Echoterra: Rise of the Verdant King - Chapter 169: The system’s cruelty

“It’s true… So why does no one believe me?”Sometimes, I play small pranks, but they’re really just small ones.I’m not the mastermind at all.

She sold her body to save her mother’s life.She never expected the man she gave it to… would be her new boss. Or the father of her child.Isabella Howells had her future mapped out—until everything shattered in one day. Her mother was dying, her fiancé had stolen everything, and with nowhere left to turn, Isabella made a desperate decision that would haunt her forever.Five years later, she’s a single mother craving a fresh start in a quiet town. When she lands a dream job as executive assistant at StoneTech Solutions, it feels like fate is finally on her side—until she walks into her new boss’s office and comes face to face with Jake Stones, the man she thought she’d never see again.The one-night stand. The man who swore he couldn't have children but was somehow the father of her son, Timothy.Would she be able to do her job without thinking about the past? What happens when Jake Stones is bent on making Isabella his, unaware of his secret baby with her? Will she accept him?What happens when Jake's brother's schemes puts Timothy's life in danger and Isabella is forced to reveal the truth about Timothy's paternity?Will Jake accept this truth? Or will it break him and everything he'd ever come to know about Isabella Howells?Let's find out in this story of love, lies, betrayal, and a second chance that could cost everything.

I, Ichinosuke, failed to get a job for 100 consecutive times. Furthermore, my record is still being updated as unemployed.

Lu Qingyan was once the perfect daughter—an obedient, soft-spoken high school girl known for her academic excellence and fragile health. But the one person she loved the most was her older brother—hentle, dazzling, and far too burdened for his age, he was her everything.. No one noticed his silent suffering… until it was too late. The day he took his own life, she shattered.Months later, while saving a child from an oncoming car, Lu Qingyan dies and awakens inside a familiar story: the school novel “A Thorn in the Crown”, one she read during her lowest days.But she’s no longer just a reader.She’s now Lu Qingyan, the infamous younger sister of Lu Mingxuan—the novel’s violent and cold-hearted villain feared across campus. A notorious delinquent, and ironically, the sworn enemy of her favorite character: Wang Jingyuan, the story’s tragic antagonist turned misunderstood villain.In the novel, Lu Qingyan is little more than cannon fodder—a delusional girl who idolizes her brother, gets caught in the crossfire between Lu Mingxuan and Wang Jingyuan, and ends up being dead.Determined to change the plot, she initially plans to curry favor with Wang Jingyuan—to save him from his doomed fate.But everything shifts the moment she lays eyes on Lu Mingxuan.He has her brother’s face.The same weary eyes.The same lonely back.The same silent cry for help no one else hears.And in that moment, Lu Qingyan’s plan shatters.This isn’t just a story anymore.So Lu Qingyan vowed to protect him this time, even if it means dragging her brother out of gang fights, squaring off against entitled rich kids, or defying the other villain himself—Wang Jingyuan, the school’s cold and brilliant golden boy... and Lu Mingxuan's sworn rival.In the original novel, Wang Jingyuan was one of the big villains—the cunning and miserable friend of the male lead. Now, he’s front and center... and watching her a little too closely....Lu Mingxuan always disliked his bootlicking sister, but one day he discovered that she had stopped following him around.Later, he unexpectedly found his sworn enemy, Wang Jingyuan, trapping his sister against the wall and between his arms. With an ambiguous and languid expression, he coaxed in a soft tone, “Just give up on that useless brother of yours. What Lu Mingxuan can give you, I can too.”Lu Qingyan: ???Wang Jingyuan, you dog!!That’s my sister!! Stop daydreaming!!