They All Love Me to Madness

[Main story complete. Four side routes are being updated...]

[Sweet on the outside, dark on the inside vs. ???]

Xu Shuang is beautiful, with a sweet, innocent smile, and has been adored by everyone since childhood.

The famous up-and-coming actress next door, who's watched her grow up, is kind and considerate, always helping her through her troubles like a big sister who understands her.

Her high school chemistry teacher has a tall, graceful figure and long, straight black hair. She looks cool and confident, but patiently points Xu Shuang in the right direction whenever she feels lost.

Her mother's girlfriend, a kind and gentle stepmother, tenderly applies medicine to the wounds on her back, her warm, delicate breath soothing the pain.

And the fallen beauty she meets during a one-night stand is Xu Shuang's ideal partner. After their first night together, Xu Shuang keeps her, and the two plan their future together.

But once their disguises come off, everything changes...

The gentle actress has a serious mental illness. On the day she can no longer hold back her demons, she presses a bloodied knife to her own heart and begs Xu Shuang to promise she'll never leave.

The chemistry teacher guides her attentively at every turn, but under the pretense of helping her work through her problems, she lures Xu Shuang into a dark basement.

Her stepmother coaxes her to sleep, then, while Xu Shuang is lost in a haze of tenderness, lets a hand slide toward her neck like a venomous snake...

The fallen beauty who shared her bed night after night disappears without a word. When she appears before Xu Shuang again, it's as the heiress of one of N City's most prominent families.

That day, Xu Shuang never imagined that the beauty she'd once kept would stand before her with an air of superiority, toss down a pile of cash, and force Xu Shuang to become just one of her many lovers.

Tenderness, guidance, care, love... all are illusions on the surface.

Beneath those beautiful facades lie stains that can never see the light of day.

One night, Xu Shuang grabs her luggage, determined to escape this city, riddled with danger and deception at every turn.

She doesn't know that danger is closing in.

Late that night, on an empty road, a car barrels toward her, forcibly stopping her escape.

Covered in blood, Xu Shuang crawls out of the car. Fighting through her fading consciousness, she opens her eyes and sees a pair of red-soled high heels approaching, with multiple figures looming behind them.

"You can't run away yet, little darling."

A woman's teasing voice drifts through the night, full of meaning.

A flash of lightning illuminates the people behind her.

The woman crouches, her slender fingertips lifting Xu Shuang's chin. A twisted smile glimmers in her beautiful eyes.

"We... haven't had enough fun yet."

"..."

Reader's Notes:

1. Villainess story. These women love power and themselves more than they love sincere relationships.

2. I don't think this counts as a love-interest stock market or an NP story. The main story has an open ending, then four side routes continue from that ending.

3. Set in a fictional modern world where same-sex marriage is legal.

4. Some characters have romantic histories with women, including ex-girlfriends.

5. Every character will have her own story route.

6. There are no romantic storylines while anyone is underage. When the protagonist and her stepmother become intimate, the stepmother has already broken up with her mother. No romantic feelings are depicted during their relationship. (Bolded.)

7. The author is very stubborn ^ ^

Next, here's an upcoming story.

"She's Just Overstepping Her Place"

[Ambitious orphan who dares to challenge her superior x beautiful, strong, tragic adoptive mother]

Blurb:

Four hundred years ago, the Imperial Palace was filled with corpses.

Black blood soaked the luxurious carpet, and the metallic stench of blood filled the hall.

A seven-year-old child crawled out from the pile of bodies.

Her hair was disheveled, blood smeared across her pale cheeks, and her eyes were cold and lifeless beneath a shadow of gloom.

As she reached for a dagger to take her own life, a clear bell chime interrupted her.

A woman in red approached with light steps, her bare feet crossing the bloody floor. A red cord around her ankle set off her pale skin.

At last, she stopped before Shen Rongji. Her cool, almond-shaped eyes were half-lowered.

"Would you like to come back with me?"

The brilliant crimson reflected in Shen Rongji's eyes, and in that moment, a spark of life returned to them.

From then on, Shen Rongji became Rongji, standing with one foot in the gates of hell.

She shed her surname and kept only her given name. For the rest of her life, she would no longer be one of the living.

"..."

A long corridor surrounded by spirits lies beneath the earth. It leads to the underworld and to the human world, serving as the underworld's point of connection with the living.

For tens of thousands of years, the Soul-Returning Corridor has served no purpose but to convey the unfinished words of the dead and fulfill their unfulfilled wishes, so wandering souls can pass peacefully into the afterlife.

Lou Yizhi brought Rongji back to the corridor, where Rongji remained and learned how to care for the dead.

For more than three hundred years in the corridor, Rongji stayed by Lou Yizhi's side day and night. She practiced the art of summoning souls during the day and served Lou Yizhi at bedtime each night.

She applied medicine, bathed her, and stood watch through the night...

The little ghosts in the corridor all said that the current mistress of the corridor was extremely strict with her successor. The slightest mistake earned a whole night kneeling beside her bed without sleep. She would stop at nothing to mold Rongji into a worthy successor.

Only Rongji herself knew what an honor it was to kneel beside her bed and attend to her at night.

Seven hundred years later, the heir to the Soul-Returning Corridor usurped power, turning the vast underworld upside down in an instant.

The outside world said that the white-eyed wolf Lou Yizhi had taken in was ungrateful and utterly deranged. To seize control, Rongji had imprisoned her adoptive mother in the palace and subjected her to humiliation day and night.

"You insolent child."

On the night her greed came bursting forth, Rongji pinned Lou Yizhi against the desk, her hand curling around her waist like a venomous snake as it slipped into a warm, wet place.

"Mother has always doted on Aji. You'll put up with anything Aji does, won't you?"

"Shen Rongji, how dare you."

Lou Yizhi's body had gone limp, and her voice had lost all authority, trembling uncontrollably.

"You're mistaken, Mother." Rongji's gaze was hazy, as though she were lost in the sight of a precious piece of porcelain.

"How could a mother in this world not love her child...? So Mother loves Aji. And if that's true, how can you call making love an act of insolence?"

Rongji curled her bloodied lips. Her fingertips loosened the red cord tied around Lou Yizhi's ankle, then traced upward from her ankle.

"Don't tremble, Mother..."

"..."

Ambitious orphan who dares to challenge her superior x beautiful, strong, tragic adoptive mother

Fictional setting with plenty of original worldbuilding, still being developed~

There will be lots of misunderstandings and differences in how they see things~

Theme: Love is a reward for the brave