On the eve of his engagement, Yu Li woke up to the truth:
He was the sacrificial substitute in a melodramatic novel.
Two months later, in a terrible fire, his fiance, the novel's male lead Lu Kaiji, would carry his true love to safety and leave Yu Li to be consumed by the flames.
Given another chance, Yu Li refuses to be anyone's substitute.
He won't get engaged to the male lead. He'll live well, then take ruthless revenge on everyone who used him as a tool.
But one person alone is too slow. He needs the fastest, sharpest blade he can find.
So he goes to Pei Cheng,
his high school friend, the once-displaced heir to the Pei family, and the only person in the book who never treated him as a substitute.
"Let's work together." Yu Li lowered his lashes. "When it's done, the Lu Group is yours."
The man gazed at him intently, then let out a quiet laugh. "All right."
Pei Cheng really was the perfect blade.
Where its edge pointed, the Lu Group's walls crumbled one after another.
On the day the Lu family fell, the male lead shrieked hysterically, "Yu Li doesn't care about you at all! He only thinks of you as a dog!"
Pei Cheng lifted his eyes, dusted the ash from his cuff, and replied blandly:
"Woof."
Like a wolfhound held on a leash, yet wearing its collar willingly.
Until...
Pei Cheng cornered Yu Li in front of the floor-to-ceiling window.
Below the window lay the territory they'd conquered; in its glass, the reflection of their fevered, breathless embrace.
"Now," Pei Cheng whispered, kissing the back of Yu Li's neck. "Can I claim a little payment?"
Yu Li pressed himself against the cold glass. "That's not in the contract."
"Then we'll amend it." Pei Cheng bit open his collar, breathed in his scent, and left a kiss mark. "Don't push me away..."
*
Later, when the Pei family's youngest-ever head came into the public eye, people noticed a ring on his left ring finger.
A reporter dared to ask about it. Pei Cheng glanced beyond the camera and suddenly smiled. "My partner keeps me on a tight leash."
Reader advisory:
1. The protagonist has previously dated the male lead, but their intimacy went no further than kissing.
2. Not suitable for readers who are strongly devoted to either the protagonist or the male lead. The blurb and opening chapters may be revised after the novel starts.
Theme: No smut, just self-indulgence.
