Huangfu Chengshi finally mustered up the courage to speak.
His voice was very small.
It even carried a slight, almost imperceptible tremor.
"Thank you."
After uttering these three words, Huangfu Chengshi felt as if he had used up all his strength.
He felt his heart pounding wildly in his chest.
As if it wanted to break free from its confines and leap out.
He kept his head down, not daring to meet her eyes.
He was waiting for her judgment.
The air around them seemed to still for a moment.
Qin Ya was just about to get into the car.
She heard a faint, thin voice.
She stopped and turned her head.
Her gaze held a trace of puzzlement.
She saw the small, slender figure standing in the snow.
The little runt was wearing a somewhat comical, ill-fitting suit.
His hair was still a bit damp.
His face was pale from the cold.
He looked like an abandoned stray dog.
It took her a few seconds.
To connect the child before her with the one from the garden, the one whose eyes had been like a wolf's.
"Oh."
She seemed to realize.
"That little runt."
Her voice was casual.
Like seeing a somewhat familiar pebble on the road.
There was no emotion in her tone.
No condescension.
Not the slightest bit of regard.
It was the most complete indifference.
As if he, and his thanks offered with all his courage,
were as insignificant as the flowers and grass by the roadside.
"Let's go."
She only said these two words.
Then, she bent down and got into the warm car.
Without looking at him again.
"Thud."
The heavy car door closed.
Shutting out all the wind, snow, and outside gazes.
The red sedan started slowly, then sped away, leaving only dust.
Leaving behind two sets of tire tracks that were soon covered by fresh snow.
Huangfu Chengshi stood alone, rigidly in place.
The wind whipped the snow against his face.
It was very cold.
Colder than when he had been lying in the snow earlier.
That chill crept down his collar, into his skin, seeped into his very bones.
She had forgotten him.
No.
It should be said, she had never really remembered him in the first place.
His earth-shattering miracle.
In the eyes of the deity, it didn't even count as a tiny ripple.
An immense, indescribable sense of loss and humiliation wrapped around him tightly like a net.
Making it almost impossible for him to breathe.
He slowly raised his head, looking in the direction where the car had disappeared.
The night was as deep as ink, and soon nothing could be seen ahead.
He took out the handkerchief that was almost wrung dry from his grip.
He held it to the tip of his nose and sniffed it gently.
That faint, cool fragrance was still there, like a silent reminder.
Reminding him of that brief yet real touch.
He seemed to have made a decision.
She didn't remember him.
It didn't matter.
Then he would make her remember him.
Appear before her again and again.
Until she could no longer ignore him.
Until his name, his face, were branded into her mind like a searing mark.
From that day on, Huangfu Chengshi changed.
He was no longer the gloomy teenager who always shrank in the corner, rejecting all social activities.
He began attending those so-called high-society gatherings he had once sneered at.
Art exhibitions, cocktail parties, charity galas, family parties...
Any event with a name in the Jingzhou social circle.
Any occasion he could find an excuse to tag along to.
He missed none of them.
His father was surprised by this "prodigal son's return" transformation.
His stepmother acted indifferent.
Just like before, neither deliberately suppressing him nor offering any help.
Only Huangfu Chengshi himself knew that his purpose for attending these events had always been one and the same.
He was like the most devout believer, chasing after a divine sign.
Finally, at one gathering, Huangfu Chengshi saw Qin Ya again.
And when she saw Huangfu Chengshi, Qin Ya actually recognized the Huangfu family's little wolf cub at a glance.
At that moment, Qin Ya was surrounded by a few sisters from familiar families, listening to them discuss the latest handbags and jewelry.
A standard smile was plastered on her face, but an inescapable boredom lingered in her eyes.
Then, she felt that gaze.
That gaze, stubborn and focused, like a faint but inextinguishable beam of starlight.
Qin Ya followed the source of the gaze.
In the shadows of the corner, that child wearing a small white suit, looking somewhat out of place, was staring at her without blinking.
It was him, that little runt from the snow.
Well, this was a clean, even, somewhat excessively pretty little runt.
The corner of Qin Ya's mouth lifted into a playful curve.
She suddenly felt that this boring banquet was, perhaps, not so unbearable after all.
She casually brushed off the sisters beside her with a few words, picked up a glass of champagne, and actually walked towards that corner.
The few young socialites beside her were stunned.
Everyone saw that proud peacock of the Qin family walking towards a nobody whom no one recognized.
Huangfu Chengshi's heart instantly leapt into his throat.
She was coming. She was walking towards him.
He froze on the spot, his hands and feet at a loss, only able to watch helplessly as that flash of red drew closer and closer.
That familiar, cool fragrance enveloped him once again.
"What? Do you like these paintings too?"
Qin Ya stood before him, looking down.
Looking at this child who only came up to her chest, a hint of barely perceptible teasing in her tone.
Huangfu Chengshi opened his mouth, but not a single word came out.
Seeing his expression, like a frightened little animal, Qin Ya found it even more amusing.
She reached out and ruffled Huangfu Chengshi's hair, her movements casual, as if brushing dust from his hair.
His hair was fine and soft, the texture not bad.
Boom—
Huangfu Chengshi felt as if his world had exploded into a brilliant firework.
His heart was about to jump out of his chest.
A few suppressed gasps came from the surroundings.
Everyone stared dumbfounded at this scene.
That was Qin Ya!
The Qin Ya who never showed such intimacy even with her closest girlfriends!
She had actually, on her own initiative, patted a little boy's head!
Who was this little runt?
From the Huangfu family?
Which Huangfu family child had such face?
"Alright, don't just stand there dumbly."
Qin Ya withdrew her hand, as if she had only done a trivial thing.
She casually shoved the champagne glass in her hand into Huangfu Chengshi's grasp.
"Hold this for me. I'm going to the restroom."
After saying that, she turned and walked away gracefully on her high heels.
Huangfu Chengshi was left alone, foolishly holding the glass that still carried her residual warmth.
The cool, commanding touch of her fingertips seemed to linger on the skin of his head where she had touched him, not fading for a long time.
From then on, every time he stepped into that glittering world of perfume and glamour.
His eyes scanned the entire room, locking onto only one target.
lanned to earn money steadily and take life at a slower pace. But he never expected... his father's remarriage, and the stepmother bringing along a dependent, would completely disrupt his life's plans...
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
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.
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
