Tragic Love Short Stories & Hypocrisy Face Slapping Novels

I was working as a stunt double for a fight scene when a rising idol actor stabbed me with a real knife and sent me straight to the hospital. My actress girlfriend rushed over in a panic, fussing over me with endless concern. Before I could even feel touched, a floating comment suddenly appeared above her head. [When is Scott finally going to realize that the Best Actress linked him and Francis through a Beauty System?] [The more Scott cares about a certain part of his body, the more perfect that same part becomes on Francis!] The next second, my manager of five years hurried into the room as well. Another barrage of comments floated up. [The manager's no better. She tied them to an Achievement System. The harder Scott works, the more achievements Francis gets!] I stared at the two women in front of me and fell silent. So… my only option was to give up and do nothing?

Three months into the planning of our wedding, Jacob River, my fiancé, suddenly started trending on Twitter. But it was not because he had finally given me the grand wedding he had long promised. Instead, it was because a certain romantic novel was published. It depicted the three years Jacob spent dating Rain Stone, his first love during high school. Not only was Jacob’s real name used, explicit imagery was also used to talk about how they had passionately made out on the roof, how they had touched each other in an empty classroom, and how they explored each other’s bodies in the sports equipment room. There were also tons of high-definition photos attached. In his uniform, Jacob had a doting expression and youthful liveliness I had never seen before. My blood ran cold, and I grabbed my phone to go to him for an explanation. He just gave it a nonchalant look and said, “It’s just a memoir about things in the past. Why are you fussing over nothing? I’ll have my assistant contact the publishers to remove it from the shelves.” The trending hashtag was soon removed, and the book was banned from stores. But one night, I woke up from thirst. There was no one beside me, but I could see light through the crack of the study. For some reason, I went closer and peered through the crack, and something there made my blood run cold. Jacob had always been restrained when it came to physical intimacy, but he was touching himself while looking at the photo of the sports equipment room in the book.

I spent seven years drafting divorce papers for other people. I never expected that the ninety-ninth agreement would be my own. That night, my husband, Carter, lost a tabletop game during a live stream with his childhood sweetheart, Chloe. The penalty was to give up the thing he treasured most. Chloe smiled at the camera, tapping his wedding ring. "Lend me your marriage for a day." The comment section blew up. Carter looked at me like he was giving orders to an assistant. "Evelyn, you know the drill. "Sign a temporary divorce agreement. I’ll cancel it with you tomorrow morning." Chloe lowered her eyes, her voice trembling. "Forget it. She won't let you. You always choose her over me anyway." I reached into my bag and touched the positive IVF result. Seven years of hormone shots. Four miscarriages. I didn't even have the energy to tell him anymore. As the camera zoomed in on my face, I pushed the papers back across the table. "Carter, this time, I’m putting down a bet, too. “I bet the thing you lose tonight isn't just me.”

I've painstakingly prepared a nice feast for my son's fifth birthday. My wife, Cheryl Bennett, looks a little impatient. She complains, "You really love making things hard for yourself, huh? How are we supposed to finish everything with just the three of us?" I just smile at her. Then, I whip out a birthday cake and get my son, Jasper Ford, to make a birthday wish. After the candles are lit, I close my eyes as well and make a sincere wish in my mind. When I open my eyes again, I hear Cheryl's system exclaiming in surprise, "Congratulations, Cheryl! You've completed the quest! You and Jasper can now leave this world!" Yes, both Cheryl and Jasper have already made up their minds to abandon me so that they can return to their original world. That's great news. After all, I no longer want them by my side either.

For a $5 million research stipend, I agreed to let the System install an empathic link inside my body. "Subject. Are you sure you want to proceed? Once installed, the procedure cannot be reversed. This is a prototype. Side effects are not fully characterized." I looked at the sidewalk-stall clothes my girlfriend Cara Lake had bought herself, and the drugstore-grade makeup on her vanity. I nodded. That night, while she was out at her bar job. A current came up out of nowhere inside me. My whole body lit up with a sickening pleasure that did not belong to me. Seven times. A few days later I waited near the club where she worked. I overheard her with her friends. "Cara. You're something else. Pouring La Prairie into a plastic bag and using it like that? Faking poor like a champion. Doesn't Adam ever notice?" "Notice? He's stupid. He'll believe anything I say. His father got hit by a car, lay in bed without the money for treatment, died alone. I told Adam I couldn't help. He stayed up all night comforting me. I almost died laughing." The laughter went into me like a knife. I got out of there. The tears came on the walk home. I picked up the phone. "Professor. I'll go to the classified institute. I'll go now."

Yuri's father calls and tells me to send his son, the Alpha heir and my childhood friend, home to meet his further mate. But Yuri Blevin is lying next to me, fast asleep and shirtless. Thinking it's just a joke, I nudge him and say with a light laugh, "Yuri, they said they've arranged a mate for you. What do you think?" He raises an eyebrow and lazily wraps an arm around my waist. "Then make sure you pick a nice suit for me. I trust your taste will impress her." When I freeze and say nothing, Yuri opens his eyes and lets out a carefree chuckle. "Hey, Ophelia, what kind of reaction is that? We're just casual lovers, right? Don't tell me you actually thought I'd make you my future Luna?"

In the third year of his remarriage with his childhood friend, Charlotte Davidson, Henry Fowler attends an inconspicuous college reunion, where he stumbles upon a secret about Charlotte. Gavin Redfield, the campus heartthrob, swirls his wine glass in a drunken stupor. Someone asks him, "What's the most thrilling thing you've ever done in your life?" His eyes are glazed over as he answers in a provocative tone, "Becoming the lover of Charlotte, the renowned Ms. Davidson, of course! Her husband is such a moron. He thinks we already broke up! "But in reality, we already have a child together. I get to live in her villa, drive her limited edition supercar, spend her money, and order her maids around!" As soon as he finished speaking, all hell breaks loose. Everyone turns to look at Henry, eager to see him lose his composure. After all, he is Charlotte's legal husband. However, Henry doesn't budge an inch, nor does he make a fuss about it. Even when the waiter is pouring him some wine, he seems unaffected as he thanks the waiter. Not long after the reunion ends, everyone realizes something is off about him…

In the Blackridge Mountains there's an old tradition: a man may leave the mountains only seven times in his life. If he still can't get out of the mountains with the woman he loves after the seventh journey, he's expected to marry inside the mountain villages and stay there for good. Because of that tradition, I borrowed hair oil from Grandpa seven times, put on my best coat, and crossed ridge after ridge down to the town below, waiting each time for the woman who said she'd take me out of the mountains and marry me. All seven times, she never came. At the village, the chief sat smoking his pipe and said, "That's the seventh time you've gone down for marriage registration. And that young director of yours ran off to the next village again, to film the handsome boy who smiles for her camera. "Her heart hasn't been on you in a long time, Noah. What are you still waiting for?" In the four years since she came to these mountains, I crossed them for her seven times. But something always happened to the man named Ash, and every time, I was the one left behind. I looked at the village chief and shook my head. "I'm not waiting anymore. I'm getting married in three days."

Cancer was killing me, and my husband worked through every night building a human cryonics program to save my life. Before they put me under, he held the baby I had nearly died giving birth to, and said through tears: "Lina Virga, our son and I will wait together for the day you can wake up. Seven years from now, a drug that can treat my illness exist, and the hospital brings me back. When the nurse asked me to settle the bill, I stared at her blankly and asked her to call my husband for me. "Contact Vito Ranieri of the Lucchese family. Tell him his wife is awake." But the nurse laughed under her breath. "Please, don't joke. Mr. Ranieri and Miss Bellini have a son who's seven years old. Everyone in Sicily knows they’re a devoted couple. "I'll have the neurologist come by and evaluate you shortly." I assumed she was teasing me. I didn't give it another thought. Then Nora Bellini arrived, hired as a photographer to document me, the medical miracle. Vito's interview was playing on the television, and I said it with pride. "That's my husband. The best researcher there is." Nora's brows lifted in surprise, and the corners of her mouth dipped. "As far as I'm aware, Vito has exactly one wife. Me. "So how is it I've never heard about anyone else?"

During summer break, I returned home unannounced, hoping to surprise my family. But the moment I stepped through the door, my elder brother, Ronan, called the police. "Hello. I'd like to report a burglary at my house." Only when the police officer handcuffed me did I snap out of my trance and scream, "Dad, Mom, Julian, don't you recognize me? I'm Alba!" My parents shook their heads in unison. "We don't know her." Even Julian Murphy, the man I had dated for five years, averted his gaze. "I guess she's a stalker who thinks I'm her boyfriend." I spent fifteen days drowning in despair. Finally, my best friend, Samantha Lynch, showed up and bailed me out. I couldn't help but complain bitterly about the absurdity of the situation. "Sammy, how could Ronan do this to me? If it was a prank, it wasn't funny…" But Samantha offered no comfort. Instead, she took me to a five-star hotel. Before I could ask why we were there, I looked out the window—and froze. Outside in the courtyard, Julian and my twin sister were kissing passionately among the rose bushes. My parents stood nearby, smiling proudly as they raised their glasses to the guests. Samantha sighed. "There's one thing I need to tell you. Julian has always been in love with Bianca. It was their engagement ceremony the other day. However, your unannounced return triggered her, and she almost committed suicide. Your untimely return almost ruined the wedding. You already had Julian to yourself for five years. Why don't you let him go now and give them the happiness they deserve?" As confetti poured down like rain, two trails of hot tears marked my cheeks. Everyone I knew had worked together to protect Bianca, as though she were made of glass. But they treated me like an outsider. And from beginning to end, I had been the only one left in the dark.

I've been able to smell people's emotions since I was a child. Affection smells sweet. Sorrow smells bitter. Disgust and anger smell spicy. I'd been with Bruce Dawson for ten years, and the scent that clung to him had never changed. It was always sweet, cloyingly so. The only thing that ever shifted was the day my older sister left the country. That night, when he came home late, his scent had turned bitter enough to make me frown. But I never connected the two. Not until three years later, when my sister came home to get married. That day, his scent was bitter laced with something spicy, a mix I'd never smelled on him before. It struck me as strange. Without thinking, I followed him when he stepped away from the reception, and outside in the stairwell I heard his voice, low and pained. "That's enough, Jasmine! You'd rather marry a stranger just to make me give up on you?" My sister's voice cracked as she cried back at him. "What else can I do? You're my brother-in-law. Rosalie is my sister. We can't keep doing this to her!" I froze in the doorway, my whole body shaking with shock, my heart wrung out like a fist closing around it until I couldn't breathe. That was when my phone lit up with a reminder: my wedding to Bruce was next week. I stood there blank for two seconds. Then I called the hotel and canceled the wedding.

At our class reunion, someone suggested that we play Truth or Dare. When it was James Maddox's turn, the campus heartthrob chose truth. Someone asked him, "What was the one thing you regretted most in your life?" James' voice was filled with sorrow. "The thing I regret most was insisting on going abroad to study back then. I missed the love of my life." Suddenly, my drunken girlfriend shoved me away and staggered toward him. Her eyes held a depth of affection I had never once seen directed at me. "The thing I regret most in my life was never managing to win you over!" The two of them stared into each other's eyes, looking like lovers who had finally reunited after years apart. The private room fell deathly silent. Everyone awkwardly glanced at me, expecting me to make a scene. But I simply applauded. "Good for you. Let's congratulate them on getting back together." What she did not know was that I had already agreed to the marriage my family had arranged for me. This time, I truly did not care anymore.

For the fourth time, Sienna stood me up at the marriage registry to take care of her adopted younger brother. “Kane, Ryan’s mental stability index is nearing critical levels again. I’m the only one who can stabilize him. Can you wait a little longer for me?” I glanced at the clock on the wall. The registry office would close in fifteen minutes. This time, I said nothing. I simply tossed our registration form into the void behind me. In an age when mutated beasts ravaged the world and two-pilot mechas ruled the battlefield, I was the only person in the entire Alliance capable of piloting one alone. Yet for ten years, I had willingly served as Sienna’s personal co-pilot, risking my life through countless battles and lifting her to the pinnacle of power. But no matter how much I sacrificed for her, I could never compare to Ryan—the sickly orphan her father had adopted, whom she had always treated as her helpless little brother. I earned a high-grade armored suit with my military merits, only for Sienna to hand it to Ryan without a second thought. “Kane, you’re strong enough without it. Ryan is frail. For my sake, can’t you let him have it?” I spent countless nights developing a tactical program, only for her to give that to Ryan as well. “He scares easily, so he needs something foolproof. You’re a genius. You can operate the mecha manually, can’t you?” Sienna was certain I would never leave her. What she didn’t know was that the Alliance’s iron-willed female governor had been waiting a long time for my answer to her marriage proposal.

Everyone said my wife and I were deeply in love. Even after she had built a successful career and founded her own music company, she still came with me to my hometown for the Christmas-New Year's holiday and handed out lavish presents to all the younger relatives. Only I knew that she was no longer the woman she had once been. After we had a few rounds of drinks, my younger cousin started clamoring for karaoke. While Regina Lockwood was in the bathroom, I took her phone to queue up some songs for everyone. That was when I noticed the music app was still open to a shared listening session. One account, its avatar a comic-book hero, had spent more than 2,600 hours listening together with Regina. Even as she smiled and piled food onto my plate, raising her glass to toast our relatives, that shared listening session remained running in her earphones—keeping her connected to a world that belonged only to her and another man. Just then, the bathroom door opened. Regina walked out, rubbing hand cream into her hands, an elegant, composed smile still on her face. "Honey, why are you holding my phone? Were you checking up on me?"

By the time Nolan is five, I finally see the truth clearly. My husband, Justin Ford, does not love our son or me. Determined to end this disastrous marriage, I decide to leave with Nolan. But fate has other plans. A car accident leaves me with a lost kidney and Nolan missing an eye. In our darkest hour, the cold, indifferent Justin kneels in public, begging for forgiveness, promising to be a lifelong support for both our son and me. Nolan and I decide to give him a trial period of 100 days. If he passes, we will stay. On the 99th day, we stumble upon him speaking with the attending doctor. "Mr. Ford, you caused the accident on purpose to save Ms. Lloyd's child while taking organs from Mrs. Ford and Nolan. Was it really worth all that?" "It's worth it. I'll do whatever makes Suzanne happy." "What if Mrs. Ford and Mr. Nolan find out?" Justin falls silent for a moment, then instinctively touches his wedding ring. "They must never find out. All they want is a family, and I'll do everything I can to make it right," he says coldly. It turns out his entire act of repentance was nothing more than a carefully orchestrated lie. The happiness Nolan and I believed in was merely an illusion, designed to protect the one he truly cared for. Every gift came with a secret cost, and now, we are paying the price.

Three years after I landed on the wanted list, all 88 pieces of my dismembered corpse were thrown in front of the police station. After the forensics team put my body together, they identified my body as Julian Colt, the fiancé of the Organized Crime Department, Captain Kyra Schneider. Everyone, from elders in their eighties to young children, wanted me to see justice because not only had I betrayed Kyra and her team, but I had also publicly joined the criminal organization and become the lover of its leader. I was fired from the police force and hated by my loved ones. Kyra hated me the most, and she used the most cruel method of retrieving my memories to be broadcast to the world. On judgment day, the city square was filled with spectators, but when my memories were retrieved, along with the huge word 'innocent' splashed on it, everyone went crazy. "Traitor! A man like him should have been executed." "The evidence clearly points to his guilt. How is he innocent? Everyone knows how he helped the criminal organization to kill numerous police officers!" "Don't be tricked by him! He must have altered those memories!"

At the scene of a massive chain-collision accident, my police officer fiancé was being interviewed by the media. Facing the public’s praise for being “selfless and just”, he calmly stated that prioritizing the rescue of the female officer trainee riding in the same car was merely a police officer's instinct. It wasn’t until the cameras turned away that he tiredly rubbed his temple. He turned his head and asked the colleague beside him in a low voice, “Where is Lea? The core area was in critical danger just now, so I had to prioritize evacuating the injured Willow. Did the other teams manage to get her out?” His colleague looked completely taken aback. “Bro, your fiancé was trapped right there in your passenger seat! When everyone saw you carrying Willow out, we all assumed you were going to turn right back around to save her…” Shawn’s expression instantly twisted into a mix of fury and shock. Yet, he forced his emotions down and said sternly, “If that’s the case… then this is simply her fate as a family member of a police officer. By sacrificing herself to save those in greater need, she died an honorable death.” Meanwhile, I was sprawled in the freezing mud and water over a dozen meters away from the wreckage of the car. Just two minutes ago, the fire had engulfed the passenger seat. In a desperate bid to survive, I had used a shard of broken glass to slice through my seatbelt with my bare hands, crawling out of the sea of fire with a fractured right leg. At that very moment, what kept me awake even more than the excruciating pain of my broken bone was the death of my heart.

Noelle Anderson grows up with Stephen Sedgwick, the son of the family her mother works for as a housekeeper. What starts as a childhood friendship slowly turns into love. But when Stephen's father dies, everything between them changes. Stephen turns his hatred and resentment on Noelle, taking pleasure in making her miserable. After one disappointment too many, Noelle finally walks away. But the moment Stephen hears she's getting married, he becomes desperate to win her back.

The first time Silvia Robinson undergoes ECT, she is all alone. Even Gregory Fisher, her fiance who loves her so much, is nowhere to be seen. After the doctor gives her a muscle relaxant, she starts to get drowsy. She is in a daze when she recalls what happened that evening. She has waited three hours in line for a special cake, which she is planning to surprise Gregory with. However, she comes home to see Gregory kissing her younger sister, Ella Robinson. The two are deep in a kiss as they hold each other tightly in an inseparable embrace. The cake in Silvia's hands drops to the floor, smashed beyond recognition as Silvia delivers a slap across Gregory's face. Then, she finds herself being pushed down the stairs by Ella. As she rolls down the stairs, Silvia feels like she has already seen this coming. Anyone close to her will eventually be taken away by her sister.

A week before our engagement, I finally learned that the man Madison Clarke had always secretly loved... was me. Overjoyed, I hurried to sign to her, wanting to tell her that I was LeoWinter—the gaming partner she'd been coupled with online. What I got in return was ridicule. "Charlie, how does a mute guy like you manage to pull so many tricks?" "LeoWinter already told me his account got stolen. He switched accounts ages ago. And you still want to pretend you're him?" It felt like a bucket of ice water had been dumped over my head. My entire body went rigid. She had forgotten that this game ID was permanently bound to the account. It was impossible for it to be stolen.