The day after returning home, Ji Wushuang woke up very early.
The sky was not yet light.
Her bodily functions operated under a strict internal clock.
She changed into her workout clothes and went out for a run.
It was a habit etched into her bones.
Tangzhou in the early morning was very quiet.
It seemed somewhat different from the roaring steel behemoth she remembered, the one that never rested, twenty-four hours a day.
The air no longer carried that faint smell of burning coal either.
Ji Wushuang jogged slowly along the railway tracks in the factory district.
The tracks had rusted.
The wild grass by the roadside grew tall.
She ran past the abandoned workshops.
Ran past the towering water tower.
Ran past that narrow alley where she once got into a fight.
She was like a ghost, patrolling her long-deserted kingdom.
When she reached the factory district park, she saw a familiar figure.
Chen Lei.
He was also running.
His strides were steady and powerful.
Not as light as hers.
But filled with a solid, masculine strength.
Chen Lei also saw Ji Wushuang.
He stopped.
"Morning."
"Morning."
Then, the two walked side by side, slowly.
"Do you run every day?" Ji Wushuang asked.
"Yeah," Chen Lei nodded.
"Habit. Sit in the office too long, need to move around."
"You?"
"Me too."
Another period of silence followed.
Neither of them were talkative people.
But this silence wasn't awkward at all.
It was like that feeling from before, as if she/he had always been here.
"These past few years, my family matters... I heard everything from my parents. Thank you," Ji Wushuang said.
"It was nothing," Chen Lei replied.
"Uncle and Auntie are getting older. I live nearby, it was just convenient."
Ji Wushuang stopped walking and looked at him.
"Chen Lei."
"Hmm?"
"Why... why have you been so good to my family?"
The question caught Chen Lei off guard.
He looked towards the massive cooling tower in the distance.
Morning mist wreathed its top.
"We're neighbors."
He thought for a long time before speaking.
"You weren't home. I had to... keep an eye on things for you."
He said it very matter-of-factly.
As if stating a simple, obvious thing.
Ji Wushuang was lost in thought for a moment.
In the army, she served her country.
Out in the world, she guarded a girl's fragile and precious dream.
And he, at home, guarded her small, ordinary family.
"Thank you."
Ji Wushuang said softly.
In the following days, Ji Wushuang experienced a kind of stable life she had never known before.
She accompanied her mother to the food market.
Greeting uncles and aunties whose names she could hardly remember.
Listening to them discuss vegetable prices and their children in the familiar local dialect.
She accompanied her father for walks at the Tangji Workers' Square.
Listening to her father's old workmates brag and complain.
She even went with Chen Lei to the Tangji Research Institute.
It was a very new building.
Standing out starkly against the surrounding old structures.
Inside were many precision instruments and countless computers.
Chen Lei was well-liked there.
Although his position wasn't high.
Young engineers respectfully called him "Engineer Chen" when they saw him.
Ji Wushuang watched him.
She confirmed he was truly no longer that awkward boy from their youth.
In the days that followed,
Ji Wushuang replaced all the household appliances, furniture, and her father's old car.
She even personally funded the installation of an elevator in their building.
All just to make her parents' lives a little more convenient.
That evening,
Chen Lei invited Ji Wushuang for a meal.
At a very small barbecue place near the neighborhood entrance.
The shop was small and old.
The tables and chairs had seen better days, but were surprisingly very clean and tidy.
Business was good.
Full of the noisy, vibrant atmosphere of everyday life.
They ordered many skewers and a few bottles of beer.
"What are your plans for the future?"
Chen Lei poured her a glass of beer and asked.
"Will you leave again?"
Ji Wushuang held the cold beer glass.
She thought of Lu Qianqian.
Thought of that grand plan named "Distant Horizon."
She nodded.
"Yes."
"I'll leave when my leave is over."
Chen Lei fell silent.
He took a sip of his beer.
"I received all your letters," Ji Wushuang suddenly said.
While in the army, they had maintained correspondence.
He wrote to her about the changes in Tangzhou, about his studies and work progress.
Her replies were always brief.
Usually, just to say she was safe.
"Yeah," Chen Lei acknowledged.
"Later, when you went abroad, there was no address."
"I still wrote."
He continued,
"Just... had nowhere to send them."
He had kept all those letters.
A thick stack in a drawer.
"That girl... she's very important to you, isn't she?"
Chen Lei asked suddenly.
Ji Wushuang was taken aback.
"What?"
"The person you're protecting."
Chen Lei looked at her.
"Last time, at your uncle's place, I saw you on the phone."
She hadn't expected Chen Lei to ask this.
"She..."
Ji Wushuang didn't know how to explain.
What was her relationship with Lu Qianqian?
Employer and bodyguard?
Comrades-in-arms?
Friends?
Or perhaps, they were the dream and its guardian?
These grand narratives felt impossible to articulate to others.
Even to her parents, even to this Chen Lei who made her feel like he was always there.
Or perhaps, in that moment, Ji Wushuang didn't think Chen Lei could understand such things.
"She is a very special person."
In the end, that was all Ji Wushuang could say.
"She wants to do something truly great."
"I promised to help her."
Chen Lei listened quietly and didn't press further.
"Be careful."
He raised his glass.
"I'll be waiting for you to come back."
Ji Wushuang looked at him.
At his sincere face under the dim, yellowish light of the barbecue shop.
She also raised her glass and gently clinked it against his.
"Okay."
The days of leave passed quickly.
In the blink of an eye, it was time to leave.
On this day, Ji Wushuang's satellite phone rang.
It was Lu Qianqian.
"Wushuang-jie!"
Lu Qianqian's voice on the other end was brimming with excitement.
"The first round of funding for 'Distant Horizon' is secured!"
"Big Brother invested personally—five hundred million!"
"Our first project is about to launch!"
"In Country T."
"Seawater desalination and mobile clinics."
"When are you coming back? I need you!"
Listening to that vibrant voice on the phone,
Ji Wushuang glanced out the window.
Outside was Tangzhou's quiet night sky, dotted with a few sparse stars.
On one side, a grand battlefield was about to have its curtain raised.
On the other, the tangible stability of home.
Once again, she stood at a crossroads.
But this time, she didn't hesitate.
"I'll be back tomorrow."
She said clearly into the phone.
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.
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)
shall grant"] ["Inscribing the glory of our race upon tombstones"] ["All that is threatened, I shall protect"] How his younger sister sees her brother: A brother who only makes eye contact once a day, mostly fading into the background as he tinkers with who-knows-what in his room all day. Their life paths should have remained largely separate. Until one day. Su Qi created an equipment card for his never-met "online girlfriend." His sister fell into silent contemplation upon receiving the "white stockings." [Card can be upgraded] [Upgrade by fulfilling any of the following conditions] [Condition ①: Consume one hundred higher-tier cards] [Condition ②: Complete one 'Heart-Pounding Adventure'] What constitutes a Heart-Pounding Adventure? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Beginner Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to admire it.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Easy Level): Equip the card, invite 'Su Qi' to touch it, and analyze the equipment's texture.] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Entry Level): Equip the card and invite 'Su Qi' to...] [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Challenge Level): Freely combine the words 'Brother' 'Out' 'Brother' 'Me' 'Please' into a complete sentence...] "Please help me analyze both teams' mistakes in this match, brother..." His sister exhaled in relief—surely... surely there couldn't be anything more difficult? [Heart-Pounding Adventure (Suicide Mission Level): Sneak a peek at the names of the galgames in 'Su Qi's' hidden E-drive folder]
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?"
