After confirming that nothing would scatter halfway, she finally turned around.
As she passed by Gu Chengyin, she swiftly shot him a glance.
It was as quick as a petal carried by the wind, gone before its color could be discerned.
But Gu Chengyin understood. In Shangguan Yunying's eyes, there was joy and playful reproach.
There was embarrassment that he had said such a thing in front of Her Highness, and a coquettish hint of "I’ll deal with you later."
Clearly, Shangguan Yunying was very pleased with his words and attitude.
So much so that she even temporarily forgot about Lin Qingyan.
Then Shangguan Yunying hugged the memorials and walked toward the hall with composed steps.
Her crimson female official robes cut a sharp arc in the sunlight, her back straight.
Her stride was steady, each step falling in the rhythm befitting a chief female official.
Soon, only Gu Chengyin and Luo Zhao remained in the hall.
Luo Zhao did not move.
She still held that posture, her gaze fixed on the wood grain of the desk, as if staring at something unseen.
Her breathing had returned to an even pace, and her expression had regained its calm.
But Gu Chengyin knew her mind was probably in turmoil.
After all, the cards were basically on the table between them now.
Luo Zhao knew what he wanted and what he had done.
But she could do nothing about it and had no evidence, so she could only stew in silent frustration.
Gu Chengyin watched this predicament—Her Highness clearly furious inside yet stubbornly refusing to show it.
A mischievous idea suddenly popped into his head.
He knew he shouldn’t add fuel to the fire at this moment.
Luo Zhao had barely managed to suppress her emotions. If he provoked her further, she might just explode.
But this stubborn, defiant little look of hers was just too hard to resist.
Gu Chengyin strode to the desk and leaned down.
His movements were slow, as if approaching a cat ready to bristle at any moment.
No, not a cat—a little tiger.
If a cat bristles, it might scratch you; if a little tiger bristles, it bites.
Gu Chengyin placed his hands on the desk, leaning forward, closing the distance between them to less than two feet.
The sunlight streamed from behind him, casting his shadow over Luozhao's desk like a slowly toppling mountain.
Luo Zha was startled by Gu Chengyin suddenly appearing before her.
Her body instinctively leaned back, but the chair blocked her retreat.
Her fingers tightened on the desk for a moment, her pupils contracting, but she quickly regained her composure.
The mask of cold pride and aloofness wobbled on her face for a moment before being firmly put back in place.
Gu Chengyin looked into Luo Zhao’s eyes and spoke with a smile.
"Your Highness, you guessed correctly after all."
His voice was neither loud nor soft, his tone even carrying a hint of lightness, as if he were talking about something trivial.
But the words he spoke made Luo Zhao’s pupils contract sharply.
"I really did want to completely control Aunt."
Luo Zhao’s eyes widened.
"Just some unexpected things happened along the way."
Gu Chengyin added, the curve of his lips deepening further.
The great hall fell silent.
So silent one could hear the faint wail of the wind passing through the corridors outside the window.
One could hear Luo Zhao’s heartbeat pounding hard in her chest, once, again, and again.
She stared directly at Gu Chengyin’s face.
This face was so close that she could see the curve of his eyelashes.
Thick and slightly curled, tilting upward at the corners.
His pupils were a deep black, now catching the sunlight outside the hall—flickering, dark currents swirling beneath the surface.
His expression was a smile, but it was not the kind of smile she was used to seeing from him.
Not the faint, distant, slightly careless smile he often wore.
It was a smile of someone who knew he couldn’t be caught—confident, triumphant, like a cat teasing a mouse.
Luo Zhao’s throat tightened, but she did not retreat.
She took a deep breath, pushed her back against the chair again, placed her hands folded on the desk, and lifted her chin.
That mask of cold pride and aloofness was firmly back in place, not a single crack showing.
"You finally admit it."
Her voice was as calm as if she were stating a fact she had long known.
Gu Chengyin watched her stubborn pretense, and the delight in his eyes deepened.
"Yes, I admit it."
He drew out his words slightly, as if deliberately prolonging some torment.
His body leaned forward just a little more, so close that Luo Zhao could feel the warmth of his breath.
"But Your Highness, even if I admit it, what can you do about it?"
These words were spoken with a disdainful air, more devastating than any harsh threat.
Because they weren’t a threat—they were a statement of fact.
So what if you know?
You have no evidence.
No one will believe you.
So you can’t do anything to me.
Luo Zhao’s fingers curled abruptly in her sleeve, her nails digging into her palm hard enough to leave a faint white mark.
She knew Gu Chengyin was telling the truth. There was indeed nothing she could do about him.
Even if she went to Lin Qingyan and told him, he wouldn’t believe her.
So she could do nothing but watch Gu Chengyin toy with her.
Just as Luo Zhao felt she was about to crumble under the weight of this suffocating frustration—
A hand landed on the top of her head.
Gu Chengyin's hand.
The pressure was very light, like a fallen leaf drifting onto the crown of her head, carrying a faint, almost intangible warmth.
His fingers threaded through her loose hair, rubbing it slowly.
The gesture was natural and casual, as though he had done it countless times before.
As for Luo Zhao, she felt his arrogance was simply outrageous.
He had just admitted he wanted to hypnotize Lin Qingyan.
He had just said in that flippant tone, "So what can you do about it?"
And then he reached out to pat her head.
It was as if he were saying, Even if I tell you, even if you know, you still can’t escape my grasp.
"So, you see."
Gu Chengyin’s voice drifted down from above her head, carrying a faint trace of amusement:
"It’s best to obediently remain my crown princess, Her Highness."
"At least in that case..."
Gu Chengyin withdrew his hand, straightened up, and looked down at her from on high.
"...I will like you very much."
Luo Zhao was utterly dazed.
She sat in the chair, still holding the pose from after having her head patted.
Her hair had been ruffled somewhat loose, with a few stray strands slipping down from the edges, clinging to her cheeks.
Her phoenix eyes were filled with disbelief, her pupils slightly dilated, her lips parted a little.
She looked like a porcelain doll that had suddenly been given a soul but hadn’t yet learned how to control its expression.
Even when her head was being patted, she hadn’t dodged.
It wasn’t that she didn’t have time to dodge; Luo Zhao simply forgot.
She forgot that she should have pulled away, forgot that she should have slapped his hand away, forgot that she should have said, "How dare you!"
She just sat there blankly, letting Gu Chengyin’s hand rest on her head, letting his fingers run through her hair.
Letting his voice drift down from above, word by word, clearly burrowing into her ears.
"It’s best to obediently remain my crown princess, Her Highness."
"At least in that case, I will like you very much."
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.
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!
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!
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.
