The Hated Real Young Master Wants to Study Hard

A fake young master who starts out a jerk and later goes crazy x a pitiful real young master / adopted son x biological son / a groveling redemption arc / the uke suffers early on, then the seme gets put through the wringer / Updates at midnight. Paragraph comments are open. (Also, please follow and bookmark my upcoming novel, After Failing the Conquest, I Became Everyone's Favorite.)

Story blurb

1. Ji Xun spent nineteen years in the gutter before discovering that he was the real young master who had gone missing from the Ji family.

He returned to the Ji family and lived, studied, and ate alongside Ji Ci, their outstanding adopted son.

The fake young master, Ji Ci, had a beautiful face, and the smile he revealed made people's hearts flutter.

He tutored Ji Xun and taught him to play the piano. He was like a ray of sunshine shining into Ji Xun's damp and gloomy heart.

2. Ji Xun confessed to Ji Ci.

Ji Ci gripped his chin and narrowed his phoenix eyes. "I might consider making you my boyfriend, but you can't let any of our classmates know about us."

Ji Xun was overjoyed. Just thinking of Ji Ci as his boyfriend made his heart pound.

He wanted to give Ji Ci everything he could.

3. In Ji Ci's eyes, Ji Xun was just a pretty dog who came whenever he was called.

He had never planned on being with Ji Xun.

He would only call Ji Xun to the back of the school building and corner him against a wall, then leave him without hesitation whenever classmates walked by.

He trapped Ji Xun in a bathtub full of water and smiled cruelly. "Xiao Xun, since you like me, shouldn't you let me bully you a little?"

But he told other people, "That Ji Xun? He's just someone who wants to pursue me."

4. When Ji Xun returned to the Ji family, he had always thought he had finally found the family love he had dreamed of.

But his parents told him, "We brought you back to help us fight for the inheritance. If you can't get it, go back to the gutter."

Ji Ci gripped his wrist and leaned in close. "Let me bully you a little."

After being bullied until he was at death's door, suffering two days of fever, and narrowly escaping death,

Ji Xun finally understood that Ji Ci didn't love him, and his parents had never accepted him either.

5. When Ji Xun told Ji Ci they were breaking up, Ji Ci still thought he was only saying it. He liked Ji Ci so much. How could he bear to leave?

Later, Ji Xun moved out of the Wen family home and vanished from Ji Ci's sight for good.

6. Ji Ci had originally thought it was the biological son who couldn't live without him. Only later did he realize that he was the one who couldn't live without Ji Xun.

Everyone knew that Ji Ci had wanted to go to B University for graduate school for years, but he put Q University on his application instead.

7. In the drizzling rain, Ji Ci saw the figure he had longed for day and night. The person walked up to him under an umbrella, dressed in a finely tailored suit like a little prince.

Ji Ci grabbed the hem of his clothes, eyes red as he pleaded, "A Xun, can you forgive me? Will you get back together with me?"

The lowered eyes were still as clear and pure as ever, but Ji Ci couldn't see the slightest ripple of emotion in them.

He said, "We're brothers. How could we be together?"

Tips: They were never registered under the same household.

Both the parents and the seme will have a groveling redemption arc.

Upcoming novel: After Failing the Conquest, I Became Everyone's Favorite. Please follow!

After dying, Jiang Xingye, a former top-tier star, transmigrates into a book as a despised, villainous cannon-fodder character.

To return to his original world, he accepts a mission assigned by the System: win over the protagonist, Ji Huai.

Jiang Xingye becomes Ji Huai's fiancé in a business marriage, works for free at the Ji family's film company, and generates plenty of bad publicity.

But after three whole years, even after lowering himself into the dust and giving everything he had, he still couldn't warm Ji Huai's heart.

Ji Huai throws clothes in his face and looks at him with cold, lifeless eyes. "Stop wasting your effort. You're only good as a tool."

At that moment, he hears the System announce: "Conquest mission failed. This System will now become the [Charm Upgrade System]. Your charm will increase along with your career."

Jiang Xingye has no idea how charm is supposed to increase, but since the mission failed and he can never return to his original world, he can only stay here and build his career.

Ji Huai sees Jiang Xingye lower his long, thick lashes like raven feathers. The gentle eyes he used to know turn cold in a way he has never seen before.

"I'm really just a tool? Then let's end the engagement." His low voice brushes against Ji Huai's eardrums, and Ji Huai freezes.

Then Jiang Xingye turns and walks away without looking back.

-

They say the scandal-ridden star who acted in countless terrible movies and was dumped by his fiancé is about to join a talent competition. The whole entertainment industry mocks him.

[Dumped by Ji Huai, and now trying to scam money out of the entertainment industry?]

[Can we stop letting talentless, shameless trash like him pollute our eyes?]

[It's bad luck to compete alongside him!]

But then

During the singing round, the livestream is filled with mockery. He stands beneath the spotlights, sings in a magnetic, sensual voice, and shoots to the top of the trending charts.

During the dance assessment, everyone says he has no coordination. Onstage, his barefoot dance with a ribbon blindfold leaves the whole internet crying that he's dangerously seductive.

On the group outing, everyone says he's a terrible person with no social skills, but then they see all his teammates gathered around him.

Watching Jiang Xingye command the stage and hold everyone's attention, Ji Huai suddenly remembers that although their engagement was a business arrangement, Jiang Xingye really did like him. He used to make coffee for him by hand every day and carefully prepare gifts for his birthday.

For once, Ji Huai buys a bouquet and waits for him outside the filming location, thinking maybe he should give him another chance.

But he sees a famous, usually aloof singer-songwriter holding Jiang Xingye by the wrist and gently saying, "Whenever you need me, I'll write you a song."

A top-tier actor born in the 2000s, reeking of alcohol and red-eyed, demands, "Didn't you say I was your favorite little brother?"

And then there's a powerful business magnate who commands lightning, cornering him by the window and asking cautiously, "Can't you look only at me?"

Later, the whole entertainment industry sees Ji Huai, president of the Ji Film Company and a man usually beyond anyone's reach, chase after him to a variety show set and ask quietly, "Can we renew our engagement?"

Jiang Xingye: I only wanted to focus on my career!

Here's a recommendation for a great novel by a friend:

I Won Over the Entire Legion with Food by Mangguo Xiang Yu

Ye Qi only remembered at twenty that he was a transmigrator. He had transmigrated into a book.

But by then the story was already over. As the meddler who had gotten between the male lead and his love interest, he was kicked out of the capital planet and sent to a frontier garrison base of the Alliance, where he went to seek help from his childhood betrothal fiancé.

But the protagonists were apparently worried he hadn't suffered enough, so they told his cheap fiancé all about his past idiotic behavior. As a result, the one person he'd gone to for help rejected him too and tried to send him away.

Ye Qi refused to leave. He hit his head in the ensuing scuffle and finally remembered his past life.

Ye Qi: ...

A person can't even sympathize with the self they were one second ago...

With no other choice, he had to fend for himself.

This godforsaken place was overrun with alien beasts. The defense forces downed two nutrient drinks every day and went straight out to fight.

It was so miserable that even Ye Qi wanted to cry!

Damn it, how had he lived through the first twenty years of his life? This was an insult to his identity as the owner of a restaurant!

An insult!

Looking at the two million his cheap fiancé had put in his account, Ye Qi thought he had a pretty good idea.

He wasn't leaving

Ye's Little Restaurant was open for business!

When a little restaurant opened at the base, the defense force soldiers first went in out of curiosity.

Then they saw a handsome, pretty young owner wearing an apron, smiling as he asked what they wanted to eat.

Before they could lose themselves in the owner's smile, the delicious food stole their souls.

What, people are supposed to eat meals?

And meals have staples, side dishes, desserts, fruit, and soup?

Should they get rice or noodles?

Braised pork, spicy chicken, sweet and sour ribs, steamed fish...

Slurp...

Every soldier who walked into the little restaurant handed their money over to the handsome young owner and swore they'd be back!

More and more soldiers came to eat at the little restaurant.

Ye Qi gradually couldn't keep up, so he hired a kitchen assistant.

Then someone who couldn't stand seeing Ye Qi make money came to smash up the restaurant with a gang, only for the assistant to kick him right out.

The soldiers roll up their sleeves to stand up for Ye Qi: Hahaha, Major General, what are you doing here?

Ye Qi: Major General? Where? Isn't that my cheap fiancé?

Ye Qi turns to look at his handsome, shapely assistant and goes bright red with a poof...

Two years later, the protagonists finally graduate from military academy and join the defense forces.

Their enthusiastic comrades bring them to the little restaurant to celebrate their arrival.

Ye Qi comes out wearing a little apron and takes one look:

Oh, you're here.

Everyone else can eat whatever they want, but you two...

Start by calling me Major General's wife...

Theme: Even the longest road ends, and the darkest night gives way to dawn.