The cafeteria incident was like a stone thrown into a frozen lake.
It sent ripples across the surface and cracked the ice ever so slightly.
The malicious whispers directed at Ye Ruoxi vanished.
No one dared to mock her for eating plain steamed buns or wearing her faded middle school uniform anymore.
Su Yang’s act of standing up for her that day became an invisible shield.
It made everyone realize that this isolated island wasn’t entirely unreachable.
Ye Ruoxi remained silent as ever.
But the icy aura around her seemed to thaw—just a little.
At least, when it came to Su Yang.
She felt a flicker of annoyance at that.
It meant her defenses had developed a crack.
And that was dangerous.
Zhang Cuilan really did start working in the cafeteria.
Principal Zhen’s influence worked like magic.
The cafeteria supervisor assigned her the simplest tasks—picking vegetables, washing dishes.
The cafeteria food was rich and hearty.
Steamed buns, rice—all you could eat.
Plus a daily staff meal with meat and vegetables.
For Zhang Cuilan, it was like manna from heaven.
For the first week, her mood was noticeably brighter.
Even her scowls at Ye Ruoxi softened.
No more calling her "jinx" or "waste of money."
Ye Ruoxi’s life changed dramatically too.
No more cold steamed buns or watery free soup.
Now, she could eat in the cafeteria kitchen with Zhang Cuilan.
On the first day, when a steaming bowl of rice topped with minced pork and eggplant was placed in front of her,
she froze.
She couldn’t remember the last time she’d had a proper, hearty meal.
Beside her, Zhang Cuilan wolfed down her food,
mouth stuffed, mumbling impatiently,
"What’re you staring at? Eat! It’s no good cold!"
Ye Ruoxi picked up her chopsticks and took a bite.
It was warm.
It was fragrant.
The heat traveled down her throat and into her hollow stomach,
chasing away the familiar ache of hunger.
Her eyes stung.
She ducked her head and shoveled food into her mouth,
using the motion to hide the tremor in her hands.
The feeling of being full was unfamiliar—but good.
Energy surged through her veins.
During evening self-study, her mind was sharper than ever.
Complex formulas and theorems suddenly made more sense.
So this was what it felt like to eat until satisfied.
This fragile peace was like thin ice.
Ye Ruoxi treaded carefully, afraid to enjoy it.
Instead, she poured every saved ounce of energy into studying.
Su Yang noticed the change in her.
She was still quiet, still solitary.
But the lifeless pallor of her face had faded,
replaced by the faintest flush of color.
At lunch, she no longer nibbled on steamed buns.
Though she still vanished, Su Yang knew she must be eating in the cafeteria now.
That was enough.
It filled him with quiet satisfaction.
The cafeteria incident had broken the ice.
Now, talking to her felt justified.
During the break before evening self-study, the classroom buzzed with noise.
Su Yang clutched a physics workbook and approached Ye Ruoxi’s desk again.
This time, he was calmer than he’d been in the library.
"Ye Ruoxi,"
he called, just loud enough for her to hear.
She was solving a math problem when his voice made her pen pause.
She looked up.
Su Yang stood there—lean but somehow towering in her eyes.
His cheeks were tinged pink with nervousness,
but his gaze was clear and earnest.
Her eyes flicked to the workbook in his hands.
This time, she didn’t immediately grab scrap paper.
She just waited in silence.
"I’m stuck on this one,"
Su Yang said, flipping to a page and sliding it toward her.
His voice was still rough around the edges.
Ye Ruoxi scanned the electromagnetic field problem.
Another competition-level question.
Even harder than the last.
Within seconds, she pinpointed the issue.
When she didn’t speak, Su Yang’s stomach twisted.
Had he overstepped?
He was about to mutter, "Never mind, I’ll ask the teacher," and flee—
Then she spoke.
"Which part don’t you understand?"
Her voice was soft, cool,
like a breeze skimming a lake.
Su Yang’s first thought: Her voice is beautiful.
His second: She’s asking me questions now.
For a moment, he was too stunned to react.
It was like stumbling upon an oasis after days in the desert.
"Uh—oh,"
he fumbled, face burning.
He pointed to a complex diagram.
"Here. The direction of the magnetic field lines.
Using the right-hand rule, it should go this way, but the Lorentz force formula gives the opposite result."
His finger trembled slightly—
not from the problem’s difficulty,
but because this was the closest he’d ever been to her.
He could even catch her faint, clean scent.
Ye Ruoxi followed his finger, then picked up her pen.
Instead of scribbling on scrap paper,
she tapped the diagram lightly.
"Your model’s wrong,"
she murmured, voice dropping lower,
as if this were their private secret.
"You treated it as a 2D plane. But the magnetic field here is a composite 3D space."
"Look here."
Her pen sketched a coordinate system over the diagram,
then dissected the problem step by step.
Her explanation was razor-sharp,
each word slicing to the core.
Su Yang was mesmerized.
He’d never seen a physics model unraveled like this.
Her voice, her logic, her mind—
they pulled him in like a magnetic field.
He forgot where he was.
Forgot the noise around them.
Until—
A group of passing girls noticed them.
They huddled, giggling like mosquitoes.
"Look, the genius and her knight in shining armor,"
one said in a stage whisper.
Another chimed in,
"Perfect match—rank one and rank two in the grade."
"Wasn’t he the one who defended her in the cafeteria? Straight out of a novel."
"You think they’re dating?"
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!
and couldn't return to the real world. Finally, I gave up and decided to go with the flow, only to discover that writing a diary could make me stronger. Since no one could read it, Su Luo wrote freely, daring to pen anything and everything. Female Lead #1: "Not bad. This diary helped me steal all the protagonist's opportunities. I just want to get stronger." Female Lead #2: "I don’t care about reaching the peak of the cultivation world. Right now, I just want to enjoy the chaos." Female Lead #3: "What? Everyone around me is a spy? I’m the Joker Demon Lord?" ... It’s so strange. Why is the plot completely off track, yet the ending remains the same? Are you all just messing with me?!
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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?!
