Old Piero looked at the man before him—a mountain shrouded in mist.
You could see him, yet you could never truly see through him.
At this moment, Old Piero realized he might have made a mistake.
But once you’re at the gambling table, a gambler doesn’t back down easily.
"Of course, passing the proposal is just the first step," Old Piero shifted his tone, raising the stakes.
"The subsequent review process will be complicated. There will be significant resistance—from the ruling party and from Country A."
"But don’t worry, Mr. Lu," he smiled. "The Liberal Party will be the most reliable friend to you and your family."
The subtext was clear: You need me.
Lu Chenyuan finally lifted his gaze, meeting Old Piero’s eyes.
"Mr. Piero," he began, his voice calm yet carrying an unusual weight.
"I’ve always believed that the foundation of our cooperation isn’t friendship."
"It’s mutual interest."
"Bringing Mo Qingli home aligns with my interests."
"A stable, prosperous, and independent J Country aligns with the Liberal Party’s interests—and with Xia Country’s as well."
"We’re doing something that benefits everyone."
He paused, then added,
"So, this isn’t about one party helping the other."
"We’re simply helping ourselves."
Old Piero’s smile froze.
With those measured words, Lu Chenyuan had stripped away all pretenses of "favor" between them,
reducing their relationship to its barest, most equal form: a partnership.
Old Piero suddenly realized—
he had underestimated this young man.
That harmless, fatherly demeanor was just a facade.
Beneath it lay the mind of a lion: calculating, precise, and ruthless.
"You’re right, Mr. Lu," Old Piero quickly regained his composure, standing up. "I was being shortsighted."
"Then I won’t disturb your family time any further."
He extended his hand.
"Pleasure doing business."
"Pleasure doing business," Lu Chenyuan replied, shaking it.
After seeing Old Piero off,
the warmth on Lu Chenyuan’s face slowly faded.
He walked to the window, watching Old Piero’s car disappear down the street.
From today onward, Old Piero was no longer just an ally.
He had become a partner to be wary of.
Power was the ultimate catalyst.
It could inflame a man’s ambitions overnight.
But Lu Chenyuan wasn’t concerned.
He never placed his hopes in anyone’s "goodwill."
He only trusted the plans he laid with his own hands.
Mo Qingli stepped out from the inner room,
placing a glass of warm water by Lu Chenyuan’s side.
"He’s changed," she said.
She had overheard the entire conversation.
"Power changed him," Lu Chenyuan turned to her.
"He wants more from us," Mo Qingli cut to the heart of it. "He wants us to owe him."
"He’s overreaching," Lu Chenyuan chuckled.
He led her to the couch, sitting down together.
"Qingli, in this world, there are no permanent friends—only permanent interests."
"Right now, Old Piero’s interests align with ours in bringing you home. So, he’ll do his part."
"But what happens after? When his ambitions clash with our interests?"
"Then, he becomes our next opponent."
Mo Qingli leaned against his shoulder.
She loved listening to him dissect the chessboard of power with that icy, analytical tone.
It made her feel safe.
Because she knew—this man always saw one step ahead of danger.
"What do we do now?" she asked.
"We wait," Lu Chenyuan answered. "Then, we go home."
...
The arrival of lawyer Lu Jinlin brought more concrete progress.
He carried an official document from J Country’s Supreme Procuratorate.
"Mr. Lu, President Mo," he handed over the file, his expression professionally restrained.
"The Procuratorate has formally dismissed all previous charges against you."
"Their reasoning: insufficient evidence and serious procedural flaws in the investigation."
It was a monumental victory.
Legally, Mo Qingli had been cleared.
"But," Lu Jinlin’s tone shifted, "they’ve added a new condition."
"They’re requesting President Mo cooperate as a ‘witness’ in a so-called ‘transnational financial crime’ case."
"That’s absurd," Mo Qingli said coldly after reading. "This is just another delay tactic."
"Exactly," Lu Jinlin nodded. "The ruling party’s last stand."
"They don’t dare detain you illegally anymore, so they’re using legal procedures to keep you here."
"They’re buying time—to appease Country A and strengthen their own bargaining position."
"What do we do?" Lou Mengling asked anxiously from the side.
She didn’t understand the legal jargon, but she grasped one thing: Qingli still couldn’t return home.
"Mom, don’t worry," Lu Chenyuan reassured her.
He looked at Lu Jinlin, his gaze steady.
"We’ll accept."
"What?" Everyone was stunned.
Even Lu Jinlin seemed surprised. "Mr. Lu, this means President Mo will have to stay for at least another month or two."
"It’s fine," Lu Chenyuan shook his head.
"If they want procedure, we’ll give them procedure."
"If they want time, we’ll give them time."
He turned to Mo Qingli, his eyes filled with absolute trust.
"I believe in my wife. No matter what case they fabricate, she’s untouchable."
"And I believe in our country," he glanced out the window.
"She won’t let her citizens suffer injustice overseas."
His words carried unshakable conviction, bolstering everyone in the room.
Lu Jinlin took a deep breath, finally understanding Lu Chenyuan’s strategy.
Retreat to advance. Strike after the enemy exhausts themselves.
Let them drown in bureaucracy while we wait for the tide to turn.
"I understand," Lu Jinlin gathered the files.
"I’ll communicate this to the Procuratorate accordingly."
...
Life seemed to return to its earlier calm.
Lu Chenyuan resumed his role as a full-time father.
Mo Qingli began attending biweekly "questioning sessions" at J Country’s Procuratorate as a "witness,"
accompanied each time by Xia Country’s embassy officials and legal team.
The prosecutors scoured for even the slightest flaw in her testimony.
They found nothing.
Mo Qingli was impeccable—her answers precise, methodical, airtight.
Gradually, even the prosecutors lost patience.
The "interrogations" became a hollow formality.
And beneath this surface calm,
high-level talks between Xia Country and J Country’s new government had quietly begun.
No one knew what they discussed.
But everyone saw.
Xia State announced it would fully open the underlying interface of the "Tianshu" system to Nation J.
Nation J declared it would engage in deep collaboration with Xia State in the fields of new energy, artificial intelligence, and modern agriculture.
One heavyweight cooperation agreement after another was unveiled in rapid succession.
Nation A issued its most severe protest.
But this time, Nation J chose silence.
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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.
