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Chapter 1: The Debt and the Sale (Part 1) Emma Craven discovered that her life was over at exactly 2:37 p.m. on a rainy Tuesday, while trying to untie an impossible knot in her shoelace. The kitchen p...

The last golden light of sunset fell across his young, resolute face, across that shimmering bouquet of a thousand paper cranes, across the crabapple tree strung with loving reminders. The breeze pass...

The first day of the fifth month, outside the Hanlin Academy of Great Qi. The new second-place scholar Xie Wei reported for his first day of morning roll call. He had risen at cockcrow, dressed with m...

Watching Qingchen sleep, Ling Wu knelt beside the couch, chin propped on one hand, a wistful look on her face. Who knew when her master would wake. Those brawny male immortals clearly had no notion of...

In the days after the funeral, Chen Jingming, against my protests, insisted on sneaking out of the hospital. His fever had broken, but his face was still pale, the skin around the needle mark on the b...

A chill shot up Chi Xingran's spine, but the moment his eyes landed on that handsome face inches away, he froze all over again. The heavy bruise-dark circles under Zong Wen's eyes had faded by more th...

Ling Yu thought: something about this was odd. The old man had no idea why Pei Jin was here—he had said someone told him... Who? She looked up at Chen Mo. Chen Mo's face did not exactly broadcast inte...

Yan Yu's pale eyes flew wide open in shock. He couldn't understand why Gu Huaizhi would say that. Before he could ask, the man closed in and closed a hand around his throat. “I don't need your explana...

After hanging up, Xiao Wang sent over all the files at once. On the personal file, Zhou Xun lingered longer than once: Li Tan had served three years in prison, and not for anything dignified—petty the...

Ling Yu took Chen Mo to a small coffee shop nearby to wait while Pei Jin dealt with his business, choosing a seat by the window, glancing out from time to time. Chen Mo kept his eyes on his phone inst...

The man at the door stood against the light, tall and broad-shouldered, in an indigo-dyed rough-cloth working outfit, a short knife at his waist, his boot tops caked with yellow loess - he had plainly...

By the time Yin Xigui reached the Municipal Bureau, the sky had gone dark. The car hadn't fully stopped before he pushed the door open and got out; Zhou Ling moved to follow and was stopped with a rai...

A week passed in the blink of an eye, and nothing happened. Things were so peaceful that even Shen Li's separation anxiety was improving. The ship cruised along smoothly, and through the viewport a bl...

The reconciliation that night lasted until dawn. Yin Xigui fell asleep in Sheng Linyou's arms, traces of not-yet-dried tears still on his lashes, his breathing gradually evening out. Sheng Linyou kept...

Gu Qingbai's furious questioning left her with nothing to answer back. "I've told you — your big brother is not a good person. Staying with him will ruin you!" "That's not how I see it." What Gu Qingb...

Back at the apartment building, Su Die had finished the romance novel she'd been writing for the past while. Now, its final chapters complete, she was deep in planning her new work: Silentium. In that...

"Young man, do you have a girlfriend?" "No. Are you offering, Auntie?" "My niece is quite a catch—a teacher at the county's No. 1 high school, very pretty. Shall we exchange WeChat and have a chat?" "...

Qingchen's words were like a thunderclap, setting Ling Wu's ears ringing. Over and over, one line repeated in her head. —"When you ascend, I will take you as my bonded companion." Her jaw hung open, h...

Chapter 30: A Heart of Stone The next day, Tang Yu had barely reached school when a text message came in. "Did you sleep well last night? Was the hot chocolate to your taste?" He didn't need to guess ...

Chapter 29: Fondness He Zhuokun had touched him three times tonight—chin, neck, collarbone. Lin Juefei would not wash them off. He would never wash them off, not in this lifetime. Slowly, he braced hi...

Meanwhile, Luna and Mike had returned to Dihuan Residences, where Trimble stood waiting at the main gate. The moment she got out of the car, Luna hurried over. Trimble rapid-fire gave them the whole s...

By the time Luna arrived at the hospital, Victor was still inside the emergency room, fighting for his life. She stepped out of the elevator and ran to the doors of the emergency room—only two people ...

The café was called Grão Verso. Fábio discovered it on his second day as an intern, when he got off the subway ten minutes early and decided to walk around the block instead of heading straight to the...

Sunday, 11:40 p.m. Shen Miaomiao stood before her full-length mirror, having rumpled her outfit past counting with all the adjusting. In the past two hours her room had looked like the aftermath of a ...

The anonymous message sat in the middle of my screen like a medical examiner's scalpel, peeling the Fu family's festered sore skin and bone into the open in front of me. Around eleven, I changed into ...

Back at his high-rise apartment, Lu Chen stripped off the suit he'd worn all day at the signing event and changed into loose loungewear. He stood before the floor-to-ceiling window, a freshly brewed u...

In the end, that round of "purification" ended with Jiang Chen fleeing in disarray. Xi Yan lounged back against the sofa, legs crossed, while Bubble bounced up and down before him. [95627, good perfor...

Out of the wall directly in front of Cheng Du stepped an unseen figure, face equally grave—though the hand gripping the report was trembling. "Elder Cheng, this is no trick of the light. Those three p...

Chapter 28: Acting on His Own The moment his teeth closed on Tang Yu’s arm, the pain in Ji Qian’ang’s body truly did ease—and he no longer had to guess whether the concern was real or feigned. Just as...

"A kiss? And here I thought you had grander ambitions... That first time we met, you were threatening all sorts of..." "I said a kiss, so a kiss. Nothing more." Gong Si said it word by word, watching ...

Remembering Gu Huaizhi's words from last night, the smile faded bit by bit from Yan Yu's mouth. One voice message ended and the next auto-played, Zhou Peng's booming voice conspicuous in the quiet war...

The maid finished the palace tour and took her leave, leaving the fairies to their own devices. The fairies huddled up again—some to chat, some to wander off. Ling Wu was firmly in the second camp. Sh...

Two days later, the man called "Father" finally hurried back, travel-worn. When he pushed open the familiar, creaking door, I didn't recognize him at first. The father in my memory was tall and quiet,...

Gu Huaizhi looked down. The contact's saved name was unmistakably a man's, and the message asked what Yan Yu had been up to last night. Judging by the draft being typed out below, the little guy was b...

Triumph Day was one of the Federation's great holidays. The war between humanity and the swarm had dragged on for generations. Early on, humanity held the losing side—more defeats than victories—and t...

When it came to Gu Zai'an and Gu Qingbai, Qin Shaofen was two entirely different people. With Gu Qingbai she was gentle and attentive, patting his head and comforting him: "Qingbai, keep your distance...

The alarm went off at 6:12 a.m. Not 6:15, as Fábio had intended, because he’d set it incorrectly the night before—too nervous to get anything right, including his own fingers. He sat up in bed and sta...

Chapter 4: The Debt and the Sale (Part 4) Emma adjusted her posture, squared her shoulders, and took her first real step down the ground-floor corridor. The black-and-white marble beneath her sneakers...

Since Yunshu had only meant to help the scholar, and no real harm had come of it, Ling Wu was prepared to let her go. But Yunshu refused to leave. She wanted to tag along to the Li residence and see t...