The Hated One Falls in Love After Marrying the Underworld Lord

Blurb:

Ruan Xun was frail and sickly, the youngest child in the Ruan family.

He should have been the pampered little darling his parents treasured above all else. Instead, he grew up in a storage room, wearing clothes discarded by his two older brothers. Even the person he loved with all his heart became the very one who turned everyone against him overnight.

"Get lost."

"Stop bothering me."

Those were the words Ruan Xun heard more than any others as he grew up.

Ruan Xun couldn't understand why he was treated with contempt by his family and betrayed by the person he loved when he hadn't done anything wrong.

Then, when his illness struck and his soul left his body, he saw a formation glowing beneath his corpse; his family rushing in with greedy faces, having ignored his pleas for help; and a middle-aged Taoist holding a yellow talisman, his expression inscrutable.

He wasn't a child of the Ruan family. He was a sacrifice meant to change the family's fortune, livestock to be slaughtered when the time came.

Ruan Xun died.

His soul was sacrificed to an evil god in exchange for a lifetime of wealth and prosperity for the Ruan family, and the fulfillment of all their wishes.

The day after the youngest son of the Ruan family in Rongcheng died of illness, the Ruan family secured a major project and shot up to become one of the city's three richest families.

On the third day, the eldest Ruan brother met the love of his life and fell head over heels in no time.

On the fourth day, the second Ruan brother won the lottery and got a limited-edition supercar without spending a cent.

On the fifth day...

On the sixth day...

Then, on the seventh day after Ruan Xun's death, when his funeral was held, a transfer student with the same name arrived at Rongcheng University.

After that, the Ruan family began encountering ghosts on a regular basis.

The person in charge of the major project they had secured jumped to his death. The Ruan parents were plagued by nightmares and couldn't sleep. Their true love put on makeup at midnight, with freshly removed eyeballs floating in her contact lens solution. And wet seaweed and muddy footprints from a woman's feet kept appearing out of nowhere inside the supercar they maintained so meticulously...

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Sacrifices hold grudges.

Dream on if you think you'll get wealth and prosperity, and don't even think about having your wishes come true.

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The Ghost Realm had recently welcomed a once-in-a-thousand-years celebration.

The Ghost King was getting married, and the Ghost Realm was giving everyone seven days off to celebrate.

The streets rang with gongs and drums as the ghosts congratulated their king.

The pounding music startled Ruan Xun awake.

Red candles, wedding curtains, and an eerie, gusting wind.

Ruan Xun held his own hand. It was warm. He wasn't dead. He was alive again.

How had he come back to life?

He turned his head

A black-haired, black-eyed man in a wedding robe as red as blood sat by the bed, gazing down at him with calm, fathomless eyes.

Ruan Xun was so unnerved by the man's stare that he felt his hair stand on end. Only then did the man help him out of bed with affectionate ease.

In the warm yet eerie candlelight, the man walked with measured steps, but no shadow of a living person fell beneath his feet.

Ruan Xun murmured, "Are you the evil god who came to take my soul?"

The man turned around.

Ruan Xun heard him say, "To be precise, I came to marry you."

"The auspicious hour has arrived. My wife, it's time to drink the nuptial wine."

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Reader's Guide:

* Older seme dotes on younger uke, older man x pretty young man, an old house catching fire with a furious crackle

* One-on-one, body and soul, marriage first, love later

* The main plot is probably just falling in love, catching ghosts, and getting revenge on scumbags

* Blurb written on 2024.9.28, revised on 2024.9.30, with a screen recording saved

Theme: Believe in science and have the courage to explore