"I know you're vulgar and selfish, snobbish and vain, a second-rate nobody, but I love you."
1.
Zhou Yan graduated near the bottom of a second-rate liberal arts college. Even the dogs wouldn't hire him.
After accidentally transmigrating to a feudal era, he was beaming with joy.
This backward dump was full of stupid, ignorant people from ancient times. Surely he could impress everyone with a little display of skill and rise to the top?
2.
The first time, Zhou Yan couldn't make a living. He was nearly starving to death on the roadside before the young master of the county magistrate's household took him in.
Zhou Yan smugly assumed the other had recognized his extraordinary talent.
In fact, the young master had his eye on Zhou Yan's looks. When drunk, he would cling to him and nibble his neck, cooing, "Big brother, you smell so good."
Zhou Yan was furious. "I'm not into men!"
He only wanted to build a career!
If this guy had no taste, then Zhou Yan would find someone else!
So when he met a great general from the imperial capital, Zhou Yan immediately turned on the little brat who kept crying and annoying him, kicking him to the curb.
This man was an official from the capital, after all!
3.
The second time, Zhou Yan followed the general back to the capital.
As it turned out, the general hadn't been drawn to his talent either.
Zhou Yan stamped his feet and cursed. "Bah! Every last one of you is an idiot! Are you blind?"
With scratches covering his shoulders and back, the general put on his clothes and sneered:
"You didn't get enough cursing in last night? Still going? If you're really so tough, you should've kept it up last night. After calling me a beast, you should've stopped begging for mercy. You might have suffered a little less."
Sore all over, Zhou Yan twisted the brocade quilt in his fingers and gritted his teeth. Damn pervert!
Once he became the head of all the officials, he would chop off those two measly inches of the man surnamed Wei and feed them to the dogs!
He decided to find someone else to help him achieve his ambition!
4.
The third time, Zhou Yan finally managed to secretly get close to a prince of high rank and power.
Just as he was about to take things further, the general was accused of treason, and his household was confiscated.
The general fled.
Zhou Yan became one of the confiscated possessions, turned over to the state treasury and sent into the imperial palace.
But he thought this was a once-in-a-lifetime chance to show off his talent.
Surely the emperor couldn't be some fool who only cared about looks and ignored substance!
Besides, Zhou Yan had long heard that the emperor despised relations between men and had explicitly forbidden his officials from indulging in male lovers.
Zhou Yan: "A good emperor who serves the people. This is a sure thing!"
[Bonus Scene]:
The emperor met the treasure that, according to rumor, Wei Heng had kept pampered and secluded in his mansion.
He was certainly beautiful.
But as soon as he entered the palace, he grabbed the emperor's robe and began to sob and complain.
He told the emperor how the general had mistreated him and how much he had suffered. He even said he would handwrite a list of eighty-one charges to prove to the world that the general was guilty of every evil under the sun.
But the man was healthy and rosy-cheeked, dressed in silk that even the palace consorts might not get their hands on. How did he look mistreated at all?
The emperor calmly pulled his robe back, annoyance in his eyes. "So General Wei has raised himself a pretty little ingrate."
The man panicked at once. In a hurry, he produced evidence, lifted his clothes, and showed the emperor a purple bite mark on his waist.
The emperor didn't hear another word of his complaints. His icy gaze fixed on that slender, pale waist.
He realized that the thing between his legs, which had done nothing for twenty-eight years, was stirring faintly.
*Reader's Guide: A man who can only rely on his looks but insists on relying on his talent (which he thinks he has in abundance). In truth, he's a fickle, heartless scoundrel who treats everyone as a stepping stone on his way up, until all the men he used and discarded come back for him...
*Notes: ① A hypocritical, selfish, beautiful fool, adored by everyone without realizing it. The bottom is straight and will remain straight.
② Top 1: An emperor who dislikes men and is impotent, but ends up loving it.
③ Top 2: A general who curses viciously to your face, then indulges in increasingly depraved games in private, obsessed with humiliation and pursuing him in the shadows.
④ Top 3: The county magistrate's young master, a little white flower at first who later becomes a deeply twisted, obsessive man who loves NTR.
⑤ Top 4: A patient, gentle-looking but ruthless, fiercely possessive wolf-dog Crown Prince who finally snaps (adopted into the imperial clan).
⑥ Top 5: A lofty, upright official who goes mad for love.
⑦ Top 6: A shameless hypocrite with no morals, who brazenly steals his friend's wife and cruelly humiliates him to his face.
⑧ Top 7: A stable hand who oversteps his station, forces him to sit on his lap, and enjoys humiliating play.
⑨ More to be added...
*No cheating.
*Content warning: melodramatic plot. The characters' values do not represent the author's.
*The opening line of the blurb is adapted from The Veil.
*I won't abandon this. The entire novel is drafted.
Theme: Persevere and strive for self-improvement. Relying on yourself is better than relying on others.
