Autumn, 1998.
Jingzhou First People's Hospital.
The air was thick with the distinctive scent of disinfectant.
Liu Mei wore a somewhat worn logistics uniform.
She pushed a metal cart loaded with medical records.
The cart wheels rolled over the terrazzo floor, producing a monotonous “clatter clatter” sound.
The noise was faint but enough to drown out her light footsteps.
She was an archive clerk in the logistics department.
An unremarkable position.
An existence almost completely ignored by everyone.
Her daily task was to organize, file, and transport these papers that recorded life and death.
No one spared her a second glance.
No one cared about what she heard or saw.
And that was exactly what she needed.
As was Li Xiujian.
A commotion echoed from the end of the corridor.
A group of men in black suits surrounded an elegant and dignified woman.
Lou Mengling.
The wife of Lu Mingye, the head of Lu Corporation, the matron of the Lu family.
And last night, Lu Mingye had been in Liu Mei’s bed.
Today, as his wife was giving birth, Lu Mingye hadn’t shown up at the hospital yet.
How ironic.
Lou Mengling was carefully helped into a wheelchair.
Her face bore the gentle glow of motherhood.
Yet beneath it lay an undeniable exhaustion.
The hospital director and several chief physicians followed closely, their expressions polite, their tones gentle.
The entire floor seemed to tense up with her arrival.
Liu Mei stopped pushing the cart.
She leaned against the wall, head lowered, like a lifeless statue.
Using the corner of her eye, she watched the group pass by.
Lou Mengling was wheeled into the delivery room.
That very delivery room—Liu Mei had just delivered files there yesterday.
The facilities inside were more luxurious than a five-star hotel.
Outside the window, Jingzhou’s bustling cityscape stretched out.
Before her eyes, the Lu family’s fiery prosperity.
And the downfall of the Li family felt like it had happened just yesterday.
She lowered her gaze, hiding all her hatred.
She pushed the cart forward.
Turning a corner, she entered a quieter corridor.
This was the general ward area, where the air was heavier and more mixed.
The smell of greasy food mingled with the sweat of visiting relatives.
At the end of the hall, in a double room,
She saw another person.
Yang Honglian.
She lay alone in bed, her complexion pale.
The other bed was empty.
No family to keep her company.
No flowers or fruit.
Only a worn enamel cup sat on the bedside table.
A nurse had just finished examining her and was now wearily jotting down notes.
“It won’t be long now. Take care of yourself,”
The nurse said, then left without looking back.
Yang Honglian’s eyes stared blankly at the ceiling.
Her hand gently rested on her prominently swollen belly.
Liu Mei didn’t stay.
She pushed the cart into a storage room at the end of the corridor.
The room was piled high with medical equipment and supplies.
The air carried a musty, dusty smell.
She closed the door behind her.
After a while, the door opened again.
It was Yang Honglian.
She quietly slipped inside.
“Is everything arranged?” Yang Honglian’s voice was hoarse and urgent.
“Yes.”
Liu Mei nodded.
“The caregiver has already been paid. She’s on duty tonight.”
“Will he come?”
Yang Honglian asked.
“No.”
Liu Mei’s voice was cold.
“He’s on the rooftop of the hotel across the street, watching here through a telescope. He said he wants to witness the ‘calamity’ that’s about to befall the Lu family with his own eyes.”
Yang Honglian let out a bitter laugh.
Her laughter was filled with despair and scorn.
“Calamity… does he even realize that his own ‘calamity’ is about to be delivered to him as well?”
Her hand once again gently caressed her belly.
“This is his seed. He said it himself — he wanted me to get rid of it.”
“He said his grand plan for revenge doesn’t need a burden, much less a useless woman.”
“But he has no idea that I never terminated the pregnancy. Now, I’m going to send this ‘burden’ to the family he hates the most.”
“I’m going to let her enjoy everything a princess in the Lu family deserves. I want him to one day personally face his own daughter. I want him to live forever in the pain of betrayal!”
A wild, unhinged light flared in Yang Honglian’s eyes.
Liu Mei looked at her.
There was no sympathy in her gaze.
Only a cold, tacit understanding shared between kindred spirits.
Li Xiujian.
My dear brother.
You think everyone must be your pawn?
You think you can control everyone’s fate?
You ruined my life and forced me to get close to Lu Mingye — a man I never loved.
Now, I’m going to use your own daughter to destroy the revenge you think is foolproof.
“Is that caregiver reliable?” Yang Honglian asked, still uneasy.
“Her son owes gambling debts. This money will clear all her debts and even allow her to build a new house back home. She has even more reason than us to want this to succeed.”
Liu Mei’s tone was cold and emotionless.
Footsteps of a nurse echoed outside the door.
Yang Honglian swayed slightly and slipped behind a pile of clutter.
Liu Mei opened the door and pushed the cart out as if nothing had happened.
…
Evening.
Lou Mengling was wheeled into the delivery room.
The men of the Lu family waited anxiously outside.
Lu Mingye finally arrived at the hospital, pacing nervously in the corridor.
Almost at the same time,
Yang Honglian was also taken into the delivery room.
Beside her were only a hurried doctor and a few trainee nurses.
Two new lives entered the world in Jingzhou on the same night.
Both were girls.
One cried out for the first time amid the gaze of thousands.
The other arrived silently, in solitude.
At the top floor suite of a luxury hotel opposite the hospital,
Li Xiujian stood before the massive floor-to-ceiling window.
In front of him was a high-powered telescope.
The lens was focused on the brightly lit hospital building.
He saw the Lu family waiting outside the VIP delivery room.
He saw the anxiety and joy on their faces.
He smiled—a cold, twisted smile.
Lu Chengsi.
You destroyed my Li family.
Tonight, I will use the bloodline of your Lu family as the offering for my revenge.
The girl I arranged will become a princess of the Lu family.
She will be spoiled, arrogant, and the root of chaos within the Lu household.
Meanwhile, your true granddaughter will struggle in the lowest mud.
Until one day, I will let her return.
Filled with hatred, she will tear everything you have apart with her own hands.
This is the feast I have prepared for you—twenty years from now.
His phone vibrated.
A message.
From Liu Mei.
“A has been born.”
Li Xiujian put down the telescope, picked up the bottle of red wine on the table, and drained it in one gulp.
Very good.
……
Half past midnight, 3 a.m.
At the hospital, in the nursery.
Wang Cuifen, the duty nurse, pretended to yawn.
Her eyes kept glancing at the clock on the wall.
Then, she stole a look at Zhang Lin, a less experienced nurse and her fellow townswoman.
The time was almost here.
Her palms were sweaty.
In her pocket were two new wristbands.
In the nursery, a row of cribs stood neatly aligned.
Most of the babies were sound asleep.
Only a few were making soft, whimpering noises.
Two baby girls, brought in just last night, lay among these cribs.
One wristband read: Lu (Mother: Lou Mengling).
The other read: Yang (Mother: Yang Honglian).
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?"
iaobai: "Councilor Dad, front me some funds. I want to hire ten thousand professional miners for a project!" [Five-Star Mission Issued: Capture the leader of the Blood Heaven Pirate Gang, who is on the run in the Radiant Star Sector. It is said the gang has over a hundred members. Proceed with caution.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, lend me the family's hundred-thousand-strong Lu Army!" [Seven-Star Mission Issued: Subdue a juvenile Void Dragon Beast.] Lu Xiaobai: "Councilor Dad, I'm taking your tamed Void Dragon Beast King out for a family reunion!" I said, System, don't you have any slightly more challenging missions? You're just not up to par! [Nine-Star Mission Issued: Become the Human Councilor.] Lu Xiaobai: "Dad, there's a small matter I'd like to discuss with you..."
Cheng's father told him he was getting remarried—to a wealthy woman. Cao Cheng realized his time had finally come: he was about to become a second-generation rich kid. Sure, it might be a watered-down version, but hey, at least he'd have status now, right? The wealthy woman also had four daughters!! Which meant, starting today, Cao Cheng gained four stunning older sisters?? But that wasn't even the whole story... "My name is Cao Cheng—'Cheng' as in 'honest, smooth-talking gentleman'!"
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)
