This Male Lead Is Beyond Saving

[Blurb 1]

Ji Niao had a watch that could turn back time, but she had never used it.

The watch's instruction manual said that on a moonlit night, all she had to do was turn the hands, and she could return to any point in the past. Only the past, of course.

But the manual also listed enough unpleasant side effects to circle the Earth. In short, it said: Only use it in an emergency. If you can avoid using it, do.

Fine, she wouldn't use it! What was the point of having a golden finger if she wasn't allowed to use it? She might as well not have one! Ji Niao sneered and angrily tore up the instruction sheet in her hand.

Until one night, when she was trapped in a sea of flames...

Ji Niao's eyes lit up as she reached eagerly for the watch. This should count as an emergency, right? After all, she was about to die...

Just then, a figure suddenly burst into the flames, wrapped her in a wet quilt without a word, hoisted her over a shoulder, and ran outside.

In the end, Ji Niao only had a few strands of hair burned off. But the heroic stranger who had saved her died in the fire.

Holding the watch, Ji Niao silently made up her mind. "What a needless death. Hero, I'll save you!"

However...

After trying countless rescue plans, Ji Niao finally discovered that the so-called hero, Lin Jiu, had a rather unusual constitution:

She had just helped him escape a fire when he accidentally fell into the water. She had just saved him from drowning when he was immediately in a car accident...

Ji Niao: Are you doing this on purpose?

++++Lin Jiu frantically denies everything: I didn't! It wasn't me! Don't make things up...

[Blurb 2]

A strange woman knocks on your door in the middle of the night and tells you in an ominous voice: You absolutely must not go out today, or you'll become a murderer and kill many people...

How would you react?

Him? Lin Jiu! A model student since childhood,

born in the sunshine and raised under the red flag;

well-rounded in moral, intellectual, physical, aesthetic, and labor education, and embodying all five Confucian virtues: benevolence, righteousness, propriety, wisdom, and trustworthiness.

How could he possibly be that kind of person?!

Lin Jiu sneered and slammed the door in her face.

"..."

-----[Time Reversal]-------

Lin Jiu opened the door again. The same strange woman stood outside, looking embarrassed as she told him: She was his future girlfriend, and she had transmigrated from the future...

How would he react this time?

a. Roll his eyes at the sky, then bundle her up and throw her outside.

b. Call the local psychiatric hospital to check whether she was a patient who had escaped.

c. Patiently ask what was going on, then warmly treat her to seven jin of lobster and even give her a bottle of vintage 1982 Chateau Lafite that had been kept past its expiration date.

Lin Jiu: I'd definitely choose a!

An hour later, Lin Jiu stared in disbelief at the strange woman, who had eaten until her belly was round and was sprawled on the sofa, digesting her meal without a shred of decorum. He resignedly began cleaning the trash off the table...

Lin Jiu: I don't know if she's crazy, but I suspect I am!

++++[Notes]:

① This is just a little sweet story set against the backdrop of a death loop. The main story begins after the loop has already started, and the earlier events will be mentioned later.

② This story is also known as The Girlfriend Who Lies to Me Every Time I Open the Door (Male Version) and The Boyfriend Who Keeps Trying to Get Himself Killed Every Time I Come Home (Female Version).

++++③ Unlucky male lead x narcissistic, chuuni, drama-queen female lead

④ One-on-one romance throughout

[Note on removing the paywall, three years late]

Why I'm removing the paywall:

This was my first novel, and I overestimated myself. I had no saved chapters, no outline, and no character profiles. I only had a sudden spark of inspiration at the beginning, an opening, and an ending, and I rashly started writing this novel.

Maybe because the early chapters came so easily, little Niao and Lin Jiu felt alive in my head. I barely had to construct the plot. All I had to do was set up a scene, and they would take care of moving the story forward themselves.

That smooth start fed my overconfidence, and after that, it was like eight horses couldn't pull me back.

But by the middle and later sections, perhaps because I hadn't thought things through myself, my mind went blank. Every day, I racked my brains for ideas. I remember some lovely reader once commented that they really wanted to know what plot developments I had in mind. But the truth was, I had no idea what was going to happen next.

Every day, I would wait until I sat down at my computer to start coming up with that day's plot. Writing the later chapters became torture, because even I didn't know how to tie the story together.

On top of that, I was foolish enough (I'm guilty!) to click [Apply for Rankings]. By the time I reached the final two ranking rounds, my mind was completely empty, so I started padding the story without realizing it.

And then, once I padded it, I felt terribly guilty, as if I had let down my readers, little Niao, and Lin Jiu.

After I stopped updating, countless times I thought I had to come back and finish the story, but I could never find the courage.

For these three years, I barely dared to open the Jinjiang author dashboard. I always felt too ashamed to face it.

But now, I finally worked up the courage to download Ajiang's [Writing Assistant].

I still want to finish this story, but I may need to make some major changes. The first thing I want to do is remove the filler I added to those last two ranking rounds, so it won't be done quickly. (After reading the whole thing, I realized I only need to delete and rewrite the last four chapters! I can do this!)

Fortunately, once a novel has been removed from the paywall, it can no longer enter the editors' rankings. At least I won't have to worry about racing to meet ranking word counts anymore, so I should be able to take it easy and finish this book at my own pace.

Updates will be irregular. Once it's finally finished, I'll put a notice on the front page. (Until then, there's no need to read it, since I don't know how much I'll end up revising.)

I'm very sorry to the readers who encouraged and kept me company back then, though they may not even remember this obscure-to-the-point-of-bizarre story. Still, I want to give little Niao and Lin Jiu a proper ending. I don't want them to disappear from my writing for no reason, with no more story to tell.

Theme: It's wonderful to be alive