The World's Second Best Won't Let Me Slack Off

(Full manuscript complete! My neighboring serious historical danmei political-intrigue novel, "Cherish the Empty Cup", is also complete. Welcome to read it!)

The Best in the World vs. The Second Best in the World

Sharp-tongued but soft-hearted, pretending to be harmless while hiding his claws: the shou vs. Complains with his mouth but is honest with his actions, pretending to be aloof: the gong

Xie Yanzhuo, the foremost sage in all of history, was born with meridians suited to martial arts. He was a chivalrous young man who stood at the pinnacle of the jianghu, never knowing what it meant to lose.

A deadly ambush brought a prodigy's fall...

Those who once admired his chivalry began to doubt his path, while those who envied his lofty reputation spread rumors about him. After Xie Yanzhuo died, his name was dragged through the mud. Only one man, defeated by him years ago, avenged him after his death...

Xie Tang's tongue is a poison-coated blade. He has neither martial arts skills nor a reputation, yet he makes his way in the jianghu with nothing but his silver tongue, competing with the famous Baixiao Hall for clients and feeling no guilt about it.

"They say corpse fiends often haunt the countryside. Does the master of Yuntai Bureau have any information about them?"

The illustrious Pavilion Master Xie, owner of an intelligence network as renowned as Baixiao Hall's, stammers, "Fellow cultivator, according to the rules, you have to pay before I can tell you!"

So people call him greedy and say he's no hero at all. Xie Tang's answer is: I'm not a good person.

An accident forces him into the jianghu. He dutifully puts on a mask, only to be recognized the very first time he sees a certain someone...

Ten years ago, the man born with martial meridians, the leader of the Xuan Sect and the foremost sage...

Xie Tang dislikes this presumptuous man, because he has discovered his "secret." But the man says, perfectly seriously...

"I'll help you."

"Huh? How?" Xie Tang's mind goes blank. Later, that someone asks with a spring breeze smile, "Have you forgotten the ten-year pact between us?"

Xie Tang: "What, what, what? What is all this!?"

Content warnings:

1. Shou: Xie Yanzhuo/Xie Tang. Gong: Li Niansheng.

2. The shou has a love bug inside him, and, well, the thing that cures it... (covers fingers)

3. I don't think there are any other major warnings.

Upcoming modern school novel: "Crossing the Line" (You think I can only write plot-driven stories, or that I only write historical danmei? Hmph! I write everything!)

Aloof, top-of-the-class shou with an obsessive disorder x Scheming jerk of a school bully gong who's hopelessly lovesick

Ji Chengnan is what everyone calls a "good kid." What they don't know is that he's been ill since childhood: depression, obsessive disorder... His life has been rotten for a long time.

The "good kid" enters the worst high school in the city and meets a clueless transfer student named Luo Mingxuan. The clueless kid becomes Ji Chengnan's deskmate, takes his place at the very bottom of the class, and is always smiling at him.

Ji Chengnan thinks he's just a stupid dog with bad grades, until he realizes...

Whatever rank Ji Chengnan gets, the clueless kid gets that same "rank"...

Whatever exam room Ji Chengnan sits in, the clueless kid sits in that same room...

The clueless kid remembers Ji Chengnan's abandoned habits better than he does...

Ji Chengnan doesn't like the mundane world, yet from the very beginning, he allows Luo Mingxuan to approach him with ulterior motives... He crossed the line...

The clueless kid says he's had a crush on someone for a long time...

Ji Chengnan nods, yet feels inexplicably irritated.

Until Ji Chengnan comes across the clueless kid's sketchbook...

The first half is him, and the second half is still him...

Quiet, frowning, dozing with his head on his desk...

It is a long gaze that Ji Chengnan has never seen before, yet it belongs to Luo Mingxuan.

It turns out the shadow never left the light. It only learned to keep loving in the way of the night.

Content warnings:

1. Most of the story takes place at school.

2. Includes elements of conversion therapy.

3. Both characters are adults.

4. They will be apart for a long time, with a little angst in between. A little angst is good for the soul.

Theme: The light of righteousness

2":"Morning mist draped itself like gauze over the winding banks of S City's river. Waves washed a swollen, decaying corpse onto the mudflat, while the stench of rot and the mystery of its death fermented in the damp air. Detective He Zhiyi crouched to examine it, his fingertips tracing the dark green veins of decay beneath the skin. Was this a drowning, or a carefully staged murder?

Beneath the undercurrents, a fishing enthusiast's rambling words conceal a terror he dares not voice. The octagonal hat of Erfei, the beauty from the coffee shop, hides a strange smile, while trembling hands nearly cause rookie police officer Chen Ling to let the secret trapped inside the corpse sink forever to the bottom of the river.

When the forensic pathologist's scalpel cuts through the truth behind the double suffocation, red figures in a loan shark's ledger begin to overlap with a shadowy figure in a hidden-camera photo. In the night, lawyer Xiao Junyu's rose-colored lip gloss brushes the rim of her coffee cup. Is her tenderness salvation, or the prelude to another deadly game?

The river mist has yet to clear, and the corpse's whispers have not ceased. Every raindrop carries a lie, and every breath brings them closer to the abyss...

Theme: The many facets of life","3":"Youth is a grand, silent confession.

Lan Weiyao keeps two secrets in her heart: her three-year fixation on her middle-school classmate Zhou Heyan, and the boy who is always playing piano in the practice room, Lu Yici. As Zhou Heyan gradually drifts away after a family upheaval, and her best friend Li Shuyun becomes entangled in a painful romance with the gloomy music student Gu Yuxi, only Lu Yici's piano music remains her refuge, though she never realizes the notes hold a deep affection she cannot understand.

Later, Gu Yuxi slips a razor blade between the piano keys, drawing the most devastating final bar to their youth. Zhou Heyan leaves with a promise unfulfilled, while Lu Yici remains silent. Years later, Lan Weiyao, now a radio host, returns to her old school and opens the long-sealed practice room. As the sunset falls on the black and white keys, and the suited man presses a key that makes no sound, she finally understands: the loudest confessions often exist in the quietest form throughout an entire youth.

Some feelings never needed a voice.

Theme: Love","4":""Manchester United thrashed 7-0 by Liverpool, setting the worst score in the club's history."

"Manchester United finish the season empty-handed and miss out on European competition. A disastrous campaign."

"Rifts in the Manchester United dressing room exposed. Coach's tactics questioned, Ronaldo may leave."

Before going to bed, a fan stares at the newspaper in his hands and thinks in despair:

"If only Sir Alex Ferguson were still here!"

"If only those players from twenty years ago could come back!"

"If only time could really turn back."

Then the fan wakes up...

What do you mean the Manchester United manager is now Ferguson?

What do you mean Keane refused to leave and swore to build a team of iron men?

What do you mean Cristiano Ronaldo and Rooney are fighting again? Oh, never mind that one.

In short, Manchester United has gone back twenty years, but the world of football has stayed the same!

Theme: People should move forward without hesitation","5":"National personifications, provincial personifications, city personifications. Guaranteed to leave you hungry nine times in three days, haha~ The main focus is history and current affairs, with a little shipping now and then. Feel free to submit any pairings you like.

Theme: Understanding history and politics.","6":"***School-life healing | Two female leads | Coming-of-age story***

Shen Nian is the quietest presence at school.

Her blue-and-white uniform has been washed pale, and she is always alone in a corner of the classroom doing problems. No one knows that the bruises on her arms come from her parents' favoritism, just as no one notices that during the break between exercises, she is always secretly looking toward the girl standing in the sunlight: Jiang Xiaoxi.

Jiang Xiaoxi's life should have been as bright as her name.

She was a top-ten student in her grade and once had the happiest family in the world. Then, when she was eleven, a car accident took her parents, leaving only her and her older brother to depend on each other. Everyone says she's strong. Only she knows that the girl who cries alone in her room every night is the real Jiang Xiaoxi.

When two wounded souls meet at school...

"I can't keep calling you Shen Zhaodi forever. Do you have a nickname?"

"Nian."

"What?"

"Grandma calls me Niannian."

"Does it mean anything?"

"I hope I can break free of my shackles and be myself."

**This is a story about**

bruises hidden beneath desks and tearstained diary pages,

and how two girls become the first and last light

in each other's youth.

**Reader's Guide**

A school story about two female leads healing each other

A gentle, resilient girl x a bright, quietly enduring girl

Explores childhood family trauma and psychological healing

Happy ending guaranteed. All tears will eventually bloom into flowers.

Theme: Study hard and make progress every day","7":".

Theme: Study hard","8":"A sex-averse shou: Kissing, hugging, holding hands, those are things only a husband can do. You're my sugar daddy, and sugar daddies can only do it.

An erectile-dysfunction gong: ? I'm the one with erectile dysfunction, so how are we supposed to do it?

Doctor, with a professional fake smile: Come on in, let's have a look at your andrology!

Theme: Every pot has its matching gay","9":"They say there is a mysterious hero among the common folk, a cultivator. But this cultivator is quite unlike the others. While most cultivators live in comfort, like the moon in the sky, this hero is different. Not only is he highly skilled in martial arts, he also wields a sword called Bicha. He often wears a long-sleeved white Daoist robe and is nowhere to be found. Truly mysterious, strange, and wondrous!

Theme: Uphold justice on Heaven's behalf","10":"An ordinary school story with a little melodrama mixed in.

Theme: How will you choose to live?"}