Playing Nice

Beneath the hard, still surface of the earth, six thousand meters underground, molten lava churns and flows.

The year is 2318.

From the depths underground, silent for a hundred years, a cry erupts, breaking through the surface.

*

"I did it. You should be proud of me."

Zhong Chi looks back at the leader of the Sky Ladder, brimming with pride.

"So, how about we celebrate tonight? Drink till we drop?"

"Yes, I'm very proud of you."

The leader removes his disguise, taking in Zhong Chi's dramatically changing expression, then says with a smile:

"But my recommendation, as your military comrade and incredibly unreliable suppressant supplier, is that you don't make that offer again."

The Zhong family and the Shao family are arranging a marriage.

The Zhong family made the first move.

Word is, the Zhong family's young master cried his eyes out at home, saying he'd had a crush on General Shao Xiaohua for years and would be his, in life or death.

But General Shao Xiaohua has long since lost his former glory. He's paralyzed from the waist down, his pheromone system is severely damaged, and whether he even counts as an Alpha is debatable.

Marrying a useless wreck like him would mean throwing away your whole life.

Everyone thinks the young master is hopelessly in love. Even General Shao himself...

Hah.

He hasn't believed a single word of it from the very beginning.

Reader's guide:

1. One-on-one romance, happy ending

2. A gentlemanly, scheming, fatherly top and a seemingly obedient bottom who's actually a troublemaker. This is very much a mature older man watching a kid run wild, then guiding him through growing up, step by step. If that's not your thing, beware.

3. Pseudo-sci-fi ABO, set in an empire, with inequality between Alphas and Omegas

4. My own brand of Lovecraftian horror and chuunibyou, written to feed my own tastes

Theme: Every pot has its matching lid