Luo Zhao was not surprised to see Shangguan Yunying in the Serenity Tower.
After resigning from her position as Chief Palace Attendant, Shangguan Yunying had gone to follow Lin Qingyan. It had been Gu Chengyin’s arrangement.
So Luo Zhao knew about it, and she had never thought there was anything wrong with the arrangement.
On the way to the Celestial Master’s Residence, Luo Zhao had even rehearsed in her mind what it would be like to meet Shangguan Yunying.
The gentle and dignified former Chief Palace Attendant would probably be wearing the Celestial Master’s robes, her hair arranged in a neat, proper bun.
Upon seeing Luo Zhao, she would incline her head in a slight bow and address her in that calm, neither servile nor overbearing tone: “Your Highness.”
But no matter how she imagined it, Luo Zhao had never expected to see Shangguan Yunying like this.
Her long hair hung loose, her nightgown was disheveled, and the neckline gaped open, revealing a neck covered in layer upon layer of hickeys.
Against her fair skin, they were shockingly conspicuous. Some were bright red, freshly left behind. Others were a dark violet and had already begun to fade. Still others overlapped old marks, their colors blending into one another.
It was as though someone had taken her neck for a canvas and painted over it again and again.
In an instant, Luo Zhao understood exactly what had happened.
She was not stupid.
This was the Serenity Tower, Lin Qingyan’s magical treasure—a forbidden place that even the spiritual sense of a Golden Core cultivator could not penetrate.
Shangguan Yunying was wearing a nightgown, her body covered in those suggestive marks. That meant she had slept here last night.
No. She had not merely slept here. Something had happened here last night.
And who could enter and leave the Serenity Tower at will?
Other than Lin Qingyan, only Gu Chengyin.
What was more, Gu Chengyin was the true reason Shangguan Yunying had resigned as Chief Palace Attendant.
It had not been for some severing of ties by the Shangguan clan, nor for political considerations at court.
It had simply been because she wanted to remain by Gu Chengyin’s side.
When Shangguan Yunying heard Luo Zhao call her name, she sprang up like a cat whose tail had been stepped on.
She instinctively turned and tried to flee up the stairs, back to the room where she had just been sleeping.
Anywhere, as long as it was somewhere Luo Zhao would not be staring at her.
At that moment, neither the dignity of a princess nor the propriety expected of a former Chief Palace Attendant mattered. Shangguan Yunying only wanted to escape this painfully awkward scene.
But Luo Zhao was faster.
Before Shangguan Yunying’s foot could reach the first step, Luo Zhao crossed the distance in a single stride and seized her wrist.
Luo Zhao’s gaze swept once more over the open neckline of Shangguan Yunying’s nightgown.
From her collarbone to the side of her neck, then from there to the base of her ear—the mottled hickeys stood out especially clearly in the faint spiritual light.
Luo Zhao’s lips moved as though she wanted to say something, but she forced the words back down.
She turned and glanced at Gu Chengyin.
But she did not dare make a sound.
She could call Shangguan Yunying’s name loudly enough to echo throughout the entire Serenity Tower.
But she did not dare ask Gu Chengyin whether this had been his handiwork.
So Luo Zhao shifted her gaze away from Gu Chengyin and finally fixed it on Lin Qingyan.
Lin Qingyan stood with her arms folded across her chest, looking completely at ease.
As she watched Luo Zhao hold Shangguan Yunying, there was even a trace of amusement at the corners of her lips.
It was as though she were enjoying a show that had nothing whatsoever to do with her.
Then Lin Qingyan saw Luo Zhao’s phoenix eyes suddenly widen as she glared at her angrily.
“Auntie! What did you do to Yunying?”
A look of surprise appeared in Lin Qingyan’s eyes.
She truly had not expected Luo Zhao to come after her instead of Gu Chengyin.
After all, no matter how one looked at it, Gu Chengyin should have been the first person suspected.
So how had Luo Zhao known it was her?
“How did you know it was me?”
“Huh?”
Lin Qingyan’s reply caught Luo Zhao completely off guard as well.
Luo Zhao’s first suspect had not actually been Lin Qingyan. It had been Gu Chengyin.
The hickeys, those suggestive marks—when she had first seen them, the very first thought that had flashed through her mind was Gu Chengyin.
He had been here last night, and so had Shangguan Yunying. The two of them had spent the entire night in the same tower. What else could they have been doing?
But Luo Zhao did not dare question Gu Chengyin.
She could calmly face the assembled officials in court. She could coldly proclaim the Taihe Edict in the Celestial Master’s Residence plaza. She could maintain the dignity and untouchable majesty of the heir apparent before anyone at all.
But in front of Gu Chengyin, all her aloofness and authority melted away without a sound, like snow beneath the sun.
Because she was now nothing more than the most obedient little puppy, Luo Zhao had redirected her suspicion toward Lin Qingyan.
Lin Qingyan was her aunt, a family member who had watched her grow up—someone she could act spoiled with, question, and throw a tantrum at.
Luo Zhao had asked Lin Qingyan not because she truly believed that Lin Qingyan had left those hickeys.
She simply needed someone else to blame, and Lin Qingyan happened to be there.
But Lin Qingyan’s answer was completely beyond her expectations.
She actually admitted it.
She did not deny it, offer an explanation, or shift the blame onto Gu Chengyin.
Instead, she openly acknowledged that the hickeys covering Shangguan Yunying’s neck were Lin Qingyan’s handiwork.
Luo Zhao’s hand, still gripping Shangguan Yunying’s wrist, froze in midair.
Her phoenix eyes were filled with disbelief.
What, exactly, had her aunt done with Shangguan Yunying?
At that moment, a strange expression also appeared on Gu Chengyin’s face.
His gaze lingered for a moment on the hickeys covering Shangguan Yunying’s neck before shifting to Lin Qingyan’s utterly matter-of-fact expression.
Gu Chengyin clearly remembered that when he had left the Serenity Tower that morning, Shangguan Yunying had been too sore and weak to get out of bed.
But there had only been a few kiss marks on her neck. It had definitely not looked like this—covered in layers upon layers of them.
The additional hickeys had obviously been left after he departed.
Once he had left, only Lin Qingyan and Shangguan Yunying had remained in the Serenity Tower.
Gu Chengyin studied Lin Qingyan with a complicated look.
“Auntie, I remember Yunying wasn’t like this when I left.”
“Could it be that you…?”
Lin Qingyan showed not the slightest embarrassment.
She lowered her arms, walked over to Shangguan Yunying, and slipped an arm around her waist.
Shangguan Yunying’s entire body stiffened at the gesture, but she did not pull away. She merely lowered her head even further.
Then, meeting the gazes of both Gu Chengyin and Luo Zhao, Lin Qingyan said with complete righteousness:
“So what? Weren’t you the one who asked Yunying to follow me?”
“Then isn’t it perfectly normal for me to give her a little special training?”
Gu Chengyin looked at the hickeys on Shangguan Yunying’s neck.
The marks varied in shade and depth, covering her skin so densely that they clearly could not have been made in a short while.
Then he looked at Lin Qingyan, who was speaking with such solemn conviction. Her cool, aloof face showed not the slightest trace of guilt. Instead, it was filled with frankness and confidence.
It was as though everything she had done had been for Shangguan Yunying’s benefit.
Gu Chengyin glanced at the bewildered Luo Zhao, then at Lin Qingyan.
In the end, he sighed inwardly:
Truly, people from the same family really do end up together.
Their minds were already this twisted. He just hoped their bodies would stay healthy.
close your eyes and open them again, only to find yourself transmigrated into the role of a villainous male supporting character. Readers familiar with urban wish-fulfillment novels know that it is only through the relentless antics of the villainous male supporting character that the plot between the male and female leads can progress. As the villainous male supporting character, Long Aotian not only has to bully the female lead, harass the second female lead, and flirt with the third female lead, but he also has to go all out to antagonize the male lead. In the end, when his body is discovered, he is still clutching half a moldy fried dough stick in his hand. Fully aware of the plot, Long Aotian is determined to change his fate, starting with the female lead! In the beginning, the female lead lacks confidence: "Big brother, I hope I didn't scare you?" In the middle, the female lead treads carefully: "Brother Long, please don't hit me, okay?" Later on, the female lead becomes coquettishly clingy: "Aotian, it's time to pay the 'public grain' tonight." Long Aotian's legs go weak, and he feels like crying: "I taught you to be thick-skinned, not shameless!"
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.
he colors of other people’s emotions. Light red meant anxiety. Gray meant exhaustion. Orange meant excitement. Yellow... meant repression. At the same time, he could gain unlimited control over one of those colors. Pale cyan: relaxation. Using this ability, he started offering “two-yuan hugs,” spending an afternoon exchanging emotional-color experiences with others. Then came his final female customer of the day— a girl whose emotional color was pure black... —— A week later, Xu Chuan had become skilled at using pale cyan—Relaxation—treating it like a bottle of menthol balm whenever he needed it. That was when he discovered he had unlocked another unlimited emotional color: Purple, the color of fear. So these emotional colors refresh every week? Fine, I take it back—I’ll never call you useless again... —— Much later, after Xu Chuan had accumulated countless emotional abilities, one night, he suddenly found himself inside someone else’s dream. There, he could use the emotional colors he possessed to paint. And in her dream, he painted her a shower of pink shooting stars, spreading across the depths of the night sky...
