But no matter whether it was what Gu Chengyin had guessed.
No matter whether that so-called glowing box was indeed a hypnosis phone, it made no difference to the current situation.
The main problem was that no one even knew where this so-called glowing box was.
After Empress Lin died, the thing never appeared again. For all anyone knew, it might have been destroyed along with her.
So for Gu Chengyin, the most pressing matter right now was Gu Xiaoli.
The very fact that Gu Xiaoli had been willing to reveal these secrets today said a great deal.
These secrets weren't about some trivial matter.
They concerned the origins of Empress Lin and the hidden history between her and Gu Xiaoli that no one else knew.
Yet Gu Xiaoli had spoken anyway, and spoken with complete frankness.
What did that mean?
It meant Gu Xiaoli trusted him now.
That kind of trust hadn't come out of nowhere. It had been built up bit by bit, through countless efforts and endless trials.
From the world-weary loli who hoarded candy at the start, to the cat-eared loli who was now willing to place her secrets in his hands—
every step along the way had been hard-won.
Gu Chengyin knew very well that part of the reason Gu Xiaoli was willing to trust him was because of his deliberate guidance.
But more than that, it was because this cat had a near-childlike sincerity in her bones.
Once she set her heart on someone, she would gladly bare her very soul to them.
And that sincerity was exactly what Gu Chengyin needed most right now.
Just now, when they had been talking about Empress Lin, Gu Xiaoli had stolen glances at his expression more than once.
Her eyes carried a cautious, eager-to-please look, as if she feared that if she said something wrong or phrased it poorly, she might upset him.
That eagerness wasn't born of fear, but of a genuine desire to satisfy her master.
Gu Chengyin saw all of it, and his mind was already working.
But then again, trust was ultimately just words.
Whether it was belief or support, these were things you couldn't see or touch.
Gu Xiaoli trusted him today—that was today.
What about tomorrow? What about the day after?
If someone whispered something in her ear one day, or if something unexpected happened,
how much of that trust would remain?
Without something concrete to bind her, Gu Chengyin would never truly rest easy.
He was a cautious man, and he always liked to keep a card up his sleeve.
In a world filled with deadly traps at every turn, a single moment of carelessness could bring utter ruin.
So Gu Chengyin had to make sure every link in the chain was firmly in his grasp.
Gu Xiaoli was far too important to risk any misstep.
Fortunately, besides hypnosis, there was another thing that could serve the same binding purpose.
As Gu Chengyin thought this, his gaze fell on Gu Xiaoli's small face, still tinged with tension.
"Xiaoli, make another solemn vow."
He didn't say it with any heaviness, even with a hint of negotiation, as if discussing the most ordinary matter.
But for all its lightness, those words made Gu Xiaoli's already slightly pursed lips pout even more.
Still, it was only a pout.
Gu Xiaoli wasn't really surprised or upset.
She had spent enough time with Gu Chengyin to know this man's style very well.
He never did anything without being sure of it, and he never staked everything on another person's conscience.
What Gu Chengyin wanted was a substantive oath, a constraint that could be seen and touched.
A rope that would hold even if one day his heart changed or his intentions shifted, one he could not break free from.
So it was only natural that he wanted her to swear a solemn vow.
Besides, it wasn't as if she had never done it before.
Gu Xiaoli quietly calculated in her mind—she had already sworn two solemn vows to Gu Chengyin before this.
Going from zero to one was always the hardest part.
But the third time was different; too many lice and you stop itching, too many debts and you stop worrying.
What's more, Gu Xiaoli had another consideration in mind.
If she didn't swear the oath, Gu Chengyin might hypnotize her instead.
Compared to hypnosis, swearing a solemn vow was clearly the better option.
At least when she swore the vow, she would be fully conscious, knowing what she was doing and knowing what promise she was making.
Even if something happened in the future, it would still be her own choice, and she couldn't blame anyone else.
With that thought, most of the reluctant feelings in Gu Xiaoli's heart began to fade.
"Alright, what does brother want Xiaoli to swear this time?"
Gu Xiaoli nodded, her big eyes fixed unblinkingly on Gu Chengyin.
Her gaze was as clear as snowmelt just melting from the mountains, so pure that one could see straight to the bottom.
Her eyelashes were long and curled, trembling faintly, as if they were expressing the nervousness deep within her.
Gu Xiaoli had already prepared herself to swear the vow; she was even mentally bracing herself.
She thought that this time Gu Chengyin would probably come up with some condition that would make her heart race.
The last two times he made her swear, the oaths had been harsh beyond belief.
This time, it probably wouldn't be any different.
But to Gu Xiaoli's surprise, Gu Chengyin didn't say anything particularly harsh this time.
He just looked at her quietly, his lips moving slightly, as if weighing his words.
After a long moment, he finally spoke slowly:
"In wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad."
"Whenever I need Xiaoli the most, Xiaoli will never leave my side, until the very end."
His voice was not loud, nor was his pace fast; every word landed clearly in Gu Xiaoli's ears.
These two sentences were the third solemn oath Gu Chengyin wanted Gu Xiaoli to swear.
Gu Xiaoli understood.
But she didn't just understand—she also picked up on something more.
Because these two sentences, at first glance, seemed to have nothing particularly special about them.
They were just asking Gu Xiaoli to promise to always stand by his side, never to leave him.
She had said such things before, and had even silently resolved to do so in her heart.
But looking more carefully, the more Gu Xiaoli looked at these two lines, the more familiar they seemed.
In wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad...
Wasn't this the wedding vow?!
Gu Xiaoli knew about this because Niangniang had once told her.
It was on an afternoon a long, long time ago. She had gone to see Niangniang, and somehow the conversation had turned to matters of marriage.
Niangniang had smiled and told her that in her hometown, when people got married, they had to make vows in front of everyone.
And those vows were these very lines: in wealth or poverty, in health or sickness, in good times or bad, never leave, until the very end.
When the Lady said this, there was a light in her eyes that Gu Xiaoli could not understand at the time.
That light was very, very bright—so bright it seemed to hold an entire summer's worth of fireflies within it.
] [Lone Wolf, No Male Gaze] [Protagonist is pursued early on; extreme protagonist-stans, stay away!] The "Carnival Paradise" descends and slowly devours the real world in the form of a game. By chance, Zhu Yan awakens the talent [Roleplay], becoming one of the first beta players. He thought he could develop safely, but after clearing the first instance, he is branded by humanity as the chief culprit behind the game's spread—a traitorous villain. A villain? Who would ever... become one! He'll be the villain! From then on, Zhu Yan is not only a player but also a lackey for the Carnival Paradise. Between the straight path and the crooked path, he chooses the con. With his left hand, he dons the villain's mantle, staging scenes within instances, infuriating players who decry him as a despicable traitor, all while the game happily promotes him. With his right hand, he joins the non-human organization "Fangcun Mountain," which opposes the Carnival Paradise, transforming into a mysterious player who slaughters game bosses, earning cheers of "Long live the expert!" from fellow players. Gradually, Zhu Yan rises to become an S-rank human player in Fangcun Mountain's archives, while also being the Carnival Paradise's certified top game Boss. But when the final war erupts and both major factions place their hopes in him— Players tag his various aliases: "Experts, this offensive depends on you." The Carnival Paradise's supreme Boss throws an arm around his neck: "Bro, you're the iron, I'm the steel; you can't let me down again!"
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!
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!
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?!
