After the First Love Who Died Young Came Back to Life

Ten years after Jin Zhi's death, a guy claiming to be a System dragged him out of the underworld and told him that, in the decade since his death, his closest friends had gone completely mad with grief.

To preserve world peace, countless players had tried to save them, but every attempt had ended in failure.

The only chance was for Jin Zhi to return in person and soothe those lunatics standing at the pinnacle of the world.

When he opened his eyes again, he had become a treasured item offered by an auction house owner in hopes of pleasing a friend.

A cruel voice sounded from behind him. The beauty, dressed in white silk with his clothes half undone, stepped barefoot onto the red velvet carpet and suddenly stumbled. His gaze met a pair of deep, pitch-black eyes as cold as an icy pool.

Before he could react, the man's indifferent gaze swept over him, his tone icy.

“An inferior fake.”

Jin Zhi: ?

–

Everyone in the upper district knew that those few favored sons of heaven each had a dead, unattainable first love living in their hearts.

Countless substitutes resembling that lost love had been sent to them to win a smile, but none had survived more than three days.

So when a new substitute who looked a little like their lost love appeared, everyone assumed the fool would meet a gruesome end. They all placed bets on when the violent big shots would throw him out.

But they waited and waited, only to see

The ruthless, iron-blooded prosecutor had a bright red handprint on his face, yet knelt on one knee to carefully tie the substitute's untied shoelace, his expression gentle.

The Alliance general, who hadn't smiled in ten years, wrapped the substitute up snugly in his military coat and murmured something soothing in his ear, his expression full of adoration.

Even the newly enthroned crown prince, famed for his ruthless methods, took the substitute's hand in front of everyone at a banquet and solemnly kissed it.

–

Remembering the System's warning about the mission's extreme difficulty, Jin Zhi proceeded carefully, watching every step.

But gradually, he realized something was wrong.

His body grew weaker and weaker. He had the constitution of a sickly beauty who coughed after walking just a few steps.

He asked the System what was going on, but it told him that he had to absorb the protagonists' fortune to survive.

So he began a life of carrying out his mission in constant fear while siphoning off their fortune.

The starving beasts were more than happy to oblige. They kept him well fed every day, and his complexion grew rosier and rosier.

Once the mission was complete and he had regained a new body, Jin Zhi felt his work was done. He left a farewell letter and went in search of the freedom he longed for, but he underestimated just how crazy his close friends were.

They caught him that very night.

An exquisite gold chain was fastened around his slender ankle, and the moon they had regained was locked in a cage.

Ten years of longing and obsession completely overwhelmed the beloved they had lost.

The men kept him trapped among them, trembling as they nuzzled the boy's tear-wet, flushed eyes, their voices hoarse.

“Baby, you used us and ran... That's so cruel...”

“Ten years... This time, you will never leave again.”

–

[Bonus Scene]

Close Friend A: He only looks a little like him, and I've already lost all the self-control I'm so proud of.

Close Friend B (sneering): A, sneaking off to enjoy a substitute. How can you face Xiao Zhi?

Close Friend C: I want to see who managed to steal your heart, making you forget a friend you've known for years.

C, after seeing him: Damn, our brother's been enjoying something this good behind our backs.

Reader's Guide

A naturally seductive, confident, sweet-on-the-outside-and-dark-within bottom × a group of lunatics who hide it well. An old-school, dramatic, satisfying story. The top doesn't seek out substitutes. Men who do aren't worthy of a seat at the table, just so you know.

[Upcoming Novel: Kissed the Wrong Daddy, Then Got Doted On. Please Add to Your Favorites]

[Guiding, fatherly Enigma top × soft, sweet, well-behaved beauty bottom. Please Add to Your Favorites~]

Wen Qiao'an had been secretly in love with his childhood friend for years, quietly staying by his side from high school through college.

His friend was an excellent student from a wealthy family, an alpha, while he was an unremarkable beta. He didn't even dare to confess.

He thought his hopeless crush would come to nothing, until his childhood friend got his heart broken over another Omega yet again and called him to a bar to drink away his sorrows.

Amid the dim lights, with alcohol clouding his judgment, Wen Qiao'an found himself caught by the wrist and pressed against a wall, kissed until he trembled.

Wen Qiao'an was both thrilled and nervous. He didn't stop the man's advances, only asked timidly, “So, do you like me now?”

The man's movements paused. His hand tightened around Wen Qiao'an's waist as he ordered,

“Open your mouth.”

–

After their night together, Wen Qiao'an thought his dream had come true. But when he woke the next morning, he felt like the sky had fallen.

First, the man he'd spent the night with wasn't his childhood friend.

Second, he was his childhood friend's biological older brother?!!

The older brother was Pei Yanchu, who had built a business from nothing as a young man. He was a legend known to everyone in A City. Despite years of success, he'd never been linked to any romantic scandals, and now he'd spent the night with Wen Qiao'an.

The little beta grew more and more scared as he thought about it. Before Pei Yanchu could offer him hush money, he went to him and said, “Mr. Pei, I won't tell anyone what happened last night. Please don't tell Si An either, okay?”

Pei Yanchu raised an eyebrow. “You like him?”

Wen Qiao'an exclaimed, “How did you figure that out?!”

Pei Yanchu laughed. “I guessed.”

–

Pei Yanchu was an Enigma. Ordinary pheromones did nothing to soothe him, yet he fell for one little beta.

The little beta was just like his name: gentle, reserved, and quiet. When he was in pain in bed, he didn't even dare to cry. He only looked at Pei Yanchu with pitiful, wide eyes.

The little beta was very thin, too. Pei Yanchu guessed that no one had taken good care of him, and he hadn't taken good care of himself either. His legs were so slender that one hand could encircle them. That simply wouldn't do.

The little beta was also very foolish. He had been in love with Pei Yanchu's younger brother for years without getting anywhere, yet he kept throwing himself into it, getting his heart broken again and again and crying so pitifully.

Normally, Pei Yanchu would have gone to stop his younger brother. This time, though, he didn't. Every time Wen Qiao'an got his heart broken, Pei Yanchu seized the opportunity to grow closer to him, one step at a time.

Then, without making a fuss, he became the only refuge Wen Qiao'an could turn to after his foolish younger brother hurt him.

He listened to him cry, soothed him to sleep, then slowly and repeatedly claimed him, body and soul.

Until Wen Qiao'an was covered in his scent, inside and out, with no way to wash it off.

–

When his childhood friend tried to win Wen Qiao'an back, he unexpectedly walked in on this scene.

His older brother, who had always been aloof and had never deigned to accept anyone's advances, was holding his good friend tenderly in his arms.

The man's hand gripped the slender nape of Wen Qiao'an's neck possessively as he bent down to kiss him deeply.

The beta he remembered as only ever blushing and shyly avoiding his gaze was now tilting his head back, fingers curling weakly against his brother's expensive shirt, yielding to his every demand.

In his confusion, the childhood friend belatedly realized the ugliness of his own thoughts. He looked up and met Pei Yanchu's unfathomable gaze.

The man drew the person in his arms even closer, his broad frame completely blocking the other's view. He leisurely brushed his thumb over his lips, as though savoring the taste of something.

“Brother... you two...”

His childhood friend's voice trembled.

The Enigma's gaze calmly passed over his younger brother's pallid face.

“Now, he's mine.”

“You should learn to understand where you stand, little brother.”

[Reader's Guide]

1. Guiding, fatherly Enigma top × soft, sweet, well-behaved beauty bottom. The bottom isn't insecure.

2. They get together before falling in love. Both are each other's first. The bottom initially has a crush on the top's younger brother, while the top has a crush on the bottom. No children. A pure, sweet story about doting on one's wife.

3. The childhood friend tries to win him back but fails. His ashes are scattered, that's how thoroughly he loses. He's just a plot device.

Theme: Love can carry you through the long years.