The Funeral of the Beloved Savior

Next novel: After My Online Romance Went Off the Rails, a Landmine Man Gave Me a Happy Ending. Please add it to your reading list!

Blurb:

[Controlling Ambitious Woman x The Hounds Who Covet Her]

"A pair of contrasting twins: teammates, rivals, and sworn enemies."

Aban Jia was regarded as a curse from the moment she was born, and her parents abandoned her in the mountains. At the same time, Lan Long became the empire's highly anticipated crown prince.

The world feared her, while millions revered him. They were as far apart as heaven and earth.

The first time Lan Long saw Aban Jia, she had taken first place in the empire's entrance examination. Her cool, clear eyes showed no regard for anyone.

For the first time, he wanted someone so badly.

Who could have guessed she would disappear the very next day? When they met again, she had enlisted to fight in the war, and he chose to head to the front with her.

He didn't know why. Perhaps he wanted to make up for the obsession born of having missed his chance.

Besides, in this world, neither of them had any rivals but each other. They were perfectly matched.

Their mutual admiration gradually became possessiveness. Before he knew it, he had already decided she belonged to him.

In the middle of the night, giving in to his greed, he could think of nothing but her.

But later, she told him:

"This world doesn't need two kings."

"Every time he fell for her, she had deliberately lured him in."

Huang Ling had an exceptionally outstanding older brother.

With his brother around, he could only live in his shadow.

That was, until his brother brought home a woman.

She was strange. Whenever she appeared, she quietly stayed by his brother's side.

Yet she was always the first to notice him in a crowd. When her face, as cold as snow, turned toward him, she would always give him a gentle smile.

On the day she got engaged to his brother, a bridal bouquet even fell from the sky into his hands.

He looked up. The woman wore a solemn white gown, both arms resting on a porcelain-white railing, her red lips curling at him, her beauty bewitching.

He was certain she wasn't looking at anyone else. She was looking at him, the one who had caught the bouquet she threw.

Why? The person standing by her side was his older brother.

Perhaps that ambiguous favoritism made him harbor other thoughts.

To stay by her side, he took his brother's place.

"Master and pet: which one is the bird trapped in the other's cage?"

Lord Aban Jia is everything to me.

She taught me knowledge and gave meaning to my life. My entire being belongs to her.

But she made me a pawn, denied my existence, and took my fate away from me.

Lord Aban Jia's dog died that day.

The one still alive is a vicious hound plotting to devour Lord Aban Jia.

*

This is a twisted beastfolk world.

Strength is everything. The animal genes one inherits determine one's status. Some are born to rule, while others can only spend their lives as ants.

For ordinary people to defy fate, they must compete with 90% of their kind for the 1% of places in the capital city, then spend their lives working themselves to the bone for the royal family and nobility.

But a war changed everything.

The war brought despair, persecution, and death, but it also tore down the capital city's once-unattainable barrier to entry.

It also brought a vile crow beastfolk out of nowhere, making her a blade in the royal family's hand, a thorn in the nobility's side, and a savior to the common people.

Back then, no one could have imagined that in the future she would break the thousand-year-old class system controlled by the royal family and become the empire's new supreme ruler.

"God told me that the beastfolk race is trapped for its entire existence in the struggle between beast and human."

Aban Jia received this divine revelation.

So let her be the one to end this fate, which has entangled them for a thousand years.

From an empty soldier born to serve others, to a commander who seizes power, to a false and cunning savior, and finally to a ruthless politician.

No matter how unscrupulous she must be, no matter how scarred she becomes, even if she shatters the dreams of millions, she will fulfill this mission.

She will turn power into a tool, suffering into nourishment, and ideals into destiny.

The universally revered crown prince pursues her and demands marriage. She enters the game willingly. This partner, who once fought side by side with her through life and death, is ultimately dragged from his altar by her, and they become locked in a battle to the death.

The arrogant, vicious second prince secretly watches her, unaware that he is in love. She satisfies his desire for adoration, beckons him over, and he willingly falls into becoming a puppet in her hands.

Her beautiful foster brother, who had relied on her since childhood, was someone she once swore to protect forever. Now, too, he has become a sacrifice she uses and discards.

The powerful beg for her love. The arrogant are consumed by insecurity. The selfish choose to sacrifice themselves.

For the sake of her ideals, nothing is beyond giving up.

PS: Open ending.

Coming next:

After My Online Romance Went Off the Rails, a Landmine Man Gave Me a Happy Ending

[Third-person narration]

Carefree woman x fake-sweet landmine man

I was stressed out from work and needed to unwind, so I matched with a man on a dating app.

He had highlights in his hair, loved piercings, and had plenty of personality. He dressed like a peacock, a classic bad boy.

Flirting with a man like that wouldn't come with any strings attached.

His enthusiasm made me happy. As we got to know each other, he became bolder and bolder. He even took off his clothes on camera and asked me to count how many piercings he had.

One of us wore a mask and the other an eye mask, so we had never seen each other's faces in full.

Then, after I got drunk at a business dinner one day, a male colleague walked me home. He said he'd answered a call for me. The caller was a man named Kiki who claimed to be my boyfriend.

I had never given him my phone number,

let alone said I wanted to date him.

The next day, without hesitation, I blocked him, deleted the app, and disappeared without a word. Yet for some reason, I felt a little frightened and swore I would never flirt online again.

Six months after we completely lost touch, someone with connections suddenly joined the company.

He had smooth, neat black hair and a gentle, reserved personality. He always wore comfortable, elegant cardigans, and gave off a very husbandly vibe.

He also had a dignified, generous name: Zhou Xiren.

My boss assigned me to help him with his work.

But I felt a little reluctant.

Because his chin had a mole identical to Kiki's, and his voice sounded similar, too.

But after work forced us to interact, I gradually became certain they couldn't be the same person.

He had connections, yet he was the one being bullied by the others.

Never said no, always willing to help, constantly working overtime.

He was gentle to the core.

How could he possibly be the landmine man online who wanted to dox me?

Until a cocktail party, where the client's CEO kept forcing drinks on me.

I left to sober up, but wandered down the wrong hallway in a daze. There, I caught him pinning that untouchable CEO against a deep red wall with one hand.

The dim yellow light outlined his aristocratic features and the bulging veins in his arm. Half his face was hidden in shadow, and his voice was chilling enough to make me shudder.

"Don't touch what's mine."

He was nothing like the harmless man he seemed to be in everyday life.

-

Everyone in the scene says piercings are a way of taking control of your body.

"You get to satisfy your urge to destroy, while decorating yourself with something that goes bling bling."

For Zhou Xiren,

every extra hole his prey gets pierced with means one more degree of control for him.

That is how he hunts.

He loves the thrill of control he gets from such despicable methods.

Yet he fell for Guan Yalin, the unexpected variable.

Theme: Never forget your original aspirations.