Moreover, Gu Chengyong was a man who always acted with great discretion.
He had bullied her, but never embarrassed her in public.
He controlled her, but never touched her foundations.
The crown prince's position, the respect of the court officials, the royal family's dignity—he left none of them compromised.
He would even, when Luo Zhao was at a loss, guide her in the right direction like a true young tutor.
Luo Zhao knew this was because Gu Chengyong had his own bottom line and principles.
Not killing the innocent unnecessarily, not taking advantage of others in distress, not bullying the weak.
This was the conclusion Luo Zhao had drawn through cold, detached observation since she first met Gu Chengyong.
What left the deepest impression on her was the kitchen maid, Aunt Zhang, from the Crown Prince's Palace.
Because her entire family had been kidnapped, she had been forced to try stealing a sandalwood box.
Even though getting caught would have only made things worse.
But what did Gu Chengyong do? He didn't hold it against Aunt Zhang.
Although after this incident, she was inevitably dismissed and even subjected to investigation by the Imperial Household Department,
Gu Chengyong still personally ordered Cui Shifan to release Aunt Zhang's family.
In truth, he didn't have to say a word for Aunt Zhang.
A lowly kitchen maid like her—even if her entire family died, no one would care.
No one would blame Gu Chengyong for it.
Yet Gu Chengyong still spoke up, because to him, it was simply a matter of a single sentence.
Thus, even Luo Zhao had to admit that Gu Chengyong truly possessed a certain charm.
Not in cultivation, not in intelligence.
But in the charisma of his character.
His strength was used to protect, not to bully.
His cleverness was used to observe, not to scheme.
When he held power, he didn't act arrogantly; when he lost it—
Luo Zhao had never seen him lose power.
But she imagined that, given Gu Chengyong's nature, he probably wouldn't panic.
Like an ancient tree rooted for a thousand years, when storms came, only the branches swayed while the trunk remained unshaken.
A person like that truly deserved to be liked.
No wonder Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying both adored him so much.
Luo Zhao bit her lower lip, an inexplicable emotion surging in her heart.
She hated him—that was beyond doubt.
These feelings of hatred were like a red-hot branding iron, searing deeply into her heart.
Every time she thought of it, it hurt anew.
But...
She hesitated.
Hesitated over whether to take this opportunity to have Lin Qingyan teach Gu Chengyong a lesson.
And the most terrifying thing was that Luo Zhao realized she didn't want to.
She dared not dwell on it further.
Yet that hesitation, that delay, those inexplicable emotions—
They wound around her heart like vines, tightening and tightening, impossible to shake loose.
This forced Luo Zhao to start looking for excuses.
For instance... what if?
What if Lin Qingyan's lesson made Gu Chengyong detect her disguise?
Then hadn't all these days of endurance been wasted?
Hadn't the advantages Gu Chengyong taken from her all been given in vain?
After finding that excuse, Luo Zhao finally shook her head.
"No," she said, striving to make her voice sound sincere:
"Although Gu Chengyong is no human being, with a rotten moral character,
he never bullied me."
Lin Qingyan stared at Luo Zhao's eyes.
Her gaze was as sharp as a blade, capable of piercing through any disguise and reaching the depths of the heart.
Luo Zhao felt uncomfortable under that stare, but she forced herself not to look away.
Just then, Lin Qingyan precisely caught a fleeting flash of guilt in Luo Zhao's eyes.
The guilt came and went quickly, like a bird darting past—gone in an instant.
But for Lin Qingyan, that was enough.
She didn't expose it. Instead, she nodded, her tone still calm:
"That's good."
Luo Zhao secretly breathed a sigh of relief.
She was about to say something when Lin Qingyan asked again:
"Then what are you going to do next? Continue to endure? Until you bring Gu Chengyong down?"
Luo Zhao blinked, thinking Lin Qingyan was asking to stop her.
After all, Lin Qingyan's relationship with Gu Chengyong was far from shallow.
Luo Zhao was about to explain when Lin Qingyan continued:
"In that case, Zhao'er, let's cooperate."
"Ah?!"
Luo Zhao was stunned.
This sudden twist left her bewildered.
Cooperate?
Lin Qingyan said she wanted to cooperate with her?
Wait, wasn't it yesterday that she personally confessed she loved Gu Chengyong?
The tone and expression had been unmistakably that of someone falling in love.
And now, all of a sudden, she wanted to work together to bring Gu Chengyong down?
What happened in between?
Luo Zhao's mind raced, trying to piece together the logic.
She recalled just now how Gu Chengyong had acted intimately toward Shangguan Yunying.
Given Lin Qingyan's personality, she would never tolerate Gu Chengyong hugging and kissing another woman in front of her.
Yet Lin Qingyan not only didn't stop him, she didn't even show herself.
Instead, after Gu Chengyong left, she sneaked around to meet Luo Zhao.
This meant...
Luo Zhao's eyes faintly lit up, carrying hope and anticipation.
She tentatively probed:
"Little Aunt, did you two break up?"
Lin Qingyan's expression stiffened slightly at the words.
The stiffness lasted only a moment before she quickly masked it.
But Luo Zhao had been staring intently at her face—how could she miss such a subtle change?
"No," Lin Qingyan replied, her voice still calm, yet tinged with an indefinable nuance:
"I still love him."
Luo Zhao blinked.
She believed that Lin Qingyan loved Gu Chengyong.
But what about the second half?
Shouldn't there be a second half?
Could it be...
Gu Chengyong didn't love Lin Qingyan?
So it was actually Lin Qingyan pursuing him unilaterally?
No, no.
Luo Zhao shook her head, tossing these chaotic thoughts aside.
Now wasn't the time to dwell on that. What mattered most was understanding why Lin Qingyan wanted to cooperate with her.
"Little Aunt," Luo Zhao weighed her words carefully, "What do you mean by cooperation just now?"
Lin Qingyan's gaze deepened, her tone quiet and mysterious:
"Exactly what it sounds like."
She spoke slowly: "You hate Gu Chengyong and want to bring him down.
I have my reasons. Since our goals are the same, why can't we work together?"
"But..." Luo Zhao hesitated, "Earlier, you said..."
"Earlier was earlier; now is now."
Lin Qingyan cut her off, saying, "People always change, Zhao'er. Haven't you changed too?
From the proud princess you once were to the crown prince you are now."
Luo Zhao fell silent.
Lin Qingyan was right; people always changed.
Wasn't she the best example?
The old her would never have tolerated being humiliated like this.
The old her would have jumped up and fought Gu Chengyong to the death.
"Then..." Luo Zhao lifted her head and asked, "How does Little Aunt want to cooperate?"
Lin Qingyan shifted her gaze to the window, her voice light as if talking to herself:
"First, you must restrain Shangguan Yunying.
At the very least, don't let her take things further with Gu Chengyong."
e, Immortal Body, Transmigration, System, Progression Fantasy, Academy Setting, Third-Person Perspective. Alternate Title: Transmigrating into a High Martial World and Reading Live Comments. Bad news: I transmigrated. This is a terrifying high-martial world, and my original, pathetically weak body fell into a coma and never woke up. Good news: I got a Popularity Points system upon arrival. I can see live comments and even create an unkillable alternate identity. Starting out, the alternate identity has all stats at 1. The system tells me that to grow stronger, I must participate in the plot, gain popularity points to allocate stats and grow stronger, and ultimately awaken my original body. And so, carrying my original body on my back, I officially entered Huaqing Academy, where the story's protagonist resides. From that moment on, Chen Guan kicked the original plot to pieces. Live Comments: [Doesn't anyone find this mysterious coffin guy creepy? He can summon indescribable grey misty hands.] [Is this guy a hero or a villain? What kind of onion became a spirit?] [By the way, does anyone know who's in the coffin? Shouldn't the debt for saving his life be repaid by now?] [According to unofficial histories, the person in the coffin was Chen Guan's first love. Their love was once passionate and earth-shattering, but they were separated by life and death due to worldly circumstances. What a star-crossed pair.] ... Years later, the world knew of a demon god born from a coffin, shrouded in grey mist, impossible to gaze upon directly. His foremost divine emissary often wielded a scythe, reaping lives like the god of death. As war approached, facing former friends and a boundless sea of enemies, Chen Guan merely raised his scythe. "Would you like to dance as well?"
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?!
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!
m back to his original world. In the end, he realized he had overthought things. [Hey, why is Shen Manni, the female lead, acting strange? Shouldn't she be fawning over the male lead at this point?] [Zhou Qiaoqiao, are you sick? Weren't you supposed to break off your engagement today?] [Damn it! An Youyi, please do your job as an undercover agent and sell my information to the protagonist, you idiot!] ... At this moment, Xu Mo himself didn't know that these female leads had already heard his inner thoughts. Then they decided not to play by the rules. Xu Mo: Please respect my profession as the big villain!
