When Gu Chengyin stepped through the night and arrived at the bedchamber once again, most of the palace lanterns had already been extinguished.
The doors to the Crown Princess's bedchamber were left slightly ajar, with dim yellow candlelight spilling through the crack.
As expected, there was not a single female official on duty.
Gu Chengyin gently pushed the door open. The candlelight from within poured out, casting a warm yellow halo on the ground.
Having gained experience from last time, Gu Chengyin did not bother checking the side hall and headed straight for Luo Zhao's inner chamber.
Passing through the outer hall, the scene of the inner chamber came into view.
The furnishings were as familiar as ever, but Gu Chengyin's footsteps came to a halt three feet away from the bed.
He blinked, thinking he had seen it wrong.
He blinked again.
The scene remained unchanged.
Luo Zhao and Shangguan Yunying were lying side by side on the bed.
This in itself was not a problem, but the issue was...
Why were they wearing the exact same nightgowns?
The moon-white cloud brocade was soft and form-fitting, with necklines cut slightly lower than everyday wear and sleeves as wide as clouds.
Under the candlelight, the fabric shimmered with a gentle luster, looking like silk woven from condensed moonlight.
Furthermore, both of them had long hair cascading over their shoulders, spreading across the pillows like black waterfalls.
They shared the same unparalleled beauty and the same peaceful sleeping expressions.
Gu Chengyin stood by the bed, his gaze shifting back and forth between their faces. For a moment, he could hardly tell which was Luo Zhao and which was Shangguan Yunying.
Luo Zhao's features were more delicate, her contours deeper; even in sleep, she carried an innate noble air.
Shangguan Yunying's brows and eyes were softer, her lines gentler; her sleeping form resembled a defenseless little kitten.
But at this moment, as they lay side by side, the candlelight cast similar shadows across their faces, and the rhythm of their breathing was almost synchronized.
Gu Chengyin fell silent.
Countless thoughts flashed through his mind.
Wasn't Shangguan Yunying supposed to be waiting for him? Why was she asleep now?
Moreover, why was she wearing the same nightgown as Luo Zhao?
What kind of game was this?
Gu Chengyin furrowed his brows slightly.
His main purpose for coming tonight was to coax Shangguan Yunying, considering how angry she had seemed during the day.
But looking at it now, Shangguan Yunying was sleeping so soundly that she didn't seem to need any coaxing.
Since that was the case, he might as well go back and cultivate.
At this thought, Gu Chengyin decisively turned around, ready to slip away.
He had just lifted his foot, not yet letting it fall.
"Gu Chengyin?"
A sleepy, somewhat groggy voice sounded from behind him.
Gu Chengyin's figure abruptly halted.
He froze in place with his back to the bed, momentarily unsure whether to keep walking or turn around.
Three breaths later, Gu Chengyin resigned himself to his fate and turned around.
On the bed, Shangguan Yunying had already sat up.
She was rubbing her eyes, her movements natural, as if she really had just been woken up.
The moon-white nightgown slipped off her shoulder with her movements, revealing a small patch of fair skin and delicate collarbones.
With her long hair draped loosely, she subconsciously raised a hand to brush it aside, her eyes still a bit hazy.
"It is me."
Gu Chengyin walked back to the bed, keeping his voice very soft.
He glanced at Luo Zhao beside her. The latter was still sleeping quietly, her breathing steady, her eyelashes not even fluttering once.
"How is Lady Jingzhe?" Shangguan Yunying asked casually.
Gu Chengyin answered truthfully, "She said her inner demons have weakened quite a bit. It was very effective."
Shangguan Yunying nodded gently, a relieved expression appearing on her face, and then... there was no then.
She sat on the bed, her hands absentmindedly gripping the brocade quilt, her gaze wandering as if she were thinking about what to say next.
Gu Chengyin waited for three breaths. Seeing that she still had no intention of speaking, he had to take the initiative to break the silence:
"Are you... still angry?"
The moment he asked this, Shangguan Yunying's eyes visibly lit up.
But she quickly covered it up.
Then she puffed out her cheeks, crossed her arms over her chest, and turned her head away, showing her profile to Gu Chengyin as she put on an adorable appearance of still being mad.
In reality, only Shangguan Yunying herself knew that she was not angry to begin with.
Or rather, whatever little anger she had felt had dissipated the moment Gu Chengyin explained things clearly.
She had just been purely displeased seeing Lin Qingyan being so intimate with Gu Chengyin.
But now that Gu Chengyin was here, it proved that he cared about her in his heart.
For Shangguan Yunying, this was enough.
After all, Gu Chengyin was not flirting with Lin Qingyan; he was handling official business!
Even if this official business was a bit improper, it was still official business!
Gu Chengyin crouched by the bed, bringing his line of sight level with Shangguan Yunying as she sat there.
This action made Shangguan Yunying pause slightly, but she did not turn her head, only glancing at Gu Chengyin from the corner of her eye.
She saw Gu Chengyin raise a hand, holding up four fingers, and say with an incredibly serious expression:
"Yunying, I swear."
"My little aunt and I are completely innocent. There is absolutely nothing going on between us."
Shangguan Yunying's heart suddenly skipped a beat.
She secretly turned her head and stole a glance at Gu Chengyin.
The moonlight filtered in through the window lattice, shining on Gu Chengyin's face and making his features look exceptionally clear in the interplay of light and shadow.
Those eyes were full of sincerity.
He was afraid she would misunderstand.
He cared about her.
This realization made a surge of warmth rise from the bottom of Shangguan Yunying's heart.
But she immediately turned back around, maintaining her angry posture, and spoke at the same time:
"I... I am not someone who makes a scene over nothing."
"As long as you kiss Her Highness once, I will forgive you."
Gu Chengyin nodded immediately:
"Alright."
One word, without the slightest hesitation.
Then he stood up and prepared to lean over and kiss Shangguan Yunying, but halfway through the motion, his entire body froze.
He blinked.
He blinked again.
His mind rapidly replayed the sentence he had just heard.
"...As long as you kiss Her Highness once."
Her Highness?
Luo Zhao?
Gu Chengyin slowly turned his head to look at Luo Zhao, who was still fast asleep beside them.
He then turned back to look at Shangguan Yunying.
The latter still had her face turned away, but the corner of her eye was clearly stealing glances at him. Her lips were slightly pursed, as if she was holding back a smile?
"You..."
Gu Chengyin opened his mouth, his voice a bit dry:
"Who did you just say to kiss?"
Shangguan Yunying finally could not hold it in anymore and burst into a fit of giggles.
But she quickly put on a straight face again, turned her head back, looked straight into Gu Chengyin's eyes, and repeated word by word:
"Kiss, Her, Highness."
She then pointed at Luo Zhao beside her:
"You are not allowed to kiss me. Kiss Her Highness once, and I will forgive you."
Gu Chengyin: "..."
He looked at Shangguan Yunying, then at Luo Zhao, his mind in a state of utter chaos.
What was this?
A punishment?
A perk?
Or was Shangguan Yunying playing some new trick?
"Yunying..."
Gu Chengyin tried to reason with her:
"Even if I hypnotized Her Highness, I cannot keep bullying her."
"Otherwise, when she wakes up, she will definitely fight me to the death."
"She will not."
Shangguan Yunying said with absolute certainty:
"It is not like I have never been hypnotized by you before. I do not remember a single thing that happened."
"As long as you do not tell, and I do not tell, who would know?"
Gu Chengyin: "..."
He stared at Shangguan Yunying for three breaths, trying to find a flaw in her expression.
But Shangguan Yunying's expression was incredibly serious, and her eyes even carried a hint of encouragement?
"Are you serious?"
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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!
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.”
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?!
