When Gu Chengyin’s voice came from the stairway, Luo Zhao felt that she had probably just heard the voice of heaven.
At that moment, after being tormented by Lin Qingyan for who knew how long, after shrinking into the corner of the bed with her clothes in disarray like a small beast driven into a dead end—
Gu Chengyin’s voice was like a beam of light, cleaving through the suffocating ambiguity and oppression and shining straight into her drowning heart.
Luo Zhao’s head snapped up.
The phoenix eyes still glistening with tears seemed to ignite the instant they saw Gu Chengyin.
All her grievances, panic, and helplessness gathered into an almost instinctive hope.
Gu Chengyin was here. Gu Chengyin could save her. Gu Chengyin wouldn’t leave her to fend for herself.
That look was so blatant that if Luo Zhao had had a tail behind her, it would already have been wagging like a windmill.
By then, Gu Chengyin had reached the bedside.
His shoes made no sound against the carpet, and his robes swayed faintly with each movement.
The distance from the stairway to the bed was not long, but every step seemed to land on a delicate point of balance.
Luo Zhao’s hope, Shangguan Yunying’s conflicted emotions, and Lin Qingyan’s anticipation—
All of them rose and trembled with his footsteps before rearranging themselves into something new.
Gu Chengyin stopped beside the bed and first lowered his gaze to Luo Zhao.
The glance was neither particularly long nor particularly brief.
He took in every detail: the reddened corners of her eyes, her slightly swollen lips,
then her hopelessly disheveled collar and the wrinkles crumpling her skirt.
Gu Chengyin’s gaze swept once across the exposed skin beneath her collarbone.
It did not linger in the slightest, as though he were looking at part of a painting before swiftly taking in the entire image.
Then he turned his attention to Lin Qingyan.
Lin Qingyan was looking at him too.
Her body leaned slightly forward, her entire person maintaining a peculiar posture—
part languid satisfaction, like a cat that had just been fed, and part an anticipation that defied explanation.
Her eyes were brighter than they had ever been.
It was as though stars had fallen into them, or as though something were burning deep within their depths.
Yet she said nothing.
She simply gazed at Gu Chengyin with a faint smile on her lips.
There was anticipation in that smile, certainty, and a nervousness only she herself could understand.
Lin Qingyan was waiting.
Waiting for Gu Chengyin to make his own judgment.
To judge everything she had done, everything she had said, and all those seemingly absurd and boundary-crossing actions of hers.
Lin Qingyan offered no explanation and made no excuses.
She had laid every clue bare, without reservation, like an exam with no standard answer.
She wanted to know what Gu Chengyin would see and what conclusion he would reach.
Would he see only the disarray on the surface, the ambiguous push and pull—or the true answer hidden beneath it all?
And if an ordinary person had witnessed this scene, their first reaction would have been five words:
Are the wings all tangled up?
Who was Lin Qingyan?
She was Jingzhe, the most dazzling presence in the Celestial Master’s Residence, a cold and ethereal beauty who would not even spare others a glance.
Yet this very Lin Qingyan had not only done those things to Shangguan Yunying—
she had now set her sights on Luo Zhao as well, looking very much as though she intended to take the Crown Prince into her grasp too.
But Gu Chengyin was no ordinary person.
What he was best at was seeing through appearances to the essence beneath.
It was a skill forged through blood and fire, an instinct carved into his bones after countless brushes with life and death.
So after surveying the scene from close range, he saw Luo Zhao’s grievance, Shangguan Yunying’s conflicted emotions, and Lin Qingyan’s anticipation.
Then Gu Chengyin said only one thing:
“Auntie, I know you mean well, but this could easily be misunderstood by the Crown Prince and Yunying.”
He said it without emphasis, in a tone that could even be called casual.
But to Lin Qingyan’s ears, it was like a bowl of hot soup in winter, warming her from her throat all the way to her heart.
Her eyes lit up in an instant.
That radiance was beyond the reach of candlelight, beyond the reach of sunlight.
It was the glow that blossomed only when the deepest joy in a person’s heart was set aflame.
Lin Qingyan immediately sprang up from the bed and threw her arms around Gu Chengyin’s neck.
She hung her entire body from him, hugging him tightly as though afraid he might run away.
“Chengcheng!”
Lin Qingyan’s voice was muffled against Gu Chengyin’s shoulder, filled with spoiled, intimate affection.
She knew it.
She knew Gu Chengyin understood her.
She knew Gu Chengyin would never misunderstand her.
The thought surged through Lin Qingyan’s heart like the tide, wave after wave beating against her chest.
It washed away all the grievances and unease she had never spoken of to anyone.
Nothing she had done—all those actions that seemed incomprehensible, excessive, and even perverse to outsiders—
had been for her own sake.
Lin Qingyan did not care what Shangguan Yunying thought.
Not in the slightest.
If Shangguan Yunying wanted to misunderstand, then let her misunderstand.
After all, Lin Qingyan had never harbored that kind of interest in the former Chief Lady Official.
To her, Shangguan Yunying was nothing more than a fragile, useless junior who would break at the slightest touch.
That was Shangguan Yunying’s position in Lin Qingyan’s heart, defined with an almost ruthless precision.
Lin Qingyan did not care what Luo Zhao thought, either.
What was Luo Zhao to her?
Gu Chengyin’s student. A little minx who had secretly tried to seduce her uncle-husband.
A clueless, overconfident brat who needed to be taught a lesson.
Nothing more.
The only person Lin Qingyan cared about was Gu Chengyin.
Gu Chengyin was the only one she loved.
Before this, she had not even bothered to give Shangguan Yunying a second glance. How could she suddenly have set her sights on her?
She had never deigned to look properly at the men and women who fawned over her. How could she suddenly have gotten her wings tangled?
As for Luo Zhao, there was even less to say.
No matter how beautiful the Crown Prince was, could she really be more beautiful than Lin Qingyan herself?
The aunt-and-niece pair already bore some resemblance to each other. Whenever they looked in the mirror, they were both seeing their own faces. Where was the novelty in that?
So from beginning to end, the only person Lin Qingyan had ever loved was Gu Chengyin.
From the first stirrings of her heart at their initial meeting to her present-day devotion, there had never been room in her eyes for anyone else.
And all those acts of closeness toward Shangguan Yunying—those actions that seemed ambiguous, improper, and liable to provoke misunderstanding—
the person who had truly suffered because of them was Lin Qingyan herself.
She had enjoyed none of it. She had taken no pleasure in the process.
She was the one who had truly lost out, all right?
If not for Gu Chengyin, even Luo Zhao would never have been able to touch a single finger of hers.
But all those grievances, all that restraint, all those sacrifices that could never be explained to outsiders—
Lin Qingyan had never told Gu Chengyin about them.
She did not need his gratitude or his guilt.
All she needed was for him to understand.
To understand the good intentions behind everything she had done, and the painstaking thought hidden beneath those seemingly absurd actions.
To understand that she truly, truly, truly loved him.
And now, Gu Chengyin clearly understood her.
Not only had he failed to misunderstand her, he even knew that she had done all this for his sake.
He loves me so 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.
uld barely embark on the path to immortality. Just as he was on the verge of death, his golden finger awakened. No matter whether it was poison, drained blood and vital energy, diminished lifespan, or any other physical debuff caused by paying a price—once midnight passed, everything would be refreshed. From then on, whenever someone asked what kind of person Chu Ran was, the answer was simple: Forbidden arts that other cultivators dared not learn? Chu Ran would learn them. Prices that even demonic cultivators dared not pay? Chu Ran would pay them. Lifespan that even righteous cultivators dared not burn? Chu Ran would burn it. All the blood essence in his body? Take it. Want both his hands and feet? He would cut them off and send them to you. You say he’s finished? He wasn’t built to sit idle. You think he’s gone mad? No—he was simply waiting for midnight. From that day onward, Chu Ran would respect neither Heaven nor Earth, bow to neither gods nor ghosts. He had only one wish: For midnight to arrive a little sooner.
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!
world slacker. But a genius female disciple just had to get clingy, insisting that he take her as a disciple. Not only that, she was always making advances on him, thoroughly disrupting his peaceful slacker life...
