A Hundred Years After the Substitute Died

[Full manuscript complete, opening in November]

On the day Yun Die became a disciple, he fell in love at first sight with Senior Brother He Changqing at the Ascension Tower.

He pursued him relentlessly. After an accident brought them together as husband and wife, Yun Die finally won his heart, and they cultivated their relationship to its happy end.

Years after their marriage, his senior brother still ignored him. Only later did Yun Die learn that his senior brother had long been in love with someone else.

Because he looked like that person, Yun Die had been made to serve as a substitute.

After years of enduring coldness, he finally realized, when He Changqing neglected his birthday once again, that he could never warm a heart that didn't belong to him.

That midnight, after arguing with someone, He Changqing casually tossed aside the string of beads he'd given Yun Die when they married.

The jade beads rolled into the pond. Yun Die stumbled in after them, hoping to scoop up the moon's reflection, but in the end came away empty-handed and drowned in the pond.

-

He Changqing didn't like the wife he'd acquired by accident.

Mild-tempered and terribly weak in cultivation, Yun Die felt more like a burden to him. Still, he was obedient and sensible, and a few cheap gifts were enough to placate him. It hardly seemed to matter whether he was there or not.

Until Yun Die died.

At last, He Changqing remembered that many years ago, he had traded everything he had for this brief encounter in their present life.

In a single night, the favored child of heaven became a madman.

-

The world was like a dream of yellow millet. Yun Die fell into the pond in the first half of the night, then somehow climbed back out on his own in the second.

He didn't yet know that a hundred years had passed since the moment he fell into the water.

Weak and unsteady, he instinctively went looking for He Changqing. The senior brother who had never paid him much attention before now cared for him attentively all night.

In the night, Yun Die vaguely heard him holding him and murmuring to him. He sounded nothing like the aloof senior brother of old, but more like a lovesick fool.

Yun Die had countless times imagined being close to He Changqing like an ordinary married couple. All it took was one fall into the water for his wish to come true.

Unfortunately, after much soul-searching, Yun Die no longer wanted to maintain this marriage in name only with his senior brother.

-

Formerly cold-hearted, now gloomy and obsessive ghost-like stalker gong x world-weary, gentle, sickly beauty shou

Content warnings:

1. Both leads are each other's first and only partners, one-on-one. The shou has a harem-protagonist trait, but both leads are intensely focused on each other.

2. The substitute is a false lead, there is no first love, and the groveling is inevitable.

3. The shou's true form is a little purple butterfly; the gong is human.

4. A melodramatic, dark, twisted story. No switching, no reversing roles, and no personal attacks.

Theme: Live well and face life with optimism.