After probing and obtaining the results, Gu Chengyin no longer dwelled on that bizarre nightmare, nor did he obsess over those inexplicable intuitions.
After all, the truth was right in front of him, outweighing any chaotic thoughts.
This damn broken system had finally been reliable for once.
Gu Chengyin stood up and strode down from the second floor. On the first floor of the Wenli Hall, everything was as usual.
Luo Zhao had already returned to the main seat behind the long desk, burying her head in the mountain of official documents.
Her posture was upright, her profile focused, and the vermilion brush flew across the memorials even faster than before.
It was as if everything that had just happened on the second floor was merely a trivial line of code in a running program; now that the code was executed, the system had returned to its main task thread.
And Shangguan Yunying had also returned to the stacks of files, continuing to sort and archive them.
Her figure looked exceptionally gentle in the morning light, as if the person who had just sat on Gu Chengyin's lap and taken the initiative to kiss him was another personality, and now she had switched back to work mode.
Gu Chengyin's gaze swept over the two of them.
He walked up to Luo Zhao, maintaining the proper distance of a subordinate, and said respectfully,
"Your Highness, I am preparing to go to the Ministry of Rites to take up the post of Right Vice Minister."
"His Majesty has ordered that the liaison affairs between Great Luo and the various cultivation sects will be handled by me from now on."
This was an important transfer of power.
The Great Luo Dynasty had a vast territory, and the large and small cultivation sects within its borders were countless, including top-tier sects like the Azure Sword Sect.
Liaising with these cultivation sects had always been one of the most important duties of the Ministry of Rites, involving resource allocation, disciple selection, sect tributes, and even the balance of power between the dynasty and the sects.
This also concerned Gu Chengyin's future plans; after all, starting from the Golden Core realm, he was no longer bound to individuals.
Hearing Gu Chengyin's voice, Luo Zhao did not even lift her head.
Her gaze remained on the memorial, and her vermilion brush did not even pause as she simply gave a faint "Mm."
Her voice was flat and devoid of any emotion, as if she were just listening to a subordinate report a routine matter.
Gu Chengyin did not mind it either.
Although Luo Zhao had been hypnotized, normal communication between monarch and minister still had to take place.
He turned his head and glanced at Shangguan Yunying, who was currently facing away from him, fully concentrated on organizing the files.
Gu Chengyin withdrew his gaze and strode toward the outside of the hall.
His figure passed through the boundary between sunlight and shadow, disappearing beyond the tall doors of the Wenli Hall.
His footsteps gradually faded away.
But the moment Gu Chengyin's figure completely vanished...
The atmosphere on the first floor of the Wenli Hall suddenly changed.
"Bang!"
A soft, muffled thud echoed out.
It was the sound of the vermilion brush being slammed heavily onto the desk.
Luo Zhao suddenly hunched over, pressing hard on her stomach.
Her face instantly turned pale, and then a sickly blush rushed to her cheeks.
Her pupils, which had just been as blank as stagnant water, now burst with a terrifying, icy glint. She stared in the direction Gu Chengyin had left, her teeth grinding loudly,
"Despicable! Shameless! Lewd! Bastard!"
Meanwhile, on the other side.
"Thump."
It was the sound of knees hitting the ground.
Shangguan Yunying leaned limply against the wall, then slowly slid down to sit on the floor.
She was also clutching her stomach, her entire face flushed bright red, spreading from her cheeks to the roots of her ears, down to her neck, and even her exposed wrists were tinged with pink.
But unlike Luo Zhao, it was not the red of anger, but the red of embarrassment and shame.
Hearing the commotion, Luo Zhao turned to look.
When she saw Shangguan Yunying's state, she was initially stunned, and then a flash of shock and complex resonance crossed her eyes.
She was about to speak out, but catching a glimpse of a few female officials still busy in the hall, she forcefully swallowed her words back.
She stood up and quickly walked over to Shangguan Yunying, squatting down and asking urgently,
"Yunying, did that bastard molest you too?!"
Luo Zhao uttered the word "too" through gritted teeth.
Shangguan Yunying shuddered all over.
She looked up at Luo Zhao, her eyes full of disbelief,
"Ah... could it be that Your Highness... also..."
The sentence was left unfinished, but the meaning was clear enough.
Of the two women, one was the Crown Princess of Great Luo, peerlessly magnificent, and the other was the Chief Female Official, gentle and beautiful.
Yet at this moment, both were squatting on the cold floor, one clutching her stomach and gnashing her teeth, the other clutching her stomach with a face flushed red.
They looked at each other in silence.
The air froze in this instant.
They remained silent for a full five breaths.
It was Shangguan Yunying who moved first.
The embarrassed flush on her face gradually faded, replaced by murderous anger, and she made a move to stand up.
"Your Highness! I'm going to kill him right now!"
"It's one thing for him to molest me! But how could he do that to Your Highness..."
Before she could finish her sentence.
A cold hand tightly grabbed Shangguan Yunying's wrist.
"Forget it, Yunying."
Luo Zhao's voice was very calm.
"This was just a test."
"Gu Chengyin is not that kind of person; he didn't truly want to molest us."
"As long as we make him believe that we are both under hypnosis, he definitely won't mess around again in the future."
"Going to kill him at this time would do more harm than good."
Luo Zhao's voice was filled with rationality.
"We must endure this for now."
"Wait until the future..."
"And then we will settle the score with him properly."
Shangguan Yunying sat blankly on the spot, her body trembling slightly due to emotional fluctuations.
She wasn't actually going to kill Gu Chengyin, at least not right now.
Her previous action was half out of embarrassment and half a posture put on for Luo Zhao to see.
She was testing Luo Zhao's attitude.
Testing what kind of choice this Crown Princess would make after experiencing such humiliation.
If Luo Zhao acquiesced, or even supported her in killing Gu Chengyin, it would mean that Luo Zhao had lost her head to anger.
But if Luo Zhao stopped her, calmly analyzed the pros and cons, and chose to endure...
Then it would prove that Luo Zhao had truly made up her mind and was truly determined to carry that crazy plan through to the end.
And now, Luo Zhao's choice was the latter.
Calm, rational, enduring, and waiting.
Moreover, if Luo Zhao truly resisted, she would have lashed out just now instead of letting Gu Chengyin do as he pleased.
This was also the main reason why Shangguan Yunying didn't actually intend to make a move.
After all, Luo Zhao was awake; she was not hypnotized. She was hiding behind a puppet of consciousness, witnessing everything with her own eyes.
From a certain perspective, it could even be said that Luo Zhao was willing.
Shangguan Yunying slowly nodded.
"Your Highness, I understand."
Right at this moment, Shangguan Yunying noticed the color of Luo Zhao's lips.
A thought suddenly flashed through her mind.
Shangguan Yunying's face flushed with a rosy hue once again.
This time, it was not out of anger, nor out of embarrassment, but because of a highly awkward association.
She raised her head and looked at Luo Zhao.
Luo Zhao was also looking at her.
The gazes of the two women met in the air.
Then, Luo Zhao also realized something, and her gaze fell onto the color of Shangguan Yunying's lips.
Her expression immediately became strange.
If Gu Chengyin had performed the exact same direct test on her and Shangguan Yunying...
Wouldn't that be equivalent to...
As expected, they really should kill that bastard right this instant!
g Yu was preparing for retirement when her organization decided to eliminate her. She transmigrated to a zombie apocalypse world. However, a tiny unexpected situation occurred: She somehow transformed into an adorable little girl?!
] [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!"
ut it can buy an entire year of absolutely perfect training results! Su Yu stared at his empty wallet and decisively opened up various online loan platforms. “Borrow a thousand bucks! Recharge my vitality!” Boom! His vitality broke a hundred points, shattering the limits of the human body! “Borrow ten thousand bucks! Recharge my combat skills!” Boom! A basic punching technique so common it was everywhere instantly maxed out, revealing the ultimate assassination technique of Five Elements Unity—Inner Force! When a rich kid hired assassins for a midnight ambush, aiming to break both of his legs, they instead ran headfirst into a monster—a human-shaped tyrannosaur, brimming with dragon-like vitality. With just two fingers, Su Yu snapped a steel staff reinforced with alloy. Staring at the killer’s stash of stolen cash—a staggering quarter-million dollars—he showed a corporate-sincere smile: “Thanks for the pre-exam gift pack, Mr. Zhao! I’m gonna go re-invest this!” Three days later, at the National Martial Arts College Entrance Exam, while everyone else struggled just to reach the passing line, Su Yu threw a single punch—and more than a thousand vitality points literally detonated the entire arena!
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...
