The Depressed Fake Young Master

[Full revision pending, don't read, don't read, don't read, don't read, don't read]

Realistic Version:

In her previous life, Pei Yu stubbornly believed that as long as she was good enough, one day she would earn her parents' approval, her classmates' kindness, or... Lu Yanxing's love.

But day after day, she gave it everything she had, only to clutch her top-of-the-grade report card while being left out in the cold.

+++++++ Her parents, usually so cold toward her, laughed as they patted the real young master's head, lavishing praise on him.

Her classmates, who only ever gave her the side-eye, crowded around the real young master's desk to joke and play as soon as class ended. Laughter filled the classroom as if she didn't exist.

++++++++ Her homeroom teacher told her, "Pei Yu, Yuan is more suited to being class president than you are."

After the only person who had ever been kind to her, Lu Yanxing, rejected her without mercy, he turned around and was about to walk down the aisle with the real young master.

++++++++ He told her, "He was mine from the start. I just let him stay by your side for a while."

Pei Yu's life ended miserably. She locked herself in the office and worked around the clock until she died of overwork. In her final moments, she finally understood:

The moon she had chased since childhood might never have existed at all.

++++++++ She had mistaken her fantasies for reality.

After Pei Yu's death, industry titans issued a joint statement: #The progress of humanity in the new century depends on Pei Yu#

++++++++ The world finally remembered the overlooked genius, but all it could do was place a crown on her cold head.

Following the unexpected death of Pei Yu, chief network engineer, many ongoing Pei family projects were forced to stop. All their investments went down the drain, and the family business they had built over generations went bankrupt overnight. Meanwhile, the man rumored to be the Lu family's president's fiance knelt for an entire day and night beneath a dilapidated apartment building, begging the person locked in Pei Yu's bedroom to let him go.

In the room with the curtains drawn, the man clutched the urn and crumpled like a mountain collapsing.

Fairy-Tale Version:

Legend has it that a powerful, fearsome dragon lived at the edge of the sea. He possessed mountains of gold and silver, could summon wind and rain, and had countless servants.

++++++++ But unfortunately, he had fallen under a witch's curse and could no longer feel any emotions.

Later, a ragged, filthy little child fell asleep on a poisonous eucalyptus leaf and was unwittingly carried by the waves to the dragon's home.

With his crown askew, the child called himself a prince. When he saw the dragon, he shed pitiful tears while sneaking glances at the huge bed in the middle of the palace, his eyes full of longing.

The evil dragon: ...

Every night, the little prince fell asleep hugging the dragon's tail, while the dragon sheltered him from the wind and rain with his enormous wings.

Until one day, the little prince died as a martyr.

The witch's curse vanished, and the dragon went mad.

A computer genius who was manipulated into becoming an obsessive, pitiful wreck in her previous life, but is gloomy yet passionate in this one, as the bottom; and a CEO who truly had no feelings in his previous life and spoiled his wife to no avail, but goes even further in spoiling her this time, as the top.

++++ Pre-release: Tricky Business, please add it to your reading list

In high school, Xia Zong, who would later become renowned in the art world, was already making a name for himself. A strikingly beautiful, top-performing celebrity at school, he had no privacy at all, so the whole school knew about his crush.

But the art prodigy's crush did not go well.

Someone saw Chen Tongxi, another popular figure at school, shove Xia Zong's shoulder aside and tear the love letter he had given him to shreds. The next day, Xia Zong still hadn't learned his lesson. He stood outside the basketball court, offering a bottle of water that nobody would take.

Years later, Xia Zong, who had gone abroad to pursue his art, fell from grace and became nothing more than a foil to a monstrous new talent in the art world. Rumor had it he had also gone bankrupt after losing money in the stock market.

Chen Tongxi, the golden boy, had not inherited his family's business. He had gone to the capital alone and built his fortune from scratch. He had been down on his luck for a time, but was now a rising star in the business world.

At a class reunion, Chen Tongxi entered in a custom-tailored suit, arm in arm with a current top-tier star. Xia Zong, who had hurriedly packed up his art supplies, had changed into a clean exam-candidate uniform and was covering a shift at the venue for a friend.

Soon, someone recognized Xia Zong in disbelief, and their former classmates crowded around to get a good look at him.

His school-days crush had become a joke, too. Just as everyone assumed the two, now worlds apart, could never be together, Chen Tongxi's eyes turned bloodshot. He abandoned the top-tier star, grabbed Xia Zong by the wrist, and gritted his teeth.

"Why are you serving tables? I only cut your allowance for this month! Come home with me!"

Highlights:

1. The bottom never truly fell from grace, and has many secret identities.

2. The top has nothing going on with the top-tier star, but he's a real piece of work. He was in love in high school without realizing it. When they grew up and he saw the bottom down on his luck, he threw a sugar-baby contract at him. Before the bottom's secret identities were revealed, he got soaked in the rain and looked like a drowned dog. After they were revealed, he was marinated in a vat of jealousy.

3. Trying a different style. Let's write something thrilling. Lights a cigarette.

New blurb dated January 19, 2023. Old version dated October 9, 2022. Screenshots saved on Weibo as proof.

Theme: An unconventional childhood-friends romance