Dual Cultivation - Chapter 980: Why He Failed to Become a Scholar

Title: Trillionaire Student: The Art of Corporate WarfareGenre: Cyberpunk Corporate Drama / Tech RomanceSetting: Near-future Shanghai (2045) where blockchain dynasties and AI oligarchs dominate global finance.Protagonist:· Ye Chen: A 22-year-old financial prodigy with military-grade neural implants. Orphaned and self-made, he accidentally inherits trillion-yuan assets tied to a cryogenically preserved heiress.· Su Ning: A “frozen elite” heiress resurrected from cryostasis. Her trauma-encrypted mind holds the keys to her family's blockchain empire.Core Plot:When Ye decrypts suicidal patterns in Su's neural data, their forced partnership to upgrade her emotional firewall exposes:1. Corporate Espionage: Rival tech giants weaponize celebrity scandals as NFT commodities.2. Family Conspiracy: Su's mother audits her memories like hostile mergers.3. Hidden Protocol: A blockchain ledger tracking physical intimacy as corporate liability.Key Westernized Elements:· Boardroom duels in holographic Hunger Games-style shareholder arenas· Romance through shared neural hacking of trauma encryption· Memetic warfare where viral tweets manipulate stock marketsThemes:· Capitalism 2.0 (emotions as crypto assets, SEC-regulated marriage contracts)· Cybernetic identity (childhood trauma rebuilt as AI firewalls)· East-West fusion (Tang poetry as quantum encryption keys)Cultural Bridges:· “Black Swan Fund” → “Quantum Contingency Fund”· Neural interface battles styled as The Matrix meets Game of Thrones· Food metaphors: Xiaolongbao dumplings as encrypted data carriers

*Slow Burn Historical Fantasy Novel*

Elise had about to change into the dress that was lying on the corner of her bed when she heard a knock lightly calling from her door. Curious, she turned the door knob only to have a tall man towering in front of her.

“Master Ian!” She called.

Ian smiled with the usual mischievous smirk that he always used. His crimson eyes trailing a little over her room and spotted the black dress over her bed and shifted his eyes over to the woman in front of him. He stepped forward and spoke. “Where did you acquire that dress?”

“Mr. Harland gave it to me.” Elise replied and strained her neck to see Ian’s brows knitted in its elegance.

“Do you know why a man would love to give a woman a dress?” He gave the riddle that she always had to think twice before replying. But this time, she found no answer and instead shook her head. “I don’t know.”

His grin grew bewitching as though something had stirred deep inside the scarlet eyes that he had. He slowly slid his hand over the collar of her dress, sending a cold shiver that startled her for a moment due to its freezing temperature. After unbuttoning the first two buttons on her collar, he tilted his head down, whispering to her ears. “Because they want to be the one to undress the cloth.”

He paused and kissed her neck, turning the pale skin to red before retracting his move to fix his eyes on her and leisurely replied. “Unfortunately, you can’t wear the dress over there with this.” He chuckled and passed a box over to her hand. “And the fortunate news is I prepared a dress for you.”

Elise was a cursed little girl who could see ghosts. Her family hated her and threw her from one adoptive family to another. However, misfortune didn't act alone. When she was brought up by her aunt, she was sold as a slave. When she had thought she would become nothing but a sacrifice to the sorcerer, she was saved by a man whose identity was far different than a normal mythical being.

Sophia was adopted when she was a kid, a dream come true for orphans. However Her life was anything but happy, her fiance whom she harbored intense love for 10 years cruelly exploited her and used her as a prawn to lure a deranged murderer targeting his lover.It is a horrible thing for your loved one to betray you, especially in a tragic manner. It seemed she was spurred by the complete despair over having nothing and no one to live for. Therefore, she surrendered without a fight. However, after her death.One would not expect a woman like Sophia, someone small as a caterpillar or even a dung beetle to be reborn, But here she is—perhaps she might have saved a kingdom in another life, or maybe God pitied her. She finds herself reincarnated as a timid and obedient wife of a billionaire.Sophia decides she wants revenge that could ruin her fiance and lover's life.And the only way to do that was to get pregnant with her billionaire husband's child!Dexter Black was the illegitimate son of a wealthy family, their marriage was nothing but a benefit for the two families. He could choose anyone to be his bride but the moment he laid his eyes on her,he knew she was the one he wanted. Dexter knows that there is something mysterious going on around her. She got a mystifying background. But he doesn't care about who she was in the past and why they keep attacking her. All he can think of is loving her, cherishing her, locking her up so that she will never return to her past. Because he knows that he won't be able to live a moment away from her.Would their marriage be a romantic tale or utter disaster?~ Except~“Wait, let me get this straight,” she says, her voice rising.“You want me to get pregnant?”Alexander's face remains impassive. “They, yeah.”Sophia stares at him, searching for signs of a head injury or a hidden camera crew. Finding neither, she decides this must be his twisted form of play.“You're going crazy,” she announces, grabbing her things. “I'm leaving.”She's halfway to the door when his words stop her cold.“It's either you get pregnant, or they won't allow you to leave until you are,” Alexander says calmly.She pauses to process his words.

My grandfather is very eccentric, performing daily rituals of offering incense to himself, standing in front of his own spirit tablet and eating candles.Villagers are fearful of my grandfather.I am fearful of him too.Later, I discovered that what they were afraid of was not my grandfather, but me.Even grandfather is afraid of me....My name is Chen Shi.The Chen of honesty, the Shi of sincerity.