He Really Hates Being a Substitute More Than Anything!

Before Shen Zhu changed his name, he was a boy-band idol who debuted after signing with an internet-celebrity agency.

His early days in show business were difficult, but luckily, his first love, Lu Mingyi, stayed by his side. They kept their relationship secret, but their time together was sweet and happy. He once hoped it would last forever.

But later, he learned from his rival that he had only ever been a stand-in, and that Lu Mingyi truly loved someone else.

Shen Zhu confronted Lu Mingyi. He broke down, struggled, and tried to deceive himself by turning a blind eye.

At the farewell concert for their disbandment, he sang until his voice was hoarse. His boyfriend, who had promised to be there with him, never showed up.

When he got back to their place, Shen Zhu found Lu Mingyi's application to study abroad. He also discovered that Lu Mingyi had been hiding his true identity.

The young master of the top-tier Lu family had actually been pretending to be poor to test people's true nature?

Thinking of how his boyfriend had cheerfully comforted him when he had to pay an astronomical penalty for breaking his contract, Shen Zhu felt mocked and utterly disillusioned.

That night, he told Lu Mingyi, "Let's break up. From now on, let's pretend we don't know each other."

Though the breakup hurt, Shen Zhu threw away the ring they'd exchanged as a token of their love and left without looking back.

But Lu Mingyi regretted it.

*

On a day when winter snow was falling heavily, Lu Mingyi, running a fever, went to Shen Zhu's film set to ask for forgiveness.

But in the snow, he saw Shen Zhu kissing and embracing another man on set, with no camera trickery.

Lu Mingyi was struck as if by lightning!

After filming wrapped, Shen Zhu walked past Lu Mingyi without a word, treating him like a stranger.

His rival, however, stopped and looked at Lu Mingyi coldly. "You're his past. Stay away from him."

*

Lu Mingyi, a rising commercial director whose films had topped the box office for six months straight, suddenly appeared on a dating reality show.

When he and Shen Zhu, a well-known, high-traffic actor, crossed paths, a flood of netizens said Shen Zhu was definitely in for a rough time.

Lu Mingyi was famous for disliking high-traffic actors. He'd often said that many of them weren't serious about acting.

Besides, Shen Zhu was somewhat famous, but had recently been surrounded by negative publicity.

Just as netizens settled in to watch the drama, eager to see a popular actor get kicked while he was down, Shen Zhu looked calmly at his ex and pretended they were strangers. "Nice to meet you, Director Lu."

Without batting an eye, Lu Mingyi turned the table on him. "Let me introduce myself again. I'm not a director right now. I'm your ex and your first love."

Shen Zhu seethed. ...This lunatic.

The netizens watching the drama were stunned. "Huh?"

Those two actually had a history?

*

After their breakup, they each went a long way on their own.

Later, Lu Mingyi finally realized that the fourth year after their breakup was the seventh year he'd been in love with Shen Zhu.

He couldn't forget him and wanted to win him back.

But Shen Zhu rejected him and stood beside another man.

That man had a face remarkably similar to his own. He was Lu Mingyi's cousin, Qin Yan, the heir to the Qin family.

Lu Mingyi couldn't accept it. "Why would you rather find a stand-in than take me back?"

Shen Zhu replied coldly, "You're not worthy."

Reader's guide:

Formerly titled I Could Never Love the Moon, Four Years After Our Breakup, My Ex's CP Became a Hit on a Dating Show, and A Stand-In Romance That Goes Full Crematorium! Current blurb, version 11, screenshot archived.

1. A deceptively sweet but calculating, two-faced, somewhat awkward and stubborn, possessive top x A beautiful, sensitive, vain, money-loving, high-maintenance bottom.

2. The bottom has had previous partners, the top has not. He didn't love the bottom enough when the bottom loved him. He regretted it after the bottom stopped loving him. Then the bottom got together with someone else, so he came back to break them up and win him over again. A melodramatic novel about winning back your ex.

(Cover design: Xiao He / He Wuan)

Recommended completed novels of a similar type: The Reborn Director Everyone Hated Got Divorced and The Cannon-Fodder Pretty Boy Lost His Memory, Scum Top! Crematorium!

Recommended melodramatic, new-partner novel: coming next, When the Hated, Disabled Alpha Is Reborn, He Becomes Irresistible

Tang Huan died in the summer of his nineteenth year. Bitten by a venomous snake in his gland, abandoned in the wilderness by someone he trusted, he couldn't even close his eyes.

In life, he was hated by everyone and pushed aside:

His arranged fiance mocked him for being less brave than a commoner omega.

His childhood friend, whom he had grown up with, pushed him into a swimming pool for an omega he'd known for just a week.

Even the birthday present he'd received was smashed by his younger half-brother, who shared only his mother.

He was often unhappy, and imagined that everyone would regret it after he died.

His friends and family, who had once misunderstood and hurt him, would gradually realize how good he'd been and mourn his death.

They would surely weep at his grave and say, "I regret it. I'm sorry. I shouldn't have misunderstood you or treated you so badly."

But it was only a fantasy.

After Tang Huan died, his soul followed the killer away from the scene. When he returned to the home he had yearned for, he heard his parents lamenting as they learned of his death.

His father said, "Getting killed by a venomous snake during military training. What a disgrace. I wasted all those years raising him!"

His mother wiped her tears, but seemed relieved too. "It's probably for the best that the snake took him. His gland was so defective. He was in pain all the time, dragging himself along on special medication. It must have been fate."

Tang Huan was struck as if by lightning.

No one had ever truly loved him.

Death did not make people regret anything.

If everyone hated him so much, then why had they let him be born?

His whole life had been painfully awkward, and now even his self-deceiving fantasies had been shattered.

Was he hated simply because he was a disabled Alpha, because his looks had genetic flaws, or because he wasn't strong enough in battle?

Tang Huan didn't know or understand what other people were thinking.

He just felt so, so tired.

After drifting as a soul for seven days, Tang Huan closed his eyes in exhaustion. When he woke up again, he found himself in a hospital.

Tang Huan had transmigrated into the body of an Alpha prince, the true heir to the throne, who had just returned from a foreign country and been assassinated.

His gland was still defective, but this face was nine-tenths identical to the one he'd had in his previous life, flawless and breathtakingly beautiful.

Reader's guide:

A honey-tongued, two-faced, intense, sensitive, aloof bottom and his tops.

A powerful emperor top, a marshal top with unmatched fighting skills, a gentle and refined crown prince top, and... to be decided.

Some feelings are one-sided, others mutual. For now, I'm leaning toward the emperor becoming the endgame top.

[The more detailed the blurb gets, the longer it becomes. After revising it over and over, I've decided to go back to the old draft from May 2023. I swear I'll finish it before September and start this novel. I've saved screenshots on Weibo, so follow me there. I'll also post character art commissions there later.]

Theme: Don't limit yourself too much or lack confidence. Love yourself and believe you deserve every good thing.