A Regret Story’s Male Lead Refuses To Play Along

[A beautiful, brilliant disciple with a straight-laced, slightly bookish streak, the top × a sickly, obsessive ghost master who seems a little unhinged, the bottom]

Qin Youzhou is the most perfect medical disciple of Yin Xiao Sect. With an otherworldly beauty, he is gentle and hardworking.

From grafting ginseng to caring for spirit beasts after birth, from spellcraft to swordplay, he excels at it all.

He lives a steady, sensible life, and has encountered only two truly outrageous things in all his years.

The first was binding a System at the age of one hundred and learning that he was living inside a book.

The second was when the master who raised him, and who was like a father to him, kissed him while drunk.

...And even used his tongue!!!

The System told him that he was the devoted, unlucky top in a melodramatic redemption novel. In the future, he would give everything to his scummy bottom of a junior brother, only to have that scumbag rip out his heart and destroy his entire sect.

But after Qin Youzhou died, the scumbag regretted it, was reborn before they met, and vowed to treat him well.

But this so-called kindness amounted to nothing more than accepting Qin Youzhou as a lovesick doormat.

Qin Youzhou: ?

He might be a bookworm, but he isn't stupid.

With three months to go before the scumbag junior brother became a disciple, Qin Youzhou decided to take action that very night and get rid of him before he could become one.

“Xiao Zhou, where are you going?”

A voice drifted up behind him.

Qin Youzhou stiffly turned his head and met his master's dark, deep-green phoenix eyes.

*

His master, Ying Weiye, was a healer who favored poison and gu techniques. He acted with reckless abandon and was known as a villainous blight on the righteous path.

In the original novel, he was an insignificant cannon-fodder character, an evil master who stood in the way of the protagonists' romance.

Yet this madman had found a baby nearly dead in a snowy night a hundred years ago, named him Youzhou, cherished him like a treasure, and lovingly raised him.

So Qin Youzhou was certain he could never betray the master who was like a father and elder brother to him. He would surely honor and care for him.

As the original story unfolded, the scummy junior brother did indeed keep his distance from Qin Youzhou. But Ying Weiye no longer looked at him with the same unclouded gaze as before.

There was an indescribable desire in his eyes, and a restraint hidden beneath his madness.

*

This was wrong.

As Ying Weiye kissed him, Qin Youzhou's mind frantically warned him to resist.

But he didn't push him away. When their lips parted, drawing out a suggestive thread of saliva, he lowered his eyes and avoided Ying Weiye's gaze.

“...Master, you're drunk.”

Ying Weiye looked steadily at him. “I'm not drunk.”

His cool hand caressed Qin Youzhou's peach-blossom eyes, then his cheek, before his fingertips came to rest on his Adam's apple.

“I gave you your name, and I made you...” His lips curled into a sickly smile.

“Youzhou, tell me, why should I let someone else take you away?”

*

Qin Youzhou didn't know that he and his master had known each other far longer than he imagined.

Ying Weiye had molded him with his own blood and heart, and when someone else took him away and forced a terrible match on him, he had gone to find and save him without hesitation.

When he shaped Qin Youzhou, all he wanted was for him to be sensible and clever, with an extraordinary degree of kindness and responsibility.

But later, all he wanted was for his beloved to live freely and carefree.

The top's perspective:

#What do I do if my master wants to get together with me?#

#Then let's do it. My master must have his reasons.#

The bottom's perspective:

#The organic baby cabbage I raised is about to get trampled by a stupid pig#

#Forget it, I'd better pick the cabbage first#

[A note before reading]

1. One-on-one, mutual devotion, first love for both, not a story about everyone being infatuated with the protagonist. Master-disciple romance with a younger top; the top is slightly taller than the bottom. Both characters have flaws, and the bottom's flaws are very serious. Please skip this if that's not for you.

2. Readers with extreme character preferences, please skip. Both the top and bottom are intensely devoted to each other and willing to give everything for the other.

3. Comments demanding that the bottom top the top, calling for the top to be the bottom, fantasizing about the top and bottom, or breaking up the couple will be deleted. All other comments will be left untouched. Thank you for understanding.

Check out my upcoming Quick Transmigration story with a top-focused episodic format. It's next!

"The Stand-In in a Tragic Novel Gets the Wrong HE Script [Quick Transmigration]"

A transmigrate-into-a-book top who thinks he's become someone else's mistress

×

A bottom who can't understand why the top keeps thinking he's a mistress, when he's actually head over heels for him

*

As Hosts bound to a gold-tier stand-in System,

they must diligently play the original partners of the protagonists in melodramatic novels. Once the original partners return, they must make way using suitably dramatic excuses, such as moving abroad, getting cancer, or being astrologically incompatible.

But then they suddenly realize... somehow, they've inexplicably become the main top instead??

Stand-In System: Oh no, how did my Host end up as the protagonist top? O.O

*

[A sunny, cheerful disciple who secretly loves his master × a seemingly cold master who inexplicably becomes a genuine stalker, the bottom]

The System told him he had to play a devoted disciple who had been secretly in love with his master for years. But his master only had eyes for the Demon Lord, who looked eighty percent like him, and treated him as the Demon Lord's stand-in.

Disciple: I get it. A gold-tier stand-in needs to be magnanimous!!

So he gave his master warmth and acted like a restrained, deeply devoted lover. Then, when his master seemed eager to make a move, he turned around and tossed the master, who had been drugged with an aphrodisiac, into the demon realm.

The disciple said tearfully, “Master, I hope you find the one you love!”

Who would have thought that three days later, his master would return with the drug still in his system, his face flushed and desire burning in his eyes?

Holding the Demon Lord's head in one hand, he looked at the disciple with hopeful eyes. “The threat you were worried about has been eliminated. Will you become my cultivation partner?”

The disciple, who had somehow started dual cultivation with him: ?

Wait, weren't I supposed to be his stand-in???

*

[A frail, refined prince who is barely alive, the top × a down-on-his-luck, loyal general who protects his master, the bottom]

The System told him he had to play a frail prince, while the Imperial General he loved was actually in love with his elder brother.

Prince: I get it. A gold-tier stand-in needs to know when to step aside.

He rescued the general from prison and took him on as a subordinate, but always spoke gently to him and never gave him the cold shoulder.

When his elder brother returned from his expedition, the prince died quickly and cleanly, smiling as he made way for him.

But the general went mad.

He clutched the prince's cold body, nearly losing his mind. With his eyes bloodshot, he commandeered a starship and took the prince everywhere in search of a cure.

The prince, who wasn't quite dead yet: ???

Weren't I supposed to be his stand-in?

*

[A bookish, poor student kept as a CEO's canary, the top × an overbearing CEO who only loves birds, the bottom]

The System told him he was a poor student who was being kept by a CEO because he had dimples when he smiled, was obedient, and looked like the CEO's long-lost love.

Poor student: I get it. A gold-tier stand-in needs to be tactful and know his place.

So when he shared a room with the CEO, he spent the whole night doing a group assignment.

When the CEO wanted him to fulfill his duties as a stand-in, he pulled his shirt around himself and politely said it wasn't appropriate.

He sternly lectured the CEO: “This is irresponsible toward the person you love.”

On the day that person returned from abroad, he voluntarily handed in a contract, hoping to clock out in peace and go home to prepare for graduate school.

But the CEO rejected his application. In the folder he tossed back was an extra marriage contract.

The bookish student, ready to clock out: ???

...Weren't I supposed to be a stand-in?

[Bonus scene]

Bookworm: But I'm the other man, aren't I? (blank stare)

CEO: No. The one who isn't loved is the mistress.

Bookworm: ?

Theme: Promoting a healthy understanding of love