Loving Madeline - Chapter 203 - I Failed

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.

Dreaming back in the middle of the night, Wen Mingtang saw the ending of the beauty who pampered the golden house;

After waking up from the dream, Wen Mingtang changed his core and decided to take a down-to-earth path…

****

At the end of last year, the evaluation forms for personnel changes in various ministries in the capital came out, and the public chef of Dali Temple topped the list with a record of changing 12 cooks in half a year.

Since then, the public chef of Dali Temple has become famous in the first battle, and has become a nightmare for cooks all over the capital.

…

On this day, a new chef came to the public kitchen of Dali Temple who had been vacant for more than half a month…

- Description from novelbuddy

Xie Chaochao was originally the daughter of a wealthy family who was supposed to grow up with a silver spoon in her mouth.

Yet, her good fortune ended when she met her evil stepmother. When she was less than a year old, she was thrown into a ravine by her vicious stepmother and left to fend for herself!

However, a newly released murderer picked her up and brought her home. From then on, the two of them depended on each other for survival. Xie Chaochao grew up among the animals.

Tigers and snakes were all her friends.

In the eyes of outsiders, Xie Chaochao and her adoptive father, Xie Zhou, were a pair of weirdos. Everyone in the village avoided them.

Xie Chaochao, who did not know her background, grew up without any worries.

When she was five years old, she met a rich and knowledgeable old man and learned a lot from him. Even her adoptive father who was once a murderer became a business magnate. Xie Chaochao had become a true rich daughter, but it was at this time that Xie Chaochao’s family came knocking on her door.

When Xie Chaochao learned of the truth behind her mother’s death, she decided to return home and avenge her mother.

Afraid that the cat would be out of the bag, her evil stepmother tried to kill Xie Chaochao several times. However, Xie Chaochao was no longer the baby at her stepmother’s mercy like she once was.

She had Xie Zhou, her adoptive father who doted on her, and her military advisor grandfather with her this time! There was even a mysterious man who always helped her when she was in trouble…

Persona:

Xie Chaochao: Optimistic, kind, and smart

Gu Pei: A mysterious man who was mesmerized by Xie Chaochao’s ray of innocence

August Clementine was once Reacher, a wealthy and thrill-seeking businessman who had everything but satisfaction in life. After a fatal adventure, Reacher awakens on a parallel Earth, in the body of the destitute and troubled 19-year-old August Clementine. With his new identity, August finds himself burdened with debt and responsible for his beloved younger sister, Sophia. Desperate to change their fate, August immerses himself in Enders Light, a cutting-edge VRMMORPG that blurs the line between virtual and reality. In this fantastical game world, players can bring specific items that meet certain requirements into the real world and even gain a fraction of their in-game abilities and strength. Stuck at level 12 and unable to progress past his starting village due to a rare armor shortage, August must rely on his wits and determination. A breakthrough comes when he retrieves a mystical purification stone from a river teeming with magical aqua beasts and uses it to cleanse an ancient, corrupted altar. His reward includes the legendary Fruit of Corruption, a priceless item with the potential to grant supernatural abilities in the real world. Caught between the allure of selling the fruit for financial security and the temptation of gaining extraordinary powers, August must make a choice that will define his and Sophia’s future... “What? I gained the ability to extract any item from the game into the real world without restrictions?”