With a crackle, an old, snowy screen displayed a scene with an ancient setting.
In this world where women were superior to men, Wu San'er was the weakling son of a merchant's lowborn concubine. He was timid and submissive, always lowering his head and hunching his shoulders. Whenever he looked at someone, his dead-black eyes made him seem like a walking corpse. No one liked him.
When San'er turned eighteen, his elders inexplicably arranged a marriage for him. The only betrothal gift they sent was a wooden comb with missing teeth. It was the first gift Wu San'er had ever received, and he happily climbed into the bridal sedan.
At midnight that same day, someone bound his hands, gagged him, and threw him into a pit. Soil sifted down over his head, and beside him lay the rotting corpse of an old woman. He had been sold to be a ghost bride for the dead.
He wailed, tears carving two tracks down his face as he begged the gods and Buddhas to show mercy and take pity on his worthless life.
--In that instant, the falling earth stopped in midair, and the old woman's corpse beside him gradually turned transparent. Everything in his field of vision began to recede, revealing a vast expanse of silver-white.
Before him stood a woman in clothes he'd never seen. She bent down and reached out to wipe away his tears.
.
In the year 1734 of the New Era, the nobility had grown tired of entertainment in virtual reality and developed a new pastime: they collected abandoned babies from the slums, fitted them with brain-computer interfaces that could never be removed, and set about customizing their worlds and lives. Birth, aging, sickness, death, joy, anger, sorrow, and happiness: they became gods who controlled other people's fates.
The eighteen years Wu San'er had lived were nothing more than entertainment for others. The person who had pulled him out of his nightmare reached out to him and asked, "Would you like to come with me?"
--Later, Wu San'er became the Third Master, a man people said could kill without batting an eye. In the darkness, he quietly wiped the cerebrospinal fluid splattered on his gun. A tall woman stepped over a floor strewn with corpses and walked up to him, sighing. "Making such a huge scene. What are you throwing a tantrum about?"
Holstering his gun, Wu San'er lowered his head and wrapped himself around the woman's shoulders like a parasitic vine. He murmured into her ear, "I've been by your side for seven years, and you still haven't given me a comb."
His cool nose brushed her earlobe. His voice carried a faint reproach, along with an almost crazed ardor. "If you won't marry me, I can't bear your child."
Jing Yuan pressed her temples.
...The screenwriter who came up with this world's setting couldn't even get basic human biology right. She really wanted to kill him.
--
A story about a couple in the cyberpunk underworld joining forces to wreak havoc and turn everything upside down. It has both plot and romance. The male lead genuinely has something wrong with his head and an abnormal view of love; the female lead is a level-headed, ruthless critic and a playgirl. Not suitable for readers who can only stomach stories about pure-hearted, virtuous characters.
Possible trigger points (aka the author's kinks):
1. A crazy, lovesick yandere with a cute side x a non-virtuous heroine who's seen it all. The heroine is not a virgin; the hero is.
2. The male lead is insecure and jealous but can fight. He kills people while dreaming of wearing a white wedding dress and becoming a motherly husband.
3. The male lead has a false pregnancy. It takes until the ending for Third Master to accept that he can't have children (sad face).
4. The heroine becomes the strongest person around in the later story. At first, she pretends to be a lazy fish with no ambitions.
5. Every plot point serves the author's kinks.
[Blurb posted and screenshotted on March 17, 2023]
Theme: Reject gender stereotypes. Boys and girls alike should work together to build a better world.
