Unit 1901, Building C, Tianhe Platinum Apartments.
Su Ling sat at Lu Qing's computer desk, her eyes fixed on the 32-inch curved monitor displaying various images.
The images were stored in the "Reference Materials" folder on Drive D.
They were all female character illustrations or artwork, categorized with a level of precision that was almost bewildering.
Opening the "Maid" subfolder revealed 3,672 related images, a video folder, and another folder labeled "Inspiration." Digging deeper, one could even find Lu Qing's handwritten reviews of each video and the source references for every image.
In comparison, other categories like "Lolita," "Stockings," "JK," "Tsundere," and "Mature Women" had less extensive collections, with both illustrations and videos containing roughly half the content of the prominently featured maid section.
This observation made the young girl instinctively turn her head toward the tightly closed wardrobe.
If she remembered correctly, inside hung an exquisite black and white uniform dress that her brother had claimed was "gifted by readers."
Though she had only glimpsed it briefly, her keen sense for women's clothing quality and pricing told her that this dress couldn't have cost less than 3,000 yuan, and was certainly an authentic Japanese or British boutique design.
"So this is what brother likes."
She released the mouse, hugged her straight legs to the chair, rested her chin on her knees, and curled up in the seat, deep in thought.
Lu Qing's previous monetary transfer had been shocking, and although she had accepted it, she had no idea how to use such a sum.
It was clear that he genuinely wanted to take care of her and had already taken action to do so.
"Ah..."
The young girl sighed softly, feeling somewhat at a loss.
In today's volatile social climate, even before graduation, she understood well that earning such money was nearly impossible for a college student.
At school, her teachers had explained that many industries were already monopolized by capital, and for ordinary people to escape the fate of being mere workers, they needed to find ways to break through existing class barriers, using every available means to climb upward until they could liberate their time.
Though complex, the concept wasn't hard to grasp.
—Without reaching the middle class, one would forever remain at the bottom.
And the prospect of reaching above middle class was virtually impossible for a single person without the efforts of three or even multiple generations.
"It's already not easy for brother to establish himself in this city, and now he's taking on responsibility for my life too..."
The young girl muttered, frowning in deep thought, "What can I possibly do for him in return?"
She leaned back in the chair, slowly rotating it.
Like a cat perched on a robot vacuum cleaner, she spun round and round in the chair.
Aimlessly observing the space where her brother lived, she noticed that the entire room's layout was very minimalist, following a path of minimal possessions.
Since it was a rented apartment, Lu Qing only had the bare necessities besides essential living items, and the furniture was purely functional, showing no pursuit of high living standards.
The most expensive thing in the room was undoubtedly the computer setup on the desk.
An I9 processor, 1TB SSD, 4x16GB RAM, full water-cooling system, an external sound card replacing the motherboard's audio, clearly thousand-dollar monitoring headphones paired with even more expensive stereo speakers, and the obviously RGB-lit 40-series graphics card in the case...
Though Su Ling didn't understand these things, she could tell that the computer was her brother's only companion at home.
His connection to the world was limited to school and this apartment.
His life followed a simple routine, often sitting in this spot late into the night, typing away until his eyes could barely stay open.
"Brother's almost a junior in college, but he still hasn't found a girlfriend. Is it because he's too busy juggling studies and work?"
The young girl mused to herself, trying to analyze Lu Qing's lifestyle.
Suddenly, a series of notification sounds came from the bottom right of the computer screen.
Looking closer, she saw it was the QQ messenger app bouncing, apparently someone had sent her brother messages.
Since the software was set to start with Windows, it had automatically logged in when she turned on the computer, requiring no username or password.
Su Ling hadn't intended to pry into Lu Qing's chat history, but the avatar in the corner kept bouncing incessantly, with its endless pinging becoming increasingly annoying.
By her estimate, the sender had continuously sent thirty or forty messages...
"Who could be so chatty? Who messages like this? Don't they know how disturbing it is?"
The young girl frowned, finally unable to resist. She grabbed the mouse and clicked open the chat with this ill-mannered person.
The sender's avatar was an anime grey-haired beauty, with the ID "I'll Always Love Hana-chan," saved in her brother's contacts as "Collaborating Artist: Lubia," profile showing male, age 38.
"...Ugh."
At first glance, she finally understood why the chat window wouldn't stop pinging.
The person had sent Lu Qing about 50 high-resolution images, all of them suggestive content, with more than half being maid-related anime pictures.
[Boss, boss, did you see?! These are the latest maid character design collections I've gathered from across the web for you! All hand-picked premium collections! Haha, I specially scraped these from Twitter for you! How's that, pretty thoughtful of me, right??]
"..."
Su Ling didn't reply, but curiosity led her to open the compressed file they had sent.
Good grief, what she found inside was incredible. It contained hundreds of images and over a dozen videos, all properly categorized.
The videos included anime clips, movie scenes, Japanese drama excerpts, and edited content, all maid-uniform related, quite captivating.
Notably, more than half of these illustrations featured a single anime girl character, identical to this creepy artist's avatar—
Grey straight hair, sweater covering the chest, exposed midriff shorts, black thigh-high stockings.
It was simply the same character design posed differently, depicted from various angles and in different settings.
"Tch."
The young girl clicked her tongue, now understanding that her brother's collaborating artist was a creepy middle-aged man who liked to steal images.
This person knew her brother's preferences well and would regularly share suggestive images to fill his reference library.
It made sense—such an extensive collection would be difficult to amass alone. The sheer volume was too vast for one person's limited energy. Now seeing someone constantly feeding in "materials," the young girl became even more certain of one thing—
"It seems brother's love for maid uniforms has reached an incurable stage. When he said it was bought with reader donations before, thinking about it now, that probably wasn't true.
He must have bought it himself."
Su Ling pursed her lips, closed the chat window, and returned to her seat to analyze the situation calmly.
After about half a moment, suddenly, inspiration struck, and she stood up facing the wardrobe.
"That's it. Since brother loves maids so much, he probably wouldn't mind if I secretly tried on that dress, right?"
...
...
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.
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."
rowess are unmatched, commanding a million-strong army! Yet, the Emperor wants to depose him for the sake of a false prince? Hold on, are you throwing me into some female-oriented romance plot? How can I tolerate this? With a grand wave of his hand—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! Slander the Emperor? Very well, all of you shall die! ... The False Prince: "Although I am not the biological son, Father and Mother love me more. The throne should be mine!" The Female Lead: "Qin Xiao, you are the Emperor, and I am a commoner. If you wish to marry me, you must abdicate. Otherwise, you will never have me!" The Empress: "After we divorce, you must give me half the empire!" The Transmigrator Consort: "You worthless Emperor, why should I kneel to you? All men are equal—I advise you to be kind!" The Great General: "The enemy general is my childhood sweetheart. For her sake, I willingly abandon the frontier defenses!" The Retired Emperor: "Although Yu'er was adopted, I prefer him. Qin Xiao, you should abdicate and let him become Emperor!" ... Very well! So this is how you want to play? Facing this twisted world of female-oriented tropes, Qin Xiao grins and raises his hand to unleash—the Nine Clan Extraction Technique! I am the Emperor. Why would I bother reasoning with you? Seal the gates! Leave none alive!
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.
