The dawn in Jingzhou arrived earlier than in most cities.
After three years of oppressive gloom, even the sunlight seemed exceptionally crisp and clear.
Lu Chenyuan's family had returned to their apartment at Cloud Peak Residences No. 1, adjusting to the time difference.
Lou Mengling and Lin Shuhan stayed with Lu Shi'an in the apartment below Mo Qingli's unit.
Wang Tongwen had taken his leave—he needed to handle backlogged affairs at the gallery and also wanted to give Lou Mengling space for her own reflections.
The vast penthouse was now occupied only by Lu Chenyuan and Mo Qingli.
And the quiet that belonged solely to them.
At nine in the morning, Lu Chenyuan's private phone rang—an unfamiliar number.
He answered, and a composed middle-aged voice spoke on the other end.
The message was delivered in the most concise manner:
"Mr. Lu, a car is waiting for you downstairs."
"Understood," Lu Chenyuan replied.
He hung up without the slightest surprise.
Mo Qingli sat on the sofa, scrolling through summaries of Mo Corporation's recent updates on her tablet.
She wasn’t scrutinizing the data, just skimming the project codes—familiar yet distant—as if confirming that they had truly returned.
Hearing Lu Chenyuan end the call, she looked up.
"Going out?"
"Yes, to a place," he said.
He didn’t specify where.
She didn’t ask.
Instead, she stood, walked to the entryway, and retrieved his leather shoes from the cabinet, placing them gently on the floor.
Then she went to the walk-in closet and brought out a dark, lightweight trench coat.
"It’s windy outside," she said.
Lu Chenyuan approached, took the coat, and slipped it on.
Mo Qingli reached up to adjust his collar, smoothing it with her fingers as if smoothing an invisible wrinkle.
Her fingertips were slightly cool. Lu Chenyuan took her hand.
"Don’t worry."
"I’ll wait for you to come back for dinner," Mo Qingli said, meeting his gaze steadily.
"Alright."
He turned and left.
The elevator descended smoothly.
When he stepped out of the building, a black Hongqi sedan sat quietly in the open space before the entrance.
Its lines were dignified, understated.
The license plate was simple, yet carried a weight unimaginable to ordinary people.
A uniformed driver stood beside the car.
Seeing Lu Chenyuan, he gave a slight nod and opened the rear door for him.
Lu Chenyuan stepped inside.
The door shut, sealing away all outside noise.
The car pulled away smoothly, merging into Jingzhou’s traffic.
No police escort, no special clearance.
It was like a drop of water dissolving into the ocean.
Outside the window, the scenery rushed backward—skyscrapers, overpasses, familiar streets.
Lu Chenyuan watched it all.
Three years ago, he had stood here, gazing into the distance, bracing for an unknown storm.
Now, he had returned. The storm had passed, and the world was at peace.
Eventually, the car approached a stretch of red walls.
The surrounding architecture grew more solemn, dignified.
Tall walls muted the city’s clamor, and the air itself seemed steeped in the weight of history.
The car stopped before a towering vermilion gate. The driver stepped out to open Lu Chenyuan’s door.
A staff member in plain gray attire was already waiting.
"Mr. Lu, please follow me."
Lu Chenyuan walked behind him along a path of bluestone, flanked by ancient pines.
No gilded opulence—only a quiet, unadorned gravity.
After walking for about ten minutes, Lu Chenyuan arrived in front of an antiquated study.
"Mr. Lu, please."
The staff member pushed open the heavy wooden door and gestured for him to enter.
Lu Chenyuan stepped inside.
The study was spacious, lofty, and utterly silent.
All four walls were lined with towering bookshelves that reached the ceiling.
The air carried the faint fragrance of ink and paper.
A figure stood by the window, his back turned, gazing at a crabapple tree outside.
Though not particularly tall, the man exuded an air of unshakable dignity, like a mountain standing firm against the tides.
Lu Chenyuan stopped and waited without speaking.
After a moment, the figure turned around.
It was an elderly man familiar—yet distant—to every citizen of Xia.
"You're here."
The old man's voice was calm, as if he were merely chatting with a younger relative.
"Leader," Lu Chenyuan responded solemnly.
"Sit."
The old man gestured toward the seating area nearby.
There, only two simple wooden armchairs stood.
On the low table between them, a pot of tea had already been prepared.
The two sat facing each other, with no one else present.
The old man personally lifted the teapot and poured a cup for Lu Chenyuan.
The tea was clear, steam curling gently from its surface.
"You've worked hard these past few years," the old man said, breaking the silence first.
"It was my duty," Lu Chenyuan replied.
"Hmm." The old man nodded, his tone no different from that of a kindly grandfather next door.
He studied the young man before him—around thirty, yet with a depth and steadiness in his eyes far beyond his years.
From the very beginning, he had watched the storm that swept the globe.
Every move by J Country, every pressure from A Country.
Yuanlong's counterattacks, Hanqing's resilience, Lianshan's maneuvers.
And the coordinated efforts of Xia's relevant departments.
He understood it all.
He knew what this young man and his family had endured.
And he knew what they had won back for their nation.
"I didn’t ask you here today to reward you. History will judge that in due time."
The old man’s gaze grew distant.
"I want to hear your thoughts on the future."
He paused, then added,
"The future of Yuanlong. The future of Xia’s enterprises."
"And you, Lu Chenyuan—your personal future."
……
The two spoke for a long time.
But no one knew the specifics of their conversation.
When Lu Chenyuan finally rose to leave, the old man said, "Go ahead and act boldly."
Then he added, "The nation stands firmly behind you."
No promises, no documents.
Just those simple words.
After Lu Chenyuan left, the old man stood and returned to the window.
He seemed to be speaking to himself—or perhaps to someone unseen.
"When I was young, I loved looking at the stars."
"I always thought the answers to humanity’s ultimate questions lay up there."
"Our young people now… it seems they’ll be the ones to go and ask for me—for all of us."
……
By the time Lu Chenyuan stepped beyond the red walls, it was noon, the sunlight bright and warm.
The Hongqi car was still waiting for him in the same spot.
On the way back, Lu Chenyuan leaned against the seat, eyes closed.
His mind wasn’t replaying the earlier conversation.
Instead, he was thinking about what to cook for Mo Qingli at lunch.
The fridge was nearly empty.
He could have someone deliver a sea bass.
Steamed sea bass would be good.
And stir-fried tomatoes and eggs—she always liked that…
……
An hour later, the car came to a stop at the foot of Yunding No. 1.
After Lu Chenyuan stepped out, the driver gave him another slight nod before discreetly driving away.
As if he had never been there at all.
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."
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?"
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 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.
