Puppet Master

[Scheduled to begin in early August]

[Arrogant, aloof puppeteer gong vs. cold-faced, King of Hell-like puppet shou]

The ghosts on duty at the Hall of the King of Hell said I was fated to meet one person across three lifetimes.

In my first life, I was Jun Xun, a notorious demon prince of the Beining royal family, born under an ill omen and cursed by all the people.

That person was Wen Qi, the former dynasty's Crown Prince's tutor. After the kingdom fell, he went into hiding under an assumed name and opened a rather fine tavern in the capital.

At our first meeting, the copper-smelling Boss Wen was forced by my master's authority to toss me a thin blanket. He looked down at me and sneered, "You sickly wretch think you're worth him risking everything to break into the imperial prison alone for your sake?"

"Hah. Useless trash."

Trash?

I smiled, convinced deep down that he was right.

But the talisman master Mu Gui, who saved me, would rather trade his own life for mine.

Before he died, he told me with absolute certainty, "Your Highness, you won't be confined to this narrow little world forever."

The people burned me alive in a raging fire. What remained was a new puppeteer, with the same blood as Mu Gui flowing through my veins.

The puppeteer lineage is passed down through a single heir in every generation.

We walk the world alone, neither dying nor perishing.

On the first day I became a puppeteer, no one offered congratulations. Instead, Boss Wen confronted me with a question brimming with hatred.

The man clutched my throat, his eyes wide with fury, tears filling those cold eyes.

I could hear how utterly heartbroken he was as he asked, "Why was it him who died, and not you?"

Oh?

I think I've stumbled upon quite a secret.

I smiled and pried his fingers away one by one, deliberately twisting the knife: "Naturally, because the person Boss Wen loves from afar but can never have... loves me deeply."

That day, Wen Qi and I parted on bad terms.

Not long after, the arrogant Boss Wen began clinging to me of his own accord.

My puppet told me Wen Qi had obtained a secret technique that could trade one life for another and bring his master back to life.

I shattered his beautiful dream with my own hands, my fingers resting against his neck as I felt his warmth.

Then I told Wen Qi, who was afflicted with a bone-entangling incense, to his face: "You've been deceived, Boss Wen."

In the end, I still had to clean up his mess.

A mortal's passion, a single night of pleasure.

I thought Wen Qi would wake up and go berserk, determined to drag us both down with him.

But I never expected to see an emotion in his eyes that I couldn't understand.

Hmm?

What's going on?

(Narrated in third person)

[Reader's Guide]

1. First life: demon prince Jun Xun vs. all-knowing tavern owner Wen Qi.

Sickly, seemingly gentle but secretly cunning, mad noble gong vs. sinister, shrewd, sharp-tongued, cold-hearted shou.

2. Second life: immortal young master Xie Li vs. lying little beggar A Yun.

Cool, aloof, sharp-tongued, troublesome gong vs. smooth-talking, actor-level, utterly useless shou.

3. In the first life, the shou doesn't love his master, and the master doesn't love the gong either. The gong deliberately provokes the shou.

4. Puppeteers aren't subject to reincarnation, but the shou is mortal. In the second life, the shou becomes the gong's puppet.

5. The gong is the most handsome, strongest, smartest, and least susceptible to pressure in the whole book.

6. This blurb is for the first life. Every life has a happy ending, and the gong and shou love each other with all their hearts. I'll add blurbs for the second and third lives before they begin. They can be read as separate stories.

7. Overall, it's a commanding, disciplined, irresistibly appealing dom gong and a sinister, obsessive, mad-dog shou.

8. Written to indulge my tastes. I'm letting loose, so please spare me the writing advice.

Theme: You and I were made for each other.