"Gu Chengyin?!"
Upon hearing this name, Luo Zhao's eyes widened instantly.
Widened so much that she felt she had never opened her eyes this wide before.
Her mouth opened and closed, then opened again.
Like a fish hauled out of water, desperately gasping its gills but unable to draw in a single breath.
Gu Chengyin. Imperial Son-in-law? Her husband?!
For Luo Zhao, this news was neither entirely good nor entirely bad.
The good part was that she wouldn't have to marry some man she'd barely exchanged a word with.
The bad part was that the man was Gu Chengyin.
The man she hated most, wanted to kill most, and loathed to the bone.
Yes.
The first image that flashed through Luo Zhao's mind upon hearing that Gu Chengyin was to become the Imperial Son-in-law.
Was that Red Egg pinning her to the bed, with her utterly powerless to resist no matter how she fought.
Left with no choice but to endure his bullying, tears of humiliation streaming down her face.
Seeing it that way, liking Gu Chengyin was absolutely impossible!
She wasn't a masochist—how could she possibly like that Red Egg!
It must be that she'd been too swamped with affairs lately, and her mind was playing tricks on her.
But the real crux didn't lie there.
Another name surfaced in Luo Zhao's mind.
Lin Qingyan.
Whether it was Cui Zilu marrying Gu Chengyin, or Emperor Luo wanting to summon Gu Chengyin as the Imperial Son-in-law.
This name was one that could never be bypassed.
Because Lin Qingyan was Gu Chengyin's woman.
Not someone who liked Gu Chengyin, not someone who loved Gu Chengyin.
But the woman who had possessed Gu Chengyin.
Lin Qingyan had already slept with Gu Chengyin, had already made him her man.
Had already left her scent, her warmth, her mark upon him.
If the relationship between these two hadn't reached that stage, it might have been manageable.
Lin Qingyan was merely infatuated, merely pursuing, merely hadn't yet succeeded.
A liking can be abandoned. A pursuit can be halted.
Something not yet obtained, if taken by another, brings grief but not desperate resistance.
But the problem was, Lin Qingyan had already gotten what she wanted.
She had already turned Gu Chengyin into her man, already regarded him as hers.
At this moment, Emperor Luo declaring he would summon Gu Chengyin as the Imperial Son-in-law.
This was practically slapping Lin Qingyan across the face.
Luo Zhao knew Lin Qingyan's temper all too well.
Now, Emperor Luo wanted to take Gu Chengyin.
To take him from Lin Qingyan's side and make him the Imperial Son-in-law.
"F-father... Aunt..."
Luo Zhao swallowed hard, her voice slightly strained:
"Aunt... she won't agree to this."
At this concern, Emperor Luo merely cast a faint glance at Luo Zhao, then said with unruffled calm:
"Zhao'er, have you forgotten something?"
Luo Zhao blinked.
Her mind raced furiously. Forgotten something?
What thing?
What had she forgotten?
Was it something she'd truly forgotten, or something she'd never known in the first place?
Luo Zhao thought for a long while, from Cui Shifan's proposal of marriage to Lyu Fang delivering the imperial decree, from Lyu Fang delivering the decree to being summoned to court.
From being summoned to court to sitting here on this chair, which was a notch lower than the one in the Crown Princess's palace.
But she couldn't think of anything. Her mind was a complete blank.
In the end, she could only reply cautiously:
"Your son is dull-witted. Please enlighten me, Father."
Emperor Luo wasn't particularly surprised by this, and explained with great patience:
"Back then, Gu Chengyin declared his affections in front of the entire court, before all the civil and military officials."
"And you... acquiesced."
Declared affections.
Her and Gu Chengyin.
Luo Zhao recalled that morning court session.
Gu Chengyin, in order to cement his immortal identity, had gambled away her reputation as well.
Before all the officials, not only had he publicly professed his feelings, but he had shamelessly announced that they were already betrothed.
Then every gaze in the hall fell upon her.
Her father was watching her. Xiao Song was watching her. Cui Shifan was watching her. The entire court was watching her.
They were all waiting for Luo Zhao's response.
Waiting for her to refute, to deny, to condemn Gu Chengyin for speaking nonsense.
But she didn't.
She said nothing.
She just stood there, quietly.
No refutation. No denial. No condemnation of Gu Chengyin.
She acquiesced.
And in the eyes of the entire court, her acquiescence was consent.
It was ironclad proof that Luo Zhao and Gu Chengyin were betrothed.
It was hard evidence of an improper affair between the Crown Princess and the Royal Tutor.
When this matter spread, its impact was far greater than Xiao Song's downfall.
Xiao Song's downfall was a matter of the court, a matter among officials, a matter of the great and powerful.
Common people didn't understand it and didn't care.
They only knew some high-ranking official had been dismissed. As for why he'd been dismissed, or what would happen afterward, they couldn't care less.
But Luo Zhao and Gu Chengyin's declaration of affection was different.
This was gossip, a talking point, a story that could be told with animated flair at tea breaks, over wine, and in the streets and alleys.
The domineering Royal Tutor's forced love, the Crown Princess's illicit affair, the forbidden romance between master and disciple—all of it.
Various versions, various tellings, various embellishments and dramatizations sprouted one after another.
Like wild grass—unburnable, uncuttable, springing back to life with every breeze.
Even when the Imperial Household Bureau forcibly intervened, sealing a number of teahouses, arresting a batch of storytellers, and banning a slew of chapbooks.
None of it could suppress the nation's insatiable appetite for gossip.
Because this matter was too explosive, too thrilling, too perfectly aligned with what commoners imagined of the great and mighty.
They didn't need the truth. They needed a story.
And the story of Luo Zhao and Gu Chengyin was more riveting than any chapbook.
Luo Zhao's expression grew complicated.
She remembered now.
She remembered all of it.
That day in court, the words Gu Chengyin had spoken—she hadn't understood them then.
No, not that she hadn't understood. She simply hadn't paid attention.
She'd assumed it was just Gu Chengyin's pretext to solidify his identity and bring down Xiao Song.
So she'd endured it, even though Gu Chengyin had staked her reputation.
But now Luo Zhao realized: every word Gu Chengyin had spoken that day was a trap he was digging for her.
And she, foolishly, had walked right in.
Luo Zhao's fingers clenched tightly within her sleeve.
Her breath grew rapid and disordered, her chest heaving violently.
Her face flushed—not with grievance, but with rage.
The rage of being sold by Gu Chengyin and then counting the money for him.
The rage of wishing she could travel back in time and slap herself.
But in the end, she didn't erupt.
What was done was done. The die was cast. Spilled water could not be gathered back.
Gu Chengyin had declared his affections in court, and she had acquiesced.
This was fact.
The entire court had witnessed it. The whole world knew it. Even the Imperial Household Bureau couldn't suppress it.
Her reputation had already been taken from her by Gu Chengyin long ago.
And back then, she had known nothing.
Still foolishly believing Gu Chengyin was charging into battle for her.
Luo Zhao drew a deep breath, and her lips moved:
"So, in the eyes of the world, the Imperial Son-in-law was already decided long ago."
Luo Zhao wasn't asking Emperor Luo. She was confirming a fact she'd just come to understand.
A fact she should have understood from that very day.
In the eyes of the world, her husband had already appeared.
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.
ine. During your journey, you save an abandoned baby girl and become her elder brother】 【You rely on each other, becoming each other's support】 【At the end of the simulation, you shield the now-grown girl with your life, sacrificing yourself to block numerous demonic cultivators. You die, and the light in the girl's eyes fades】 …… 【Second Simulation: You are transported to a world where steam and magic coexist】 【You immerse yourself in the study of magic, obsessed with its research. One day, while out, you encounter a half-blooded demon girl wandering the streets. You take her in as your student】 【You teach the demoness what it means to be human, show her the beauty of the world, and nurture her into a miracle that surpasses even the gods】 【At the end of the simulation, you die of old age in front of the nearly immortal demoness due to your mortal lifespan】 …… One simulation after another, one encounter after another. Xu Xi suddenly felt something was off: "Wait, you said you're coming to the real world to find me?"
transmigrates into the world as the sect master of the Heavenly Yan Sect, which is on the verge of being wiped out. He binds a system that grants him cultivation power based on the number of disciples he has: for each disciple, he automatically gains a year's worth of cultivation every single day! Take one disciple: every day he gains 1 year of cultivation power. While others struggle through a year of bitter training, he gets the same just by sleeping through a single night. Take ten disciples: every day he gains 10 years of cultivation power. Foundation Establishment, Core Formation, Nascent Soul—he breezes through all bottlenecks without lifting a finger. Take one hundred disciples: every day he gains 100 years of cultivation power. Even a Soul Transformation Venerable before him can’t survive a single blow. Take ten thousand disciples: every day he gains 10,000 years of cultivation power! With a wave of his hand, he topples empires. With a single step, he crushes the sacred grounds of the universe. ... While others fight tooth and nail for secret techniques, Lin Yan casually hands out Nascent Soul-level cultivation manuals as beginner textbooks. While others strain to find talented recruits, Lin Yan opens his doors to anyone—so long as they’re human. In just three short years, the Heavenly Yan Sect went from a backwater sect made up of three crumbling huts to a sacred land that every cultivator under heaven would kill to enter. ... One day, otherworldly demon gods invade, with a million demon soldiers pressing down upon the realm. Lin Yan, yawning, rises from his lounge chair and glances at the system panel: [Current Disciples: 1.28 million] [Daily Cultivation Increase: 1.28 million years] He waves his hand casually, and the countless demon soldiers are reduced to ashes in an instant. “So noisy… interrupting my fishing.”
