Gilded Ashes: When Shadows Reign - Chapter 282: World That Doesn’t Need Armor

After her rebirth, Rita vows not to repeat her past mistakes. This time, her first priority is to stop her brother, who is about to marry into the Lopez family, from participating in the initial game beta test. In her previous life, she was deceived by this scheming brother until her dying breath. It was only at the end that she realized she was merely a villain in a male-oriented novel about a live-in son-in-law, with all the malice and manipulation orchestrated by him behind the scenes. In this life, Rita decides to change the rules of the game. She will stay in the shadows and seize all the opportunities meant for the male and female leads. By participating in the beta test and re-selecting her abilities, she systematically dismantles the protagonists’ advantages, all while making them believe she’s on their side. Rita has no intention of harming innocent people, nor is she a selfless saint. In this game, she works with the authorities for mutual benefit, all to achieve her ultimate goal—becoming the true master of her fate.

What is it like to own an abandoned oil town in the West? At first, Xu Xing simply wanted to provide some convenience for travel enthusiasts and camping enthusiasts traveling by car to the northwest.

However, it has been out of control since then…

The stall has been upgraded to a convenience store with a unique style, the instant noodles cooked in an earthen pot have been transformed into a restaurant that provides hot and authentic beef noodles, and the shack has been transformed into a hotel that is unique in the country and can look up at the deep starry sky. The tire point has been upgraded to become a gas station and maintenance station….

after that,

The town unknowingly became the size of a small county town…sixth tier, fifth tier, fourth tier, third tier…a few years later it became the only new first-tier city in the northwest Gobi Desert…

- Description from novelbuddy

Ning Yue was a military doctor and a special forces soldier. During a mission to rescue hostages, she died from a bomb explosion. Ning Yue thought she was dead, but when she opened her eyes, she had become a woman in ancient times with the same name but a different surname.

This woman’s father was a general, but she lived in the Ning Family Village and was raised by her adoptive parents for more than ten years. A year ago, the people from the general’s residence found her and brought her back. However, they sent her back again a few months later. When the original owner of the body returned to the village, she was pregnant and gave birth to twin sons within a few months.

Another year passed, and the year of the great drought was ushered in. The entire village had to flee. The original owner of the body left with the rest of the villagers with her two sons and slow-witted father. In other words, the current special forces soldier, Ning Yue, was an older single young woman who had not experienced the sweetness of love. She had skipped all those steps, and directly became a mother to two children. She also gained the original owner’s dim-witted father and a body that didn’t work and had hunger pangs after starving for two days. But was that all? Don’t be naive!

“Don’t eat my daughter! Don’t eat my daughter!” The original owner’s father pleaded. “The older one’s meat is too hard, so it needs to be cooked longer. These two small ones have tender meat, so they only need to be roasted for a while. We’ll eat the big one tomorrow!” Ning Yue, who was now being viewed as food, looked up at the sky and said to herself, “Gee, thanks SO much!”

WARNING[R18]“I’m already engaged to him,” she blurted, her voice trembling but resolute.Her eyes shot toward the silver-haired man, the figure who had been watching her all along. Her heart pounded in her ears as she raised her hand, pointing directly across the room. The gesture felt foreign, like it wasn’t even her own body making the movement. But there he was, sitting quietly in the VVIP section, and she had to do something. Anything.All eyes turned toward her, and the room fell into stunned silence. The weight of a thousand gazes bore down on her, and the only sound was the frantic beat of her own heart as she waited for his response.***************Lilia’s life is turned upside down at a lavish masquerade party when an unexpected announcement claims she is engaged to Lowell, a man she has never agreed to marry. Caught between the overwhelming pressure of her parents’ expectations and the confusion surrounding her emotions, Lilia finds herself trapped in a web of deception. But when a silver-haired stranger named Zethan steals the spotlight, Lilia’s impulsive declaration sends shockwaves through the room. With her parents and Lowell thrown into chaos, Lilia is left questioning whether she has just freed herself—or unwittingly stepped into a more dangerous game of fate and manipulation.Who would have thought their futures had already been sealed? This vampire had been obsessed with her long before she ever knew he existed.