Ji Wushuang's movements as she subdued Zhang Tao and the others were instinctive—precise and efficient.
The sequence of her actions played out in Chen Lei's mind like a tidal wave, stirring something profound within him.
For the first time, he felt it so vividly:
Ji Wushuang was different.
Different from him. Different from everyone else here.
Inside her, there lurked a beast he couldn’t begin to understand.
And a life that was nothing like his own...
After that incident, Chen Lei realized she was no longer just a neighbor or a classmate to him.
He began observing her, intentionally or not.
He noticed she grew more solitary.
She no longer mingled with the troublemakers at school.
After classes, she always walked home alone.
Or wandered the factory district by herself.
Chen Lei’s unease deepened.
He felt he had to do something.
But what could he do?
He wasn’t good with words.
He didn’t even dare speak to her first.
One Sunday afternoon, Chen Lei went to the town’s Xinhua Bookstore to buy workbooks.
In the study aids section, he spotted Ji Wushuang.
It surprised him.
He never expected to see her in a bookstore.
Quietly, he followed her.
He wanted to know what she was reading.
Maybe a martial arts novel?
Like her father, Ji Jianguo.
But Ji Wushuang didn’t linger in the fiction aisle.
She walked straight to the farthest corner of the store,
where maps and reference books were kept.
She pulled out a thick World Atlas from the shelf.
She didn’t buy it.
Just stood there, flipping through the pages with care.
Her fingers traced the names of unfamiliar countries and cities,
the winding mountain ranges and blue oceans.
Her eyes were focused, full of longing—
as if her soul had already left the cramped bookstore,
left Tangzhou behind,
and flown toward that vast, boundless world.
Chen Lei watched her from behind the shelves,
taking in the expression on her face—one he’d never seen before.
A hunger.
And suddenly, he understood.
It wasn’t that she hated learning.
She just didn’t care for what school taught.
Her heart was elsewhere.
Somewhere far, far bigger.
The realization struck Chen Lei hard.
The workbooks in his hands suddenly felt unbearably heavy.
He knew he had to tell her.
Had to make her see: books were the only bridge to that world.
Summoning the greatest courage of his life, he waited for another chance.
Another dusk.
Ji Wushuang walked home alone.
She’d just had a brief exchange with Chen Lei.
Moments ago, he’d blocked her path,
his face flushed, eyes fixed on the ground.
He shoved a brand-new workbook into her hands,
then stammered out a single sentence:
"Ji Wushuang... studying... studying is still useful."
And then he ran.
Like he was fleeing.
Ji Wushuang looked at the workbook in her hands,
then at his retreating figure.
She didn’t chase him.
Didn’t throw the book away.
She just stood there for a long time.
She hadn’t expected this.
That the awkward boy next door would speak to her like this.
She slipped the workbook into her bag.
Then, softly, she replied with a single word:
"Mm."
So quiet.
She wasn’t sure if Chen Lei heard it.
Now, she walked down the road.
For the first time, ripples stirred in her heart.
She passed by the factory’s bulletin board.
Posters of all kinds were plastered across it.
There were advertisements for newly released movies.
Photos of the factory’s model workers.
And one—a military recruitment poster.
On the poster stood a young soldier in uniform.
His posture was straight, his gaze resolute.
Behind him stretched a vast blue sky, white clouds, and a red flag fluttering in the wind.
At the top of the poster, bold characters proclaimed:
"One enlists, the whole family is honored."
Ji Wushuang stopped in her tracks.
She stood before the bulletin board.
Her eyes lingered on that poster.
On the soldier’s tall, unwavering figure.
On his eyes, which seemed to see far beyond the horizon.
"Education is useful."
Chen Lei’s words echoed in her ears.
But what kind of education?
What kind of path?
She stared at the poster.
The soldier on the poster stared back.
Something inside her ignited.
A seed, long dormant.
Now, under sunlight and rain, it quietly began to sprout.
She wanted to go somewhere.
A place where she could run freely.
A place where the strength inside her could be unleashed.
A place where she could see a wider world.
And now, she knew where that place was.
The last rays of the setting sun fell upon her face.
In her eyes, the vivid red of the flag reflected—bright and unwavering.
That recruitment poster was like a nail, hammered straight into Ji Wushuang’s heart.
......
The summer she graduated from high school.
Tangzhou was sweltering, like a giant steamer.
Cicadas shrieked from the trees.
The asphalt roads softened under the heat, emitting a pungent smell.
Most of her classmates were debating which majors to apply for at Tangji Institute.
Which factory branch they’d be assigned to after graduation.
Or whether to retake the college entrance exams for another year.
The future was a blueprint already drawn.
Clear, but dull.
Ji Wushuang sketched a different blueprint.
One only she knew about.
At the dinner table.
The family of three ate in silence.
The ceiling fan spun weakly overhead, creaking with every turn.
Ji Jianguo took a sip of liquor, his face flushed.
"Shuangshuang, have you decided on your college applications?"
"Or are you planning to retake the exams?"
He paused, then continued without waiting for an answer,
"Even a vocational college is fine. Graduate early, join the factory early. I can look out for you."
Her mother picked up some vegetables and placed them in Ji Wushuang’s bowl.
"Girls don’t need to push themselves so hard."
Ji Wushuang set down her chopsticks.
Her voice was soft but firm.
"Dad. Mom."
"I’m not going to school."
"I’m enlisting in the military."
Clatter.
Ji Jianguo’s liquor cup toppled onto the table.
The strong scent of alcohol instantly filled the air.
Her mother’s chopsticks froze mid-air.
Her face paled.
"What did you say?"
Her mother’s voice trembled.
"Nonsense!"
Ji Jianguo slammed the table, raising his voice at his daughter for the first time.
"Do you think the military is easy? A girl like you—why would you suffer like that?"
He loved martial arts novels, admired heroes.
But he had never imagined his own daughter living a life of real blades and bullets.
It was too harsh.
Too dangerous.
"I’ve made up my mind."
Ji Wushuang looked at her parents.
"I know that place is harsh."
"But staying in Tangzhou for the rest of my life—that’s not what I want!"
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?!
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."
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.
