The Desolate Paradise

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Chen Cuo, twenty-seven, a car salvage worker who’s achieved nothing in life, an utterly ordinary beta.

For ten years, he’s been married to an alpha, enduring a daily life of pain, despair, and violence.

Yin Shu, a well-known student at Yichun No. 1 High School, a high schooler juggling several jobs, and an alpha so poor he can barely scrape by.

Only those closest to him know that he has a kind of magic that can turn trash into treasure.

Winter in Yichun can drop to around twenty degrees below zero. It’s snowy and foggy, the roads ice over, and getting around is dangerous.

On an apocalyptic morning, Chen Cuo collided with Yin Shu in the dense fog. At the time, he had no idea this impulsive young man would reshape everything about his life.

Marriage, debt, kindness, insecurity… All these things are like impenetrable weeds beneath the water, and he is like a corpse tightly bound by them.

Then one day, Yin Shu said to the corpse:

“Big brother, I love you so much.”

Before he got together with Yin Shu, Chen Cuo didn’t believe anyone in the world could love him that, that much.

Yin Shu would say with sweet ceremony, “Good morning, big brother. I love you today, too.”

“Good night, big brother. I’ll love you tomorrow, too.”

Every morning, he’d get up and fry Chen Cuo’s favorite sunny-side-up eggs, then cook two bowls of noodles with a few greens.

He’d ride his bike for more than half an hour through the rain to the cemetery to bring Chen Cuo home when he was trapped in a downpour. Then he’d shower with Chen Cuo and boil a huge pot of awful ginger tea.

He’d awkwardly measure Chen Cuo’s finger with a strip of paper, then take the money he’d saved for ages and buy a ring he thought would suit him.

Whenever Chen Cuo needed him, Yin Shu would come to his side.

Before marrying Yin Shu, Chen Cuo also didn’t believe that betas could really get pregnant.

There had been a few rare cases reported in the newspapers, and studies showed that when an alpha and beta were highly compatible both physically and emotionally, there was a very small chance the beta could conceive. But Chen Cuo didn’t think such tiny odds would ever apply to him.

As it turned out, he kept meeting people who defied the odds.

His ex-husband, who was still obsessed with him.

Yin Shu, shining like a jewel.

And… the child born of the love between him and Yin Shu.

Theme: The ordinary can create greatness, and hard work can shape a life.