I Refused to Be a Substitute, and Shot to Fame on a Variety Show With My Mother-In-Law - Chapter 44 - 44 Li Xiwu was Alone Outside the Delivery Room

On their wedding night, she gnashed her teeth, yelling, “Your Highness, that’s shameless!”

Set off by the flickering light of red candles, he curved the corner of his mouth into a wicked grin, “Actually, I can be more shameless…”

…

When they met for the first time, he was the young prince who lived in his day of brilliance, while she was the pampered princess of the adjacent state.

When they met again, he became the crippled underdog suffering from frustration, while she became the lackluster hostage stranded in an alien land.

In his mid-life, he was defeated in the fight and had his legs broken; his wife passed away and he didn’t have anything left except his father’s detestation… After constant blows took the edge off his spirit, all he wanted was nothing but serenity.

In her teen-age, her state perished and her home lost; she lapsed into an awkward situation after being abandoned and having her marriage annulled… As endless hardships isolated her from happiness, everything she wished for was no more than peace.

…

“Lu Zhishan, when I first met you, I didn’t think I’d marry you…too old,” after years passed by, one day, she lay on his laps mumbling, with a kind of hazy beauty on her boozy face, “and lame.”

“Mu Nanzhi, you have the wrong memory. At our first meeting, I’m neither old nor limp.”

“…When was that?”

“When people were celebrating your first birthday,” that man assumed all gentleness and joy crept on his eyes and brows, “On that day, you were ‘drawing lots’ in the rear hall. I also sneaked there to have a look. But, out of my expectation, you directly grabbed my true-love knot.”

…

How vivid the red love pea is embedded in the exquisitely carved dice,

Just as my feelings for you deep in my bones.

- Description from Novelupdates

Aurora Waters was overwhelmed with despair when she faced the truth about her family.She had been born into a family of villains.Even worse, her family had an unhealthy obsession with faking their identities.They took “Fake it till you make it” so seriously that it usually ended with them getting killed!Her oldest brother pretended to be a CEO just to mess with the female lead, but that backfired when the male lead showed up and threw him out.Her second brother? He was an obsessive lover who pretended to be a wealthy second-generation heir—until the real heir ended his life.Her third sister? She faked being an heiress to manipulate the second male lead but ended up being killed by him.Her fourth sister? She faked an illness to attract the third male lead’s attention, only to die from a real one.Her mother? She put on a facade of being a kind and loving mom but ultimately met her end at the hands of the male lead.Her father? He pretended to be a powerful tycoon but lost his job and was drowned by the second male lead.And Aurora? She planned to impersonate the daughter of the richest man alive, but if things went the way they always did in her family, she’d probably meet her end by accidentally falling down the stairs.However, there was one glimmer of hope in this nightmare: she had a 100% rebate system that rewarded her for spending money on her family![Beep! You bought an eraser worth 1 dollar for your eldest brother! 2 dollars have been credited to your bank account!][Beep! You bought a candy worth 1 dollar for your second brother! 2 dollars have been credited to your bank account!]Aurora’s eyes sparkled as an idea took shape. She began spending on her family like crazy to rake in cash.She even wished her family were greedier so she could earn more! Just as she was brainstorming new ways to splurge on her family, she unexpectedly ran into her childhood crush.[Beep! You gave a bun worth 20 dollars to your childhood crush! 100 dollars has been credited to your bank account!]Aurora: …! That’s walking money!

Two years after the breakup, he developed misogyny. Being too close to a woman would make him nauseous and vomit.Mo Chen: Why are there ugly women everywhere?The Brothers: ???Qiao Ruoxin suddenly returned, begging for reconciliation and affection.Mo Chen: You say breakup and we break up, you say reconcile and we reconcile? Who do you think you are!She kissed him forcefully, and Mo Chen instantly became tame, like a docile beast.The Brothers: ??? What happened to your misogyny? And what's with that look of enjoyment?Mo Chen: Get out! You're getting a free show and still have so much to say!Qiao Ruoxin: Brothers, help me pursue Mo Chen. After I succeed, each of you gets a billion, and he's paying.The Brothers: ??? You two really are a pair of extraordinary heroes!Mo Chen: You guys created a group chat behind my back?People hurriedly left the group chat......“Little Ghost, Brother is quite easy to coax, just be patient.”A beautiful and badass sweetheart X an abnormally paranoid and irritable CEO

Book I: Lost ThingsTristan Abrascal is a thief, one of many making their living under the perpetual twilight of the greatest city in all of Vesper. Quick wit and a contract with a capricious goddess have always kept him one step ahead, until one night he crosses a line by accident that burns all the bridges he had left. But not all is lost, as his mentor offers a way out of peril that turns out to be more than a simple escape.It is also an opportunity to get even with the infanzones, the nobles he’s lived under all his life, and it so happens that Tristan has a full ledger’s worth of scores to settle with them.Lady Angharad Tredegar has fled halfway across the world, leaving behind a ruin of a life: her family butchered by a ruthless enemy, their estate torched and their nobility revoked. Yet no matter how far she flees the blades of assassins follow, and she finds herself growing desperate for any protection. She has one relative left to call on, her estranged uncle, but she finds that the safety he offers comes at a cost.Angharad has sworn revenge, however, and her honour will allow for no compromise. She will do what she must to survive so that one day bloody vengeance can be visited upon her enemies.The paths of the two take them to the doorstep of the Watch, but for desperate souls like them enrolment is a lost cause. They will have to do it the hard way instead, by surviving the trials on the isle known as the Dominion of Lost Things.Where every year many go, and few return.Book II: Good TreasonsThe trials of the Dominion are over.The four survivors have become students of Scholomance, enrolling together as a cabal, yet even on those infamous grounds they soon learn none are beyond the reach of their pasts.Angharad Tredegar is returned to a semblance of the world she left behind, but finds her honor sorely tested by bargains offered - every bit as tempting as in the stories and even deadlier.Tristan Abrascal needs answers. Mysterious enemies keep trying to abduct him, his classroom does not exist and he’s now had several conversations with dead people. Worst of all, his carrots keep dying.Maryam Khaimov is going mad, which would worry her less if it were happening on schedule. More frightening yet is the possibility that she is not, and there truly is someone else going around wearing her face.Song Ren must forge the others into a functional unit, all the while fending off enemies on all sides: rival cabals, vengeful countrymen and the deluge of implacable foes her companions simply cannot seem to stop attracting.Failure is not an option, for Song must bring back honor to her family’s name whatever the cost: it is the only way to keep their disgrace from literally eating them all alive.And as the four chase shadows in Scholomance, in the distance looms the greater test awaiting them in the Asphodel Rectorate. Asphodel is a faded power, the rotten carcass of what it once was, but under that rot looms darker things - of which monsters might just be the least dangerous.Besides, is treason really such an evil when you have the best of reasons for it?