Moonlight streamed through the latticed windows of the Heart-Calming Tower, scattering silver frost across the floor.
Gu Chengyin sat cross-legged on a meditation cushion, his eyes slightly closed, his breaths long and steady.
He had fully mastered his Dao heart, now able not only to completely conceal his true thoughts, but also, when necessary, to emit precisely calibrated waves of intention, allowing Lin Qingyan to see only what he wished her to see.
This undoubtedly added an immense layer of security for him.
The tower fell silent. Just then, Gu Chengyin suddenly opened his eyes.
The tower door was pushed open. Lin Qingyan stood in the doorway.
Moonlight poured in from behind her, tracing her silhouette with a silver edge.
She stood there, gazing at the man on the cushion who was now looking back at her.
Their eyes met.
In that instant, the tangled knot of confusion in Lin Qingyan’s heart vanished like smoke.
She closed the distance in three quick strides, almost throwing herself forward.
Gu Chengyin caught a whiff of fragrant wind, and in the next moment, there was a person in his arms.
Lin Qingyan burrowed into the crook of his neck like a spoiled cat, rubbing and nuzzling, again and again.
Forget Luo Zhao.
Forget all the nonsense.
To hell with it all.
As long as Gu Chengyin was in the Heart-Calming Tower, he belonged to her—Lin Qingyan.
No one was going to take him away, and nobody was allowed to covet him.
If they really provoked her, she’d just flip the table.
Let’s see whose fists were tougher.
Gu Chengyin looked down at the head nuzzling against him and blinked.
He tested a hesitant address: “Little Aunt?”
At the sound, Lin Qingyan’s movements froze.
Then she lifted her head.
Moonlight fell across her exquisite face, which bore a sixty-percent resemblance to Luo Zhao.
At this moment, there was no trace of cold aloofness—only an indescribable, blazing intensity.
Without a word, she closed in suddenly and pressed her lips directly against Gu Chengyin’s.
The kiss was as sudden as it was fervent, catching even Gu Chengyin off guard.
Lin Qingyan wrapped her arms tightly around his neck, as if channeling every emotion into that kiss.
As if proving to someone—this man was hers now.
It took a long while before she reluctantly pulled away.
When their lips parted, her eyes shimmered with watery light, and her voice sounded like a coaxing plea:
“Chengcheng, Lyu Fang came by just now.”
Gu Chengyin pulled his thoughts back from the abrupt kiss as his reason slowly returned.
At the name of that chief eunuch, he asked, “Did he come with an imperial edict, or a verbal decree?”
“A verbal decree.”
Lin Qingyan buried her face back into his neck and repeated the content of the decree.
It was late now; the formal tribunal would begin tomorrow.
After hearing the decree, Gu Chengyin arched an eyebrow. “They’re making it quite official.”
Lin Qingyan lifted her head again from his embrace, scrutinizing his expression carefully.
That handsome face bore no panic, no anxiety, not a trace of unease—only a calm indifference, as though he had just heard something amusing.
“Chengcheng,” she couldn’t help asking, “aren’t you worried?”
Gu Chengyin looked at her with a hint of puzzlement and countered, “It’s just a joint trial by the Three Ministries. What’s there to worry about?”
“But this does feel like His Majesty’s handiwork.”
At these words, a flicker of brilliance lit up Lin Qingyan’s eyes.
Although Gu Chengyin still hadn’t directly called out Luo Zhao by name, when he mentioned the Luo Emperor, his tone was completely nonchalant—as if even if the emperor himself stepped into the arena, he would handle it with ease.
But the light only shone for a moment before it was suppressed.
Lin Qingyan lowered her eyes and burrowed back into Gu Chengyin’s neck.
Should she tell him?
Should she tell Gu Chengyin about her conversation with Luo Zhao?
Should she tell Gu Chengyin that the mastermind behind everything was neither the Luo Emperor nor Cui Shifan?
But rather the crown prince, who was trying to pull her husband—his own tutor—down from his position?
Lin Qingyan was torn, her mental scales swinging back and forth.
If she told him,
Gu Chengyin would definitely turn his spear around. It wouldn’t even take much effort.
He could destroy all of Luo Zhao’s carefully laid plans and even turn the tables on her.
After all, because of Lin Qingyan, Gu Chengyin could neither flee nor ally with the Second Prince.
That meant he would go all out against Luo Zhao, then, within controllable limits,
teach her a lesson—let her understand, deeply, why Gu Chengyin was her tutor.
Lin Qingyan could almost picture it.
Luo Zhao, cornered step by step by Gu Chengyin, every one of her schemes exposed, every mask torn off.
In the end, she would have no choice but to run crying to the Luo Emperor, just like a little kid running to their parents after getting bullied.
The image was so perfect, so beautiful, that Lin Qingyan almost wanted to laugh.
But if she didn’t tell him...
Lin Qingyan quietly lifted her eyes to look at Gu Chengyin.
On that face, there was no anxiety, no worry—still that calm, carefree expression.
At the joint trial by the Three Departments, in his eyes, seemed like nothing more than a trivial matter.
To be honest, Lin Qingyan truly didn’t think anything serious would happen to Gu Chengyin.
With her around, his life was definitely safe.
Even if the Luo Emperor issued an edict, he couldn’t harm a single hair on Gu Chengyin’s head.
Instead, it would only anger Lin Qingyan and lead to the entire palace being smashed to pieces.
As for everything else, just look at Gu Chengyin’s attitude now.
He didn’t care at all—didn’t even take it seriously.
Would a man like him be stumped by a joint trial?
Would he be brought down by Luo Zhao’s petty tricks?
Lin Qingyan already had an answer in her heart.
The hesitation she had felt outside the crown prince’s bedchamber moments ago had completely vanished.
In the end, Lin Qingyan decided to hold off for now.
She would wait and see how Gu Chengyin would handle it.
If he managed it with ease, without any pressure,
then she would still help Luo Zhao a little—after all, she was her sister’s daughter.
Keeping it quiet, offering some protection, was neither excessive nor treasonous.
It could simply be seen as a niece having a spat with her uncle.
But if Gu Chengyin couldn’t handle it,
Lin Qingyan’s gaze sharpened—then she would protect Gu Chengyin first.
The crown prince, her niece, her sister’s daughter—all of them,
She would protect him first.
She would even drag Luo Zhao over and force her to bow her head and apologize to Gu Chengyin.
Thinking this way, Lin Qingyan’s heart gradually settled.
Moonlight fell quietly, merging the shadows of the two together.
Gu Chengyin didn’t say anything, even though Lin Qingyan had been gone a while.
Clearly, it had been more than just passing on an oral decree from Lyu Fang—she had likely been somewhere else.
But he didn’t mind. At least for now, Lin Qingyan was completely on his side.
A wise man gives trust when trust is due,
instead of being suspicious all the time and causing cracks in a solid relationship.
Just then, a muffled voice suddenly came from his embrace.
“Chengcheng.”
Lin Qingyan did not lift her head, her face still buried in the hollow of his neck.
Yet her voice carried a faint trace of ambiguity.
“The door is already locked.”
d intelligence to keep the plot moving, and sometimes even the protagonists are forced into absurdly dumb decisions. Why does the A-list celebrity heroine in urban romance novels ditch the top-tier movie star and become a lovestruck fool for a pockmarked male lead? Why do the leads in historical tragedy novels keep dancing between love and death, only for the blind healer to end up suffering the most? And Gu Wei never expected that after finally landing a villain role to stir up trouble, she’d pick the wrong gender! No choice now—she’ll just have to crush the protagonists as a girl!
s + Rent Collection Wealth】 At the start, he inherited a rundown house in the urban village from his grandfather. The house had no tenants, but the moment he was diagnosed with a terminal illness, a self-proclaimed empress from the Tianxuan Continent arrived as his first tenant. Ye Chuan soon discovered that with every new tenant moving in, not only did he receive massive daily payments, but he also obtained unique items related to their backgrounds. 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Tiger Strength Pill—dramatically enhances physical power!】 【Acquired Bai Qianshuang’s related item: Deer Blood Pill—significantly boosts vitality!】 …… From that day on, all sorts of bizarre tenants began appearing in the house: the empress from Tianxuan Continent, an apocalyptic sorceress from the Magic Realm, a mysterious scientific girl who fell through a spacetime rift… Every single day, he received strange, powerful items and endless money. Then one day, he suddenly realized—he had become invincible. Enough, enough! Stop giving me more!
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!
nd fell into a coma while saving his younger sister from an out-of-control car. He became a vegetable. No one knew that his consciousness had crossed into a world of cultivation. Over the course of sixty years, he began as the lowest kind of mine slave, struggling to survive amid mountains of corpses and seas of blood. By sheer chance, he eventually obtained the complete memories of a fallen Immortal King. Alchemy, medicine, formations, feng shui, physiognomy, artifact forging… Every great inheritance of the cultivation world was now his. But when he opened his eyes again, he discovered that ten full years had passed in the modern world. To pay for his treatment, his father had sold the family’s shop and house, leaving himself covered in lasting injuries and illness. His mother had cared for him day and night, and more than half of her hair had already turned white. His younger sister, who had been only fifteen back then, was now twenty-five. To help repay the family’s debts, she had been forced to lower her head and put on a smiling face in places of glittering lights and endless revelry. Only then did Chen Xuan understand that what he had lost was not merely ten years. He had lost the life his entire family was meant to have. The good news was that he had brought back the memories of an Immortal King’s entire lifetime. The bad news was that his soul had returned alone—his cultivation had not come with him. Spiritual energy was scarce, resources were depleted, and the modern world still had firearms, surveillance, capital, and laws. If he wanted to protect his family, break free from everyone’s control, and become truly invincible beneath the heavens, he would have to start all over again.
