How to Stop the Male Lead from Going Mad

The print edition has been retitled How to Stop Him from Falling. Presales begin on February 24, 2026 (the eighth day of the Lunar New Year) at 7:00 p.m.

[This story is based on the original work’s characterizations, but does not use its plot. You can read it as an original story.]

[This is a derivative work, but the characterizations, plot, and backstories contain a great deal of personal interpretation and transformative writing, with a very distinctive personal style. Please do not treat the characterizations or background in this story as official canon.]

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[Good news]: She transmigrated into the universally known The Phantom of the Opera.

[Bad news]: It’s the horror-film version!

Bai Li woke up in the nineteenth century.

A century of heavy smog, rampant tuberculosis, appalling sanitation, and horse droppings on every street.

Worse, she had become an actor in a circus.

A woman passing as a man.

In an age when a woman with short hair or wearing trousers would be harshly judged, no one suspected her real gender. They just thought she was an unusually pretty boy.

But as time passed, she grew taller, and her feminine features became more and more obvious... The circus was full of people, and if things went on like this, it was only a matter of time before her disguise was exposed.

Before leaving, she brought along a boy who was badly abused at the circus. She planned to make a fresh start with him and set up a circus of their own.

·

What Bai Li didn’t know was that the boy was cold and strange, like a paranoid mad dog ready to kill her at any moment.

In his eyes, Bai Li was timid, greedy, and lazy.

Someone like her would abandon him sooner or later and find another way to get by.

Even if she truly meant to partner with him, she would leave him after seeing his face.

So why not kill her first?

Then he wouldn’t have to watch her panic.

But she wasn’t timid or lazy. On the contrary, she was clever and levelheaded. She wasn’t repulsed by his face, nor did she dislike his eccentric personality.

They became an exceptionally well-matched team.

Unfortunately, every dream must eventually end.

One afternoon, standing behind a door, he heard her say to a handsome young man:

“...Keep saying things like that, and I’ll get angry. I’m single now.”

“Eric? He’s my little brother.” She laughed in surprise at whatever the other person said. “We’re so far apart in age. How could we possibly be married?”

·

From that day on, Bai Li began having intense hallucinations. She was convinced someone was watching her from the shadows, their breath close by, as if they were right behind her.

The hallucinations grew worse by the day.

Eventually, even with her back pressed against a wall, she felt someone watching her from inside it.

Their gaze grew more brazen and more ardent by the day.

It seemed they could burst through the wall at any moment and come to her side.

[Reading Warnings]

1. A mad-dog younger man and an incredibly clingy male lead who never takes his eyes off the female lead.

2. The age gap is six years between the female lead before she transmigrates and the male lead. After she transmigrates, they are the same age. [Includes a fake-death plot and scenes where the male lead digs up the grave and clutches the female lead’s corpse in a fit of madness. Read with caution if these bother you.]

3. The Phantom of the Opera has many versions. This one is the horror-film version, not any particular film but the overall style. The male lead is more than human, and his personality and behavior may be more obsessive and extreme than in the original.

4. The female lead will be a little afraid of the male lead at first, but she’ll soon start enjoying it. If his every move doesn’t hit her particular buttons, what’s the point?

5. The cover was commissioned. You may keep it for personal enjoyment, but reposting or using it without permission is prohibited.

6. Inline comments are open with no restrictions, but comments that spoil other readers’ experience are prohibited, including disruptive comments, projecting real celebrities onto characters, or bringing up real-life matters. Such comments will be deleted.

7. [This is a derivative work, but the characterizations, plot, and backstories contain a great deal of personal interpretation and transformative writing, with a very distinctive personal style. Please do not treat the characterizations or background in this story as official canon. Thank you!]

Next up: The Eerie Dating Game

[Blurb]

You wake up in a locked room, with a badly injured man in front of you.

His head hangs slightly forward. Both hands are shackled, and his chest, waist, and legs are bound with straps. His breathing is extremely slow, as if he could die at any moment.

To be honest, he’s exactly your type.

But a glass bottle hangs between you, filled with an unknown liquid. A key rests at the bottom.

Your instincts tell you the liquid might be a highly corrosive acid.

Sure enough, the key is slowly dissolving.

...What kind of Saw-movie opening is this?!

Just then, an electronic voice sounded in your mind:

[Welcome to the Horror Dating Game! Our mission is to create the most thrilling dating game in the world!]

[This is a full-dive simulation that recreates real-world sensations one-to-one, giving you the most realistic dating experience.]

[The person standing before you is one of the game’s key characters.]

[You have three options:]

[A: Endure the excruciating pain, retrieve the key, and remove his restraints. Affection +1]

[B: Leave him alone and look for another way out. Affection +0]

[C: Use a beginner’s item to force him to retrieve the key from the bottle of strong acid. You won’t get hurt, and he can escape his restraints. Affection -100]

You: “...”

Only an idiot would choose A.

Without hesitation, you choose C!

The beginner’s item glows. A chill runs down your spine as you meet a pair of terrifyingly cold eyes.

The male lead has woken up.

[The blurb will be revised and expanded before the story begins.]

Theme: Love can transcend beauty and ugliness, wealth and poverty, life and death, and time and space