Love Triangle

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Ye Zhuo was Lu Yanyi’s dog, the one he could never chase away; his ever-obedient servant, and the playmate who had been with him for over twenty years.

But Lu Yanyi was the young master adored by everyone, while Ye Zhuo was the housekeeper’s son. Their friendship, divided by a world of difference in status, was never simple. Ye Zhuo knew it, and so did Lu Yanyi.

Ye Zhuo was merely the star Lu Yanyi had kept closest to him and the one who always obeyed. The perfect Ji Liming was Lu Yanyi’s sun.

Ji Liming came from a prestigious family. He had impeccable looks and a gentle, steady disposition. At sixteen, he shone brilliantly, and soon replaced Ye Zhuo as Lu Yanyi’s best friend.

Most of the time, this friendship of three had only two leading characters. Whenever Lu Yanyi and Ji Liming occasionally crossed the line, Ye Zhuo would go from a supporting character to a buffer, letting the two young people, inexperienced in love and keeping their feelings ambiguous, maintain the appearance of friendship.

And when Lu Yanyi and Ji Liming made up, Ye Zhuo would return to his corner, playing the role of the one who silently stayed by their side and protected them.

Did Ye Zhuo care? Perhaps he did, but none of that mattered, because he himself did not matter.

*

Youth passed, and they went their separate ways.

Lu Yanyi became a beloved superstar, Ji Liming lived up to everyone’s expectations, took over his family business, and excelled. Ye Zhuo alone remained Lu Yanyi’s assistant, always standing behind him.

The good news was that the friendship between the three of them had not changed.

The bad news was that Lu Yanyi was in a hurry to turn friendship into love.

At an awards ceremony, Lu Yanyi announced to everyone that he would propose to the person he loved most. Ji Liming raised his stern face and left. Embarrassed, Lu Yanyi changed the name on his lips to “Ye Zhuo.”

The camera flashes turned toward the quiet man who seemed to have no presence at all. A reporter asked him how he felt about being proposed to by a superstar.

“Do you feel honored? I mean, you’re just an unremarkable little assistant.”

Ye Zhuo calmly replied, “If Lu Yanyi can be happy, I’ll do anything.”

Everyone said Ye Zhuo’s answer showed how pathetically in love he was with Lu Yanyi, and how he had finally gotten what he’d waited so many years for.

But only Ye Zhuo knew that he had indeed waited for this day. He hadn’t been waiting for Lu Yanyi’s proposal, but for one of the equally proud men, Ji Liming or Lu Yanyi, to finally lower his head and confess his feelings.

He had also fulfilled his dying father’s request: You must protect Yanyi until he no longer needs you.

Now everything was fine. Everyone was happy, and this awkward friendship of three had finally reached its ending.

Ye Zhuo was free.

After offering the two of them his blessings, he left. But on his way out, both Lu Yanyi and Ji Liming stopped him.

*

When a star decides to stop shining, the moon and the sun come running toward it at the same time.

Reading guide

1. A melodramatic fake love triangle. One-third angst, two-thirds two dogs fighting until they’re bloody.

2. Ye Zhuo (gong) has rather ordinary looks, but he’s the kind of person who grows more attractive the longer you look at him. He has a career of his own.

3. Ji Liming has no romantic feelings for Lu Yanyi. Lu Yanyi’s feelings toward Ji Liming are more about refusing to accept things than anything else. Their relationship will be explained later.

4. The official pairing is Ji Liming, but Lu Yanyi gets plenty of regret-and-redemption scenes too. The story includes flashbacks.

5. Updated daily at midnight. If anything comes up, I’ll let you know in the comments, the synopsis, or a leave notice. Subscription chapters have a 90% anti-piracy rate for 72 hours.

6. You can criticize anyone, just don’t criticize the author. Please watch your language to avoid moderation. Peace and love.

Cover artist: Yiye Shu · Ziyan

Original version: 2023.1.18; revised on 1.21

[Preorder 1: They Regretted It After I Died to Forge the Sword]

As Min Yi cut the spiritual root from his own chest, he thought: So the six years he believed he’d been saved were all debts he had to repay.

*

Min Yi was born in a pool of blood. Perhaps Heaven was punishing him for causing his birth mother’s death: a red birthmark covered half his face, and his frail body left him gasping after every few steps.

His birth father hated him for killing his beloved wife, and his family despised his ugly, mediocre appearance.

No matter how hard he tried to please them, he never received the slightest kindness in return.

Instead, they locked him in a little courtyard and forbade him from showing his face to anyone.

Min Yi spent ten years living among dirt and keeping company with snakes and insects.

But children his age, dressed in fine clothes, would always come to the fence, trick him into coming out, and then throw stones at him while chanting:

“Ugly monster, sickly wretch, hated by all and loved by none.”

They loved seeing Min Yi tremble with red-rimmed eyes, but at least he could hide in the thatched hut.

It was filthy and chaotic, crawling with cockroaches and rats. No one wanted to go near it.

Then, one day, a man appeared before him. He was aloof as the moon and beautiful as an immortal. With immaculate fingers, he brushed aside the dirty hair covering Min Yi’s face.

“Child, would you like to come with me to Wuwen Sect?”

*

Wuwen Sect was the greatest sword sect under Heaven, a sacred place no sword cultivator would allow to be defiled.

Feng Shengxue was the greatest sword cultivator under Heaven, a master who was a shining, untainted presence in the hearts of all sword cultivators.

Min Yi became the most doted-on junior disciple in all of Wuwen Sect, as well as Feng Shengxue’s only pupil.

His senior sisters cherished him, attending to his every need with warmth and care.

His senior brothers protected him, always ready to come to his aid.

His master pitied him and kept him by his side to raise him personally.

Min Yi spent six beautiful years, more than he had ever dared to dream of, until his sixteenth birthday arrived.

Min Yi knelt in a pool of blood. The Qianji Powder in the water that had drained his power had been administered by his senior sister; the Demon-Locking Nail in his shoulder that kept him from moving had been driven in by his senior brother. And the one pointing a sword at him was the master he had secretly loved.

Min Yi saw Feng Shengxue’s face, cold as the bright moon, reflected in the pool of blood. He clutched the hem of his immaculate robe and asked, “Master, do you not feel even the slightest bit of compassion for me?”

Feng Shengxue pried his fingers loose and thrust his sword down through Min Yi’s spine.

A supremely yin and evil demon was worthless if it couldn’t be used to take its bones and forge a sword. What right did it have to speak to him of love?

But when Min Yi cut out his own spiritual root and stumbled off the edge of a deep ravine, the emotional channels Feng Shengxue’s ruthless sword path had sealed for years suddenly began to throb with pain.

He Wuju, the demon king of the three realms, was said to be violent and bloodthirsty, having slaughtered countless people. Even his spirit wolf, Chilang, had been raised on the hearts of beautiful people.

During the five hundred years He Wuju spent in seclusion cultivating, his infamous name could still stop children from crying.

One day, Chilang suddenly returned carrying a bloodied person in its jaws.

1. Synopsis to be completed. The main story is an everyone-regrets-it plot.

2. Min Yi is the gong. He’ll become healthy and handsome later.

Cover artist: [Juansi Ji] - Nicholas Ergou

-

[Preorder 2: Second-Rate Substitute, originally titled A Minister Beneath His Skirts, is now being serialized]

1.

Tan Chen, S City’s best-known playboy, has mended his ways. The woman he’s fallen for has a face and figure anyone would call exquisite. Too bad she’s a nightclub singer.

How many people who come out of that cesspool are really clean?

Tan Chen doesn’t mind at all. He treats her like a treasure, pays off her mountains of debt, helps her return to school, and, according to rumors, is about to take her home to meet his parents.

But didn’t Tan Chen have a first love he’d once loved so much he could have died for her?

2.

Tan Chen first met Shen Diexin at a nightclub full of pleasure and debauchery. Amid the noisy crowd, a pale yet striking figure appeared on the small stage. Surrounded by women in heavy makeup, she wore a white dress, like a pure white butterfly that had strayed onto the wrong path.

Tan Chen heard the people around him gossiping. They said she was the hardest girl to win over. She was desperately short of money, yet still pretended to be above it all.

How hard could she be to win over? Tan Chen was determined to find out.

Under the cover of night, Shen Diexin stumbled out through the back door.

He leaned against the wall and retched, then yanked the necklace off his neck...

Tan Chen, who had been watching coldly from the sidelines, suddenly narrowed his eyes.

-

The first time Tan Chen appeared in front of Shen Diexin was when Shen Diexin was at his most wretched.

He had no choice but to force himself to finish the drinks those people had brought him, then escape through the back door, dizzy and disoriented.

He needed money, but not this kind of money.

Shen Diexin pulled off the necklace hiding his Adam’s apple and heard a voice from the corner:

“You’re a man?”

3.

Shen Diexin never believed anyone would take him seriously. So when a rich young master like Tan Chen pursued him, he treated it as an equal transaction.

Tan Chen used him for fun, and he accepted Tan Chen’s contract.

It was just that Tan Chen put in far more effort than Shen Diexin had expected.

If this was a transaction, why go to so much trouble to help him?

He cleared Shen Diexin’s debts, helped him complete the process of returning to school, took a knife for him and ended up in the hospital when his enemy came after him, and gave him a place in his family despite his parents’ fierce opposition...

Until the person Tan Chen’s friends kept bringing up finally appeared.

He was as kind and perfect as everyone said. Unable to bear seeing Shen Diexin keep getting deceived, he told him the truth.

He said he had left because he didn’t want Tan Chen to fall out with his conservative family, but Tan Chen still wouldn’t give up. He’d found some bizarre, neither-man-nor-woman person to take home to meet his parents.

The day Tan Chen’s parents gave in would be the day Shen Diexin was kicked out.

Once he learned the truth, Shen Diexin accepted it calmly. He waited until Tan Chen’s family had lowered their heads and relented, then left without a word.

But Tan Chen, who had gotten what he wished for, kept dreaming about Shen Diexin.

By the time Tan Chen realized Shen Diexin was the only one he wanted, Shen Diexin had already vanished from S City...

[Please read before starting]

1. A legitimate nightclub. He sings for a living, but doesn’t sell his body.

2. The gong chases the shou and ends up in a regret-and-redemption arc. Tan Chen, go die.

3. Standard international rule: You can hit someone, but not in the face; you can flip the table, but don’t curse the chef.

4. I’ll think some more about how to write the part where Tan Chen pursues Shen Diexin. I can’t keep writing, “After xx left, xx went crazy wanting him back,” but I haven’t come up with another way to phrase it yet. Anyway, you get the idea.

5. To be continued.

Theme: Be one of a kind