Qing Jiu

For eight years, I lived in a freezing, unheated apartment, washing the bloodstains out of my mob enforcer boyfriend's suits every day. He strictly gave me two thousand dollars a month, saying we had to live frugally and save up enough money to escape this dark world. But when I was washing his clothes, I found a receipt for a custom engagement ring worth sixty-eight thousand dollars. That ring wasn't for me, but for his secret lover, Mia. I cracked the password on his encrypted laptop and uncovered his three-year-long double life. He wasn't a bottom-tier thug struggling to survive in a dangerous game at all. He embezzled forty-eight thousand dollars from his mob boss's accounts every month to buy Mia diamonds, cars, and a luxury apartment in Manhattan. And meanwhile, I was drinking watery porridge just to save a little on the electricity bill. When I confronted him, he didn't show a single ounce of guilt, accusing me instead: "You're too heavy. Being around you suffocates me." He thought I was a pathetic parasite who couldn't survive without his protection. But what he didn't know was that I had already quietly earned over a million dollars through legitimate antique painting restoration work. I packed my bags. It was time to let the mob know who was really stealing their money.

For three years, I played the role of a poor, devoted girlfriend, pulling all-nighters to analyze hockey stats and custom-tune skates just to keep my boyfriend, Dedric, on the varsity team. Then I overheard him laughing in the locker room with his frat brothers. He told them he was just using me for free labor and planned to toss me aside for a wealthy heiress once his family's sports sponsorship deal went through. "When I lock down Edwina, the stray goes back to the gutter," he sneered. "Even after I dump her, she'll still hand over her tactical models on her knees." When I kicked the door open and dumped him on the spot, he lost his mind. He threatened to blacklist me from every athletic program in the country, screaming that I was a penniless parasite who was absolutely nothing without the Salas family name. His new heiress girlfriend even tried to humiliate me in public, mocking my clothes and accusing me of stealing. They actually believed I was a desperate charity case clinging to their mediocre wealth. They had no idea that the revolutionary skate technology keeping their entire family business afloat was secretly patented by me. Nor did they know my real identity. I didn't shed a single tear. I just packed my bags, blocked his number, and got into the midnight-black Maybach sent by my uncle. It was time to stop playing house in the student slums and show them who really owned the ice.

To protect her precious pure-blooded daughter, my biological mother forced me to take her place and marry a dying, deformed monster Alpha. To ensure I was utterly ruined, she drugged my food and hired a filthy rogue to destroy my innocence first. But the drug drove me crazy. That night, I accidentally slept with a breathtakingly handsome stranger in a dark cabin. When I woke up, I left three gold coins on his pillow as a "tip" before slipping away. When I refused to submit to the marriage, my family chopped off my adoptive mother's hand and delivered it to my doorstep in a bloody wooden box. They thought my lack of an inner wolf made me a genetic defect they could manipulate at will. They had no idea I was the Phantom Healer of the underground black market. I splashed bone-melting acid on their chief enforcer's face, watching her dissolve into a screaming puddle of blood. To completely sever ties with my family, I marched straight to the monster Alpha's manor. I played the pitiful victim, begging him to break off the engagement: "Your Highness, I cannot marry you. I already gave myself to a man I deeply love..." Instead, a low, dangerous chuckle echoed in the dark room. The rumored ugly, crippled beast took off his terrifying iron mask, revealing a face as handsome as a god. He slammed those three gold coins onto the desk and cornered me against the wall. His thumb deliberately brushed the red marks he had left on my neck, his glacial eyes burning with lethal, predatory hunger. "The wild man you are deeply in love with..." he whispered softly. "Does he happen to look exactly like me?"

Seraphina was locked in a sterile psychiatric facility, treated as a compliant, living blood bag for her husband's mistress, Lila. But today, Lila walked in with a Cartier bracelet and a newspaper, revealing that Slade had orchestrated the complete ruin of Seraphina's family. Slade had used Seraphina's pillow talk to bankrupt her father's company. He tampered with her brother's brakes, framed her other brother for insider trading, and arranged the fatal car crash that killed her mother. Their entire marriage was a meticulously crafted lie to harvest her rare Rh-negative O-type blood to keep Lila and her unborn baby healthy. When Seraphina lunged at her in agonizing realization, Lila simply smiled and staged a fake attack. She watched helplessly as the nurses rushed in and injected her with a lethal sedative. As her heart monitor flatlined, she stared at the white ceiling, her soul consumed by regret and pure hatred. She had defied her loving family for a monster who slaughtered them all. She vowed to the darkness that if there was any justice, she would strip them of everything and make them beg for a death that would never come. Gasping for air, Seraphina opened her eyes. She was back ten years ago, sitting in a luxury hospital room, right as the nurse approached with a needle for Lila's very first blood donation. This time, she smashed the tray to the floor. "Under federal law, drawing my blood without explicit consent is assault." In this life, she would be the butcher.

I am the biological daughter of the wealthy Fitzpatrick family, but I spent my childhood eating out of dumpsters. When I was finally brought back to the estate at age seven, I thought I would experience my parents' love. Instead, my biological parents looked at my dirty clothes with raw disgust. They only cared about Hallie, the fake daughter who lived like a princess. The moment I walked in, Hallie hurled a heavy ceramic cup at my head, slicing my hand open. "Get out of my house!" My father didn't even look at the blood. He raised his hand to strike me, accusing me of bringing trailer park rules into his home. In my past life, I dropped to my knees and begged for their forgiveness. I endured their abuse, hoping they would eventually love me. But they let the maids humiliate me, let Hallie steal my identity, and eventually threw me back onto the streets to die. Even my playboy Uncle Byron, the only person who ever showed me mercy, was driven to suicide by them. I didn't understand why my own flesh and blood hated me so much, or why a vicious liar deserved everything while I was treated like a jinx. Opening my eyes again, I was back on the exact day I first returned to the estate. As my father raised his hand to hit me, I didn't cower. Instead, I looked at the family patriarch and pointed directly at my notorious, alcoholic uncle. "I want him to be my new guardian."

For seven years, Hayden Simmons lived in the sprawling Forbes Estate, trading her journalism dreams to pay for her younger sister's ICU bills. But her sacrifice meant nothing when billionaire August Forbes planned his engagement to Bridget Blake—the same cruel heiress who had maliciously crushed Hayden's mother's only keepsake under her heel while August defended her. When Hayden finally packed her battered suitcase to leave, August didn't apologize. Instead, he brutally froze the trust account funding her dying sister's life-saving cancer treatments. He cornered her, pinning her against the wall, and ordered his security to lock her inside the estate to force her submission. "You don't get to decide when we are done." He thought she would crawl back to him, crying and begging on her knees. He truly believed he could publicly marry another woman while keeping Hayden trapped in his shadow forever, assuming her desperation made her weak. Instead of begging, Hayden left his limitless black card and Cartier diamonds on the vanity. She walked out the iron gates, went straight to his biggest rival's media empire, and published a viral, front-page exposé tearing his pristine merger to shreds. This time, she wasn't going to hide. She was going to burn his world to the ground.

For nine hundred and eighty-six nights, I was exiled to the guest room while my husband, Alpha Corbett, let his dead wife’s sister sleep in our master suite. He claimed Ivana needed his pheromones to sleep. I was just the glorified janitor in my own pack. But the breaking point wasn't the neglect. It was the macaron. "Eat it," Corbett ordered, holding out the green cookie. "Show me you accept my apology." "I'm allergic to pistachios," I whispered. "I'll die." He didn't listen. His eyes flashed red. "Eat it." The Alpha Command seized my motor functions. My hand moved against my will, shoving the poison into my mouth. As my throat instantly swelled, I tasted the metallic tang of Wolfsbane. Ivana hadn't just ignored my allergy; she had laced it. I collapsed on the kitchen tiles, clawing at my windpipe, turning purple. From the living room, Ivana let out a fake, high-pitched shriek. "Corbett! My anxiety! It's coming back!" Corbett looked down at me, convulsing and suffocating on the floor. Then he looked toward the living room. The choice took him less than a second. He physically stepped over my dying body. "Hold on, Ivana! I'm coming!" he cooed, leaving me to die alone on the cold grout. I managed to jam an EpiPen into my thigh, gasping as air forced its way back into my lungs. As I lay there shivering, I didn't feel sadness. I felt clarity. I dragged myself to my studio, packed my research, and sent a single email. To: The Royal Lycan King. Subject: I accept. By the time Corbett realized Ivana was a fraud pregnant with another man's child, I was already gone. And when he finally came begging on his knees, he found me in the arms of a King who would burn the world before he let me bow.

For ten years, my world was silent. Bryan was my protector, my voice, my everything, shielding me from a world I couldn't hear after my parents died saving him. But when a new girl, Astrid, arrived and started a cruel war against me, I suddenly regained my hearing-only to discover the horrifying truth. Bryan wasn't my protector; he was the mastermind. "He loves seeing you squirm," Astrid sneered, her voice a venomous whisper I could now hear perfectly. "He told me he gets off on it. He hates your blank face." Their twisted game was to make the "emotionless Elinor" cry. My pain was their entertainment. The boy I trusted, the family I loved-it was all built on a foundation of guilt and deceit. He thought I was a silent, helpless victim he could control. He thought I would endure his betrayal forever. He was wrong. So, I jumped from the third-floor window, orchestrating a public "suicide" to expose their crimes. As the world erupted in chaos and his perfect life shattered, I knew my real story was just beginning.

My fiancé, Liam, told me to sign a document to save his family's company. It was a false confession, pinning a hundred-million-dollar mistake on me. A mistake his childhood sweetheart, Chloe, had made. When I refused, he showed me a live feed of my mother in her hospital bed. Her life-saving cancer treatment was funded by his family. He smiled, his thumb hovering over an icon on his phone. "One call, Ava. The funding stops. Her treatment is over." Later, after I signed, he locked me in a lab that caught fire. He thought I was trying to sabotage Chloe. As I pounded on the door, choking on smoke, he stood on the other side, comforting a perfectly fine Chloe. He looked at me, trapped and burning, and shouted, "This is your own damn fault. I'm disappointed in you, Ava." He left me to die. But I survived. When I woke up in the hospital, I made a single call to my hacker contact. My message was one word: "Execute."

My life, once a meticulously designed blueprint, began its demolition on the eve of my wedding. I was Ethan Miller, an architect on the verge of having it all, returning home to celebrate with my fiancée. Instead, I found her in our bedroom with my best man, a scene that shattered everything. Fleeing into the night, a car blared, then metal met bone, and blinding pain consumed my right arm. I woke in a hospital, my dominant hand irreparably damaged, my career as an architect declared over. The world celebrated my tragedy; my fiancée and best man married in my place, turning my life into a public spectacle of pity and gossip. The pain in my chest eclipsed the physical agony as my identity crumbled, rendering me a broken man, a backdrop for my betrayer' s rising star. I spiraled, questioning the point of it all, refusing to eat, to heal, to exist. My professional talent, the very core of my being, had become a burden, a target for those who sought to elevate themselves on my ruins. Then, in my deepest despair, Olivia Chen, my betrayer's best friend, appeared as my savior. She became my devoted wife, meticulously managing my recovery, holding me through frustrated tears, and becoming the anchor in my new, quiet life. Until a Tuesday. When I returned home early, the words from the sun-room sliced through the quiet, words spoken by Olivia and my physical therapist. "You arranged for him to be hit by a car for Mark Davis." "Yes." My world collapsed again. The woman who saved me, who spoke words of love, was my captor. She had orchestrated my accident, meticulously sabotaged my recovery, all to ensure Mark Davis's success. It wasn't love; it was a cage, a beautifully crafted prison designed to keep me broken, a pawn in their twisted game fueled by her obsessed ambition for Mark. Every tender touch, every encouraging word, a calculated lie. My love, her most effective weapon. How could I have been so blind? How could the woman I trusted with my broken heart be the architect of my ruin? Was there any truth to anything she ever said? This betrayal, so absolute, left me hollow, yet a cold clarity began to form. I was done being a victim.

My world with Chloe revolved around our eagerly awaited baby, our future taking happy shape with every nursery plan. An Instagram tag from her popped up then, a seemingly innocent ping. I opened it, and the image delivered a brutal, physical blow, vaporizing my reality. Chloe lay pale but smiling in a hospital bed, holding hands with her ex-husband Mark, in the bed beside her. The caption read: "This time, I'm choosing to be brave for love." My mind reeled: a bone marrow donor? Where was our baby? Comments hailed her a hero, oblivious to the life she'd just ended, never telling me. She returned, demanding comfort, yet casually dismissed my silent agony over our lost child. Her shocking nonchalance toward our baby' s life ignited a silent, seething rage deep inside me. I finally grasped that my unwavering kindness had enabled her, teaching her that monumental betrayals carried no real consequences. How could she expect recovery meals after such a horrific, selfish act? Staring at the stranger in my wife's eyes, the illusion shattered. "I want a divorce," I declared, beginning my fight to reclaim my shattered life.

After years hidden away, recovering from the fire that stole my old life, my meticulously crafted new identity as Ethan White was finally ready for a fresh start in Chicago, a surprise apartment from my sister, Sophia, waiting. But the key had barely turned in the lock when men burst in, led by Sophia’s fiancé, Rick Harrington, who saw not a brother returning home, but a stranger to be eliminated. Fists flew, bones crunched, and the man who was supposed to be my future brother-in-law sneered about Sophia’s "pet project," convinced I was just some con artist. Every desperate plea for my sister to recognize me, every mention of my true name, Evan, was met with another blow, another sneer, my new face cementing their conviction that I was an imposter. Even Mac, Sophia's head of security who’d known me since I was a kid, only saw a trespasser, his eyes blank with no recognition despite my desperate cries. As darkness swallowed me, battered and unrecognizable, the cruel irony was a bitter taste: the new identity Sophia had painstakingly crafted to keep me safe was now the very thing sealing my doom at the hands of her own fiancé. How could the security measures meant to shield me become the weapon used against me by the one person I was supposed to trust, the one who was about to marry my sister? Little did Rick know, a shattered phone with a single photo and a mother's heirloom would soon unravel his web of lies, bringing Sophia face-to-face with the brother she thought was safe, and unleashing her terrifying fury for justice.

On the eve of her engagement party, her half-sister and stepmother devised a trap, making Myra spend the entire night with another guy. She had no clue that this gentleman was no other than Kian, someone she had met a decade ago. That fun and crazy night started to unravel the course of their destiny. Engrossed in her life now and exacting revenge, Kian seized every opportunity to get closer to Myra and make her fall for him. He didn’t require any gifts except for her love and attention. Now that she has found the right man, she disregarded all the wrong ones.

I poured everything I had into it—staked my entire life's plan—all for one thing: building a perfect future with my fiancé. But everything I'd given my whole heart to, everything I'd raced toward with everything I had, couldn't withstand the betrayal he'd hidden in the shadows. He stole my pendant and my wedding gown and gave them to the female student he'd secretly been infatuated with. I threw myself forward, desperate to take back what was rightfully and entirely mine. But for that woman, he swept an entire row of clothing racks crashing down. The hard metal frame slammed into my arm, shattering it completely. My career as a gold-medal architect—something I'd guarded and built for years—was destroyed in that single moment. My chance to stand at the summit of my industry was gone forever. Bone-deep, searing pain tore through my body. I clutched my ruined arm, every last shred of restraint crumbling, and I wept in utter despair. But he just stood there, holding that female student's hand, and pronounced my verdict from on high: "Your hand is finished. You'll never be an architect again. From now on, Ariel will take your place." And then I understood. Through all those long years of sharing a life together, I had never been his one and only. I was nothing but a substitute—one that could be replaced at any time. So on the day of the wedding that was supposed to be ours, I walked into the ceremony hall step by step, arm-in-arm with the childhood friend who'd grown up beside me.

For years, I endured my husband Kellan's disdain, while he bent over backwards to please my scheming younger sister. When a sudden aneurysm required emergency life-saving surgery, I called him from the ER in absolute despair. He was busy celebrating my sister's new job. After listening to the lies she whispered about me in the background, he actually cursed at me. "If you're going to put on this act, don't bother coming home." He hung up the phone. I signed the surgery consent form alone, facing life and death all by myself. On the operating table, I hemorrhaged heavily. Not only did I lose my health, but I also lost the unborn little life I hadn't even had the chance to tell him about. Lying in the recovery room, I finally understood. His vows were nothing but empty lies, and I was always the expendable one in that relationship. And so, I signed the divorce papers and vanished from his life completely. Yet, he started looking for me like a madman, even taking revenge on everyone who had ever hurt me!

Just a few weeks before my wedding to Hudson, his ex-girlfriend moved in next door to us. She constantly made a huge deal out of the fact that her father had sacrificed his life to save Hudson, and even destroyed my wedding dress, yet Hudson just stood by and comforted her. Just as I secretly found out I was pregnant, he publicly announced that he was going to hold a "fake wedding" with her, claiming it was for her psychological therapy. This news quickly went viral online, sparking the fury of netizens who even ganged up to attack me, causing me to fall to the ground and bleed heavily. I lost our child, and the doctor told me that my hopes of ever becoming a mother again were almost completely destroyed. As I lay in the hospital bed, my heart completely dead inside, Hudson appeared in the ward. "Please understand why I have to hold this fake wedding for her." He begged me to support his fake wedding, and my heart was thoroughly shattered. After he left, I immediately packed my bags, contacted the wedding venue, and changed the groom's name to the man who had always stood by me through thick and thin. When he found out about this, he actually went crazy trying to win me back at all costs!

For five years, I gave everything I had, using my blood to build Gabriel's underworld empire. I expanded his territory, conquered half of the turfs, and allowed him to sit on that throne. But just as I secured a billion-dollar casino contract, he ruthlessly tore the silver badge from my chest. He handed my entire career over to his new love, Serena. "Hand everything over to my fiancée, or you won't leave this room alive." Serena was a helpless outsider who had never even touched a gun, yet she wanted everything that was mine. Gabriel humiliated me in front of twelve family capos and announced that they would be married next month. He even threatened that if I didn't hand over the family's encrypted master drive to her before dawn, he would blacklist me and send men to take my life. Did he really think I would just obediently step aside and watch them take away everything I had built with my own hands? So, I calmly handed Serena a master drive loaded with a logic bomb—one that would drain their accounts and expose them to the FBI. Then, I walked out into the pouring rain, accepted an invitation from his most lethal rival, and prepared to watch his empire burn to ashes.

I sacrificed my career and endured agonizing IVF treatments, all just to give my husband's wealthy family an heir. But when I checked the smart ring app his company had launched, I discovered my personal profile was labeled as a "Temporary User"—all data automatically wiped every 90 days. And positioned right above me, the name of his junior employee, Katerina, was glaringly listed as the "Primary User," complete with a detailed log tracking her 24-week pregnancy. When I confronted him, Calvin didn't apologize. Instead, he brought his pregnant mistress home. He actually demanded that I act as her caretaker, while his mother sneered, calling me a disposable ornament and ordering me to leave the marriage with nothing. My husband had merely used my painful fertility struggles to beta-test his algorithms, while secretly using our marital assets to fund his new family. In this marriage, I was nothing but a temporary data point. They thought I would silently accept being treated as a disposable "guest." But I handed over the evidence of his severe data privacy violations to a shrewd, ruthless lawyer, and then decisively exposed the truth to the world.

For eight years, I lived in a freezing, unheated apartment, washing the bloodstains out of my mob enforcer boyfriend's suits every day. He strictly gave me two thousand dollars a month, saying we had to live frugally and save up enough money to escape this dark world. But when I was washing his clothes, I found a receipt for a custom engagement ring worth sixty-eight thousand dollars. That ring wasn't for me, but for his secret lover, Mia. I cracked the password on his encrypted laptop and uncovered his three-year-long double life. He wasn't a bottom-tier thug struggling to survive in a dangerous game at all. He embezzled forty-eight thousand dollars from his mob boss's accounts every month to buy Mia diamonds, cars, and a luxury apartment in Manhattan. And meanwhile, I was drinking watery porridge just to save a little on the electricity bill. When I confronted him, he didn't show a single ounce of guilt, accusing me instead: "You're too heavy. Being around you suffocates me." He thought I was a pathetic parasite who couldn't survive without his protection. But what he didn't know was that I had already quietly earned over a million dollars through legitimate antique painting restoration work. I packed my bags. It was time to let the mob know who was really stealing their money.

I spent months overcoming my fear of heights, just so I could go skydiving with my boyfriend on our anniversary. But on the plane, Cole strapped my safety harness onto his "best friend" Giselle, telling me to wait for the next trip because she had just gone through a breakup, was feeling down, and needed this thrill to bounce back. She didn't care about my efforts at all, trying to brush me off with just a few words. Cole desperately defended her, accusing me of being petty and making a mountain out of a molehill. "She's fragile, Cathy! You're just jealous of a bond between us that you could never understand!" He actually expected me to accept being an outsider in my own relationship, while my family kept pressuring me to drop my so-called pride. For eight years, I poured everything into our relationship, only to finally realize I was nothing but a placeholder, expected to exit the stage whenever Giselle needed him. His constant emotional manipulation and blatant favoritism left me utterly exhausted. So, I packed my bags, paid him back every single cent he ever spent on me, and left without looking back. It was time for me to take over the multi-million dollar corporate project he was about to ruin. He really needed to see how I would step to the peak of my career!

asked my husband a silly TikTok challenge question: if it weren't me, who would he have married? He didn't hesitate. He said one name — Chloe, my once-closest best friend, the same woman who stole my first love years ago. This wasn't a joke. I soon found out he'd lied about a business trip. While I was in surgery, he was secretly vacationing with her, leaving me alone in the hospital. When I confronted them, my husband — to protect her — shoved me hard onto the cold floor. The violent impact made me lose our two-month-old baby. Just as my world was completely falling apart, Chloe leaned in with a victorious smirk and whispered her darkest secret: she had deliberately deleted my dying mother's final voicemail, making me miss my last chance to say goodbye. My husband knew exactly what kind of vicious person she was, and he still chose to protect her in front of his bleeding wife. Looking at the man now kneeling before me, crying and begging for mercy, I calmly pulled out the divorce papers. "Sign it. Then leave."

I was the chief consigliere of the Romano family, and I was secretly carrying the heir for my husband, Julian. But at a celebratory dinner, I saw my adopted sister actually seducing him. It turned out they had been sleeping together behind my back for a long time. When I confronted him, he gave the most ridiculous excuse. "I was drunk, the lights were too dim, I really thought it was you." Not only did he fail to make up for his mistakes, but he also stripped me of my power and gave my exclusive office to her. Because of the mess she made, a grieving widow attacked me with a hunting knife. When the cold blade pierced my abdomen, I dialed Julian's emergency number, but it went unanswered, like a stone dropping into the ocean. He was busy fooling around with my sister, with no time to answer the phone. When I woke up, I learned in the clinic that I had lost my child forever. While he wept outside my ward door, begging for my forgiveness, even willing to give me millions to make me stay, I calmly asked the doctor for a pen. I signed a permanent exile contract. I would build my own empire in this wasteland.

Imagine if you will: At the highly secretive, largely independent, inter-dimensional and (inevitably) clandestine organization called the Time Saving Agency, there is a saying that goes: ‘You can’t break an omelet without first making eggs’. While this may appear to be a rather flippant little idiom, there is – as is usually the case, far more to it than meets the eye. For starters, that’s a rather simple principle of Time Travel right there – and according to the pioneers of time travel, it’s one of the foundation stones of the Theory behind it. It’s something of a paradox – a mind-boggling annotation in the ever-puzzling and ever growing Anals of History. (Some readers may still be thinking that should be ‘Annals’ – however, the author of this work cannot be blamed for what you may think.)