The floor was ice-cold, and the pool water was chilly. Fu Nanzhi's body was damp with sweat, and when the gentle breeze blew across her delicate skin, it raised goosebumps.
The cold kept creeping into her body.
"I can't stay on the floor any longer," Fu Nanzhi thought to herself.
Otherwise, she'd not only be injured but catch a cold as well.
Looking at the entrance hall not far away, Fu Nanzhi thought it would be better to slowly inch her way there.
But her body was currently facing the swimming pool, so she needed to turn her body first, letting the uninjured side touch the ground.
Carefully adjusting her posture, Fu Nanzhi tried her best not to put any pressure on her injured parts.
Just then, the doorbell rang, followed by Shen Yi's voice coming through the main gate outside.
"Fu Nanzhi! Fu Nanzhi!! Open the door!"
Fu Nanzhi froze upon hearing this. Having been so focused on moving, she had completely forgotten that Shen Yi was coming.
She hurriedly called out, "Wait... wait, I can't come to the door right now."
But her voice wasn't nearly as loud as Shen Yi's, and being so far away, she wasn't sure if he had heard her.
Fu Nanzhi had only turned halfway when she heard Shen Yi banging on the door outside.
With no time to wonder how Shen Yi had gotten into the community, Fu Nanzhi looked down at her swimsuit in panic. It wasn't much better than underwear, and the exposure was already beyond her comfort zone.
In her anxiety, she ignored the pain and forcefully twisted her body to try to get up.
But her ankle couldn't bear any weight. She only managed a scream before falling backward into the pool.
"Ah!"
The endless pool water rushed into her nose and mouth, choking Fu Nanzhi until her mind went blank.
Fortunately, her instincts remained, and she unconsciously kicked her legs in the water, but the pain didn't disappear just because she was underwater.
The intense pain made her swallow a mouthful of water, and this choking made her limbs go weak, unable to exert any strength. Gradually, her struggles became weaker.
In the last moment before losing consciousness, what crossed Fu Nanzhi's mind wasn't survival, but rather the thought that she hoped Shen Yi wouldn't see her in such a sorry state.
...
The security guard who had received Shen Yi stared at the shattered access card reader on the ground, finding the situation utterly absurd.
'If you had an emergency, you could have just said so. This isn't a border checkpoint or a DUI stop, what's the point of forcing your way in? Are we filming a movie?'
In this high-end residential area, there had been people who tried to force their way in before, but none as blatant as this one today.
Before he could think further, the intercom buzzed, and the security team quickly sprang into action upon receiving the message.
Setting aside the situation at the entrance, Shen Yi, consumed with anxiety, rushed straight in, counting house numbers as he sprinted along.
After three consecutive turns, house number 114 was right before his eyes.
Shen Yi barely had time to turn off the engine, hastily parked, unbuckled his seatbelt, and rushed to the door, alternating between pounding on it and ringing the doorbell.
"Fu Nanzhi! Fu Nanzhi!! Open the door!"
After shouting and hearing no response from inside, Shen Yi immediately wanted to break down the door.
But seeing how thick the security door was, Shen Yi didn't even hesitate before abandoning that idea and turning his attention to the courtyard wall.
Fortunately, Peaceful Lake Residence was designed with privacy in mind, and the courtyard walls weren't particularly high.
Shen Yi took a few steps back, got a running start, and vaulted over.
Thanks to the system's recent reward of 1 point in strength, the boost was quite noticeable, and he made it into the small garden almost effortlessly.
Going around the garden to the front hall, Shen Yi called out Fu Nanzhi's name while rushing inside.
The small villa didn't look big but felt like a maze, and Shen Yi could only follow the lights inside.
Shen Yi reached the living room and saw the TV was on, but the couch opposite was empty.
"Fu Nanzhi! Fu Nanzhi!"
He turned and ran upstairs to the master bedroom, continuing to call out while heading toward the bathroom.
After knocking on the door with no response, Shen Yi mentally prepared himself before pushing it open, worried about what he might find.
The good news was that it was empty; the bad news was also that it was empty.
Without wasting time, Shen Yi saw no one and rushed back downstairs - besides the bathtub, the only place with water would be the swimming pool.
Leaving the living room and entering the backyard, as soon as he went in, he saw a figure floating in the pool.
In the square swimming pool, long hair spread out in the water like a black whirlpool, creating an indescribable fear as it combined with the dark night.
Seeing this, Shen Yi took one powerful stride and jumped into the pool, embracing the figure in the water and pushing her toward the edge.
Since she was already close to the pool's edge, it didn't take much effort for Shen Yi to drag her ashore.
The bare body lay in Shen Yi's arms, and whether it was from being in the water or the moonlight's reflection, it cast a deathly pale glow on the ground.
Holding her cold, delicate hand that gave no warmth, Shen Yi felt as if a piece of his heart had been hollowed out. At this moment, looking at Fu Nanzhi's tightly closed eyes in his arms, he really couldn't treat this as just a game, just a false simulation.
Laying Fu Nanzhi flat on the floor, Shen Yi recalled the basic first aid he had learned during college military training, and with trembling hands, began performing chest compressions.
He remembered it should be 30 compressions, but couldn't recall if it was two or three rescue breaths.
Shen Yi counted in his head as he pressed, deciding to go with the higher number since he couldn't remember exactly.
Her lips felt like ice, with only her chest retaining a slight warmth. Shen Yi pushed aside any extraneous emotions and mechanically alternated between compressions and breaths.
Perhaps because she hadn't been underwater for long, or maybe because Shen Yi's amateur first aid was working.
"Cough... cough..."
A stream of water came out along with Fu Nanzhi's coughs.
...
Swimming could be counted as one of the few hobbies in Fu Nanzhi's life.
Sometimes she would think that if she had to die, dying in water probably wouldn't be too uncomfortable.
It would be just like falling asleep.
Reality proved otherwise, as Fu Nanzhi painfully coughed up a mouthful of clear water, slowly regaining consciousness.
Opening her eyes in a daze, Fu Nanzhi saw someone kneeling on the ground facing her, hands interlocked, continuously pressing down.
"What is he doing?"
Fu Nanzhi stared blankly at that person, her consciousness seemed waterlogged, unable to focus, as if she were dreaming.
Before Fu Nanzhi could think further, she saw that person suddenly lean down and move his face closer to hers.
Almost instantly, Fu Nanzhi's pupils focused, and she unconsciously raised her weak, sore arm to block him.
The force was barely stronger than a caress.
"This... this is forced molestation... I'm... I'm a lawyer..."
Her voice was weak and barely audible. If Shen Yi hadn't been preparing to alternate with rescue breaths, he might not have noticed she was awake.
Hearing her voice, Shen Yi's worried heart finally settled.
But what followed was more confusion and anger. Here he was taking care of her, yet her current attitude was truly disappointing.
Hearing her words, Shen Yi contained his anger and said coldly:
"Counselor Fu seems to be in good spirits. I wasn't aware you had a hobby of diving in your home pool."
At the sound of this familiar voice, Fu Nanzhi immediately came to full consciousness.
"Shen Yi!"
'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.
e bizarre and supernatural had descended. The previous emperor was a thoroughgoing tyrant; no longer satisfied with human women, he had set his sights on a stunningly beautiful supernatural entity. He met his end in his bedchamber, drained of all his vital essence. As the legitimate eldest son and crown prince, Wang Hao was thus hastily enthroned, becoming the young emperor of the Great Zhou Dynasty. No sooner had he awakened the "Imperial Sign-In Intelligence System" than he was assassinated by a Son of Destiny—a classic villain's opening. The Great Zhou, ravaged by the former emperor's excesses, was in national decline. The great families within its borders harbored their own treacherous schemes, martial sects began to defy the imperial court's decrees, and border armies, their pay and provisions in arrears, grumbled incessantly against the central government. Fortunately, the central capital was still held secure by the half-million Imperial Guards and fifty thousand Imperial Forest Army who obeyed the court's orders, along with the royal family's hidden reserves of power, barely managing to suppress the realm. As the Great Zhou's finances worsened and supernatural activities grew ever more frequent, the court sat atop a volcano. Ambitious plotters everywhere dreamed of overthrowing the dynasty, and even some reclusive ancient powers emerged, attempting to sway the tides of the world. At the first grand court assembly, the civil and military officials nearly came to blows, fighting tooth and nail over the allocation of fifty million taels of silver from the summer tax revenues. The spectacle opened Wang Hao's eyes—the Great Zhou's bureaucracy was not only corrupt but also martially proficient, a cabinet of all-rounders. Some officials even had the audacity to suggest the emperor release funds from the imperial privy purse to address the emergency. Wang Hao suddenly felt weary. Let it all burn.
ive and Ruthless] Before his transmigration, Ye Xuan was playing a game called "Severing Emotions to Attain the Dao." The game's core wasn't about leveling up by fighting monsters, but about conquering various "bad women" with wicked personalities and cold, fickle natures. There was only one method to conquer them: stay unwaveringly by their side, then die at a critical moment, driving them to madness after losing the protagonist. The higher their level of regret, the higher the player's score. To dominate the server, Ye Xuan conquered all the bad women. In the early stages, he showered them with boundless tenderness, only to choose to sacrifice himself for them later, making them weep bitterly and drown in regret. Among them were: Xia Lengyue, the unfaithful immortal wife who chased after powerful men and discarded her husband like trash. Ye Qingcheng, the Demonic Venerable of the Joyous Union Sect, who appeared pure and innocent but was, in reality, promiscuous. Wu Lingxiao, the Empress of the Great Xia Dynasty, who lusted after men and loved maintaining a harem. Bai Qiangu of the Endless Demonic Sect: a bloodthirsty mass murderer. However, when the protagonist transmigrated into the game world, he made a horrifying discovery. Eight hundred years had already passed. The bad women he had conquered had now each become deities and revered ancestors. Faced with the endless stream of toxic women coming for him, Ye Xuan could only rely on his god-tier acting skills to carve a path of survival through this world of treacherous women.
grated, and just when he finally managed to get into an elite academy, he discovered that he actually had a system, and the way to earn rewards was extremely ridiculous. So for the sake of rewards, he had no choice but to start acting ridiculous as well. Su Cheng: "It's nothing but system quests after all." But later, what confused Su Cheng was that while he was already quite ridiculous, he never expected those serious characters to gradually become ridiculous too. And the way they looked at him became increasingly strange... (This synopsis doesn't do it justice, please read the full story)
