Chenyuan, as my only husband."
Her voice was just as firm.
"The eye of the storm is my harbor."
"Where you are, that is home."
"I trust you. I stand with you."
Then came the exchange of rings.
Still the same tin-thread ring Lu Chenyuan had crafted himself.
As he slid it onto her finger, the electronic shackle around her ankle seemed a ludicrous irony.
It could bind her steps, but not her heart—nor her love.
"I now pronounce you husband and wife."
Ambassador Li’s voice trembled slightly.
"May you live happily together till old age."
Sparse yet heartfelt applause filled the hall.
The two mothers and Lu Qianqian were already weeping.
Lu Chenyuan embraced his wife—a restrained hug that spoke volumes.
There was no champagne, no cake.
At the wedding’s conclusion, Lu Chenyuan released a statement to the world through the embassy.
It contained just one line:
"I, Lu Chenyuan, will remain in Gedo to accompany my wife, Mo Qingli, until Country J’s judiciary clears her name."
The world erupted once more. Everyone was stunned by Lu Chenyuan’s decision.
He hadn’t come to negotiate.
He hadn’t come to pressure.
He had made himself the hottest potato in Country J—and even Country A’s—hands.
A hostage they dared neither touch nor release.
With his own freedom, he had built an unbreakable wall around his wife.
And bought Xia’s tech war the most precious breathing room.
…………
Jingzhou, Lianshan Tech Headquarters.
In the CEO’s office on the top floor, a massive holographic screen replayed the news.
Before the Xia flag at the embassy in Country J, Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli stood side by side.
No grand spectacle, no clamoring crowd.
Just a handful of loved ones—and the lenses of the global media.
Along with Lu Chenyuan’s earth-shattering declaration.
Lin Yuan muted the sound.
He simply watched in silence.
Watched the man he had followed for over a decade, his mentor and friend, place himself at the storm’s center with unshakable resolve.
Lin Yuan remembered years ago, in university, how he had pledged himself to Lu Chenyuan after the latter covered his mother’s medical bills without hesitation.
Later, upholding Lu Chenyuan’s vision, he founded Yuanlong Tech, forging ahead against all odds.
And now, leading Lianshan’s independence from Yuanlong, charting his own course.
At first, Lin Yuan’s loyalty had been purely personal—a debt of life.
But over time, he and Ren Qian had embraced Lu Chenyuan’s dream as their own, pouring every waking hour into their work.
Personal feelings, family life—all were deferred to "when there’s time."
That notion had ruled them like an invisible curse for too long.
For years, Lu Chenyuan had let time slip by, sharing a roof with Mo Qingli yet never seizing the moment—until cold, electronic shackles delivered the wake-up call.
Some things couldn’t wait.
What about myself, then?
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?!
lity and could only live as an ordinary mortal. He only wished to live a peaceful life. Yet he didn't know— The dog he adopted, because it ate his food, became a legendary demon king. The kitchen knife he casually forged became a peerless divine weapon, causing numerous experts to fight desperately for it. The young disciple he took in became an immortal lord that led an era, due to cultivating the techniques Ye Feng taught him. Even the skeletons he looked down on the most were ominous demon kings that suppressed countless worlds. Many years later, looking at the void shattered with a punch, Ye Feng murmured to himself: It turns out the peerless kings were myself all along...
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
