Although Lin Qingyan knew that Gu Chengyin might mean something else, she couldn't help blushing.
The blush came very quickly, like peach blossoms blown open by a warm spring breeze, spreading from her cheeks all the way to the tips of her ears.
It added a soft touch to her originally cold and aloof face.
Lin Qingyan's eyelashes fluttered slightly, like the wings of a butterfly flapping.
They covered most of the shyness in her eyes, but couldn't hide the joy that seeped from her very core.
She knew that Gu Chengyin might be talking about serious business, that he might be planning a scheme she hadn't fully understood yet.
She knew that the word "husband and wife" from his mouth might just be a metaphor, a pretext, a statement to achieve a certain goal.
Even so, when she heard these two words coming from Gu Chengyin's mouth, her heart skipped a beat involuntarily.
Because they were husband and wife.
It was the relationship between her and him.
It was written in black and white on the imperial edict, personally written by the emperor's brush, and would be known to all under the sky.
From then on, when people mentioned Lin Qingyan, they would add "the wife of Gu Chengyin" after her name.
When they mentioned Gu Chengyin, they would prefix his name with "the husband of Lin Qingyan".
Their names would be written together, recited by countless people, talked about by countless people, and remembered by countless people.
This realization made Lin Qingyan feel that something was swelling in her heart.
It swelled so much that she could hardly contain it, and it overflowed little by little from the corners of her eyes and brows.
If it were somewhere else, like the Meditation Tower, Lin Qingyan would have wanted to reward Gu Chengyin.
But unfortunately, they were in the Crown Prince's Palace, and Luo Zhao and Gu Xiaoli were watching nearby.
So she couldn't reward Gu Chengyin now and had to maintain the proper reserve of a fairy.
So Lin Qingyan suppressed the joy in her heart, raised her hand and gently patted Gu Chengyin.
The force of this pat was so light that it could almost be ignored. It was more like a coquettish gesture than a real pat.
"Zhao'er and Xiaoli are still watching," Lin Qingyan whispered so softly that only Gu Chengyin could hear.
Every word seemed to float softly from the depths of her throat.
It carried a bit of blame, a bit of shyness, and a bit of sweetness that couldn't be hidden.
As she said this, her eyes quickly glanced in the direction of Luo Zhao and Gu Xiaoli.
Then she quickly looked back, as if she was doing something shameful.
Gu Chengyin followed her gaze and saw that Luo Zhao was looking at him with a look of disdain.
Her brows were tightly knitted, and the corners of her mouth were turned down in a contemptuous arc.
Her eyes were full of disgust, as if to say, "Can you two be more discreet in broad daylight?"
Although Luo Zhao still had her hands folded on her knees and her back was straight, maintaining the proper dignity of a crown prince.
But the twitching corners of her mouth betrayed her true thoughts. She wished she could separate these two people.
It would be best to bury one in the southernmost part and the other in the northernmost part.
Gu Xiaoli pouted.
Her pink lips were pouted so high that it seemed an oil bottle could hang on them.
Her big eyes stared fixedly at Lin Qingyan's hand that was wrapped around Gu Chengyin's arm.
There was envy, grievance, and a little bit of indignation in her eyes.
After admitting her mistake and apologizing, she took the initiative to step back and sat obediently aside without making a sound.
But now seeing Lin Qingyan and her elder brother being so affectionate.
The sour feeling in her heart couldn't help but well up.
However, Gu Xiaoli was also very self - aware. She knew that her position in her elder brother's heart was definitely not as important as Lin Qingyan's.
So she had been so well - behaved and quiet.
Looking at this scene, Gu Chengyin couldn't help but shake his head and laugh.
"Okay, actually, what I mean is that I'm going to join the Celestial Masters' Mansion," he said, with a tone of explanation, as if he was coaxing two children who had misunderstood him.
As he said this, Gu Chengyin reached out and held Lin Qingyan's hand that was wrapped around his arm.
He gathered her fingers in his palm and gently squeezed them.
Hearing that Gu Chengyin was going to join the Celestial Masters' Mansion, Luo Zhao's eyes widened.
Her gaze instantly became sharp.
This news was so sudden that she subconsciously began to search her mind for all relevant information.
Gu Chengyin was the junior tutor of the crown prince and a pivotal figure in the crown prince's faction. Why did he want to join the Celestial Masters' Mansion?
Thinking of the question Gu Chengyin had asked Lin Qingyan just now.
The answer was already clear, and Luo Zhao's heart sank suddenly.
She knew what Gu Chengyin was up to.
It wasn't to let Lin Qingyan become the Grand Master of the Celestial Masters' Mansion. He wanted to be the one himself.
Asking Lin Qingyan wasn't to let her do this, but to confirm the rules.
To confirm whether anyone other than the emperor could become the Grand Master of the Celestial Masters' Mansion.
Lin Qingyan's answer gave a positive one: as long as one initiated a challenge and defeated all the offering priests, they could take the place of the previous one.
So within the rules, Gu Chengyin could become the Grand Master of the Celestial Masters' Mansion.
This conclusion made Luo Zhao catch her breath.
The Grand Master of the Celestial Masters' Mansion was her father's position.
Was Gu Chengyin actually trying to take it away?
Was he going to rebel?!
Lin Qingyan wasn't that surprised.
She just tilted her head and thought seriously for a while.
She quickly went through the rules and procedures of the Celestial Masters' Mansion in her mind, and then said,
"With my recommendation and guarantee, it won't be a problem for you to join the Celestial Masters' Mansion."
"But Chengcheng, you have to take an oath when joining the Celestial Masters' Mansion. This is a fixed rule that no one can break."
Lin Qingyan's tone was very serious, so serious that she enunciated every word clearly.
As she said this, her eyes were always fixed on Gu Chengyin's face, with a firm look that left no room for negotiation in her eyes.
The Celestial Masters' Mansion had been able to remain independent from the secular world for thousands of years thanks to these four unshakable oaths.
Anyone who wanted to join had to swear the oath in public and engrave it on their spiritual core, and then be bound by the oath from then on.
This was the foundation of the Celestial Masters' Mansion and did not allow any exceptions.
Gu Chengyin nodded.
He wasn't surprised by this requirement at all.
If a transcendent force like the Celestial Masters' Mansion, which had been passed down for thousands of years, didn't have strict rules, it would have been infiltrated by secular power long ago.
Or it would have become the most useful tool in the hands of the emperor, but in fact, it wasn't the case.
Even an unfathomable emperor like Emperor Luo couldn't casually command the Celestial Masters' Mansion without a convincing reason.
This oath - taking threshold was precisely the key for the Celestial Masters' Mansion to remain pure.
Moreover, those four oaths actually conformed to Gu Chengyin's values and principles.
Each one was something one should abide by, without any harshness or anything unacceptable.
Although he, Gu Chengyin, couldn't be considered a perfect gentleman, he wasn't a great villain either.
He could take these four oaths with a clear conscience.
"This isn't a problem. Auntie, please arrange it for me as soon as possible."
u Chenyuan transmigrated into a female-oriented novel about a real and fake heiress, becoming the CEO elder brother of both. Unfortunately, the entire Lu family—including himself, the CEO—were mere cannon fodder in the story. Determined to save himself, Lu Chenyuan took action. The spoiled, attention-seeking fake heiress? Thrown into the harsh realities of the working class to learn humility. The love-struck real heiress? Pushed toward academic excellence, so lofty goals would blind her to trivial romances. As for the betrayed, vengeful arranged marriage wife… the plot hadn’t even begun yet. There was still time—if he couldn’t handle her, he could at least avoid her. "CEO Lu, are you avoiding me?" Mo Qingli fixed her gaze on Lu Chenyuan. For the first time, the shrewd and calculating Lu Chenyuan felt a flicker of unease.
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?!
] [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!"
