Chasing Captive Love

The main story is complete. The new novel, The Honest Man Kept in Captivity by the Celestial Dragons, is now underway!

Li Mu is an ordinary beta. He works at a factory with his own two hands and wants nothing more than to live out the rest of his life in peace, until he meets Zhou Zeyi.

Zhou Zeyi is gentle and refined, and never loses his composure. He has none of the inferiority complex that other betas might feel, and Li Mu deeply admires him for it.

After an unexpected accident, Li Mu discovers Zhou Zeyi's secret. Their desires intertwine, and from then on, things spiral out of control.

Li Mu falls for Zhou Zeyi. He spends all his savings paying off Zhou Zeyi's debts and carefully nurtures the relationship between them. Then, at a banquet, he overhears Zhou Zeyi sneer:

"He's just a beta. I only picked up a plaything in this dump. If he wants anything more, I'll just throw him away."

Li Mu is heartbroken. He resolves to leave quietly the place he has called home for five years.

*

But it seems Heaven can't stand to see him happy. Just as his life is getting back on track, he runs into the person who used to bully him. The beta does everything he can to avoid him, but the spoiled alpha heir has changed from the arrogant man he once was, and apologizes with all his heart:

"Mu, I'm sorry for what I did to you. I'll change everything. Please forgive me, okay?"

Terrified, the beta flees to another place and becomes a caregiver, devotedly looking after an injured alpha lawyer. Miraculously, the alpha gets back on his feet.

Li Mu panics and refuses him, then runs away again.

In a new place, he scrapes by on odd jobs and lives in a remote area, hoping only for a quiet life. But things don't go as he wishes. One rainy afternoon, he is caught.

Caught by three people at once.

In a narrow, damp alley, three tall men stand facing off against each other, tension crackling between them. They speak at the same time:

"Who are you?"

Zhou Zeyi: "I'm Mu's lover."

The spoiled heir: "I'm Mu's boyfriend."

The possessive lawyer: "I'm the person Mu will be with forever."

Trapped between them with nowhere to go, Li Mu looks at the three men blocking his way, their eyes as if they want to devour him, and pleads:

"Could you let me go home first?"

1. A battle for the heart: poor, honest beta bottom vs. proud, chosen-by-Heaven esper top // possessive, sinister lawyer alpha top // devoted, pure-hearted, twisted noble alpha top

2. Content warnings: melodrama, coercive romance!!! This is not a multiple-love-interest vote, this is not a multiple-love-interest vote, this is not a multiple-love-interest vote! Multiple tops, no primary partner!

Below is the blurb for the ongoing novel The Honest Man Kept in Captivity by the Celestial Dragons:

Ten years into the wasteland era, humanity has evolved and awakened supernatural abilities. Many have carved out territories and proclaimed themselves rulers, and order has collapsed.

Xie Zhisheng awakened no abilities at all. With nothing but his looks, he survives by foraging for fruit and flowers. His legs were crippled in an accident three years ago, leaving him a helpless invalid.

Then, after one act of kindness, Xie Zhisheng finds an injured man. But instead of repaying him with kindness, the man brings him a curse from the depths of the abyss.

*

After the rain clears, Xie Zhisheng can only hope the man leaves soon. But when he wakes again, he finds himself in a clean tent.

Three handsome, broad-shouldered men stand before him, looking him over:

"Does he really have that kind of effect?"

"He's like a stray dog."

"Don't say that. Look how pitiful he looks."

Xie Zhisheng puts on a tough act and demands, "Who are you people?"

Just then, the man he rescued walks into the tent. Xie Zhisheng instinctively scoots back in alarm.

The man says to the three, "Try him and find out."

All three turn their eyes toward Xie Zhisheng. Their ravenous, predatory gazes send a chill through him, and he trembles in terror.

"I want to go home... I want to go home!"

But no matter how fiercely a weak person protests, it's like a kitten scratching at you: it can't frighten anyone in the slightest.

"Home? You mean that damp, dilapidated wooden shack of yours?"

The man grips Xie Zhisheng's chin and forces him to meet his eyes, while the other three burst into harsh laughter.

*

The honest, taciturn Xie Zhisheng thought he would live at the very bottom of society, like all the other ordinary people without abilities.

But when he was seventeen, the people at the top of the pyramid overturned his peaceful life with ease.

They ground his dignity into the mud, then dangled a meager chance at survival before him like charity. Cruelly, they built him a cage and forced him to become a plaything anyone could defile.

Xie Zhisheng struggled to climb higher and fly free. He swallowed the blood in his mouth and finally found a new life. But his luck was always bad. He escaped one wolf's den, only to be surrounded by another pack of Celestial Dragons.

Later, he truly couldn't understand why the men who had once discarded him like trash now acted as if they had been abandoned, bitterly complaining to him:

"Shengsheng, come back to me, and I'll forget all of this."

"Master... don't you want me anymore?"

"Xie Zhisheng, you said I was your favorite..."

Xie Zhisheng stared blankly at them, thinking with his usual slowness:

Why do these people take things said in bed seriously? How strange...

[Poor, honest, resilient, beautiful heteromorphic bottom vs. various chosen-by-Heaven tops]

[Sheng is the heart of the whole story; the romance is one-on-one in stages, and all the tops are virgins! A river of melodrama, with a regret-and-redemption arc!]

Message: Stay positive and live well.