#What If a Scumbag Gets Played by Another Scumbag? He Still Ends Up in the Crematorium#
#No Fairytale Romance, Just an Avalanche of Soapy Drama#
[Blurb]
Six years ago, top-tier star Rong Chen and actor Yi Zhen fell in love while filming together. After that, they broke up and got back together again and again, trapped in a tempest of love and hate and a deeply tortured romance, until the "Yi-Wang-Qing-Shen" ship was declared sunk when Rong Chen disappeared.
Three years later, freshly returned from abroad, Rong Chen opens the door to his second brother's villa and unexpectedly walks into a live broadcast of a dating show featuring his ex-boyfriend, award-winning actor Yi Zhen, and a sweet, fresh-faced talent-show contestant.
Everyone thinks Rong Chen is head over heels for Yi Zhen. They assume he has come especially to stake his claim and break up the couple with his own hands. They all settle in to watch the fireworks as old and new flames clash, expecting a melodramatic chase to win back his ex and a catfight. But Rong Chen only lets out a sigh of relief:
"Congratulations. Hope you two make it to 99."
It's good that you have someone new.
--Though it wasn't what I wanted, the person I love really isn't you.
.
If a lie is a sweet, beautiful dream,
if the truth is a bloody, heartbreaking wound,
which would you choose?
Yi Zhen chose the truth. He chose to wake up, but from then on, he fell into a hopeless abyss from which there was no escape.
--Why couldn't you have gone along with the lie, and pretended that I was always the one you loved?
.
Everyone thinks Rong Chen has the "returned-from-abroad, unattainable first love" script, destined to be overtaken by the "pure, sweet ingenue" and reduced to a grain of cold rice stuck to someone's clothes. But they don't know that, to Rong Chen, Yi Zhen is the replaceable stand-in, the dull, forgettable mosquito blood.
[Excerpt]
For their first anniversary, Rong Chen, who rarely cooked, washed his hands and got to work in the kitchen. He spent the entire afternoon preparing a lavish dinner, carefully tailored to Yi Zhen's tastes.
But he waited beside the dishes from dusk until midnight, only to get bombarded with rumors about the award-winning actor and a female star from the same production, Yi Zhen reeking of alcohol and perfume, and one icy question: "Can you stop being so unreasonable?"
Rong Chen, who never let himself be mistreated, gave a cold laugh and picked up the now-cold soup, pouring it over Yi Zhen's head and face.
"Any sincere gesture should be given to someone who knows how to cherish it. You disregarded our plans, didn't know how to keep your distance from other people, and wouldn't give me a reasonable explanation... You don't deserve this."
"Yi Zhen, remember this: I will never cook for you again."
When Yi Zhen angrily went to shower, Rong Chen packed up all the food, drove across half the city, and handed it to a sanitation worker who had already been on the job since the middle of the night.
--When a relationship brings far more pain than joy, that's a sign it's time to end it.
[Content Warnings]
* The gong is sexually inexperienced; the shou is not.
* Not recommended for gong fans; shou fans may be fine with it.
* There is a disposable shou, but the gong never falls for him.
* There is a male lead in the soul: the gong's deceased, unforgettable first love.
* Over-the-top, clichéd melodrama with plenty of bitterness [gong angst], a novel for those who love seeing the characters suffer.
* The author is determined to give the shou a truly irreplaceable first love.
* Although the shou treats the gong as a stand-in, that doesn't stop the gong from chasing his wife to the crematorium.
Blurb screenshotted on 2020.9.18.
Thanks to bs for the character art 0-0, and to the layout artist Zai Qing for the formatting.
Theme: Fight poison with poison; replace the stand-in with a stand-in.
