The moonlight had changed.
That was Ren Qian's most direct feeling lately.
Lu Chenyuan no longer yielded or compromised with his uncles from the Lu family.
On this day, Lu Mingde stormed into the CEO's office.
Shortly after, a fierce argument erupted.
Then, after a while, Lu Mingde stormed out, furious.
Ren Qian knew that the Third Director had gone to see Lu Chenyuan about the candidate for the procurement manager position.
In the past, Lu Chenyuan would have handled such matters indirectly.
But this time, Lu Chenyuan had directly rejected it.
And at the afternoon board meeting, Lu Chenyuan outright killed one of Lu Minggong's projects.
He showed no face at all to the Fourth Director.
Furthermore, Lu Chenyuan began an anti-corruption campaign within Lu Corporation.
He personally purged several senior executives from other factions.
One of them, for severe corruption, even had Ren Qian personally call the police to have him arrested.
Ren Qian witnessed firsthand this great family purge, one significant enough to be recorded in the annals of Lu Corporation's history.
After the storm, an eerie calm settled over Lu Corporation.
Lu Chenyuan's third and fourth uncles no longer came to the CEO's office to make a scene.
Seeing Lu Chenyuan from afar in the hallway, they would even instinctively avoid him.
They had finally realized,
this nephew they had watched grow up was no longer the young helmsman who could be easily manipulated by family ties and seniority.
He was a beast that would bite through an enemy's throat.
Ren Qian watched all of this.
She watched Lu Chenyuan announce the coldest decisions in the calmest tone at board meetings.
In her heart, there was no fear, only an endless sense of worship and joy.
The weary king, trapped in his lonely city,
had finally drawn his blade.
He was breaking free from those decaying shackles in his own way.
He was living for himself.
This realization filled Ren Qian with an unprecedented sense of satisfaction.
She felt proud to have followed such a man.
...
Other changes began in the most subtle of places.
For instance, the tone Lu Chenyuan used when answering phone calls.
That afternoon, Lu Qianqian's call rang through yet again, right on schedule, in the middle of a meeting.
All the senior executives present instinctively exchanged knowing glances.
They were all used to it.
Used to the capriciousness of this eldest daughter of the Lu family.
And used to President Lu's helpless, indulgent interruptions.
Ren Qian was already prepared to announce a meeting pause.
Lu Chenyuan, however, merely glanced at the caller ID and then pressed the mute button.
He continued with the topic at hand as if nothing had happened.
His speech remained clear and logically rigorous.
Completely undisturbed.
The screen of Lu Chenyuan's phone lit up, dimmed, lit up again,
stubbornly flashing.
He paid it no mind.
The meeting ended.
Ren Qian was the last to leave.
As she stood up, Lu Chenyuan unhurriedly returned the call.
He put it on speakerphone.
Seemingly unconcerned that Ren Qian and Lin Yuan were still in the conference room.
"Big brother! Why didn't you answer my call!"
Lu Qianqian's spoiled, tearful voice immediately came through.
"I was in a meeting."
Lu Chenyuan's voice was very calm.
"I don't care! I scraped my car! Send Brother Lin Yuan over right now to handle it!"
"Handle it yourself," Lu Chenyuan said.
"Call the insurance company, or call a tow truck."
"No! I want you to handle it!"
"Qianqian."
Lu Chenyuan said, his expression still perfectly calm.
"You are an adult now."
"You should learn to solve your own problems. Not treat everyone as your accessory."
"Your allowance this month is enough for you to buy a new car."
"If you can't even handle such a minor issue, your allowance will be halved next month."
With that, he hung up directly.
The entire office was so quiet you could hear a pin drop.
Ren Qian stood rooted to the spot.
She could hardly believe her ears.
Was this still the same Lu Chenyuan who would become so flustered when his sister locked herself in her room that he'd forget his coat?
Changes were happening in more unseen places.
Lu Chenyuan began making moves that Ren Qian couldn't comprehend at all.
One afternoon.
Lin Yuan walked briskly to Ren Qian's desk, carrying a stack of documents.
"Sis Qian."
He pulled out the topmost blue folder and placed it in front of Ren Qian.
"This is a special support project President Lu just approved. It needs to go through the foundation's accounts, highest priority."
It was a perfectly normal work handover.
"Alright," Ren Qian nodded, reaching out to take the folder.
After Lin Yuan left,
Ren Qian held the file.
Highest priority?
A flicker of curiosity arose in her heart.
The number of charity projects Lu Chenyuan defined as "highest priority" could be counted on one hand.
She opened the folder.
And then, she froze.
The entire support plan had only one beneficiary.
Ye Ruoxi.
A high school senior.
Attending a very ordinary county high school, consistently ranked first in her grade.
All the information was routine, showing nothing out of the ordinary.
Ren Qian held the few thin pages, silent for a long time.
This was too strange.
Lu Chenyuan was not a man given to sudden bouts of charity.
Every penny he spent had to serve a purpose.
Every decision he made served a clear commercial objective.
Funding a top-performing student from a poor background, with no apparent connection to him at all?
What was the point?
Ren Qian realized that the Lu Chenyuan who occasionally showed weariness had disappeared.
The current him seemed wrapped in an even harder armor.
That armor was cold, smooth.
Leaving her no crack to peer into his heart.
She was so physically close to him.
Yet she felt he had never been so distant.
...
Ren Qian occasionally saw him, during breaks between meetings, reading materials completely unrelated to the group's core business.
"The Future Trends of Artificial Intelligence"
"Global Patent Analysis of New Energy Battery Technology"
"Frontiers in Biochemistry."
Lu Corporation's main businesses were real estate and finance.
These topics were far removed.
What was he thinking?
Ren Qian understood him less and less.
But this lack of understanding didn't make her retreat.
Instead, it ignited an even stronger desire in her to follow him.
She was like a devout believer.
Gazing up at a deity she couldn't fully comprehend, yet found increasingly magnificent.
She believed every action he took was part of a profound plan she couldn't yet grasp.
Her worship of him reached its peak.
She was completely unaware.
That the core of the cold, clear moon she worshipped
had long been replaced by another, a blazing star from a different world.
It was reshaping everything around it according to its own trajectory.
And Ren Qian was merely a captive planet, caught in its gravitational pull, unable to break free.
She was intoxicated by this powerful gravity, willingly burning for it.
Believing this to be her destiny.
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)
lities. One day, Qi Yuan was buying groceries when he unfortunately came face-to-face with a monster. Just when he thought he was going to die on the spot, he suddenly heard the monster's thoughts... "This aura, he's definitely not an ordinary master!" "So terrifying, so terrifying." "A fight with my back against the wall, I can't take it anymore." Qi Yuan: Ah, no one told me that my awakened ability isn't telepathy, but rather the stronger my enemies imagine me to be, the stronger I truly become. PS: Zhou Hai in the first chapter is not the protagonist.
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?"
] [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!"
