At the dinner table, everyone knew that Gu Chenan was about to leave, but by unspoken agreement, no one mentioned it. It was as if this was just an ordinary meal.
However, after the meal, no one seemed ready to leave, which made Gu Chenan sense something was amiss.
[Come to think of it... Su Qianmo and Fang Yuanyuan not leaving because they know I'm going and want to keep me company makes sense, but why aren't the other female leads leaving?]
[Could it be...]
A terrifying and embarrassing thought occurred to Gu Chenan.
[Damn! Can everyone else hear my thoughts?]
With this in mind, Gu Chenan stood up and went to the kitchen.
Watching Liu Mingrui's back as she was untying her apron, Gu Chenan called her name in his mind.
[Mingrui.]
Liu Mingrui immediately turned around, smiling, "What is it?"
Gu Chenan was stunned and quickly waved his hand, "Nothing."
"How was it? My cooking skills are pretty good, right?" Liu Mingrui said proudly.
"Indeed, it was excellent, especially the bull penis dish, cooked to just the right texture," Gu Chenan pointed towards the dining room, "I'll head out first."
"Alright, go ahead."
Walking out of the kitchen, Gu Chenan was completely questioning his existence.
[Damn it, Mingrui can hear my thoughts too.]
[So, when I first met her and thought about how big they were, she heard all of that?]
[What about Bai Yutian? If she can hear my thoughts, doesn't that mean she knows I've been thinking about her feet all this time!]
Realizing this, Gu Chenan immediately went to find Bai Yutian.
Three minutes later.
Gu Chenan walked out of Bai Yutian's room with flushed cheeks.
[Damn, everyone can hear my thoughts!]
[That means all my dirty, perverted thoughts have been heard by everyone?]
[No wonder these female leads sometimes seemed off!]
As he thought about this, Gu Chenan froze.
Wait a minute...
Damn!
He clenched his fists and gritted his teeth in anger, "No wonder my character portrayal of the female leads fell apart twice, so that's why!"
"System!"
"System is currently settling... Time remaining until settlement completion: one day and five hours."
...
For the time that followed, Gu Chenan had wanted to take the female leads out for some fun.
But the female leads unanimously decided to stay at home and go nowhere.
Gu Chenan had no choice but to stay at home with them.
Time flew by, and a day passed.
The next evening.
"System settling... Time remaining until settlement completion: ten minutes."
[Ten minutes... it's almost time.]
Gu Chenan rubbed his face and stood up from the sofa.
The female leads, hearing his thoughts, all stood up with reluctance in their eyes.
"Will you come back?" Su Qianmo asked softly.
Gu Chenan was taken aback and shook his head, "I don't know."
Liu Mingrui couldn't keep up the act anymore. She tried to say something, but before the words could come out, two streams of hot tears flowed down her cheeks.
"Young Master Gu!" Bai Yutian threw herself into Gu Chenan's arms, crying her heart out.
Hoshino Kannon fiddled with her fingers, silent, but tears kept falling.
Tang Yunjin gazed distantly, biting her lip, her mind constantly replaying her past moments with Gu Chenan.
Although they hadn't done anything significant or confirmed their relationship, Tang Yunjin had long since developed feelings for Gu Chenan.
Fang Yuanyuan turned her back, trying hard to hold back her tears.
She couldn't hear Gu Chenan's thoughts but could tell from everyone's reactions that he was about to leave.
"Sigh." Gu Chenan let out a breath, "I'm sorry for keeping this from you all for so long."
"But... it's time to say goodbye."
"Time remaining until settlement completion: seven minutes..." the System's voice appeared in his mind again.
Gu Chenan ignored it and continued, "Although this is a world within a novel, to me, you are all living, breathing people."
"I'll remember you all when I go back."
Originally, Gu Chenan had many things he wanted to say, but at the moment of parting, he couldn't recall them.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: six minutes..."
"Waaah—"
Bai Yutian's tears flowed like a fountain as she wailed loudly, "Young Master Gu, don't go! What will I do without you?!"
Gu Chenan sighed and patted Bai Yutian's head, "Don't cry, be good."
"No, I won't let you go, you can't leave!"
Bai Yutian couldn't hear Gu Chenan's words at all, tears and snot flowing freely, all smeared onto Gu Chenan's suit.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: five minutes..."
"Yutian, listen to me, I..."
"I won't listen, you just can't go!"
Time continued to pass amid Bai Yutian's tantrum. The other female leads wanted to say a proper goodbye to Gu Chenan, but now no one's words could get through.
Bai Yutian's grief was uncontrollable, her sobs turning into loud wails.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: one minute..."
[One minute!]
Gu Chenan's heart trembled, and he shouted to the female leads, "I have to go now, take care of yourselves!"
"Chenan!"
Su Qianmo was startled, tears streaming down her face as she quickly stepped forward to embrace Gu Chenan.
Liu Mingrui and Hoshino Kannon were equally heartbroken, but they just silently wiped their tears.
Fang Yuanyuan hadn't moved since earlier, always facing away from Gu Chenan with a determined look. But when she heard Gu Chenan say "I have to go now," her tears immediately burst forth.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: 10 seconds."
"Goodbye, Qianmo." Gu Chenan gently kissed Su Qianmo's forehead.
"Chenan, goodbye." Su Qianmo lifted her head and returned the kiss.
The two closed their eyes and kissed, as if time had frozen, the passage of time seeming to pause.
"Time remaining until settlement completion: 1 second."
"Ding, settlement complete!"
Hearing this sound, Gu Chenan opened his eyes, but was immediately stunned.
Su Qianmo was still in front of him!
[Still here?]
[What's going on?]
Before him, Su Qianmo was still frozen in their kiss, and Bai Yutian's hands were still clutching Gu Chenan's shirt, her head lowered and motionless.
Gu Chenan looked around and suddenly realized that everyone except him had stopped moving, as if they had all been paused!
[Damn, is this some kind of time-stop series?]
[No, no, what am I thinking...]
Gu Chenan shook his head and asked in his mind, "System, what's going on?"
"Settlement complete, host has finished the performance, the novel world has been paused."
"After System calculation, the host's performance this time is Grade A, villain portrayal accuracy is 76%, original plot presentation is 39%, rewarded with ten choice opportunities."
Gu Chenan was stunned.
"Ten choice opportunities? Choose what?"
"The host can make ten choices freely in this world, anything can be chosen."
"Anything?" Gu Chenan thought for a moment, "Can I choose the female leads?"
The System was silent for a moment, then, "Yes."
Hearing this, Gu Chenan jumped up in excitement.
"You are the most awesome, most powerful, most considerate system I've ever seen!"
"This System knows... Please make your choices quickly," the System urged.
[You know, huh? Praising you to high heaven and you act like it's nothing, what kind of entity are you?]
After mentally criticizing the System, Gu Chenan pointed at all the female leads and said, "I choose all of them!"
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)
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?!
spital. Good news: I've bound a system. Bad news: I'm still a baby. "Thirty years east of the river, thirty years west of the river, do not bully the middle-aged for being poor — Divorce Comeback System." "Your marriage may have failed, but your luck in love has never run dry. Your childhood sweetheart, out of contact for twenty years, reappears. Her beauty remains, yet her eyes are brimming with tears." [Listen to the childhood sweetheart's sorrowful story.] Chen Zhi looked down at the diaper he was wearing, then at the little childhood sweetheart crying her heart out beside him, and fell into deep thought. Can anyone relate? I'm having a midlife crisis at an age where even rolling over is a struggle.
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
