Stealing Love and Beauty

Wen Shuangwu died alone in a demon lair, fighting demons and defending the righteous. Who could have guessed that after her soul returned to the Netherworld, she would come across a storyteller’s absurd tale? The book said she was the doomed early-death love of a beloved heroine. She was pure of heart, dazzlingly talented, peerless in bearing, and doomed by a short life. After she died, her flirtatious, amorous fiance turned gray overnight and completely changed his ways, becoming a reformed playboy. Her aloof, self-controlled master was heartbroken and regretted letting her sacrifice herself for the righteous. Her stern, coldhearted parents watched their child die before them, their hair turning white as they regretted having demanded fame and fortune from her instead of asking her to come home safe. Then, when the beloved heroine appeared, looking just like her, her parents, master, and fiance all transferred their affections to the heroine and cherished her like a pearl. The book sighed: It was only because Wen Shuangwu was such a failure that they learned what it meant to cherish someone. Reborn through a fortunate encounter, Wen Shuangwu returned to the sect. Seeing the people from her past fawning over the heroine, she remembered the dim events of years ago. A thousand emotions rose in her heart, but in the end, she simply smiled and let them go. "There’s no need to trouble yourselves." Her expression was calm and serene. Looking at the people before her, overjoyed yet flustered, she spoke gently but firmly. "I won’t be coming back." She had survived nine deaths to return from the Netherworld, but the place she’d returned to was no longer her home, and her family and friends were no longer her family and friends. So what? The world was vast, the universe boundless. Wherever she went, she could make a home. * Xie Cangliu had always known he was a minor background character in a book. He was peerlessly talented, hailed alongside the male lead as one of the Twin Gems of Northern Cangzhou, and was the male lead’s good friend. Unlike the male lead, who was a playboy early on and a dignified gentleman later, he was openhearted and cheerful, fiercely loyal, and had friends everywhere. He would never betray a friend in his life. But only Xie Cangliu knew that when he saw Wen Shuangwu standing there in a daze, for the first time in his life, he entertained a thought that was less than honorable. He wanted to steal her away from the male lead. "Feng Jue really doesn’t know how to cherish what he has." Xie Cangliu gently wiped the dirty blood from Wen Shuangwu’s fingers and sighed softly. "If I were him, I’d have given my whole heart and soul to Junior Sister Wen. I’d live by her side and die with her. I wouldn’t spare anyone else a glance." As a background character, Xie Cangliu had always taken life seriously. In this life, he had only a few lines, and the one love story he got was stolen from someone else. [Both are each other’s first love / Everyone faces a reckoning] Core theme: A healthy relationship takes effort from both people