Luo Zhao didn’t dare ask too loudly, as though the question itself were already unbearably shameful.
She thought Shangguan Yunying would laugh.
After all, what had just happened really was rather funny.
But Shangguan Yunying didn’t laugh.
Her hands continued moving as she helped Luo Zhao straighten her clothes. Her expression was as calm as still water, revealing no trace of mockery or teasing.
When Luo Zhao asked the question, she didn’t even raise her eyes.
“Your Highness needn’t dwell on it.”
Luo Zhao froze for a moment.
She hadn’t expected Shangguan Yunying to answer that way.
Shangguan Yunying’s hands paused. She lifted her head and glanced toward the stairs.
Only after confirming that Lin Qingyan had truly gone downstairs did she lean closer and lower her voice.
“Sister Qingyan actually didn’t fare much better.”
Luo Zhao blinked, not understanding what she meant.
“She kept crying and begging Chengcheng.”
Luo Zhao’s eyes widened.
She tried to imagine the scene in her mind.
Lin Qingyan, who had just been swaggering arrogantly before them, crying and begging Gu Chengyin.
Luo Zhao imagined Lin Qingyan with reddened eyes, a red-tipped nose, and trembling lips. Tears would run down her cheeks as she pleaded in a soft, sweet voice…
How should she put it?
The image was simply too outrageous.
Luo Zhao blinked hard, trying to shake the scene from her mind.
Impossible. Absolutely impossible.
How could Lin Qingyan possibly cry and beg Gu Chengyin?
That was as absurd as saying the sun had risen in the west.
Yet judging by Shangguan Yunying’s tone, not only was it true, she had even witnessed it herself.
Luo Zhao’s curiosity was piqued.
After hesitating for a moment, she couldn’t help asking, “Yunying, how do you know that? Could it be…?”
She didn’t finish the sentence, but the meaning was obvious.
Shangguan Yunying’s face flushed.
She lowered her lashes and hesitated for a moment before finally nodding.
“Sister Qingyan couldn’t withstand Chengcheng, so she pulled me into it.”
Luo Zhao was completely dumbfounded.
She stared blankly at Shangguan Yunying, as though trying to process the sheer amount of information contained in that sentence.
Lin Qingyan had pulled Shangguan Yunying into it.
Pulled her into what?
Pulled her into which part?
Together with Lin Qingyan?
This… this…
Luo Zhao’s mind buzzed like ten thousand bees, with all sorts of thoughts colliding, exploding, and recombining inside it.
Lin Qingyan couldn’t withstand Gu Chengyin, so she had pulled Shangguan Yunying in as well?
Then who would Shangguan Yunying pull in when she couldn’t take it anymore?
Could it be…
Stop!
She couldn’t keep thinking about this!
Luo Zhao’s expression became astonishingly colorful.
At one moment she was red, the next pale, and then red again.
She looked like an ink painting drenched by rain, all its colors bleeding together until none could be distinguished from the others.
Her lips trembled, as though she wanted to say something stern and righteous.
Perhaps: Was this in accordance with propriety? Or: What kind of disgraceful conduct was this?
But when the words reached her lips, she swallowed them back down.
In accordance with propriety?
What between her and Gu Chengyin had ever been in accordance with propriety?
What kind of disgraceful conduct was this?
When she called him “Master,” why hadn’t she thought about propriety then?
Luo Zhao drew a deep breath, then slowly exhaled.
Now that things had come to this, what else could she do but accept reality?
She might as well admit it.
Even if she didn’t, she had no choice but to accept it.
Luo Zhao leaned against the bedpost, letting Shangguan Yunying arrange her clothes and hair while her own thoughts turned elsewhere.
She was good at many things, but enduring humiliation was what she did best.
That was only because of Gu Chengyin, however. It didn’t mean she would let anyone else walk all over her.
Not even Lin Qingyan.
But how could she get revenge?
In terms of strength, she couldn’t even defeat Shangguan Yunying, let alone Lin Qingyan, who was at the Core Formation Realm.
In terms of status, Lin Qingyan was her aunt and an elder. Surely she couldn’t truly defy her?
Just as Luo Zhao was frowning over the problem, a scene suddenly flashed through her mind.
It was the scene Shangguan Yunying had just described: Lin Qingyan crying and begging Gu Chengyin.
If that scene was real—if Lin Qingyan truly couldn’t withstand Gu Chengyin—then Luo Zhao wouldn’t need to do anything herself.
She only had to choose the right moment, at the right place…
And give a hard push from behind!
Luo Zhao’s eyes lit up.
She turned her head toward Shangguan Yunying, who was tying the silk sash around her waist.
Yunying had her head lowered, her eyelashes casting a small shadow beneath her eyes as she worked with complete concentration.
Luo Zhao bit her lip. She mulled the idea over again and again, but in the end, she couldn’t suppress the impulse.
She raised her hand and slowly placed it on Shangguan Yunying’s shoulder.
Shangguan Yunying’s hands stopped. She looked up.
Then she froze.
“Yunying, actually, I think your suggestion was excellent.”
Luo Zhao paused after saying this.
Shangguan Yunying’s suggestion had frightened her badly at the time, but now that she thought about it again…
That suggestion was like a seed. It had taken root and begun to sprout in her heart.
Yunying was right. She really could push from behind.
Not help Gu Chengyin push Lin Qingyan, but help Gu Chengyin…
No, help herself.
If she pushed from behind, that meant she was participating.
If she participated, that meant she was taking revenge on Lin Qingyan.
And if she took revenge on Lin Qingyan, then it meant she had finally vented her anger.
Shangguan Yunying’s pupils contracted.
She didn’t move or even turn her head, simply remaining in place with Luo Zhao’s arm around her.
Her lashes hung low, as though she were thinking—or perhaps confirming something.
After a while, she finally turned her head and asked, “Your Highness, are you saying…?”
“Aunt has gone too far. I have to get revenge.”
Shangguan Yunying raised an eyebrow.
Revenge against Lin Qingyan?
When Luo Zhao continued, her voice grew even softer.
So soft that only she and Shangguan Yunying could hear it.
“So when Aunt is being bullied by Gu Chengyin, I’ll push from behind!”
Shangguan Yunying’s expression first showed shock, then speechlessness, and finally settled into profound helplessness.
She knew it.
She knew Luo Zhao wouldn’t simply swallow her grievances.
Although the Crown Prince was very good at enduring humiliation, that was only when it came to Gu Chengyin. With everyone else, she was cold, proud, and aloof.
“Your Highness, are you sure you want to do this?”
Shangguan Yunying’s voice tightened slightly as she attempted one final protest.
“If Sister Qingyan finds out, she might…”
“She might do what?”
Luo Zhao moved back a little and looked directly into Shangguan Yunying’s eyes.
The panic and embarrassment had disappeared from her face, replaced by confidence and composure.
“Scold me? Didn’t she already teach me a lesson just now?”
Shangguan Yunying was left speechless.
Luo Zhao was right.
Lin Qingyan had indeed already taught Luo Zhao a lesson.
Though not in the literal sense of the word, what difference was there between that and being completely overwhelmed without the slightest ability to fight back?
Luo Zhao had already been thoroughly taught a lesson by Lin Qingyan. What else was there to fear?
Things couldn’t get any worse than they already were.
“Besides…”
The corners of Luo Zhao’s lips curled upward, her gaze falling to Shangguan Yunying’s neck.
“Yunying, don’t you want revenge against Aunt as well?”
] [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!"
't think I'm that capable, I'm just trying my best to stay alive. I've been kind all my life, never did anything bad, yet worldly suffering spared me not one bit. The human world is a nice place, but I won't come back in my next life. A kind young man, who wanted to just get by singing, but through repeated deceits and betrayals, has gone down an irredeemable path.
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.
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!
