The Fate of a Failed Usurper

[Hypocritical Gentleman on Top x Vicious Villain for Real]

Le Zhan had been jealous of Li Xiuyi for being favored ever since childhood.

He could not understand why, though they were both sons of the emperor, Li Xiuyi had been born the lofty crown prince while he was an illegitimate child of unknown origins, looked down on by everyone.

A wicked thought suddenly took root.

So he masterminded a coup, causing Li Xiuyi to suffer defeat at Mount Mang and die without a proper burial. Then he seized the crown prince's position for himself, rising to power from there.

But he still did not know that stabbing someone in the back would bring retribution.

It was only when Li Xiuyi, who should have been nothing but bones by now, arrived at the city gates with his troops, slaughtered the rebels, and strode through a sea of blood, that Le Zhan finally realized, as a blade was held to his throat:

It was over. This time, he was truly finished.

But it was obvious that realizing this now was already too late.

Li Xiuyi carefully wiped the splattered blood from Le Zhan's face, studying the terror and trembling on it as if he had fallen into hell. Then he smiled, gentle and refined to an extreme. "It's been a while, my dear younger brother."

*

In the twenty-eighth year of Yuancheng, three years of factional strife and turmoil came to an end. A new emperor ascended the throne, as benevolent and kind as ever. Yet when his ministers urged him to expand the imperial harem, he fell silent in a way that chilled them to the bone.

Rumor had it that the empress's seat was not actually vacant.

Rumor had it that when the new emperor was in peril, a common woman had saved him, and he had promised to love her until their hair turned white.

Rumor had it that the empress was breathtakingly beautiful.

Unable to contain their curiosity, some palace attendants sneaked into Yongle Palace, hoping to catch a glimpse of the beauty. Instead, they saw that the person held captive in the new emperor's arms was none other than the traitorous Ninth Prince, who had started the Mount Mang rebellion, nearly driven the emperor to his death, and then been executed in public.

Li Xiuyi deliberately tilted Le Zhan's pained, furrowed face so that the eyes peeking in from outside the door could see more clearly. He nipped his ear affectionately. "Put a little more spirit into it. Someone's watching."

The moment their eyes met, both sides were thoroughly frightened. Le Zhan turned pale and tried to get away, but he was locked tightly in Li Xiuyi's arms. Unable to struggle free, he could only cry helplessly. "You bastard..."

"Bear it," Li Xiuyi said, licking the fine beads of cold sweat from his forehead. His voice was so gentle it sent a chill down the spine. "You owe me."

Keywords and potential triggers: Older semibrother, just deserts, melodramatic noncon, East Asian-style obsessive love and hatred, emperor gong, corrupted familial bonds

P.S.:

1. The shou is straight and has a fiancee in name, but there is no BG romance, and that part does not take up much space. The focus is on the gong returning from the dead, going mad with jealousy, breaking up the couple, and forcibly turning the shou gay. I like scenes where a straight man is forced into it. (Screams and runs away.)

2. The shou really does act like a fool, and the gong really does hit him. The gong plays dirty. Neither of them follows a virtuous, happy-go-lucky path, and the gong maintains his superior position from beginning to end. He does not play favorites or treat them as equals. This is very unfriendly to readers who strongly favor either the gong or the shou, and is not suitable for readers who favor one side. There are scenes where the shou is physically abused. This is not sweet romance, not sweet romance, not sweet romance. If you're strongly attached to one side, run. Please read the warnings and make sure you're okay with them before reading.

==

My next novel, The Rules of the Upper Crust, is now underway.

A father who gambles away everything, a mother who vanished, an indifferent grandmother, and a broken family.

Bai Che spent the first twenty years of his life in dire straits. He even went into sex work to support himself, using his exceptionally handsome face and his silver tongue to win over a wealthy businessman from eastern Guangdong. After making a fortune, he dumped the man and prepared to flee overseas to escape his pursuers.

Then, at the age of twenty, he heard that his mother had died in a psychiatric hospital abroad. Only then did Bai Che learn that the mother he had never met had once been a famous star in Hong Kong City, and had once been the secret lover of a mysterious tycoon.

He was the illegitimate son of Ye Yuying, the wealthiest man in Hong Kong City.

Old Master Ye had little time left. On his deathbed, overcome by nostalgia, he sent someone to bring Bai Che back to the family estate, hoping to make up for the father-son bond they had missed out on for over twenty years.

When he first heard the news, Bai Che almost laughed himself to death. It seemed his mother had looked out for him after all, leaving him such a huge surprise even after she died.

He thought a fortune beyond his wildest dreams awaited him, and that he would leap from rags to riches and rise to prominence. Instead, a fox had stumbled straight into a den of wolves. They devoured him, then crunched up his bones and swallowed them whole.

The Ye family followed strict rules of etiquette. His several older brothers had all received the education of old-school European gentlemen, and each was more elegant and affable than the last. Yet beneath their distant, courteous masks, something even more secretive and repressed seemed to lurk.

Whether it was the attic secured with ten locks and strictly off-limits,

or the glass of thick, spoiled red wine on the table in the hidden room behind the bathroom mirror,

or the explicit, fetish-specific pajamas prepared for him, and the white pills crushed and dissolved into his warm milk, everything made him feel that danger was closing in.

This European-style manor stood by the sea, nestled among the hills of Kowloon. By day, the sunlight was dazzling, without a trace of shadow. But at night, all the madness that had been repressed, hidden, and kept from the light surged through the dark depths, dragging his hands and feet down with it into the deep sea.

At his father's bedside, hands full of possessive intent slid beneath his clothes, leaving one mark after another as they vied to conquer him.

"Don't worry, Father. After you pass, we'll take good care of our little brother."

With one hand braced against the headboard and his legs trembling, Bai Che gave a strangely inflected reply to his father's final request.

"I understand. A-Che will behave."

The Ye family, supposedly a clan of wealthy and prominent people, was actually full of repressed lunatics. Bai Che only saw the truth clearly after they had each taken their turn with him.

Looks like he'll have to go back to his old line of work: make money, dump them, and run.

Theme: It's never too late to mend your ways; doing so is a great virtue.