Lin Qingyan simply watched, saying nothing, doing nothing.
Her gaze fell on Gu Xiaoli, calm as an ancient well, betraying no emotion.
The aura around her returned to that deathly stillness, as if the black arcs of lightning had never appeared.
But at that very moment, a flicker of amusement flashed deep in her eyes.
That dead cat Gu Xiaoli had always tried to snatch her sister away from her in the past.
And now she had set her sights on Gu Chengyin too.
This was interesting, though not surprising.
When Gu Xiaoli first appeared by Gu Chengyin’s side,
Lin Qingyan had seen her but hadn’t taken her seriously, dismissing her as just some minor figure.
Back then, she hadn’t yet seen the memories of the heart demon, so she hadn’t recognized her.
And since Gu Xiaoli played the part of a clueless fool exceptionally well, Lin Qingyan had completely missed her true strength.
But now that she had recognized her, and Gu Xiaoli had also targeted Gu Chengyin,
Lin Qingyan saw a chance to finally make that dead cat bow her head, something she wouldn’t let slip by.
In fact, she was already pondering how to seize this opportunity
to throw both Gu Xiaoli and Shangguan Yunying out of Gu Chengyin’s life together.
However, to stay in character, Lin Qingyan didn’t speak.
Instead, she gave Gu Chengyin a faint glance.
It was a light look, but it carried a clear message:
If you don’t deal with Gu Xiaoli, don’t expect me to protect you anymore.
After all, she couldn’t keep getting driven out every time she tried to secretly guard him, could she?
Then, Lin Qingyan’s figure vanished without a trace.
Silent and unseen, as if she had never been there.
Gu Chengyin stared at the spot where she had disappeared and rubbed his forehead in mild exasperation.
He had received the message in that glance.
But looking at the reluctant Gu Xiaoli beside him, he could tell the little thing was stubborn as ever.
Still, despite his headache, he didn’t find the situation too difficult to handle.
And Gu Xiaoli coming to him on her own was actually a good thing—
it saved him the trouble of having to search for her.
With that thought, Gu Chengyin decided not to say anything more.
After Lin Qingyan disappeared, Gu Xiaoli grew uneasy.
She glanced at where Lin Qingyan had been, then back at Gu Chengyin, her heart thumping with anxiety.
This behavior wasn’t like Lin Qingyan at all.
The Lin Qingyan of before would have bickered with her over the slightest thing.
The two of them would argue from Xuanwu Gate all the way to the Imperial Garden, from day till night, neither willing to back down.
Only when the Empress herself intervened would they calm down.
But now, she had vanished without a word?
Was that right?
Was this still Lin Qingyan?
Gu Xiaoli bit her lip.
If that was the case, would Gu Chengyin scold her for it?
She sneaked another glance at him.
Under the moonlight, his profile was as clear and handsome as jade, his expression unreadable.
Gu Xiaoli’s anxiety grew.
She might be a cat, but she understood some things.
A master could indulge and spoil you, let you do almost anything.
But there were lines that must never be crossed, or the master would grow annoyed, even hateful.
And in the end, he might simply abandon you, leaving you a homeless stray.
Just as Gu Xiaoli was caught in her turmoil, a hand suddenly landed on her head.
Gu Chengyin rubbed her hair and asked gently,
“There’s roasted lamb later. Do you want to have some together, Xiaoli?”
His tone carried no hint of reproach, only concern for whether she was hungry.
Gu Xiaoli froze for a moment.
Then, her big eyes instantly lit up.
“Yes!”
She nodded emphatically.
Perhaps already picturing the roasted lamb, a line of drool embarrassingly escaped from the corner of her mouth.
She quickly raised her hand to wipe it away, her little face flushing slightly red.
Gone was her earlier calm and world-weary demeanor.
She looked more like a kitten basking in her master’s affection.
And besides, roasted lamb! Even though Gu Xiaoli’s cultivation was high—
since when did high cultivation mean you couldn’t enjoy good food?
She was just a cat, not some immortal subsisting on air.
When delicious food was placed before her, of course she would eat it!
Gu Chengyin led Gu Xiaoli back to the table and sat down.
Shangguan Yunying was staring at Gu Xiaoli with wide, blinking eyes, studying her from head to toe.
She had no idea what had happened between Lin Qingyan and Gu Xiaoli,
but with Gu Chengyin around, she didn’t need to worry about such matters.
All she had to do was be a well-behaved, sweet, and pretty young lady.
Besides, after what she had just witnessed, Shangguan Yunying was intensely curious about Gu Xiaoli.
She looked at her head, then her eyes, then behind her,
her gaze full of wonder, as if she had stumbled upon a rare treasure.
Finally, unable to contain her curiosity, she asked,
“Xiaoli, just now...”
She mimicked a gesture above her head, forming ears with her hands, and asked hesitantly,
“Those ears—can you make them come out again?”
Gu Xiaoli blinked her big eyes. She didn’t dislike Shangguan Yunying; in fact, she quite liked her.
She adored any beautiful woman who was lovely to look at and smelled fragrant—
except Lin Qingyan.
After a moment, Gu Xiaoli nodded.
The next instant, a pair of fuzzy cat ears reappeared on her head.
They were triangular, their tips trembling slightly, the downy fur soft and glowing gently under the moonlight.
Shangguan Yunying’s eyes lit up instantly.
That brightness was even more dazzling than the stars in the sky.
“That’s just too cute!”
She pulled Gu Xiaoli into her arms and nuzzled her vigorously.
Gu Xiaoli’s cat ears quivered from the pressure, and her tail couldn’t help but pop out, swaying lightly behind her.
She nestled in Shangguan Yunying’s arms, squinting her eyes and purring contentedly.
Sister Yunying was good.
Sister Qingyan was bad.
Gu Chengyin watched the scene and shook his head with a smile.
He stood up and said warmly, “I’ll go check on why the lamb hasn’t arrived yet.”
Neither of them paid him any attention.
Shangguan Yunying was too busy petting the cat, not even lifting her head.
Gu Xiaoli, curled up in her arms, had her eyes narrowed to slits in pure bliss—she had no time for him either.
Gu Chengyin smiled faintly, turned, and walked out of the room.
Once outside, he moved along the corridor, rounded a corner, and entered an empty room.
The room was quiet, moonlight spilling through the window lattice, carpeting the floor in silver frost.
Gu Chengyin stopped and called softly,
“Little Aunt?”
At the sound of his voice, a figure slowly materialized.
Lin Qingyan stood in the moonlight, still wearing that deathly stillness.
Her cold face was utterly expressionless, only her eyes glowed deep under the moon’s radiance.
Gu Chengyin looked at her and breathed a small sigh of relief.
If this had been the old Lin Qingyan, she would have been causing a huge scene by now.
Thank goodness it was the Heart Demon Aunt—she was so much easier to deal with.
He was about to speak, but Lin Qingyan started first.
“Gu Chengyin, I have a grudge against that cat.”
“So it’s either her or me.”
“Either she leaves, or I do.”
. As long as he maintains the villain image and follows the plot to the grand finale, he can obtain generous rewards and return to the real world. So Gu Chen'an entered the role and began to act as a scumbag villain, but who would have expected that the female leads could hear his inner thoughts. Miss Su from the Su family was shocked: "I originally thought Gu Chen'an was a scumbag, but I didn't expect he turned out to be a gentleman! What? You said I have to call off the engagement? I definitely won't, I'll piss you off!" Bai Yuan Tian was dumbfounded: "Young Master Gu is usually unreasonable and a complete brat, but he actually calls me little sweetie in his heart? What, Young Master Gu even said he likes me?" As the female leads' images collapsed more and more, the plot also collapsed with it. Gu Chen'an looked at all this chaos. "Ladies, don't aggro me, if you keep this up the male lead really will stab me, I still need to survive to the grand finale!"
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
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...
