The Sickly Older Brother in a Fake Young Master Novel

Pre-release: A Mediocre Beta. Please check the blurb at the very bottom and add it to your collection!

It was only when Leng Li died on a snowy night when no one cared that he learned he was nothing more than the older brother destined to be abandoned in a melodramatic, angsty story about the real and fake young masters.

Because he had been sickly and weak since childhood, and was quiet by nature, his parents changed their minds and decided to have another child. Their new child was healthy, handsome, clever, and capable. Then, twenty years later, he turned out to be the child who had been switched at birth.

Suffering from pain in his lungs, his face pale as paper, Leng Li stood in a corner and watched the two young masters, real and fake, fight over the years. There was endless passionate hatred, countless people willing to go through fire and water for them, until at last the two of them forgave each other.

Then, on a family reunion night, Leng Li appeared for the first time, supporting his battered body as he made his way to the dinner table.

The real young master’s gaze darkened. He asked his parents who this person was.

It turned out that after all these years, Leng Li’s parents had never introduced him to the real young master.

At the table, Leng’s father and mother fell silent. The fake young master, however, gave a scornful laugh and said, “That’s our older brother. He’s been sick since childhood.”

Our?

Leng Li wondered, Am I still your older brother?

He died of illness on a snowy night, just a few days after the family reunion. Only then did Leng Li realize that this was a melodramatic story about a real and fake young master, and his only purpose in it was to die so that these two young masters, who had won Leng’s parents’ affection, could take their place as the true children of the Leng family.

This was the life story of the real and fake young masters.

And Leng Li? He was the frail older brother destined to be replaced.

*

When Leng Li opened his eyes again, he had returned to the night the real young master was found. A System suddenly appeared in his mind. If he completed the assigned tasks, he could live to the age of seventy.

The first task was to appear on the day the real young master was claimed and help him out of a difficult situation.

The second task was to comfort the fake young master over his feelings about the real young master’s arrival.

The real young master arrived at the magnificent Tan residence wearing a T-shirt washed so often that it had faded. He saw his biological parents, and the fake young master who had taken his place.

His gaze shifted slightly and landed on a man standing in the shadows. He had a slender build, a pale face, and eyes strikingly dark, like black obsidian. His features bore a five-part resemblance to the real young master’s. He seemed like a ghost lurking in the shadows.

He knew that this was his biological older brother, yet the man was so frail and sickly that he seemed more like his younger brother.

*

Leng Li completed the System’s tasks because he wanted to see more of the world beyond the Leng family. But he had never imagined that the fake young master, who had sneered at him and treated him coldly in his previous life, would kneel before him and demand, “He’s only related to you by a bit of blood. Why won’t you look at me? I’m the younger brother who lived with you for more than twenty years!”

The real young master merely looked at Leng Li and said, “I know you like the fake young master better, but I’m the one related to you by blood. From the moment we were born, we could never be separated. Brother, please look at me, all right? I’ll live up to your expectations.”

*

The grounds of Visroil Academy were solemn and dignified, with quiet ivy climbing its red walls. The commoners and the nobility, power and money: from his very first day at the academy, Leng Li learned just how deeply his younger brothers loved and hated each other.

But he had never imagined that the people seated high above would turn secretive gazes on him, like a festering affliction that clung to the bone.

All Leng Li wanted was to avoid them. Then, one day, he received an invitation to join the academy’s most secretive fraternity.

It was signed by Pei Yinnian, the twisted and eccentric tyrant villain of this story.

Reader’s Guide

1. There is no romantic relationship between the real young master and the love interest, nor with the fake young master, and there is no romance between the real and fake young masters.

2. The real and fake young masters simply become brother-obsessed. It’s an unconventional “chasing your brother after losing him” story.

3. The love interest is sickly and weak, with lots of descriptions of his frail health.

4. The setting is fictional, and the entire story is an unreal, imaginary world.

Pre-release: A Mediocre Beta. Blurb

Bian Yao is a mediocre beta. If there is one thing that makes him unusual, it’s that his mother was a beta who got involved with an alpha and eventually gave birth to him.

But the person who stayed by Bian Yao’s mother in the end was a gentle beta. They were an ordinary, unremarkable beta family, but they were happy enough.

Bian Yao’s grades were good enough for him to attend university in the distant capital. As he was leaving, his mother looked at him and said, “I hope your life is happy from now on.”

And so Bian Yao began carrying out the plan he had perfected in his teens.

*

None of the people around Xie Yunche understood how he could have fallen for a beta like Bian Yao. In their eyes, betas were dull and mediocre, with nothing interesting about them.

Xie Yunche merely smiled, his lips curving. “What can I say? He keeps trying so hard that I’m starting to feel a little sorry for him. Might as well have some fun.”

But no one could have imagined that as soon as university ended, that beta would dump the alpha without the slightest hesitation.

Xie Yunche issued a threat, sneering, “Bian Yao, don’t come crawling back and begging me on your knees later.”

Then, three years later, Xie Yunche heard that Bian Yao was about to marry a beta.

At the same time, he found a document that had not yet been destroyed in the place where Bian Yao used to live. It was Bian Yao’s plan for the rest of his life.

“Mother said that everyone has to go through plenty of twists and turns in life. How can you know which pitfalls to avoid and which ones to take a chance on if you’ve never suffered a loss?”

“Xie Yunche is rich and powerful. People like him have very little genuine affection to offer. If I date him, I can experience what it feels like to be abandoned, to have my dignity crushed.”

A note followed: “Why hasn’t he asked to break up when graduation is so close? This won’t do. I have to end it by graduation at the latest, or my life plan will be thrown off track.”

Xie Yunche turned the page without expression and saw Bian Yao’s plans for the rest of his life.

“After my heart has been shattered, I won’t be able to understand what meaning life has. Just then, a beta will happen to come into my life, comfort me, and soothe my pain. We’ll get married three years later.”

That was Bian Yao’s happy life.

Xie Yunche flew to the place where Bian Yao lived. He was going to demand an explanation.

But when he arrived at the door, Xie Yunche suddenly realized that Bian Yao hadn’t just deceived him.

[Bian Yao x arrogant man / patriarchal old-school dad / cold-blooded man]

Theme: Live your life well.