One day after the world was saved by the seven deadly sins twice their leader, Lizzy woke up. Lizzy is a cat person with mint green eyes and bright blue hair who really does not like underwear. She also loves wearing short skirts and stunning her opponents by kicking them in the face. Being the Cat Sin of Love she has a lot of power so you do not want to get on her bad side. This story should update on Sundays each week but it might not be exact

'It's here again' he thought to himself. Staring down at the black little box on the floor.
He stood at the entrance to his office, squatting down he picked up the gift. Like clock work the gift was placed at the entrance to his office. Every year from the day he turned 
 29, he had been receiving a gift on the 25th of May , his birthday.
Now he was 37. Eight years and it still continued.
Maybe that was the reason he started caring.

A flash of warmth passed his clear eyes, as he held and regarded the gift with gentle hands. From surprise to suspicion, suspicion to curiosity,and finally from curiosity to confusion.
He had come to appreciate these little gifts.
Taking care of a multi-billion dollar company was not easy and even more so time consuming, so while he could not even think of himself, who thought of him?

Emi left after explaining what I have to do. The rest of the staff aren't here yet since work starts at eight-thirty am, in another hour. I looked through a stack of paper. 'Job listings, they all seem fairly normal. Request for missing animals, escaped criminals and jobs for guards.' Then I saw a small stack of papers near the edge of the desk. 'What's this?' I flipped through the stack. 'Reports of missing people...' I got to the last sheet. 'Huh? This boy looks familiar. He looks a lot like Kiyo!' Before I could read the listing the door opened. 

"Hello! I'm a new staff, my name is Cecilia, I'll be working here for the next year or so." "Oh, a new worker. You can take part of that stack of paper and start approving listings. If you have any questions look for anyone who isn't busy at the moment." "Okay, thank you!" I took a few papers and started reading them. Within the next half hour, the room quickly became crowded. During lunch, I walked around the guild. Since this village was close to the capital, we got many requests from merchants who needed guards. Leaving a village was apparently considered very dangerous. 

I got off work at three pm, a bit earlier than I was supposed to since it was my first day. Not many people enjoy working at the Adventurer's Guild due to the fact that there are an abundance of adventurers. The guild has tried to make it up to it's staff by paying extra for overtime work but some still complain that they should adjust the work hours. Before going home I stopped by the church. 'Maybe I should make job listings for anyone who wants to help out here.' I did some cleaning and greeted a few people who stopped by. 

-Two days later-

It's my fourth day working at the guild! The last two days were gruelling since the queen herself requested adventurer to go to the capital and act as her guards. My fellow coworkers decided not to spare me and had me deal with all the listings that had to be pushed back. I ended up working an extra six hours, but instead of getting a bonus I chose to ask if I could make listings for volunteers for the church. The manager, to my surprise, actually agreed.

-388 days 'till promised meeting-

A trip to another world! Cecilia wishes to leave behind her life on earth, so she does exactly that. Not knowing the consequences, Cecilia attempts to enjoy her new life only to dig up some unwanted secrets. Some things are better left forgotten, for now...

Genres: mystery, fantasy 
sub-genres: sci-fi

If it were regarding other things, this kind of words would not be acknowledged by anyone.
But this was when Attack Force was the most hyped up, and even though the ticketing sales flopped, with the hard work of all the netizens, they not only made their box office flop, but they had even made it trend every day.
This was already very angering.
By sending Attack Force on trending every day, they managed to make it popular!
Yet even though it was well known, no one went to watch it.
And so, even though Attack Force was trending every day, it was like a corpse that was hung up by people and beaten, making its situation very awkward.
And Wang Qianyun was the producer of Attack Force.
At this moment, with Wang Qianyun having been exposed like this, it was undoubtedly adding fuel to the fire of Attack Force.
After she'd been waiting for around an hour, Eight Skin Entertainment sent her a link. "I've already drafted it up to send it out, take a look."
When it came to Eight Skin Entertainment's ability to make things popular on the Internet, Lu Man was very at ease.
This was one reason why she liked to work with Eight Skin Entertainment. At the start, Eight Skin Entertainment was not very good at it, and so Lu Man would draft it up and edit it before he sent it out.
But after working with her just a few times, Eight Skin Entertainment could already learn the tricks and tips and did not need Lu Man to check it anymore.
Lu Man also did not want to find other people, and having to go through the process of editing and drafting it again herself was very troublesome.
Opening Eight Skin Entertainment's link, she saw the new Weibo post that Eight Skin Entertainment had posted.
"The producer of your Attack Force is very impressive, very impressive. Such a superior one should not come to earn our money and dirty your arrogant soul."
After that, for nine continuous photos, there came comments from Wang Qianyun's Twitter and Facebook.
"Waving around Happy Time, you want to get an Oscar with this kind of film? Let me give you a piece of advice, hurry and leave our country, don't embarrass yourself."
"My classmates from before contacted me, expressing their envy towards my migration, but your envy, your sucking up to me, I can't help you migrate anyway. Be honest and stay in your poor place, even if you came here, you could not afford it."
"I'm very thankful I left that land a long time ago, seeing my former classmates post photos of their bags and holidays to boast, I find it very low-class. If you really have money, then leave your backward small city. You probably haven't even left the country before. I won't say anything else, I have to go to let them see how interesting my world is, they would never be able to touch it."
"Haha, I'm beautiful and brilliant, so what? So what if I'm looking down on you? Even if I go back now, I'm not considered to be from your country anymore."
"Yesterday, when I went to a boutique, I actually met a group of aunties from your country, really low-class, hurry and leave!"
There were even worse comments, causing netizens to explode upon seeing them.
They all reposted it to scold, "If you are so beautiful and so good, then leave, we don't welcome you here!"
"I thought that you were just an idi*t, but in the end, I found out that I'm still too young, you're not even an idi*t."
"So you haven't just insulted our movie, this kind of person who kneels and sucks up to people is so disgusting. Since you look down on us so much, then don't come to earn our money. Wanting to earn money from us while scolding us, who gave you such confidence?"
"Repost, pin it, let everyone see!"
"Haha, Attack Force choosing this kind of person to be your producer, serves you right to flop."
"Wang Qianyun is a producer of Attack Force. As a producer of Maxus Company, how could Maxus Company not know about what she's saying? How could Attack Force not know? No, they know, but they don't care, and they very likely think that way too."


"Take me in, I'll do anything you want me to!" 

In her previous life, Lu Man is sent to prison after being framed by her step-sister and an asshole. After being released from prison, the only thing that greets her is her mother's tombstone. Seeing the asshole and bitch getting happily along together like one big family with her birth father and step-mother, she sets out to die together with the asshole and her step-sister in fiery flames. 

The moment she opens her eyes again, she finds herself back on the very day she was framed. Resolutely jumping out the window and climbing next door, she seeks refuge from the man occupying the room there. But who would have guessed that the man is the brilliant hunk she has always admired from afar in her past life?

She vows to rub her eyes clean and be more discerning of people. She wants to make everyone who owed her in the past to pay her back! 

"Young Master Han, can you let me hug your other arm too?" 
"Actually, I have one more, do you want it?"
"…" 

Following lunch with Srinivas, Mike returned home to begin his training regimen. So far that day he had overslept, cleaned out his desk at work, and eaten out for lunch. As it was after one in the afternoon, he didn't think he was off to a good start.

Mike pulled out the book of sticky notes Marius had left him.

Sticky note number one: Two hours per day. Lift heavy things to maximize kinetic potential. Maximum weight less important than duration of effort.

Sticky note number two: Two hours per day. Begin body sculpting. Experiment with fat reduction and muscle fiber enhancement. Easier to see results with diet and exercise.

Sticky note number three: Two hours per day. Practice white noise meme-casting. Goal is ability to incapacitate non-vasted opponent.

Sticky note number four: One hour per day. Work animas and gravitas without mind-vasting to increase control. Will be difficult. Worth it.

Sticky note number five: Half hour per day navigate with corona while blindfolded. Half hour per day work on heating and cooling with corona. OK if can't figure out cooling on your own.

Sticky note number six: Erica lessons. Play catch using coronas - do not use vasting. Work teleotic talent by freezing water. Also heal slice and stab wounds.

Sticky note number seven: Srinivas lessons. Same teleotic exercises as Erica. Work on meme-casting basic emotions. Fear, happiness, boredom all very useful.

Sticky note number eight: If you feel buildup of precursor residue, this is a good thing for paragons. Necessary before next step in training.

Mike set the instructions aside and pulled precursor from the core of his mind. The sensation felt different from receiving a charge, a taxing chore of pulling something forth whereas before there had been no effort involved. Another thing he noticed was that the maximum rate he could pull didn't come close to what he was used to. He began his first solo training session by levitating the couch, which almost proved too heavy for him to lift. He didn't make it to the count of ten before he had to set it back down.

After a break, he tried again and could only hold up the couch for seven seconds before he felt the flow of animas choke off. Mike tried to increase his uptake of precursor against the backpressure he felt. For a moment, he fought it, then relaxed as he sensed the resistance through the inactive nous and gravitas. Mike diverted a massive amount of precursor to harden his skin and expand his mind, making room to increase the flow. In an instant, he understood that what he pulled from the core of his mind came in a precise and consistent blend of all three precursors and he had to consume them at similar rates if he didn't want a backup to happen.

"Why the hell is he telling me to work things in blocks of two hours? I need to be doing everything at the same time."

Mike filled several bowls with water and then flash froze their contents one at a time by imposing an ice pattern on the molecules. At the same time he performed a meme-casting and lifted the couch once more. This time, he could keep the couch in the air for fourteen seconds before running out of steam.

Mike melted the ice with his corona and repeated his couch lifting. Again and again over the course of hours, Mike repeated his training exercise until he could barely use the talents.

Then he went to the fridge to figure out his dinner. The back corner of the fridge drew his eyes like a magnet. His hand snatched a beer of its own volition, then he popped the top and took a long slurp. Mike put it down in less than a minute and fetched a second to drink with dinner. He finished that beer while cooking his ramen, then another while eating. A few pieces of fruit, a fourth beer, and then peanut butter toast. The last beer found its way into his hand.

He returned to his talent exercises just as Varanelli arrived home. She pointedly ignored him as she assumed her dinner spot on the couch. Mike took a break to sip at the beer.

"Grab me one of those?"

"No can do, I'm afraid."

Varanelli shook her head. "All five? Have you ever heard of moderation?"

"Not really my style."

"I know." Varanelli put down her sandwich. "You are driving me insane, Ski."

"Okay."

"I'm serious. You get the break of a lifetime and you're already engineering your inevitable downfall."

Mike scowled at her. "You're the one who brought a six pack into the house. I told you to get rid of it."

"Sorry I believed you when you said you're not an alcoholic."

"Get off my case," he said.

"Fine. Just make sure you pay the rent on time."

He pulled out his wallet and counted out six hundred dollars. "There you go. I'm a month early on the rent."

She snatched it away from him. "Go do your trainin with Spencer."

"Is that why you're bent out of shape? Because I have no desire to hang out with her."

"That's one, very minor, part of it. Just don't somehow turn becoming a paragon into a loss like you did with the life insurance money."

Mike lifted his chin, then stomped out of the apartment. In his car, he checked his phone. An unknown number had texted him close to an hour ago. "Ski, this is Erica Spencer. Got your number from Jimmy. Where are we meeting?"
He typed back a quick message before turning on the car and putting it into drive. "By the incline. Tired of paying for parking."

When he arrived, Mike got out to sit on the hood. He still sat there when Spencer approached him ten minutes later.

"Hey, are you okay?"

"Fine. You ready to train?"

Spencer squinted at him. "Have you been drinking?"

"It's not really your place to be concerned about my well-being."

"We are learning to use powers together unsupervised. I think your sobriety is a valid concern. And you shouldn't have driven here."

"I can handle a lot more than five drinks and be fine."

She crossed her arms. "Let's try this again in two days. Goodbye, Ski."

As Spencer drove away, Mike lay back on the hood of his car and stared up at the sky.

The universe is a strange place.  First the stars in the sky began to change, twinkling out to be replaced by stars identical to the sun.  Then an alien fleet appeared in the solar system, decelerating without obeying the laws of physics.  None of that prepared the world for what was to follow when the aliens revealed themselves to be English-speaking humans.

After the party, a few of the families in Dragon City decided to form an expedition team to explore the Celestial Fox Immortal Cave in five days.
The day after the party, an angelic girl appeared on the Dragon City Chu Holdings doorstep. 
At the same time, the Chu Holdings management got a separate email informing them of Xiao Yue’s employment.
The Dragon City Chu Holdings now had another secretary. 
Many people began to speculate about this lady’s origins and standing. However, Xiao Yue’s personal file was blank and no one knew where this beauty came from. 
However, they received news that Xiao Yue had arrived with Chu Yu. Now that she was a secretary, they suspected that these incidents were connected.
However, there wasn’t much commotion within the Chu Holdings. They were a family run business and all the vital departments were controlled by the people from the Chu Clan.
They had received prior news that Chu Yu was coming to take over the business. As a result, they were rather composed when they received news of Xiao Yue’s arrival.
As a large corporation, it could run on its own healthily. It did not really matter who was the Chief Executive Officer. 
If Chu Yu started to run the business into the ground and stick his hands into everything, someone would report this to the Chu Elders immediately. 
Xiao Yue reported to work at the corporation, yet Chu Yu was hospitalised due to a ‘sickness’. As such, he did not report to the corporation.
The hospital that Chu Yu stayed in was a private hospital owned by the Chu Clan. 
Chu Tianxiong even brought Chu Xiaoxiao over there to check on him a few times. 
Very quickly, many employees at the hospital began to gossip, thinking that Chu Yu was sick as a result of anger. 
"Do you know? Chu Yu tried to confront Boss Chu, and this resulted in him being hospitalised."
"Ah? He confronted Boss Chu? Why?"
"I heard that there was a party a few days ago and some people called Chu Yu 'trash', and Boss Chu didn’t stand up for him..."
"Who was so outrageous?"
"Exactly, Chu Yu was angered to tears, really, I saw it with my own eyes!"
"What happened next?"
"Chu Yu got angry with Boss Chu, and decided not to report to work, choosing instead to malinger and stay in the hospital..."
"Haha, you’re right, who’s the unethical one who called Chu Yu trash, that’s just exposing his flaws!"
"..."
These little snippets of gossips began to spread quickly.
Anyone who heard about this laughed disdainfully.
"He is an un-cultivable trash, why is he so sensitive towards gossip? He has quite a bit of pride, haha."
"In my opinion, that piece of trash obviously just doesn’t want to come to work."
"If he doesn’t come to work, what can he do?"
"I heard that he is supposed to work his way up from the bottom. He must spend some time at each position. Only when he is familiar with all the departments will he take over the business."
"Trash is trash, he can’t do anything, so he has to hide out in the hospital. Hahaha, I can’t believe he thought of such a way to malinger!"
Many of those who were at the party could not help but mock Chu Yu.
Even though they were afraid of the Chu Clan, they could not bring themselves to fear Chu Yu.
If they dared to mock Chu Yu in his face, it would not be past them to gossip behind his back. 
Inside the private hospital, Chu Xiaoxiao looked extremely unhappy as she spoke to Chu Yu, "Those people outside are ridiculous. I really want to rip out all of their mouths!"
Chu Yu smiled and shook his head, "I need a reason to disappear for some time. Else, my disappearance will raise suspicion."
"But brother..." Chu Xiaoxiao looked at Chu Yu with concern, "Are you really going to look for Sister Lin?"
"Yes, I have a very good reason for going."
Chu Yu did not want to let Chu Tianxiong know what he was doing. Even Xiao Yue did not know what Chu Yu was up to.
He had hired her in Chu Holdings as a secretary, yet he ran off to the hospital to malinger. 
Chu Xiaoxiao stayed around for a while before leaving. Chu Tianxiong came in shortly after.
He laughed bitterly as he looked at Chu Yu lying on the bed, "You have caused me so much pain. People in the Chu Clan just asked me if I had been ill-treating you."
Chu Yu looked extremely apologetic, "My apologies Uncle Xiong, I have caused you much trouble."
"Haish, don’t be so courteous, we are one family after all." Chu Tianxiong waved Chu Yu’s apology away. "However, are you really going to look for Lin Shimeng?"
"Yes, she left without saying goodbye previously, I think she may be in trouble." Chu Yu explained.
"The problem is... can you partake in whatever she is doing?" Chu Tianxiong looked worryingly at Chu Yu. 
Chu Yu could was un-cultivable and had no cultivation stage. On the other hand, Lin Shimeng is one of the top 10 ladies on the Heaven’s Pride Board.
Can Chu Yu really join her in her mission? 
Chu Tianxiong found this highly suspicious.
Yet he did not find Chu Yu’s request for his cooperation to hide his disappearance from the Dragon City suspicious.
He knew that the Xie Clan had influence in many areas, and they may send assassins after him if they got wind of his location.
As such, Chu Yu needed to exercise caution in his every move. 
"Rest assured Uncle Xiong, I have a few experts by my side. Oh yes, there will be someone coming to look for you in two days. Please arrange for him to join in the expedition to the Celestial Fox Immortal Cave." Chu Yu continued, "He is one of my men, you can trust him!"
Chu Tianxiong nodded, "Ok then, you must be extra careful!"
Chu Yu smiled, "Rest assured Uncle Xiong."
...
Half an hour later, an ordinary sedan left from the Chu Clan’s private hospital’s basement car park. The driver was a youth unfamiliar to Chu Yu.
This was someone unknown to the masses, a confidant cultivated by Chu Tianxiong.
He sent Chu Yu to the outskirts of the Dragon City before driving off without a second word.
Chu Yu looked at the time and surmised that he had four days before the Celestial Fox Immortal Cave expedition. He planned to use these four days to do something. 
Under the cover of darkness, Chu Yu took a deep breath and began using the Facebook technique.
Chu Yu’s muscles began to twitch, almost as if wave after wave was crashing through his body.
After which, an ordinary looking middle aged man of average build appeared in his place.
"This feeling isn’t half bad."
A raspy voice came from this middle aged man’s mouth as he broke out in a strange smile
Following which, he began to run in towards the South.
Chu Yu chose an untraceable route that ran through old, dense forests. 
When he ran at full speed, he was almost like a phantom. He could hear faint sonic booms behind him. 
When he ran at full speed, he could feel a strong wave of power surging through his meridians like a raging river. 
This wave of power far exceeded that of any normal Acupoint Charging Stage Eight martial artist. 
Under normal circumstances, an Acupoint Charging Stage Eight martial artist could only last an hour running at full speed. 
After an hour, if he wasn’t exhausted, his body temperature would have risen to a ridiculously high number. 
If one used such heat to fry an egg, the egg would burn immediately. 
Yet, after an hour of running, Chu Yu could feel that his body temperature had not yet reached dangerous levels.
His power... also showed no signs of abating!
Even though he was breaking out in sweat everywhere, he was still full of focus and energy. 　
He will continue!
Chu Yu also wanted to know how different he was from a normal Acupoint Charging Stage Eight martial artist. He also wanted to know... what his limits were.
After two hours, Chu Yu entered the borders of Yu Province. 
Only then did he start to feel slightly exhausted.
His temperature was also beginning to rise.
Yet, it was still nowhere near dangerous levels!
Such a result was extremely surprising, even to Chu Yu.
According to the ancient annals, it seemed that only those who had attained the highest levels of Acupoint Charging Stage Nine, or even martial artists who were at stage 10 and above were capable of sprinting over long distances without rest, and still have energy to battle after.
Chu Yu murmured, "Could it be that my true battle power now is already at the highest levels of Acupoint Charging Stage Nine... or even Stage 10?"
This was a very surprising discovery. However, he could not confirm this hypothesis until he had finally seen battle. 
He had made this trip for the sole purpose of battle!
...
Yu Province in Luo Yang.
Home to the main camp of the Xie Clan.
Xie Tianyu’s injuries have been mostly healed through meticulous care. Even though he wasn’t back at full strength, on the surface, he appeared to be fine. 
However, his internal injuries had not been fully healed. Despite the amount of superior medicine available to the Xie Clan, internal injuries required long term cultivation to heal completely. 
What he could not accept was... from this day on, he had no chance of breaking through to a higher stage. 
Lord Thief’s two slaps had completely ruined his essentials!
His plot to get hold of the Sutra of Internal Reflection was all for him to be able to advance to the next realm, and be above the rest. 
However, this dream had just gone up in smoke.
His hatred towards Chu Yu, had reached a maximum!
This hatred burned inside him, and followed him, every waking moment of the day.
Even when...
"Ah!" the lady beneath him screamed in pain. 
Xie Tianyu looked down at the beautiful face just inches below him, a wave of hatred building up inside him.
He let go of his hard grip on the women’s breast and got down from above her. "Leave." He said flatly. 
"Ah?" The women’s face was stained with tears, her white skin bruised from Xie Tianyu’s grasp. Yet, she did not dare to protest.
She had not fought back, yet for some reason, he was chasing her away. She felt wronged.
She knew who he was. In an attempt to get into his good books, she had presented herself to him.
Yet, she was treated so inhumanely.
"Get out." Xie Tianyu said coldly.
"Young master Yu... what did I do wrong? I can change, I won’t call out anymore..." the girl said anxiously. 
"Get out." Xie Tianyu replied icily.
The girl did not dare to reply, and she collected her clothes and limped out, clearly hurt. 
Xie Tianyu leaned on the bed, and took out a cigarette from his bedside drawer. After a deep puff, he closed his eyes. 
He did not smoke in the past as it would affect his cultivation.
But now... it did not matter anymore.
After another puff, Xie Tianyu murmured to himself icily, "Chu Yu, in four days, when the Dragon City is vacated, you shall meet your maker!"


The eagle soars through the sky; the fish leaps over the dragon's gate; the bear roars and the tiger growls; all things in the world have a spirit. At the ends of Earth, the poles and magnetic field re-align; the world changes. The world that we were so used to, is no longer.

When myths turn to reality; when legends are no longer enigmatic, the world is now limitless.

That evening culture shock hit 'Susie' bad. It started when she was busting and there was no toilet paper around. It was interesting to go outside to the 'jakes' for one day. Now, she realised, she'd never have toilet paper again. No running tap water ever again. She might never again have an iced coffee.
So Susie started to cry. She missed her mum with whom she'd basically lost contact over the years. She missed Facebook and instagram. Eventually she even missed KFC though deep down she'd only ever loved the smell but hated the taste.
At one stage she was ready to cheer herself up but then she decided to just let the grief rip. "Let's get it out of my system!" she said to herself.
The next day of training was a repeat of the first. She didn't do any better. She did worse. Her endurance was worse, her use of the alphabet seemed weaker. The only thing that was different was that she stabbed herself. 
In fact over the next week she seemed to worsen steadily.
Day after day she stayed in the compound. She found a child's picture book about animals. It was in alphabetical order and went through a bunch of animals. If it was to be believed spiders got as big as dogs, snakes as big as trains, karaks were able to turn into mist. Her favourite new animal was a charma. It looked like a porcupine on steroids, the steroids that make you aggressive. It could detach it's spikes and shoot them like darts. Dragons, pheonix, wevryns and kraken were real, though like everything else had evolved quite weirdly. Her main question was, who puts this information in a kid's story book?
She loved learning about the new world although she never left the compound. 
Within a month her physical strength had improved rapidly. Jemman could stab, block, slash and lunge with ease. Her ability to sit quietly in the garden and notice what was happening improved. Nevertheless, Jemman began to worry. Not one second of time was spent cultivating. No attempt at mage craft had occurred. She could confidently keep the splades off herself with a birch switch but she hadn't left a compound that was less than a hectare in area. The only "person" with her was Jardin. To her pride she was almost always able to defend herself against his switch. Somehow it only got through when he really didn't feel she was pushing herself hard enough.
Her once clean, red hair slowly turned into dreadlocks, which she personally thought was cool. Her skin slowly tanned dark and her green eyes became sharper. Her appetite grew until she was eating like a depressed teenager in a fast food outlet. Her muscles became hard though she was clearly preadolescent. Despite the growing leanness she had kept her chubby cheeks.
The wolof began to prepare baths for her that contained various herbs. She didn't know what they were but they made her sweat like a piece of chicken thawing in the sun. It seemed to make her feel awful while she was in the bath and incredible when she'd finished. 
As time went on Jemman found the language increasingly fascinating. There was literally no word for anxiety or depression. Sadness, pain, guilt and rage were all words that existed but anxiety and depression didn't. She tried to ask Jardin about it but he couldn't understand. "Anxious?" he said phonetically. "Stupid word. If you can't change something then why be anxious. If you can change it then change it. Why be anxious? Same with with depressed. Don't even think about mentioning these words again. They're the kind of things that would ruin people's lives."
"Fair enough." Jemman replied, "Do you have a good word for me to use in their place?"
Giving her a wolfy grin he replied, "'Self-aware' and 'push through the pain'. Let's try those words for the next two hours. Clearly I'm not working you hard enough if you can waste time on making up such nonsense."
Another month slowly passed.
One day Jardin turned up with a very angry wolof pup. At least that's what Jardin called him. The out was almost two metres tall. He was grey, furry and had even chubbier cheeks than she did. Unlike Jardin, Kraem was lean. Rather than being still and self-confident, like Jardin, Kraem was constantly agitated. He clearly looked down at Jemman and refused to call by her name . Rather, he referred to her as 'the child'. 
"You want me to train with The Child?"
"Of course, baby puppy, Only Eight is an excellent training partner for you. It takes ages to make a straw man and you're not skilled enough not to break them. Don't break Only Eight. I get paid a lot to train her."
For some reason Kraem was happy to call her Only Eight. He was also happy to thrash her in bouts, carefully, but arrogantly explaining his skills as he did it. It was only half an hour each day but Jemman dreaded those sessions.
When she complained to Jardin about the fights he simply said, "What, you want me to make your fights nice? And fair? I don't know what planet you're from but here on Strolm most fights are ridiculously uneven and usually you'll be outnumbered. At least, that's the fights I've been in.
"He's a boundary for you. But I didn't get him here for that. Get your brain in the right place and you'll be a boundary for him. You've got just over three months till you have an entrance exam. You must work harder. By the way, the day you defeat him for a full half hour is the day I'll teach you to cultivate. 
"May that day come soon, because I'm tired of you asking me to teach you. Oh, on that day, you can start calling him Baby Puppy."
There is no doubt that Jardin understood how to motivate Jemman.

Not Quite Ready is a world building novel. Jemman doesn’t always win, she isn’t always right and she certainly isn’t always the best. Despite her youth and poor start, watch her become something great.
Not Quite Ready is not a typical romance. Jemman is not trying to win a man. Yet, despite this she is what many men want and more men need. A woman who is able to love deeply but always walk her own path.

I'm Kale Doris. This is a beautiful chapter of my life.

One year ago I had been in Huston. That time I was in bachelor's final year. Besides study I worked at a cafe in evening for earning. 

My college timing was eight(8) am to two(2) pm. After that I took rest for one hour and study for one hour. 

My job started at five pm in the evening till eight pm. Cafe was not far from my house where I stayed as a pg. 

In that house only an old couple lived.
They were very generous and loving people.

That was Sunday. As a holiday, I worked half a day from 12 to 8pm.
As usual I was taking orders from customers. 
I saw a car stopped in front of the cafe and two girls came out from it and after a minute one more girl came out. 

There was a man sitted on the driving seat, who drove the car for parking after dropping all of the passengers.

Mean while my customer who gave me the order said for two cappuccinos with French fries.

I gave the orders on the reception and went for the table where that girls were sitted.

They were sitted in the corner of the cafe. There was a round table with four chairs. 

One of them wore a knee length floral red skirt with black T-shirt in which a colourful bird with her chick's was printed, was sitted in front of other two.

And other one were in jeans with pink t-shirt printed with a blue swan and the third one was also in jeans and a green coloured top printed with funny faces, sitted beside eachother.

They all were approx 5ft - 5-4 inches.
I didn't know why but felt attracted towards the girl who wore skirt.

She was so quite while other two were continuously talking about random topics.

I asked for order. 

The pink t-shirt girl said," I want cappuchino and some fries what do you want Shina?" To looking at the girl who was beside her in green top.



To be continued...

Hello dearies, this is my first work hope you all like it..

please give your suggetions in comments... I love to hear that. :)

Her silky hair covered her eyes and I only saw her lips.

That was so soft and smooth. She applied light peach coloured lipstick.

That made her lips perfect...

For a moment, Qiao Nan was in a trance. There was a shooting star. Did it mean that there was a chance that her wish would be fulfilled?
After a while, Qiao Nan smiled bitterly. If there was truth in the saying of the shooting star, then people would not sleep and would just stare at the sky every night. Moreover, if the shooting star could really help humans fulfill their wishes, she should not have wished that Qiao Zijin would leave as soon as possible. She should wish that her mother and Qiao Zijin would stay further away from her and not come back again, that they would not interact with each other for the rest of their lives. Was that not better?
Qiao Nan took a piece of towel and covered her face. She continued to sleep.
Qiao Nan, who had fallen asleep, completely did not expect that her dreams would come true when she woke up the next morning. Of course, the shooting star was not the one that helped her realize her wish.
As she had overslept, it was already eight o'clock when Qiao Nan woke up. Her head felt heavy from too much sleeping.
With messy hair, Qiao Nan yawned as she made her way to the toilet to wash up. When she came out, she discovered that Qiao Zijin was not around. "Dad, where's sister? It's still so early. Did she go marketing?"
Eight o'clock. At eight o'clock during the end of July, the sun hanging high up in the sky was so scorching hot that it could kill someone with the heat.
It was surprising enough that Qiao Zijin could now eat spicy food. If she even went marketing under such a hot sun, then that would be unbelievable.
"No, your sister went back to your mom's place," Qiao Dongliang said, sounding a little sullen.
"She has gone back?" Qiao Nan blinked. She suspected that she was still sleeping and dreaming of what she thought about in the day. Before she fell asleep, she had been thinking about how good it would be if Qiao Zijin left soon. She then dreamed about it soon after. "Dad, am I still sleeping and not awake?" 
Qiao Dongliang was both angry and amused. He stuffed a slice of the iced watermelon into Qiao Nan's hands. "Does it feel cold?"
"Cold!"
"Then you're not dreaming. Your sister has really gone back."
"That's fast. I clearly remember that she said she would like to stay for a few days and 'reminisce about the past' with me." Before this was done, she had left. Would such a good thing happen?
Qiao Dongliang sat down and helped Qiao Nan turn on the television. "Alright, stop being muddled. Your sister really left. She said something cropped up at the eleventh hour. She also missed your mom and couldn't bear to let your mom stay alone in the house for too long. Thus, she left at around half past seven today."
Qiao Dongliang did not blame this attitude of Qiao Nan.
Qiao Zijin did mention that she wanted to change. However, having been in contact for less than half a day, Qiao Nan did not have any opportunity to see the Qiao Zijin's sincerity at all. If Qiao Nan changed her attitude toward Qiao Zijin, Qiao Dongliang would actually feel odd.
Qiao Nan glanced at the clock on the wall which stated that the time was 8:10 AM. "Why didn't you wake me up?"
"Your sister wouldn't let me," Qiao Dongliang said objectively. "Your sister said that you hardly come home. It's been tough on you. We're all a family and there's no need to be so polite to one another, and we should let you sleep. It's not as if there won't be any chance to meet again in the future." Qiao Dongliang also thought that Qiao Nan was certainly tired. He thus did not wake Qiao Nan up as well.
In the end, of course, Qiao Dongliang sent Qiao Zijin off.
Just five minutes before Qiao Nan woke up, Qiao Dongliang was back from sending Qiao Zijin off. "How is it? Have you slept enough? Are you still tired?"
"Tired? Not tired. I don't feel tired at all. I'm in such good spirits that I can kill a tiger now!" Qiao Zijin was not here anymore. She felt as alive and energetic as a tiger. It was impossible that she would feel tired.
"You…" Qiao Dongliang smiled wryly. "Alright, both of you have grown up and are adults. In the future, you will decide for yourself whichever path you choose and the people that you want to be in contact with. I won't interfere. So, Nan Nan, you don't need to feel nervous. I can lord over you for one or two years, but can I lord over you forever? The relationship between the two of you won't work just with my intervention alone." 
Both of his daughters had a strong temperament and their own way of thinking. He was unable to interfere in any of them. As such, he might as well not do so.
"Dad, there's only one child in other families. You raised two daughters. It's been hard on you. I'm in senior high school now. Actually, I'll graduate in the blink of an eye. When I earn money after I graduate and work, I'll definitely be filial to you. Dad, it's also time that you enjoy life." Her father just had to enjoy life. As for the matter between Qiao Zijin and her, he basically needed not to interfere too much.
"Alright. Look at how happy you are. It's good that you're up. I'm going to work."
"Dad, you're only going to work now. Won't you be late?"
"No. As I sent your sister back today, I've already applied for two-hour time-off from the factory and told them that I'll be there later. If I leave now, I'll, at most, reach in an hour's time. You'll be alone at home. Don't keep reading books for the entire day. Take care of your eyesight and don't tire yourself out, okay?" Qiao Dongliang took his document bag, pushed his bicycle, and quickly headed to the factory. 
Just as Qiao Nan stepped out of the door, the phone in the house rang.
At the sight of the caller ID displayed, Qiao Nan felt happy as she picked it up. "Brother Zhai, you have completed your mission and are back in the army?"
Listening to how happy Qiao Nan sounded, Zhai Sheng, who was at the other end of the phone, could not help smiling. "I'm not the only one who came back. There's also your Brother Zhou."
"…" Qiao Nan rolled her eyes. What a petty man. She just mentioned to Brother Zhai once about why Brother Zhou was not around during the period she was in the army camp. Brother Zhai actually remembered it until today. "Brother Zhou also came back. What a coincidence. Why don't you call Brother Zhou here and let me chat with him for a while?" 
There was a flash of guilt in Zhai Sheng's eyes. "Are you sure? If you're sure, then I'll call him over?"
Qiao Nan raised her eyebrows. "You're so generous? Is it true or false?"
"Of course it's true. He just arrived at the camp and heard that the English teacher in the army camp previously was Teacher Xiao Qiao, whose name was Qiao Nan. He still feels very bad now. Coincidentally, we can use this opportunity to let him know the relationship between us. After all, he'll fully recover from this after some time." After he knew that Nan Nan was Mrs. Regiment Commander, given Zhou Jun's character, Zhou Jun would not dare to think of Nan Nan anymore. This would solve the problem once and for all.
"Hahaha." Qiao Nan took her hat off Zhai Sheng. "You're good. I can't win. But, why do you have to report to Brother Zhou about our relationship? Did he have anything to do with this? I address him as Brother Zhou because of his age. Don't tell me that we still need him to give us a red packet when we get married in the future?"
"Nan Nan, this is not a popular practice in the army. There's suspicion of bribery in receiving red packets. However, you're still qualified to drink a cup of what he toasts to you. Nan Nan, when are you prepared to drink this toast?" When he heard the word 'get married', Zhai Sheng felt extremely soothing and sweet in his heart. It was as if he had taken some ice-cream.
"Brother Zhai, as a soldier, can you be more self-disciplined? I have not reached the legal age of marriage. Regiment commander, as a soldier of the country, do you wish to violate the law despite knowing it?" Getting married? At the very least, there were a few more years to go.


Qiao Nan: Crap! I am your biological daughter, yet I am treated as if I was picked up from the streets. In fact, you treat me worse than that!

Mother Qiao: Qiao Nan, you are not as pretty or smart as your elder sister. You are not as blessed as her. You have no right to study, marry, or to have your happiness!

Qiao Nan: Why am I not allowed to study, marry, or to seek my happiness? I will find a man right now and marry him!

Qiao Nan is dumbstruck upon discovering that the man right beside her is a powerful figure in the quad—the person who has the most promising prospects to be the future Chief.

Qiao Nan stares at the well-built man in front of her. He has firm abs and cold, chilling eyes. She swallows the lump in her throat as she says her greetings, "Good Morning, Chief!"

The sun was just starting to rise when we left Montreal, driving north in Roch's mother's bright red Toyota Corolla. It was new and smelled new; I asked Roch about why his old man was driving a thirteen-year old Impala. He told me that the Impala was almost new too, in spite of its age. His father had bought it on the eve of a string of overseas postings; it had spent most of its thirteen years in a garage.

"It's good he held onto it," I said. "It's a beautiful car."

Roch didn't answer. He wasn't in a good mood that morning, and I didn't blame him. He hadn't slept at all during the night. That was why he had woken me up at four: he wanted to get to the cottage as quickly as possible, and crash there. I asked him what had kept him from sleeping; he shrugged and said he had to take care of some business. He seemed tense, and it reinforced my suspicions that there was some mysterious shit going on. Badgering a tired, tense driver with questions wasn't a good idea; I decided I'll give it a try later, when he'd rested.

We stopped at a supermarket to buy stuff, but it was still closed. Roch said that was the last big store  we'd pass before we got to the cottage, so we had no choice but to wait until it opened at eight. Roch dozed in the car, while I walked around the empty parking lot, smoking cigarettes. It was a grey morning, it looked like rain, but as time went on the clouds lightened, and began to clear. The parking lot began getting busy: when we drove up, there was only the occasional delivery truck cutting across the lot to unload at the back of the building. There was a bus stop nearby, and close to eight a whole bunch of people got off a bus and walked to the store. I guessed they were going to work.

I started trying to wake Roch up at eight sharp, and kept at it for several minutes before he opened his eyes, yawning horribly. We got Cokes from a machine by the store entrance and smoked a cigarette apiece before going in. Roch wasn't in a talkative mood, and neither was I. While I was walking and smoking on the parking lot, I decided he'd simply been to a party - it had been a Saturday night, after all. I felt hurt he didn't take me along, and had to remind myself that if it wasn't for his generosity, I'd be on a bus to Toronto, returning home with my tail tucked between my legs.

I spent over thirty dollars in the supermarket, almost exactly half of what I had. Roch had warned me it would take me half an hour on a bicycle to get to the nearest store from the cottage, and that it was very expensive. I bought food and cigarettes and five tubes of paint: blue, red, yellow, black, and white. I love painting with tube watercolor. The paint has the consistency of thick toothpaste, it's a bit like painting in oil or acrylic, but without all the stink and fucking around with paint thinner. I also bought a big blank-page notebook and a couple of hard pencils. They had no charcoal sticks, which was a pity because the ones I'd taken had broken up into bits and pieces.

My food included items like ten-pound sacks of potatoes and big cans of apple juice (it was on sale). Of course, I acquired a twenty-four case of beer as well. Roch also bought tons of stuff, so we wheeled out trolleys out into the parking lot and unloaded them directly into the trunk of the car. I think he looked at me with new respect when he saw all the art stuff I'd bought.

We arrived at the cottage just over half an hour later. It wasn't that far, but the last stretch was over a forest track littered with broken branches, some big enough for us to stop and pull them to the side. Roch's family hadn't been to the cottage even once that summer: the infamous crazy aunt had died in May and ever since then they were busy with the inherited houses, which were all in varying states of neglect. I began to see why asking me to help get the cottage in shape made sense to Roch's old man. I anticipated a busy day of raking and sweeping dead leaves, lots of cleaning this and that: I just hoped I wouldn't have to deal with rotting corpses of squirrels and mice who had decided to turn the cottage into a mausoleum.

The cottage was located near the southeastern end of a long, narrow lake. It was completely isolated except for another cottage across the water, a good couple of hundred of yards away. There was a huge front deck supported by wooden pillars, and a flagstone-laid path weaving its way down to a wooden pier. There was no beach, the shore was a narrow strip of mud and stones. As anticipated, the deck was covered by a thick layer of rotting leaves and twigs. We actually had had to clear the way up the stairs and to the door before we went in.

After we'd carried our belongings inside, Roch had me clear an area on the deck next to the sliding doors. Then I helped him wheel out an enormous gas-powered grill: you could barbecue enough meat for a dozen hungry people in one go. He connected the gas bottle and checked everything was working as it should, then took me inside to show me the kitchen: I took it to mean I was the designated cook. Then he said, see you later, and crashed out in one of the bedrooms.

It was a big place, that cottage: a family could live there year-round, no problem. There were four bedrooms. I was given the one at the very end of the connecting hallway, which suited me fine. After I'd carried my stuff in there - I'd just dumped it near the entrance - I got going sweeping the deck and the area around the house clean of dead leaves and stuff. There were tons of dead beetles, and I wondered if they specifically chose that place to die. The kitchen was equipped with an espresso machine, so I opened the ground coffee Roch had bought and took a fifteen-minute break every hour to reward myself with a triple espresso and a cigarette. Three hours later, I caught myself grinding my teeth with eyes popping: it was one wicked espresso machine.

Roch emerged from his bedroom about an hour later. By that time, I had the potatoes boiling and was warming up the grill. We basted barbecue sauce on a couple of big steaks and I stood guard over them, smoking a cigarette and drinking a preliminary beer. Roch had his first beer in the kitchen while he was preparing a bowl of salad. We both armed ourselves with fresh beers before sitting down to eat at the picnic table on the front deck. It had turned nice and sunny by then, and I was completely enraptured by the light.

I think I have to stop and explain something to you here. When you paint a picture or make a drawing, you aren't painting or drawing your subject, whatever it might be - a landscape, a bowl of apples, a person. You paint or draw the way the light falls on your subject. The quantity and quality of light determines what something looks like. And that, in turn, influences the viewer's mood. Good art makes you see something as if you were seeing it for the first time in your life, makes you feel a certain way for the first time in your life. That's what it's all about.

I launched my probe into Roch's behavior about midway through the meal. I said:

"What were you up, to last night?"

He kept chewing his food much longer than he actually needed to before he swallowed, and said:

"I spent half the day chaperoning the plumber working at one of the houses. Had to drive out to Canadian Tire to get some stuff he needed, got the wrong stuff, had to make the trip again. Then I made sure he finished doing what he was supposed to do, and spent a lot of time clearing up the mess he'd made. I went to the family home for a shower and dinner and had a fight with Heloise, you know, my younger sister. The little bitch is stealing stuff from my old room. She sells it at school and spends the money on sodas and candy bars and movie tickets. Her face is fucking covered with pimples, you'll see for yourself, you'd better not sit across from her at meals or you'll lose your appetite."
"Oh man. Thanks for the warning."
"After that, I went to house number two and sanded down and painted a door. Saturday night, and I'm painting a door in a dirty old house. I'm painting all the fucking doors in that fucking house, and they are full of cracks and dents. I have to fill them with plaster, wait for it to dry, sand it down. Why the fuck did I ever agree to this deal. Nothing but work, work, work all summer. Fuck! I just can't stand it any longer."
"Why didn't you ask me for help? I wouldn't want any money."
"You were busy looking for paid work."
"I'd found a job. I told you that. I could've helped you out yesterday."
"Ah, fuck it. Never mind. Do you like the salad?"
"Yeah. Nice dressing. You used mustard, right? Colman's English mustard?"
"Right. I wasn't going to fuck around with garlic. Too much work."

He threw his head back and shouted:

"Too much work!"

His voice bounced off the tree trunks and echoed around the lake. I said:

"I think you need another beer."
"Fucking right I do."

We spent the rest of the afternoon drinking beer, smoking the black hash Roch had brought, and cleaning this and that, lazily talking about various experiences we'd shared while we were at school together. Roch dwelt for a while on the shoplifting, which I found unpleasant: I wasn't particularly proud of that episode in my life. We'd discovered we could steal small items from stores without getting caught, and went into a stealing frenzy for about six months or so. We often took stuff we didn't need, just for the thrill of it. It predictably ended with us getting caught. After tearfully pleading a pardon from the shopkeeper and the cops he'd called, we never did it again. Roch claimed he'd enjoyed that quite a lot and said he was sorry we'd stopped stealing. I didn't believe him, I remembered well that he had been just as frightened as I was. We could have been expelled from school. But I kidded him along and said, yeah, that was fun, I'd enjoyed that too.

By the time evening rolled around we were beat - from the work, from the beer, from the hash. We smoked one last joint on the deck, the view was breathtaking, the sunset turned the water into gold. I thought I saw someone or something move on the deck of the house across the lake, but it was difficult to tell in this light.

Roch spent a while giving me detailed instructions on how to operate and generally conduct myself during the two weeks I'd spend on my own. I could use the bicycle in one of the bedrooms, but I'd have to pump some air into the tires. There was no phone, if something happened I would have to make a trip to the nearest town, five to six miles away. I could add variety to my stay and to my diet by fishing: there were a couple of rods, all kitted out, in a closet. There was plenty of bass in the lake, early morning was the best time. If I took the time to weed and rake the vegetable patch to the side of the house, I would earn tons of brownie points with Roch's parents. Of course they wouldn't be planting anything this year, but that was exactly what would make it count. There's no better way to ingratiate yourself with someone than by going to a lot of totally unnecessary trouble on their behalf.

By the time the stars were beginning to show, we were both yawning twice a minute. As we were preparing to go to bed, Roch said:

"Just look at that. So quiet, so peaceful, but you bet your ass that there a a hundred animals or insects or whatever humping each other within a hundred feet of where we are. And another hundred getting killed and eaten."

I should have listened more closely to what he'd said.

NOTICE
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https://www.webnovel.com/book/14813966006779805
If you are reading it at a different site, it has been copied and reproduced without the author's consent. The owner of that site is a thief.

On the 10th of August, 1972, almost exactly ten months after my eighteenth birthday, I left my home and cut all ties with my family. This is the story of what happened next: to me, to people I knew, and to the world.

NOTE: All of the characters in this story are fictitious; however, many of the events described really took place. One of these, the  Montreal Museum of Fine Arts robbery in 1972, was the greatest theft of art in Canadian history.
It remains an unsolved mystery to this day, and is the first of many historical events that will involve the hero of this story.
Current update schedule: 2-5 chapters a week

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