Luo Zhao turned her head once more, fixing her gaze directly on Lin Qingyan's eyes.
In that instant, all the calmness in her eyes faded, revealing the sharp edge beneath.
“Auntie, you like him, don’t you?”
The air in the bedchamber froze for a moment.
Lin Qingyan’s expression shifted slightly.
It wasn’t panic, nor was it embarrassment. It was a deeper change,
like a zither string that had lain silent for years suddenly plucked by an unseen hand.
Lin Qingyan looked at Luo Zhao’s eyes—so similar to her own—and saw the undisguised sharpness within.
She didn’t admit it but shook her head gently:
“It’s not liking.”
“It’s love.”
Lin Qingyan met Luo Zhao’s gaze, earnest and firm, speaking clearly:
“I love him.”
When those three words landed, Luo Zhao’s expression changed.
It became incredulous, then disbelieving, then utterly unwilling to accept.
She had thought Lin Qingyan merely liked him—after all, Gu Chengyin’s charm was undeniable.
But she never expected those three words, spoken with such unshakable resolve.
From as far back as she could remember, Lin Qingyan had always been aloof and distant.
When the sky fell, she wouldn’t blink.
When the earth split, she wouldn’t frown.
She was the most ethereal immortal under heaven, so cold and remote that everyone believed nothing in this world could ever draw her attention.
But now, this ethereal immortal sat across from her,
speaking with the coldest, most indifferent tone the most blazing words in all the world:
“I love him.”
Emotion surged in Luo Zhao’s heart.
What she hadn’t expected was that Lin Qingyan would say it so simply, so openly, without a trace of concealment.
Yet when she thought about it, it made sense.
If it weren’t love, why would Lin Qingyan have thrown herself into the game time and again?
If it weren’t love, why would she have stepped into the Crown Prince’s palace that very night after the imperial edict was issued?
But as the tides of emotion ebbed, what remained in Luo Zhao’s heart was fury.
This fury came without warning, overwhelming and unstoppable.
Luo Zhao’s pupils contracted, and the faint smile at the corners of her mouth froze.
Slowly, it twisted into something else entirely.
This was the anger of one whose possession was coveted.
This was the anger of one whose possession was tainted.
This was the anger of one whose possession was stolen.
Gu Chengyin was hers.
From the days in Luoshui Commandery, from the moment she first met him,
from the first time she realized those twisted, unspeakable thoughts in her heart,
Luo Zhao had settled on one truth:
Gu Chengyin was hers.
He was the one she would bring down, the one she would crush beneath her feet,
the one she would make see only her in those eyes of his.
But now, Lin Qingyan—this woman who shared her face,
whom she so deeply trusted and cherished—
was sitting across from her, solemnly declaring:
“I love him.”
Something shattered in Luo Zhao’s eyes.
And from the cracks, something else grew wildly.
“Auntie.”
Luo Zhao spoke again, her voice still light, as if nothing had happened.
“Do you even know what you’re saying?”
Lin Qingyan’s gaze was calm as still water. She nodded:
“I know.”
“Do you know who he is?”
“I know.”
“Then do you know…”
Luo Zhao’s voice finally wavered, sharp as a blade scraping glass:
“He is mine!”
Lin Qingyan fell silent.
She didn’t look away. She just gazed quietly at Luo Zhao.
Her eyes held no retreat, no guilt, no shame.
Only a warmth Luo Zhao had never seen before—firm and steady.
“Zhao’er,” Lin Qingyan said softly, “you are the Crown Prince.”
“And Gu Chengyin is the Crown Prince’s Lesser Master.”
Luo Zhao’s eyes changed violently.
The barely contained calm she had struggled to keep finally shattered.
The light in her eyes grew searing and wild, as if something were burning inside her,
consuming her until she radiated a fevered, sickly intensity.
“He is mine.”
Each word was bitten off, heavy.
“He… is… mine!”
Repeating it, Luo Zhao hissed through gritted teeth,
like a young beast guarding its prey, baring its sharp fangs.
Lin Qingyan watched this face—so like her own—twist into something never seen before.
Moonlight still fell silently, illuminating the madness etched on Luo Zhao’s features with stark clarity.
In that moment, Lin Qingyan understood many things.
She understood why Luo Zhao had been targeting Gu Chengyin.
She understood why Gu Chengyin was so wary of her.
“Zhao’er,” Lin Qingyan said, her voice faint as a sigh, “do you know why I came?”
Luo Zhao didn’t answer, just glared at her.
“I came not to argue with you, not to fight you,” Lin Qingyan said slowly.
“I came to know why you do this.
Why you’re so harsh with Gu Chengyin—your own Lesser Master.
Now I see: it’s because you hate him so much.”
Luo Zhao was stunned.
Lin Qingyan’s gaze was complex, somber. “You’re not targeting him because he did wrong.
You do it because only by pulling him down can you make him bow his head.
Make him see you. Make him… unable to ignore you anymore.”
Luo Zhao’s face changed completely.
The madness froze, then crumbled, fragment by fragment.
The bedchamber was so silent you could hear the moonlight hitting the ground.
Then Luo Zhao’s lips curved into a smile—beautiful, and deeply unhinged.
“Auntie,” she said softly, her voice coquettish, “you’re right.”
“I hate him.”
“From the very first day I met him, I’ve hated him.”
“I hated that he never cared about me.”
“So I want him to look at me. Only at me. I want his eyes to have no one else.
Since he won’t look at me, I’ll pull him down.
Since he stands so high above me, I’ll make him kneel before me.
Since he doesn’t care about me…”
Luo Zhao’s voice paused, and her smile turned eerie under the moonlight.
“Then I’ll make him have no choice but to care.”
She stared at Lin Qingyan, her gaze blazing with madness.
“So he is mine.”
“From start to finish, he is mine.”
Lin Qingyan listened. She watched.
Her eyes held no anger, no disappointment—only a complex, indescribable emotion.
What she felt was relief: Luo Zhao didn’t love Gu Chengyin—she hated him to the bone.
Since that was the case, Lin Qingyan hadn’t stolen her niece’s man after all.
As for the rest, Lin Qingyan had only two sentences:
“The future is yours.”
Luo Zhao’s smile froze for a moment.
Lin Qingyan stood and walked toward the door, moonlight falling behind her.
“But the present is mine.”
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...
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!
ose... to cooperate with the protagonist! Shen Yuan: I have a system! Protagonist: What? System: Holy crap, you're just spilling it out like that? Shen Yuan: Let's team up, we'll split the system rewards! Protagonist: Fifty-fifty split? Shen Yuan: No way! Protagonist: What!? I'm the one getting beaten up, and I don't get half? Shen Yuan: Forty-sixty split, I get forty, you get sixty! Protagonist: Deal! Big brother, come on, hit me! As long as it doesn't kill me, beat me like you mean it! Shen Yuan: Don't worry... I will definitely protect all of you! No one but me can lay a finger on you! Guard our Heaven's Chosen Ones! I'm the only one allowed to bully them!
] This is a dark fantasy-themed dating simulation game. The main gameplay involves containing various monster girls and investigating the truth of a world shrouded in mist alongside your companions. However, due to his love for the dark and bizarre atmosphere, Luo Wei ended up turning a dating game into a detective mystery game. Women? Women only slow down his quickdraw! To Luo Wei, the female leads in the game are more like tools to perfectly clear levels and squeeze out rewards. For Luo Wei, flirting with every girl he meets and then discarding them is standard procedure. Worried about characters losing affection points? No need. With his maxed-out charm stat, Luo Wei is practically a "human incubus." A little psychological manipulation and those points come right back. It's a bit scummy, but the paper cutout heroines in the game won't actually come at him with real cleavers. However... Luo Wei has transmigrated. He's accidentally entered the second playthrough of this game. His past actions have caused all the girls to transform into terrifying yanderes. Due to the game's setting, most of the heroines he once contained are "troubled girls." Obsessive, twisted, mentally unstable, all aggressive yanderes... The type who will kill you if they can't have you... Luo Wei wants to cry but has no tears left. "I really just want to survive..." In short, this is a story of battling wits and engaging in a love-hate relationship with yanderes.
