The white rose I picked up cried and said she liked me.

The flickering flames licked the air, just centimeters from the soles of his feet, as if they would leap up at any moment and burn through his shoes.

"Holy shit!" Xu Nian was so frightened that she trembled all over, and cold sweat instantly soaked her back. She swore again.

Ignoring the aches and pains all over his body, he grabbed the railing haphazardly with both hands and pulled himself up with all his might.

"Long Teng! You can't do this!" he shouted anxiously, his voice almost choked with tears. "Move that thing away right now!"

But Long Teng ignored his shouts.

But Long Teng ignored his calls, still smiling, and squatted down to slowly adjust the firewood in the brazier.

After a few flicks, the flames rose a little higher, just a hair's breadth away from Xu Nian's feet.

It was obvious that they wanted to force him to keep doing pull-ups in order to escape the scorching heat.

Xu Nian dared not slack off; her will to survive overcame all the aches and pains.

To avoid becoming roast duck, he desperately tried to lift his body upwards.

Every movement felt like my arm was being ripped off, and the soreness in my muscles spread throughout my body.

But he dared not stop. The thought of the flames beneath his feet forced him to grit his teeth and persevere.

"Quick, take the brazier away! I'm running out of strength!"

After doing more than a dozen ups and downs on the horizontal bar, Xu Nian felt that her arms were so numb that they almost didn't belong to her anymore.

His voice trembled, and he hurriedly began to beg for mercy.

Long Teng, however, remained unmoved and continued counting for Xu Nian: "Fifteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen..."

......

The setting sun left a golden mark on the sea, and the blazing sun that had hung in the sky all day sank into the golden seawater.

The bright moon, along with the stars, climbed into the sky, announcing the arrival of night.

Inside the presidential suite 2003, Xu Xi leaned back on the soft sofa, sipping warm coffee while casually flipping through the hotel's daily mail.

She didn't need to go out today, so she wore a loose black nightgown, the hem of which barely covered her ankles, revealing a pair of delicate, white feet that were unconsciously rubbing against the sofa cushions, like a kitten kneading.

Just then, a soft knock on the door interrupted her reading.

She put down the newspaper, got up, went to the door, and opened it.

There was no one in sight outside the door.

She peeked out again and looked to the left and right, but apart from the cleaning staff sweeping at the far end of the corridor, there was still no one else around.

She frowned and scratched her head in confusion: Had she misheard?

She was just about to close the door when she heard a weak groan coming from beneath her feet.

Xu Xi looked down at the sound and saw a dark, grimy thing crawling around his feet, emitting a faint smell of sweat and dirt.

She was startled, instinctively pulled her toes back, and took two steps back.

But upon closer inspection, it wasn't a monster at all; it was clearly Xu Nian.

At this moment, he was dressed in tattered clothes, covered in dust and sweat, his hair was messy and stuck to his forehead, and his face and arms were covered with bruises. There was not a clean spot on his body. He looked like he had just crawled out of hell, and he was almost unrecognizable.

Upon recognizing him, Xu Xi couldn't help but chuckle, gently kicking his arm as he teased him.

"With skills like yours, you still want to train physical fitness with Long Teng? I think you're living too comfortably and want to make things difficult for yourself, huh?"

Xu Nian lay on the ground, her whole body aching and unable to move. Hearing her teasing, she was filled with grief and indignation, and wanted to cry but had no tears.

Long Teng, that living devil, is utterly inhuman. If he dares to slack off even slightly, he will be forced to continue using all sorts of devilish methods.

20 kilometers, 200 pull-ups, 300 sit-ups, and countless squats.

There's no gradual progression here; it's hellish difficulty right from the start, giving you no chance to adapt at all.

No one knows how Xu Nian survived this day under Long Teng's control.

Seeing that he was so weak that he didn't even have the strength to refute, and that his lips moved but he couldn't make a sound, Xu Xi lost interest in teasing him.

She squatted down, frowned, pinched Xu Nian's arm, clicked her tongue in disgust, but still reached out and grabbed his arm. With great effort, she dragged this dirty, smelly "mud man" into the bathroom and threw him directly into the bathtub filled with warm water.

She quickly stripped off Xu Nian's stained clothes, intending to give him a bath to get rid of the sweat odor.

I had just turned on the shower gel when the doorbell rang again.

Xu Xi wiped his hands helplessly and turned to open the door.

The moment the door opened and Xu Xi saw Long Teng standing outside, her face fell instantly. Her tone was icy, utterly unfriendly: "What is it?"

Although she knew that it was Xu Nian's own decision to train with Long Teng, and that he had also chosen the intensity of the training himself.

But seeing Xu Nian being tortured to the point of near death, she just couldn't stand it.

After all, this means she probably won't be able to collect her "tax" tonight.

Long Teng chuckled and scratched his head, his face full of apology, and said ingratiatingly, "I'm sorry, sister-in-law, I was a little too rough and couldn't control myself."

Xu Xi ignored him, rolled her eyes at him, and raised her hand to close the door.

Long Teng quickly reached out to steady himself on the door frame, chuckled, and pulled out a glass bottle containing brown liquid from behind his back, handing it to her.

"Sister-in-law, when the eldest son takes a bath tonight, pour this into his bathwater."

He dropped his nonchalant expression and his tone became serious.

"This is a family heirloom medicine that can quickly repair muscles damaged after exercise and consolidate training results. But it has one side effect, which is..."

He suddenly covered his mouth halfway through his sentence and winked at Xu Xi.

Then he jogged back to room 2004 next door.

Xu Xi stared at his hurriedly departing figure, completely bewildered.

What side effects? It's so annoying when someone only says half of what they mean!

She hates two types of people the most. The first type is those who only say half of what they mean.

She looked down at the glass bottle in her hand, shook it gently, and found the liquid to be cloudy with a faint herbal smell.

Although Long Teng is usually unserious and sometimes a bit cheeky, he still cares about her and Xu Nian, so he probably won't send anything dangerous.

Xu Xi thought for a moment, then turned around and went back to the bathroom. He unscrewed the bottle cap and poured the brown liquid inside into the bathtub filled with warm water.