After My Death, I Became a Heartless Madman

[Main story complete. Starting on the 29th, bonus chapters will be updated daily at 8 p.m. Leave a comment if there's a bonus chapter you'd like to see~]

Song Zhizhou died.

Before she died, she was the only daughter of the wealthy Song family. Unfortunately, she was switched at birth. Her adoptive parents beat and scolded her, while her biological parents thought she was too uncouth and couldn't compare to their fake heiress.

But none of that mattered.

After returning to the Song family, she attended a banquet and met someone who looked exactly like the gentle older girl she'd admired as a teenager. A little tipsy, Song Zhizhou went over and confessed her feelings. She expected to be rejected, but the woman said yes.

She remembered the woman's expression: smiling as she listened to her confession, looking so gentle.

When Song Zhizhou woke the next day, she realized she'd made a mistake. The omega in front of her did resemble that older girl a little, but she was clearly someone else.

The world had been unfair to her. Looking at the omega sleeping beside her, she decided to care for and protect her as if she were everything to her.

But when the once-obedient omega woke up, it was as if she'd become a different person. She mocked and bullied Song Zhizhou, demanded that she prove her love by any means necessary, and gave her the cold shoulder whenever things didn't go her way.

Song Zhizhou had assumed the woman was a spoiled young lady from a wealthy family, so she put up with a lot. But later, she discovered that the person she had given all her love to wasn't a helpless omega who needed protecting. She was Bai Ruowei, the powerful chief inspector of the inner city.

In a desperate gamble, Song Zhizhou rashly proposed to her. The lofty Miss Bai merely smiled at her, a mocking smile on her face.

Without a doubt, she rejected her.

Only then did Song Zhizhou truly understand that all her love, all her vows of eternal devotion, all those words of self-abasement and compromise...

were nothing more than a diversion Miss Bai had used to amuse herself over the past few years.

Seeing the woman's mocking, amused expression, Song Zhizhou felt what it meant to have her heart broken for the first time.

Perhaps Heaven thought her life had been too tragic and gave her a chance to live again.

This time around, Song Zhizhou wanted nothing.

She didn't want to stay with the Song family, and she wanted nothing to do with Bai Ruowei.

She was reborn on the night of the banquet, when she'd pinned Bai Ruowei to the bed...

Bai Ruowei was a woman so cold she was almost frightening, yet now she was looking at Song Zhizhou with tender affection.

She was even gentler and more obedient than she'd been the first time, as Song Zhizhou remembered it.

Song Zhizhou apologized to her, then saw her off.

Two months later, Song Zhizhou saw Bai Ruowei again at the little art gallery her older sister had opened.

Miss Bai, who usually struck fear into everyone, grabbed her hand.

"Didn't you say... you'd love me forever?"

"Why did you lie to me?"

Everyone said Bai Ruowei was aloof and hard to approach.

Until one day, a fool found her.

The fool really was foolish, but she was sincere, so sincere that she whispered "I love you" in Bai Ruowei's ear a thousand times.

Bai Ruowei believed her.

Since this fool loved her so much, Bai Ruowei could deign to lower herself and humor her for a while.

But the fool broke her promise. She died.

Remembering the lesson from her previous life, Bai Ruowei planned to treat Song Zhizhou better this time and give her a little sweetness, so she'd obediently be her puppy.

But, to her surprise...

Song Zhizhou didn't want her anymore.

She tracked Song Zhizhou down and followed her to a little art gallery. Through the glass window, she saw Song Zhizhou smiling at a woman who looked exactly like her, with the same smile she'd once reserved for Bai Ruowei.

In that moment, Bai Ruowei went completely mad.

1. People who betray a sincere heart deserve to swallow ten thousand needles. (One-on-one romance with a happy ending throughout.)

2. My next book, After the Substitute Fakes Her Death, the Immortal Venerable Goes Mad, is a similar groveling romance. Please add it to your collection~ Here's the blurb:

The person Shen Lingze loved most in this life was her older sister, Ye Hengwu.

Ye Hengwu was the most gifted cultivator of her generation in the Xinghui Sect. She made a name for herself at a young age and possessed extraordinary talent. She was the undisputed heir to the sect's leadership.

Shen Lingze was her devoted fan, her vanguard, her blade, and the little demon girl who would only grow quiet in front of her.

But Shen Lingze wasn't Hengwu's biological younger sister. She was an orphan Hengwu had brought home the year she went traveling.

Ye Hengwu's biological younger sister was called Xiaonian. Xiaonian disappeared after falling off a cliff on a snowy night while being pursued by enemies. From then on, Ye Hengwu made Lingze her whole world. She doted on her, loved her, and always took her side.

Sometimes Lingze was glad she wasn't Ye Hengwu's real younger sister, because that meant the foolish hope in her heart still had a chance of coming true.

Ye Hengwu was the moon in the sky, the breeze in the forest, the snow on the eaves. She was Lingze's obsession, her deepest love, and the last reason she had to remain in this world.

But soon, Lingze was no longer glad.

Because Ye Hengwu's biological younger sister came back.

In the presence of the real thing, the substitute never seems to come out of it well.

Even someone as gentle and detached as Ye Hengwu began to take back the kindness she'd once shown, bit by bit, as if unraveling a thread.

She didn't favor her biological younger sister or compare the two of them. She simply stopped eating with Lingze, stopped teaching her swordsmanship, stopped telling her stories about the world below the mountain, and stopped bringing her a bowl of peach blossom pastries when she went out to handle the mundane affairs of the martial world.

Someone else had taken Lingze's place by her sister's side.

How could the fake ever compare to the real thing? Lingze told herself that, until Ye Hengwu returned to the valley gravely poisoned after going out to exterminate demons and enduring countless hardships to make it back. Xiaonian threw herself into her arms, weeping bitterly.

"Your blood is the most nourishing medicine in the world. You're the only one who can save Sister now."

Lingze said, "Of course I'll save her. You don't need to tell me."

Just as she was about to draw her blood to make the medicine, Ye Hengwu suddenly grabbed her hand.

"Save... Xiaonian..."

It turned out Xiaonian had been poisoned by the same toxin as Hengwu. She'd endured it without saying anything because she didn't want her sister to worry.

Lingze smiled faintly and cut a deep wound into her palm.

There was a reason people called her a little demon girl. But nobody knew that her demonic bloodline was so weak by the time it reached her that Lingze's blood had almost no healing properties.

If she only had to save Hengwu, the blood Lingze had left would be enough to keep her alive. But now Xiaonian had to live too.

That meant Shen Lingze wouldn't survive.

If she could choose again, Lingze would rather never have been found by Hengwu.

She loved the helpless smile Hengwu gave her. She loved Hengwu's aloof, cold, yet gentle nature. She loved the delicate mole at the nape of Hengwu's neck beneath her tall, straight posture, and the warm, steadfast hands that had chosen her after finding her.

But Lingze was descended from demons. Staying by Ye Hengwu's side was already asking too much. She could endure all the subtle mockery and criticism in the sect, but she didn't want to be so foolish and suffer so much. She didn't want to naively believe she'd won Ye Hengwu's love, only to discover in the end that she was merely a substitute who could be discarded at any time.

After Lingze lost consciousness, it seemed someone was sending spiritual energy into her. But she chose to sever her own meridians and end it all.

In her delirium, she thought she saw Hengwu's cold, composed face. Her moon in the sky, flower in the water, had bloodshot eyes and tears streaming down her face, looking as if she'd gone mad.

Lingze died and left the mortal world behind. At the same time, the youngest daughter of the Qingqiu clan, the last one yet to undergo tribulation, slowly opened her eyes amid a profusion of flowers.

That day, Lingze descended to the mortal world with several companions and happened to arrive at Xinghui Valley.

Xinghui Valley was just as it had always been, though sorrowful cries seemed to echo along the road. Lingze took a closer look and realized she'd arrived just in time for her own funeral.

Awkwardly rubbing her nose, she watched the wind lift her veil. Countless people were astonished by how closely she resembled the deceased, and thought Lingze had returned from the dead to seek revenge. They dropped to their knees in terror.

Only one person showed neither sorrow nor joy. She held a dagger, her expression blank.

Lingze froze. She didn't know who this was, only that the woman hadn't even shed a tear when she died. Had she really hated her that much?

Someone beside her said with a trembling voice,

"You don't know? That's Immortal Hengwu of the Xinghui Sect."

It turned out the dagger was the one Lingze had used to kill herself.

That Immortal Venerable had gone mad after Lingze died.

Theme: Hard work always brings rewards