[Gentle beauty x yandere heir]
[The male lead is a substitute | Marriage before love | A punishing road to redemption]
"Take a good look at this face..."
On their wedding night, he gripped her chin and forced her to look straight at the eyes and brows that resembled his late elder brother's by seventy percent. His eyes were steeped in icy mockery and hatred.
"My brother is dead. What gives you the right to go on living as if nothing happened?"
"From now on, those eyes that can only look at him, and that heart with room for no one but him, will belong to me alone."
-
Everyone in Beijing's elite circles knew that Duan Qinning was a gentle beauty raised above the clouds. Her engagement to Ji Ting, the second young master of the Ji family, had once been a celebrated match, like a bright pearl reflected in the moon.
A car accident crushed all that starlight. Everyone pitied her for losing the love of her life, but no one knew how precarious her situation had become.
The youngest and most unruly third young master of the Ji family, Ji Ruhui, returned from overseas and seized control of the family business by force.
At the welcome banquet, he walked straight toward her through the crowd, his voice cold as a blade.
"I heard you were with my brother the day he had his accident."
"Miss Duan, who are you putting on this show of grief for?"
-
A marriage of convenience bound two enemies together.
He thought it would be the perfect revenge.
He kissed her deep into the night, biting her lips until they bled. When he tasted blood, he chuckled. "Does it hurt? When my brother died, he suffered a thousand times more than this."
He tore apart the treasured photograph she kept, but when she cried in silence, he lost control and embraced her. "Don't cry for him... You can only look at me."
She stayed clear-headed even as she sank into his twisted hatred.
Until one day, he found countless sketches of himself in the drafts of her long-hidden picture book...
The angles were sharp, his expression gloomy, and every sketch had been stamped with the cold words, "Substitute."
Ji Ruhui finally understood. In this revenge game he had staged himself, he had been the most ridiculous substitute of all, used and scrutinized from beginning to end.
And more terrifying than hatred was the love that had already become a terminal illness he could not escape.
-
Later, at an auction house in Beijing's elite circles, Ji Ruhui paid an astronomical price for a painting by an unknown artist, simply because it bore her early signature in the corner.
When a reporter asked why, the usually proud and refined man turned red-eyed before the cameras, his voice hoarse.
"I'm trying to atone."
"For the pain I caused you, and for this incurable terminal illness called 'loving you.'"
"The doctor says it's in its final stages, spread into every breath I take... Mrs. Ji, you are my only cancer cell, and my only chance at survival."
[Reader's Guide]
1. The male lead is a yandere at heart. At first, he thinks he's the hunter, but in truth, he's been prey caught in a trap for a long time.
2. The female lead is his kryptonite and his whole world. She turns him from a madman into a loyal dog, all by herself.
3. The male lead is a substitute for his deceased elder brother. Expect a punishing road to redemption later, with maximum angst for the male lead.
4. Both are virgins. Happy ending. This is an intense story of mutual salvation.
Theme: Love life.
