In an instant, the atmosphere froze.
Chen Shuo's fingers were still in the knocking pose, suspended in mid-air.
He had actually touched Su Xiyan's Mount Everest...
This...
Su Xiyan's face flushed red then pale white, and she glared fiercely at Chen Shuo.
Then, her elbow shot out, hitting Chen Shuo squarely in the chest.
His broad pectoral muscles made a muffled thud.
By the time Su Xiyan had finished washing up in the bathroom and came out, Chen Shuo was still crouching like a shrimp outside her bedroom door on the floor.
It seemed the elbow blow just now had quite some force.
Ouch! It really hurt!
Crouching on the floor, Chen Shuo sucked in a breath of cold air. The pain in his chest made his brows furrow tightly, his face a mask of agony.
This woman! She hit too hard!!!
It wasn't on purpose!
I just happened to knock on the door when she opened it, so I knocked on air, and my fingers accidentally climbed the peak, that's all!
Did she have to use deadly force?
Damn! She almost sent me to meet my maker on the spot!
Luckily my physique is extraordinary now, so I can still take it!
Su Xiyan sat at the table, about to eat, when she seemed to recall something. She picked up her phone and snapped several pictures of Chen Shuo's pained expression.
Her slender, fair fingers danced across the screen as she typed out a message:
[Tried using force to inflict pain and evoke Chen Shuo's memories. Even under my heavy fist, Chen Shuo still couldn't recall what anomalies he saw at the place the vampire king appeared.]
Su Xiyan had always acted in a cold and ruthless manner. So using her iron fists to interrogate her roommate wasn't beneath her.
After seeing the photos, Tang Zhiyuan replied with two shocked emoji.
Then he reminded Su Xiyan: [Don't go overboard in anything, pay attention to degree, and absolutely do not expose the existence of demon hunters.]
Su Xiyan's brows quirked slightly, and she didn't reply to Tang Zhiyuan's message.
Of course Tang Zhiyuan could tell that Chen Shuo's pained expression and body language weren't fake.
But instead of asking about Chen Shuo's condition, he cared more about Su Xiyan not exposing her identity as a demon hunter, not letting humans know of the existence of demon hunters.
In other words, what Tang Zhiyuan cared about most was always upholding the glory of demon hunters.
Su Xiyan felt no ripples in her heart. She had no intention of testing Tang Zhiyuan either. It just so happened that Chen Shuo had touched a sore spot and got instinctively punched by her, which gave her material to send to Tang Zhiyuan.
In fact, Su Xiyan felt a little guilty. If she didn't take any action, Tang Zhiyuan might feel uneasy right?
A demon hunter who was usually so calm and rational!
Why did she become so self-conscious and unsure of herself when it came to Chen Shuo's issues?
In the end, she had developed a soft spot!
During breakfast, Su Xiyan's thoughts had already turned hundreds of times.
After eating, Chen Shuo glanced at the temperature on his phone and reminded Su Xiyan, "Wear more clothes, don't catch a cold."
Su Xiyan sized him up and deliberately teased:
"You still care about me after I elbowed you?"
Chen Shuo rubbed his solar plexus. "With such a heavy hand, who would care about you?"
"If you caught a cold, not only would I have to do housework, I'd have to take care of you too, how tiring for me?"
He sounded quite reasonable. Su Xiyan went back to her room and grabbed a quilted light jacket to drape on her arm.
Chen Shuo dawdled in his room for quite a while before coming out with a bulging backpack.
Su Xiyan couldn't help but snark: "Moving house? What did you stuff your bag with? Looks quite heavy."
Chen Shuo: "Nothing much, I borrowed some Lego from a classmate to play with earlier, so I'm returning it to him."
"Lego is so boring, such a waste of time and eyesight. Games are better."
The lumpy shape didn't seem much like Lego though? Were they sets half put together?
Su Xiyan was about to keep questioning when Chen Shuo shut her up with a question: "Oh right, didn't your gluttonous girlfriend leave a book here? I put it on your room's desk, did you see it? Remember to return it to her."
"A young girl like her, how can she enjoy such uncultured books?"
"Tell her the book is good, just don't read it again next time."
Su Xiyan's face flushed beet red in an instant.
The book did belong to Cheng Xinran, but Su Xiyan was the one who left it in Chen Shuo's room!
She didn't actually open the book to see what uncultured content was inside.
She had left the book in Chen Shuo's room, hoping he would read it more and get ideas on what to gift her for her birthday.
She didn't expect that Chen Shuo didn't get her hint at all. He even returned the book to her.
Too much!
Oblivious straight man!
Singlehood well deserved!
Su Xiyan's resentment had risen high.
And Chen Shuo just kept fanning the flames: "The book's title is so funny. What was it, 800 Gifts for the Opposite Sex? Was it 800 or 180? Forgot, anyway super funny!"
"Luckily our beauty Su Xiyan is different from other girls. She doesn't want gifts, she's detached from vulgar tastes, a person with a noble soul!"
For a moment, Su Xiyan couldn't tell if Chen Shuo was praising or dissing her.
Chen Shuo was just deliberately provoking Su Xiyan. In fact, he had already decided what gift to prepare for Su Xiyan, and had started taking action.
In recent days, Su Xiyan felt Chen Shuo was being weird and mysterious, often elusive.
After class in the afternoon, Su Xiyan asked if Chen Shuo wanted to head home together.
But Chen Shuo said the basketball club had training, so he'd only be back later. As the biggest sponsor for NLU's basketball club, Su Xiyan only had to casually ask around to know Chen Shuo had been skipping basketball practice these few days.
Just what was he up to?
And so, Su Xiyan told Chen Shuo on the surface that she was going home first.
In reality, from the moment Chen Shuo left the classroom, she stealthily tailed him.
With the cold weather, people wore more layers, which made disguises for tailing easier.
Su Xiyan followed Chen Shuo the whole way, wanting to get to the bottom of his recent shifty mysteriousness.
More importantly, she wanted to minimize the time Chen Shuo spent alone outside, to ensure his safety.
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
e vast world of cultivation, where he becomes the master of the Heavenly Ruins Sacred Hall, a dying old man with barely a tenth of his former cultivation remaining. He is immediately confronted with a deadly crisis: his subordinates have rebelled, and his protectors are forcing him to abdicate. At the critical moment, the system descends from the heavens: [Ding! The host has been detected facing a life-or-death crisis. The system is now officially activated!] [As a gift, you have received the Supreme Beginner’s Pack and awakened the ultimate cheat: ten thousand years of pure cultivation essence every second!] Yin Tianjue: “Wait… ten thousand years of cultivation every second? That’s six hundred thousand years a minute, and in one day… I can’t even calculate it. Either way, I’m already invincible!” You’re a peerless prodigy rarely seen in ten thousand years? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re an undying ancestor who has guarded a sacred land for countless ages? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. You’re the strongest chosen one, blessed with heaven-defying destiny? Sorry, I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. From this day forth, I have only one thing to say: “I gain ten thousand years of cultivation every second. Now, how exactly are you supposed to deal with that?”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
