How to Escape the Darkened Villain

Cunning, resilient schemer girl x gentle prodigy with a dark, two-faced streak. A liar and a madman find salvation in each other.

Si Fu was born into one of the top cultivation clans and was once a genius celebrated across Zhongzhou.

Unfortunately, her cultivation was destroyed, leaving her crippled.

This ruined nobody, with her shattered dantian and meridians, had saved Ji Wumei three times.

The first time, she saved him with ulterior motives, testing medicines and artifacts on his severed meridians.

The second time, she had no choice. Someone forced her to mend his lifeline.

Only the third time, when she had meant to destroy him, did the look he gave her in the last flicker of life make her come to her senses.

Beyond using him, she felt for him as someone who had also fallen from the heights of genius.

She let him go, but he haunted her, following her like a shadow.

On the blood-red night when her sect was massacred, he held a long sword and strode across the blood-soaked ground, a bone-chilling coldness in his eyes.

She had used him, deceived him, and abandoned him. Si Fu thought she would die right there.

Instead, the cold hilt of the sword was forced into her palm. He gripped her hand with enough force to nearly crush her finger bones, while the blade rested against his own neck.

"Si Fu, here's your chance."

"Kill me, or... come with me."

*

Ji Wumei had suffered misfortune after misfortune. All he wanted from life was a pot of rough wine, a thatched hut, and, if he was lucky, a wife and children to keep him warm. He wanted a simple life.

The young woman who had saved him all those years ago was everything he had ever wanted, and she had even promised to stay by his side forever.

That night, feverish and barely conscious, he clutched her hand and asked:

"What you said... was it true?"

She fell silent for a moment, then replied in a voice too gentle to be real:

"Of course it was."

He smiled in the dark and let go of her hand.

He had heard the hesitation in that moment.

It didn't matter.

A lie could still come true. He would make each of her promises come true himself.

#Longing for what one cannot have, awake or asleep.

#She used him and abandoned him, but he still loves her.

Next story: A Friend's Wife Must Never Be Abandoned

Yun Fuguang was a genius, and geniuses tended to have their quirks. She couldn't remember people's names.

There was one exception: her senior brother Lu Chenyue, who always outshone her.

Yun Fuguang vowed to surpass this top prodigy. But then she accidentally contracted a strange, incurable poison. The only way to stabilize her cultivation was through a man's yang energy.

Recently jilted, Yun Fuguang thought it over and decided to find a new cultivation partner.

Strangely, though, her usually friendly fellow disciples started avoiding her like the plague.

When she invited a junior brother to spar, he claimed his sword had broken.

She asked a senior brother to join her on an adventure, but he changed his mind before they even left the sect.

She arranged to share a drink under the moon with someone, but waited half the night. No one came, and the poison struck first.

Yun Fuguang collapsed beneath a tree, nearly fainting. Through blurry vision, she saw someone descend gracefully from the sky and reach out to her from afar.

His jade-like face shone with the silvery glow of moonlight, and the rich, sweet scent of pure yang energy filled the air, tugging at her heartstrings.

Dazed and reeling, Yun Fuguang suddenly thought that although her senior brother was irritating, he had always arrived like a timely rain whenever her poison flared up.

Without thinking, she took his hand. Deciding to treat him like any ordinary senior brother and set aside her prejudice, she said sincerely:

"Thank you, Senior Brother Lu... Lu... Lu Yingyue."

Lu Chenyue: ?

So after being reborn, he'd gone to all that trouble to make her remember his name, only for her to forget it completely as soon as they made peace?!

Lu Chenyue laughed in fury. He seized her hand and pulled her into his arms, his gaze dark as an abyss.

"It seems that sharing a bed with your junior sister to suppress her poison isn't enough to make me unforgettable."

"Yun Fuguang, I'm the only one in the world who can cure your poison!"

Righteous with a hint of wickedness, unconventional, and hopelessly oblivious junior sister x top-tier wolf in sheep's clothing, jealous senior brother who loses his composure every day

Reader's Guide:

1. 1v1, both leads' firsts. The female lead's husband-to-be is gay, and his whole family is guilty of something. The male lead is straight as a die; everything is part of his scheme.

2. A fantasy world with an original setting, nothing too complicated. The story is a slow burn, split evenly between romance and plot, with a bit of an ensemble cast.

3. Both leads are fallen geniuses. The female lead has it rough at first and clashes with the male lead, but they fall in love later.

4. This is not a strong female lead story. The female lead has flaws in her personality, all shaped by what she has been through. The male lead has suffered terribly and is twisted and obsessive, but at heart he's a hopeless romantic.

Theme: Endure hardship, and at last find freedom.