It wasn’t because she wouldn’t allow it.
It was because Gu Chengyin had crossed the line he himself had drawn.
Once crossed, there was no going back.
The more Lin Qingyan thought about it, the happier she became, the harder it was to contain herself.
The intense emotion in her chest, so strong it felt like it might explode, found no outlet.
It crashed through her organs, shaking her entire body until she trembled slightly.
Lin Qingyan lowered her head, her lips lightly brushing against Gu Chengyin’s brow.
A touch so brief it was gone before it could be felt—like a snowflake landing on warm skin, melting before it could be savored.
Then the tip of his nose.
Then his lips.
This touch lasted a little longer than the previous two, but not by much.
Just a shallow brush, like tasting a fruit not yet fully ripe.
Cautiously, she used her lips to feel its temperature and texture.
Behind Lin Qingyan’s ribcage, it felt as if countless flowers had burst open all at once, petals raining down from heaven.
They covered her from head to toe, their fragrance so intoxicating she nearly felt drunk.
Her gaze drifted downward then.
It wasn’t intentional.
Well, maybe a little intentional.
But mostly, it was pure, instinctive curiosity.
Everything from last night had happened in total darkness.
Now dawn had come, sunlight streaming through the window, illuminating every detail.
And then her eyes landed on something impossible to ignore.
Lin Qingyan blinked. Then blinked again.
Her eyes brightened, like two polished glass beads.
In the morning light, they sparkled with a brilliance that could almost be called joy.
A voice inside her head was screaming wildly, but her expression remained remarkably calm.
Her gaze lingered for about three breaths. Then she slowly pulled her eyes away and focused again on Gu Chengyin’s face.
He was still asleep.
His breathing was steady, his expression peaceful, completely unaware that his body had just been thoroughly inspected from head to toe by someone.
A smile crept onto the corner of Lin Qingyan’s lips—a sly, triumphant expression, tinged with barely contained anticipation.
She gently lifted the edge of the blanket.
Her movements were as careful as if she were handling a fragile piece of porcelain, each inch of fabric shifted with the most deliberate precision.
Morning light squeezed through the gap she created, falling on the curves and contours that had been explored physically and intimately just the night before.
Her breathing quickened slightly, but she quickly suppressed it.
Then she lowered her head.
…
Gu Chengyin woke to an indescribable sensation.
It was hard to put into words.
It felt as if something inside him was stirring awake, but his consciousness was still submerged in deep waters, held down layer by layer, unable to surface.
He began to rise.
As he passed through the first layer, he thought of last night.
The second layer brought Lin Qingyan to mind.
The third layer—he felt it.
Gu Chengyin’s eyelashes fluttered violently, and then his eyes snapped open.
What he saw sent his brain stalling.
Sunlight poured in through the window, spreading a golden glow across the bed, revealing everything in sharp detail.
Lin Qingyan’s hair tumbled down around her, strands as dark as satin gilded with gold at the edges, spilling over the pillow and her shoulders.
Her bodice was open—or rather, she hadn’t even bothered to dress properly.
Her inner garment hung loosely, barely clinging to her shoulders.
Her neckline was wide open, revealing her collarbone, her shoulder line, and a sliver of skin so translucent in the morning light it seemed almost unreal.
It was all laid bare.
Gu Chengyin’s throat tightened as he swallowed.
“… Little Aunt, you’re up early.”
Hearing this, Lin Qingyan looked up and shot him a glare.
Her eyes looked particularly beautiful in the morning glow, the corners slightly tilted upward, her irises a deep, dark black.
At this moment, however, the sunlight cast an amber halo over them.
Seeing this, a headache began to form behind Gu Chengyin’s brow.
He lifted a hand and pressed his palm over his eyes.
Beneath it were burning eyelids and a throbbing temple; above it, the gentle warmth of the morning sun.
In that haze of warmth and heat, he let out a quiet sigh.
His mind wandered back to last night against his will.
When Luo Zhao had said those words, he had had a choice.
He could have scared Luo Zhao, because despite her sharp tongue, she was easily intimidated.
But that trick had never worked on Lin Qingyan.
And it never would.
Because…
This was Lin Qingyan.
Even he.
No matter how much he wanted to deny it.
Even he had to admit a simple truth:
Lin Qingyan was far too alluring.
Not through surface-level fragrances made from powders and cosmetics.
But something emanating from the very depths of her being—an addictive scent.
Her eyes, her voice, the tips of her fingers, her breath.
Every inch, every wisp, every moment—silently screamed a kind of provocative charm.
Lin Qingyan was never deliberate, never affected, likely unaware of it herself.
But that allure was as natural as breathing.
More fatal than her face, her figure, or even her cultivation level.
And last night, when Lin Qingyan had pressed her bold words against his ear.
Half of Gu Chengyin’s reason had already crumbled.
Was the other half sustained by his mind, tempered by the Supreme Forgetfulness Dao?
Or by his terrifying self-control, honed over years of discipline?
Gu Chengyin shook his head internally.
Neither.
The only reason he had made it back to the room was simple: he had just preferred not to do it outside.
But the real key was the Supreme Forgetfulness Dao.
After confirming his mastery of it, he had stopped forcing himself to suppress every natural urge in an unhealthy way.
Because forgetfulness was not emotionlessness.
It was placing emotion where it belonged—neither trapped nor disturbed, neither enslaved by sentiment nor paralyzed by it. Instead, it was emotion that could be moved, allowed to flow freely.
Act accordingly to its nature, follow its impulses as they arose—that was the true essence of the Supreme Forgetfulness Dao.
And so, when Lin Qingyan teased him.
He did not crush every wave of desire into the deepest depths of his soul, as he once had.
Instead, he let them rise, let them ferment, let them consume him entirely.
Just as Gu Chengyin reached this realization, he felt a lightness beside him.
A force moved his hand away from his eyes, and sunlight flooded his vision, making him squint.
Then Lin Qingyan’s face appeared close to his—so near he could count each of her eyelashes.
The sunlight streamed from behind her, turning her hair into a halo of gold, making her look like a goddess gilded in daylight.
At least, until he saw the sly, almost defiant smile curling at the corners of her mouth.
“Chengcheng~”
Her voice was soft as petals soaked in morning dew.
Every syllable carried an intoxicating lilt:
“An inch of time in the morning is worth an inch of gold, you know~”
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
transmigrates into the role of a villainous rich second-generation kid in an urban fantasy novel, and gets bound to a god-tier choice system. Right at the start, he catches the female lead stealing exam papers! This triggers the villain's choice options! [Choice 1: Pretend you didn't see anything] [Choice 2: Loudly call her out, drawing everyone's attention] [Choice 3: ...] And thus, a twisted villain is born. To avoid getting killed by the protagonist, he has no choice but to take down all the protagonists first. Jiang Che: Nobody understands being twisted better than me!
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!
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.
