Su Ling did not practice the piano today.
For the first time since she first met the black cat, she did not spend the entire day honing her piano skills.
Until Lu Qing returned home, she remained in the same posture—
hugging the "black cat," curled up in the corner of the bed, her legs wrapped in a blanket, her face solemn and her expression dazed.
She murmured:
"What should I do…"
"What should we do…"
【Black cat, help me.】
…
…
By now, she had come to understand why her brother was so obsessed with the piano.
In such difficult times, even if she did nothing but hold her beloved piano, she could faintly hear a response from its intermittent sounds—
It was the voice of the "soul."
A voice from beyond dimensions, spreading to her eardrums, whether from the outside in or the inside out—it was "her" voice.
Su Ling couldn’t clearly articulate what she heard.
But she could distinctly feel a certain "power" transforming into a "warmth" flowing through her heart and coursing through her limbs.
This was—
the power of the "black cat."
"She’s telling me that we’ll win."
"She’s conveying to me that even someone like Lin Mu, who seems insurmountably distant from me, isn’t entirely out of reach."
Although.
Deep down, she knew.
Her greatest reliance was the combination of "divine instruments" and "twisted effort."
The former eliminated 99% of music enthusiasts, while the latter directly eliminated 99.9% of the remaining.
But for Lin Mu, these two points seemed… completely irrelevant.
When,
ordinary people hear the concept of "practicing the piano for 8 hours," they instinctively think, "How is that even possible? Wouldn’t that be exhausting? Don’t they have other things to do?" Meanwhile, Lin Mu had already been playing for half a day.
This was the gap.
【Complaining is also a form of waste.】
【If you’re not absolutely prepared, don’t attempt to challenge the professionals. Just treat it as a hobby for your own enjoyment.】
Su Ling had thought that practicing 8 hours a day was something few could match, that she could master the rhythm guitar part of "Only for Your Sunny Day" in the shortest time possible, add small solos, and practice relentlessly to achieve the effect she desired.
This rapid progress was something ordinary people could hardly hope to achieve.
But after watching Lin Mu’s performance videos, a sense of "helplessness" surged like a tidal wave, engulfing her, leaving no escape.
Indeed—
【Lin Mu’s talent in music defies logic.】
【She has Groove (rhythmic flow) when she plays.】
【Her posture while playing is as graceful as a spirit, as beautiful as a painting.】
—It was a kind of "natural" beauty, where the person and the melody became one, seamless, with all the notes flowing effortlessly, shining like "celestial stars."
She made no mistakes, showed no nervousness, no timidity, no hesitation.
Her musical talent was no less than her brother’s, perhaps even surpassing it.
So why, then, did she practice through the night, buy equipment by the truckload, and record hundreds of videos, capturing "perfect fragments" to send to her brother?
"Ah…"
"Black cat… save me…"
"I feel so terrible."
Su Ling felt defeated.
For the first time, she felt defeated.
And she finally understood what it meant when they said, 【Some people struggle their entire lives just to reach Rome, while others are born standing in the square of Rome, already clicking 'Next Destination.'】
…
How could she possibly compete?
Lin Mu had "holy instruments," and not just one.
She had "time," improving with every all-nighter.
She had "patience," steady as a whale in the deep sea.
She also had "talent," even if she didn’t think so herself.
And she had "depth," the carefully woven emotional bond with her brother, which had been mended after tears.
Now, the only thing she lacked was "meeting" her brother.
No.
Rather, her brother had already met her once.
Even she herself had met her once.
"So, it’s her."
Following the subtle hints in her brother’s words, she found the logo on the background of the video,
seeing the words "Twilight Coffee" right before her eyes, and finally understood why her brother had rescheduled their originally planned "date time."
"…"
It was for Lin Mu, after all.
To see Lin Mu.
Not to accompany her.
Well, he did accompany her.
"But only incidentally."
"The main focus was still to visit her, wasn’t it?"
Su Ling felt a heavy weight in her heart, sensing that her already improving condition was now stirring, threatening to relapse and erupt under this triple blow.
【It hurts.】
【It’s unbearable.】
【Brother…】
The girl hugged the black cat tightly.
Her fingertips accidentally brushed against the first string on the fretboard.
A faint E note sounded.
"Ah… at least I have you."
She gently stroked "her" fur.
Silently feeling "her" comfort.
She further understood her brother’s twisted affection for "them."
Yes.
When there was no one to accompany her.
When her emotions were this low,
who could she turn to for solace?
Who could dissolve this pain?
Living alone must have been so helpless.
Her brother had once lived here, carrying his scars, bearing the pain of abandonment, carrying a heart that felt as if it had been pierced by a blade, empty and hollow, licking his wounds under this roof, with no one to listen.
【Only "they" were there to listen, right?】
In his moments of sorrow, he would confide in "her" and "her," finding some solace for a heart that could never fully heal.
Perhaps, "they" gave him the strength to move forward,
but this strength, compared to the storm ahead, still felt despairing and disorienting.
So, he didn’t want to hurt "them," temporarily storing "them" away as a form of protection and forgetting.
—Was that it?
Su Ling couldn’t be sure.
But today, she knew that on the road ahead, there was a deity-like presence, waiting for her with an expressionless face.
This Saturday, the day after tomorrow, she would have to face her, face that disdainful tone, alongside her brother.
"…"
Helpless.
No way to begin.
Bai Xing was the fastest-growing type, resilient and relentless, thriving on setbacks.
Tang Hua was the heaven-blessed type, effortlessly captivating others without even trying.
Lin Mu was the abyssal type, starting at the ceiling and steadily climbing higher, her calm and steady progress leaving everyone else on the same track with only one feeling—
【Despair.】
"At this rate, surpassing her in music is impossible."
"If I practice 8 hours, she practices at least 9. Because just going through her 'daily practice routine' already takes her four or five hours. That’s just maintaining her level… So, afterward, she’ll invest even more time into composing, arranging, recording, mixing, and practicing other instruments…"
Those videos had fully documented her daily life, some even being Vlogs, sharing every detail of her all-nighters with Lu Qing.
—【An ordinary 9-10h practice session.】
"No. I can’t."
Su Ling took a deep breath, trying to calm herself.
"I can’t lose."
"I mustn’t lose."
"I can’t let her intimidating aura scare me before we even face off."
"She has weaknesses. She must have weaknesses."
From childhood until now, even at her most severe moments, Su Ling had never felt such suffocating dread.
The financial anxiety of not having enough money,
the survival anxiety of her mother leaving,
the mental and physical anxiety of her worsening condition—none of these combined had ever struck her as hard as this triple blow.
The carefully woven web of her heart was cracking under repeated heavy blows.
【But would this defeat Su Ling?】
"Don’t underestimate me."
Without warning, the moment she heard footsteps outside and the sound of a key turning in the lock,
a surge of newfound energy filled her hollow body, healing her as if she had been "reborn"—
Su Ling threw off the blanket, tossed it aside, grabbed the black cat, slung the guitar strap over her shoulder,
and with the determination of someone swimming against a hurricane,
she sat back down on her brother’s swivel chair, turned on the amplifier, and took a deep breath.
Firmly, she declared:
"No one can interfere with me."
"I will drag all of you down into the abyss."
……
……
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.
villain is the number one simp for the book's leading female protagonist, Shen Wan'er. As expected, he later becomes a tool for the main character to show off and slap faces, ultimately meeting a tragic end with his family ruined and his life in shambles. Fortunately, he awakens the [Universal Pure Love System], which allows him to earn points by performing acts of pure love. To change his fate, Gu Yan makes a decisive choice to seek warmth and companionship with the book's biggest villain—Cold Qingqiu. ........... My name is Leng Qingqiu. To find the murderer who killed my parents years ago, I deliberately blinded myself so that everyone would lower their guard around me. Just as I was secretly accumulating power and capital according to my initial plan, a man walked into my world. "Lengleng, Qingqing, Qiuqiu, which nickname do you prefer?" I don't like any of them. You'd better leave quickly! "Why aren't you saying anything? How about I call you my baby wife?" Leng Qingqiu thinks to herself, this man is truly annoying! (Stubborn pure love warrior + single female lead + true pure love + 1v1)
s the Eldest Princess, renowned for her cold and aloof detachment, became the most docile of lambs, obeying his every command without question. But when the final move was played on the chessboard, as Gu Chenghan seized everything and ascended on the verge of apotheosis, that very Princess suddenly embraced him from behind, her tone carrying a dependence never heard before: "Wait... you haven't yet... commanded me to love you forever." Gu Chenghan froze abruptly. She... hadn't been hypnotized?! ... [The Eldest Princess's Diary] [When my soul was extracted, becoming the sole spectator outside my own shell] [At first, there was overwhelming fury, until I saw] [How he used my sword to effortlessly shatter my inescapable doom] [How he wielded my authority to eradicate fatal conspiracies I had never even detected] [Like a deity, he rescued me from the deep mire I was trapped in] [If not for those annoying vixens, he and I would be a match made in heaven] [I think I am ill, gravely ill] [My deity should belong to me alone] ... "Hypnosis? Oh, it succeeded, my dear Master." "Only this time, it's my turn to hypnotize you."
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.
