After I Faked My Death, the Divine Lord Became a Brooding Ghost

{Reunion after a breakup | Faked death | Dark and obsessive | The aloof beauty falls from her pedestal | Episodic story}

Yu Duo, a homeless girl living on the streets, had been frowning with worry lately. Unless she found the so-called divine artifacts, she was afraid her life would soon be over.

Fortunately, luck was finally on her side. The fallen god she had met by chance at a shrine, Xuan Jian, took the initiative and invited her to travel with him.

Still, Yu Duo couldn't shake the feeling that he had seen through her ulterior motives.

To save her own skin, she did everything she could for him.

When he became lost in an illusion, she fed the divine artifact her blood to break it. When a monster held him hostage, she risked her own life to save him...

At last, they recovered all the divine artifacts. Xuan Jian immediately prepared to return to the Celestial Realm and report back. Seeing her prize about to slip away, Yu Duo gritted her teeth, used snake venom, and tried to steal the artifacts.

But she hadn't expected the venom to be anything but an ordinary drug. As the god, who had always seemed so pure and noble, was about to die because of her, the girl's trembling hand reached for the clothes of the person on the bed...

When the first light of dawn broke, Yu Duo ran away without looking back, taking every divine artifact with her.

The loss of the divine artifacts enraged the Celestial Emperor. He struck Xuan Jian with the Nine Heavens' Profound Thunder until he fainted.

When he awoke, the bold mortal girl had been flayed and dismembered by the Celestial Emperor. Her three souls and seven spirits had been shattered, and she was condemned never to enter the cycle of reincarnation.

Everyone believed Xuan Jian had overcome his inner demons and become the God of War because his humiliation had been completely erased.

No one knew about the ruthless plan this god, who had always respected his elders, was secretly plotting to rebel against the Celestial Court and kill the Celestial Emperor.

And no one saw how the god, so noble and radiant by day, spent his nights obsessively calling the name of the dead mortal girl over and over, like a ghost, like a wandering spirit. “How could you leave me behind? You're a bad girl.”

Xuan Jian watched Yu Duo pour the snake venom into the wine with his own eyes.

The girl smiled faintly as she handed him the wine. He took it and drank it all in one go.

As a burning heat coursed wildly through his body, Xuan Jian thought darkly:

If Yu Duo left him behind, he would crawl after her if he had to, and die with her.

If she stayed... she would be his only wife.

Note: The heroine fakes her death.

--Here's a preview of my next novel! 😘

{Fatherly male lead x resilient sister-in-law}

The Gu family had two sons. The elder was a brilliant prodigy with a promising official career, while the younger was frail and sickly. In recent years, he had coughed up blood several times, and looked close to death. Madam Gu actually came up with the idea of finding him a wife to bring him good luck.

Shen Ruyi's husband died on the second day of their marriage. No matter how she explained herself, her mother-in-law believed she had caused his death and demanded that she take her own life to atone for her son's.

Fortunately, her brother-in-law Gu Yun had just returned home and spoke up to stop her. Perhaps he feared that a young bride's early death would harm his career prospects. Whatever the reason, the matter was dropped.

Shen Zhiyi survived, but without a husband to rely on, she was not favored by her mother-in-law. Even the servants could bully her as they pleased.

She could just about tolerate the stale food, but Shen Zhiyi was always cold. When she married into the Gu family in early spring, her room didn't even have a thin quilt.

After a late-spring cold snap, Shen Zhiyi fell ill. As her fever blurred her consciousness, she seemed to hear her brother-in-law's voice.

“Sell every last one of them.”

Shen Zhiyi had never liked owing anyone anything, especially not her brother-in-law, who had saved her life.

When she heard that he had lost his appetite, she searched through cookbooks and made him a meal herself. When he was attacked by slanderous accusations, she did her best to comfort him...

As time passed, Shen Zhiyi grew used to taking care of Gu Yun in every way. Then word spread that her mother-in-law was arranging a marriage for her eldest son, and she decided it was time to withdraw from her brother-in-law's life...

--

Gu Yun couldn't understand why he had dreamed about his younger brother's wife, or why he had such a steamy erotic dream. When he couldn't figure it out, he simply stopped thinking about it and continued placing the things she gave him somewhere prominent.

But why hadn't his sister-in-law visited lately?

He was a little restless.

The first time Gu Yun entered his younger brother's bridal chamber, he kissed his sister-in-law as if possessed.

It wasn't until she asked him to give her divorce papers to his mother that Gu Yun dropped his composed facade for the first time and forced her to stay. “You don't have to be my sister-in-law. You can be my wife. I'll treat you well from now on.”

But she seemed frightened by his shocking declaration and refused to see him.

Gu Yun got very drunk and was targeted by someone trying to harm him. He would rather hold it in until he died than seek help from anyone else, and once again his selfless bodhisattva, his sister-in-law, saved him.

[Side Story]

Gu Yun held her soft hand and stared intently at his wife. “Could Yun have another go?”

His rabbit-like wife shook her head, eyes red.

Gu Yun saw her embarrassed, reluctant expression and shook his head helplessly. Then he tightened his arms and pulled his wife close. “Be good. Just one last time.”

Outside the window, the crabapple blossoms were battered by rain all night, while the sobbing inside the room never stopped for a moment.

Theme: The reason we seek to glimpse fate is to change it.