Melodramatic Imagination Short Stories & Face Slapping Novels

The day I got fired, I received a trial pass from an AI cosmetic clinic. It required neither surgery nor recovery time, yet it could deliver a flawless celebrity face overnight. But there was a catch. The face only lasted seven days after the complimentary trial. To keep it, I signed a contract to become the actress' body double, trading my time, identity, and freedom for another week of beauty. As the years passed, I kept paying the price to maintain a face that wasn't mine until one day, I realized I no longer wanted to live in someone else's shadow.

I was the Holy Maiden of the Beast World, foretold by the High Priest. I was also the future Beast Lady. Three of the best males were carefully selected to become my mates. However, I knew that they disliked me, even planning to kill me on our wedding night and hand my Holy Maiden position to my half-sister, whom they truly loved. Thus, when my father asked me to choose one of them to be my chief mate, I knelt on the sacred ground and drew lots, hoping the heavens could help me. Unexpectedly, I drew the clan's High Priest.

My fiancé had nearly tortured me to death, all because his first love kept turning him against me. Lying in the cold, dark basement, I made a bitter wish. If only I could switch bodies with Nolan Ralston. Then he'd finally know what he'd put me through. When I opened my eyes again, I found myself in his luxurious bed, all sixteen feet of it. And there was Nolan, wearing my face, staring at me in shock. Before he could say a word, his precious first love let out a little cry and dramatically collapsed in front of him. "I was just trying to check your injuries. Why did you push me?" she whimpered, looking utterly pitiful. I watched Nolan's eyes widen, his indignation at being falsely accused written all over his face. I couldn't help it. A laugh escaped me. God, that felt good.

Dario Morello came from old money in Santria City—but his family was cursed. Every guy in that bloodline dropped dead before twenty-five, like something sucked the life out of them. The only way out? Marry someone with a rare fertility gene. In my last life, my adopted sister Serena jacked my wedding dress and took my place at the altar. I exposed her right there in front of everyone. She became Santria's biggest joke. Then she killed herself. My parents said I was heartless. Cut me off without blinking. Dario? He hated me too. On the anniversary of Serena's death, he locked me in a basement, strapped me with explosives, and snapped, "That fertility gene lie? You made it up for clout and cash. Serena was pregnant with my kid. You killed them both. So now—you're going with her." Next thing I knew, I was waking up on the morning of the wedding. This time? I helped Serena with the veil and wished them a perfect life.

After seven years together, Veronica Monroe canceled our wedding for the fifty-second time. A wall of comments suddenly appeared before my eyes. [Here we go again. Don’t tell me the male lead is still thinking about getting back together with her!] My heart jolted. I couldn’t believe they actually knew. [If this were a normal person, he would’ve found someone else to marry by now!] [My blood pressure is through the roof. Go ask Veronica’s biggest rival if she’ll marry you!] Could I really do that? Uneasy and hesitant, I walked up to Veronica’s biggest rival, Meredith Rodgers, and quietly asked, “Would you marry me right now?” The entire room erupted. The guests all thought I’d lost my mind. But she simply curved her lips into a smile. “Of course I will.” [The male lead finally grew a backbone! Everyone, look!] [Oh my God, if Veronica finds out, she’s going to be furious!]

"On results day, I'll have a way to turn back time and take us all back to the exam room!" Lily Parker, the prettiest girl in our class, stood at the front of the room, threw up an arm, and shouted it at the top of her voice. "Sign up with me! Just $999. If it's a scam, I'll pay you back ten times over! "You'll even get a polished answer key for the college entrance exams. Guaranteed not to get flagged for cheating!" The classroom erupted. In the corner, I didn't even look up. I'd found the same method three days earlier. And I'd decided against it. For one simple reason: time inside that exam room was completely broken. Thirty seconds for English. Twelve hours for math. And between papers, three days and nights of hunger and thirst you couldn't survive twice.

My boyfriend, Landon Schmidt, has sold his assets just to support me in building my livestreaming career. But when I become a famous streamer, I steal all of his money and dump him right away. Landon slumps near a river and drinks from it while begging for money in the 104 degree weather. He's exposed to the heat for so long that he almost goes into shock. Meanwhile, all I have to do is push the boundaries on camera, and I'll earn millions of dollars' worth of tips. My best friend, Yvette Carter, thinks that it's unfair for Landon to suffer like this. She advises me not to bite the hand that had fed me in the past, only for me to slap her in return. "If you pity him this much, you should pay for all of his expenses, then! Why should I pay for a broke and useless man in the first place?" That night, Yvette exposes the recording of our conversation and takes me to court. Tens of thousands of Internet users flood into my stream instantly just so they can ensure that I get judged for my sins.

My husband, Ryan Costa, is one of the most renowned scientists in the apocalypse. To retrieve a reagent, he goes deep into the high-risk zone with his secretary, Clara Gibson. I, Alice Ashford, lead an elite squad to protect him all the way. But when a zombie horde besieges us, he refuses to retreat. "With the reagent Clara brings back, I can develop a serum that saves all of humanity! Just ten more minutes! Ten minutes, please!" Ryan insists. I feel torn as I see the zombies closing in. I can't gamble with the lives of my squad on a vague, uncertain sliver of hope. In that split second, I knock Ryan out and drag him onto the helicopter. As a result, Clara dies being torn apart by the zombies. When Ryan wakes up, the first thing he does is slap me hard across the face. He rages, "How can you be so selfish? You've doomed all of humanity!" I am sentenced to be burned at the stake. I die in unbearable pain as the crowd curses me relentlessly. When I open my eyes again, I am back at the moment when Ryan stands in front of the helicopter, blocking our retreat. I am just about to speak when I suddenly hear his inner voice, "Clara should have grabbed her makeup bag by now. Hopefully, she brings something back with her. Otherwise, I'll have a hard time explaining myself to Alice." My mind goes blank, and I stare at him in shock. He smiles at me just like he did in my previous life and asks, "Darling, don't you think we should wait?"

After waking up in the pages of a novel, I married the loyal second lead—the man who could never win the heroine's love. Blessed with exceptional fertility, I gave him two children in three years, and what began as a marriage of convenience slowly ripened into something like love. However, during the New Year's Eve ball at the palace, strange lines of floating text suddenly appeared before my eyes. [The queen heroine is faking her pregnancy. She's just waiting for the fertile side character to give birth so she can steal the child!] [The second lead is truly devoted. To secure the queen's position, he'd even offer up his own wife to the king's bed.] [Once the side character "dies in childbirth," the baby becomes the heroine's by right. What a perfect scheme.] The silver spoon slipped from my fingers and rang against the floor. So, the deeply devoted second lead was always meant to protect only his unattainable first love. In that case… Why shouldn't I take the crown for myself?

Mia Merrow, the mermaid I spent a fortune to buy, looks down on me for my ugly appearance. Instead, she turns around and falls for my handsome and gorgeous stepbrother, Charlie Pickler. I bankroll her medical treatments. She says I don't put enough thought into it. I build her the most luxurious environment to live in. She calls me tasteless and undignified. Yet, a simple sticker that Charlie casually tosses to her becomes the most priceless treasure in her eyes. "It's just an ordinary sticker, but to me, it's the most precious treasure in the world!" she gushes. "A money-obsessed man like you could never understand!" They embrace right in front of me, hoping I'll give them my blessing. "Give up, Rick. No matter what you do, you'll never hold a candle to Charlie." "Exactly, Ricky. Mia doesn't love you, so why force her?" Watching the two of them play off each other right in front of me, I can't help but laugh inwardly. Who said anything about wanting Mia's love? As I gently run my fingers over the burn scars across my face, I quietly remind myself that there are only three days left before Mia reaches maturity. They say the heart of an adult mermaid, when ground into medicine, could heal any scar. "My sweet, darling Mia," I mused to myself. "I've given you so much. In three days, it'll be your turn to give something back to me."

My powerful, doting CEO husband had always treated me like I was the center of his world. But the moment he made a wish and blew out the candles on his birthday cake, something changed. When he opened his eyes again, he looked at me like I was a complete stranger. “Who are you?” Then his expression turned frantic. “Where’s Vivian? “If I’m ever getting married, Vivian is the only woman I’ll marry!” He shouted the words and bolted out of the house. I was still standing there in shock when lines of floating comments suddenly appeared in front of me. [Hahaha, look at the supporting female lead. She’s totally stunned! The male lead just switched souls with his eighteen-year-old self. Younger him is off to find his precious first love!] [She should be grateful she ever got to become Mrs. Pierce. If she didn’t look a little like Vivian, why would the male lead have married her in the first place?] [Too bad the soul swap only lasts thirty days. Come on, Young Male Lead! Hurry up and win Vivian back. When the older version comes back, give him one hell of a surprise!] My fingertips instantly went cold. Two weeks later, Adrian Pierce came home with a woman who looked almost exactly like me. He threw a divorce agreement down in front of me. “The house is mine. The money is mine. Everything is mine. “You’ve been living the life that should’ve belonged to Vivian for years. “So sign the papers and get out.”

On the same day, my older sister, Kelsey Shaw, and I marry into the Coyle Clan, a powerful clan of serpent shifters. Kelsey wants the prestigious title of Lady of the Clan, so she chooses to marry Zane Coyle, a powerful black serpent shifter. What she doesn't realize is that Zane cares about nothing but his own ambition. He neglects her, shuts her out, and even tries to hand her over to someone else in exchange for power and status. Meanwhile, Mike Coyle, the sickly white serpent shifter I marry, turns out to be fiercely devoted. His dormant power erupts in a second awakening, and during the Clan Trials, he slays Zane—who by then has risen to Clan Alpha. The day I become the new Lady of the Clan, Kelsey looks at me with resentment burning in her eyes and plunges a silver hairpin straight into my chest. When I open my eyes again, we're both back on the day we choose our husbands. This time, Kelsey beats me to it and chooses the white serpent shifter with limitless potential. I smile, completely unfazed. The truth is, neither the black serpent nor the white serpent is any good.

On the last day before my study-abroad application closed, I was about to give up my full scholarship offer. Then, out of nowhere, I got a call from my future self. "Don't give it up. Click confirm enrollment. Right now." "Harley locked in his own graduate placement three months ago. The only reason he wants you to stay is that Katy needs you to finish her senior thesis for her, and he needs your money every month to live on. "Two weeks after you turn down that offer, the two of them go public with their relationship. "That so-called best friend of yours, Katy? She already betrayed you. She's been sleeping with him." I froze, my finger hovering over the mouse. The voice kept going, speaking faster and faster. "Listen carefully. Once you confirm the offer, take the twenty thousand dollars left in your account and put every cent into the Eklund Growth Fund. It goes public next March. It'll grow eightfold within the year. "Once you're abroad, apply to your advisor's AI lab before your first semester ends. That project gets acquired by Coogle two years from now, and as a core team member, you'll get a share of the payout. "Twenty-two-year-old me, I'm begging you. Stop wasting yourself on people who don't deserve it." The voice cut off. I took a deep breath and moved the cursor to "Confirm Enrollment." The instant I clicked, my mind was made up. I wasn't going to bury my own future for anyone who wasn't worth it.

After three years of pursuing Vicky Donovan, she finally accepts my confession and agrees to be my girlfriend. Just as I'm happily envisioning our future together, I suddenly receive an anonymous video on my phone. The video shows a roadside beggar with disheveled hair, sitting by a dumpster and clutching a phone in his hand. He looks very emotionally distraught. "Don't believe Vicky at all! She only agreed to be your girlfriend because she found out you're secretly a millionaire! "She will insist on a whirlwind marriage with you and steal all of your money before making a run for it, spending the rest of her days with her lover and leaving you with a mountain of debt!" Then the beggar finally lifts his hair from his face, exposing his face to me—it's completely identical to mine. "You'll end up like me if you don't take my advice!" After the video ends, it takes me a long time to come to my senses. But just as I'm about to replay the video to see if it's all just a scam, I realize it's gone. While I'm still in a daze, Vicky steps out of the bathroom and wraps her arms around my waist, cooing, "Let's get married, Colin Atkinson."

In my previous life, I saved a fallen dragon prince on the day my sister and I were to choose our mates. In gratitude, he took me back to his clan and made me his concubine. A year later, I birthed a golden egg, producing a dragon heir. Overjoyed, the prince crowned me Dragon Queen on his Ascension Day, revered by all clans. Meanwhile, my sister wed a burly beastman, only to become his least favored concubine. Consumed with jealousy, she pushed me off a cliff during a ritual, ending my life. When I opened my eyes again, I saw my sister rushing toward the prince's hiding place, her intentions clear from our past life. I realized she had been reborn, too. But she didn't know that while saving the prince was simple, bearing his heir was a trial beyond measure.

Hilda Oakley, the charity case Mom and Dad take in, steals my family right out from under me. She slips drugs into me, driving me into a bipolar disorder. She turns me into someone who snaps and screams at Mom and Dad without meaning to. She paints me as someone rotten inside, as the bully at school, and as someone who'd shove her down the stairs at home. And because of that, my whole family turns on me. Mom calls me a bad seed. Dad says I'm no daughter of his. Then, they adopt Hilda and throw me out in the dead of winter. My bipolar flares. Naked, I sprint onto the rooftop and jump to my death. When I'm reborn, I realize I can make the thoughts in other people's heads audible. So, at the dinner table, I let Hilda's thoughts spill right before Mom and Dad. 'I kept that witch Valerie drugged for three years. She finally broke! They still don't suspect that Alex isn't really her brother. He's Susan's son. Once we poison Valerie's parents, the Coopers' fortune will belong to us.'

My CEO wife, Bianca Bennett, who used to love me to the point of obsession, blew out the candles on her birthday cake, opened her eyes, and looked at me like I was a stranger. "Who the hell are you?" she asked. "Where’s Connor? Even if I have to get married, he’s the only one I’ll ever marry." She screamed and bolted out the door. As I stood there, utterly paralyzed, a stream of floating text suddenly flashed across my vision. [Looks like the side character is totally clueless. The female lead swapped souls with her eighteen-year-old self! She’s heading out to find her true love now.] [Honestly, he should just be grateful. If his face didn't look so much like the male lead's, he never would've married into a rich family in the first place.] [Too bad the soul swap only lasts for thirty days. Go get him, teen female lead! Win back your first love, so when your older self comes back, you’ll get a nice little surprise!] My blood ran cold. Two weeks later, Bianca walked back through the front door, dragging a guy who was a dead ringer for me right behind her. She slammed a set of divorce papers onto the table in front of me. "The house is mine, and the money is mine," she sneered, "You’ve been living off Connor's likeness for years. Sign the papers and get out."

On the day I married the most feared woman in the underworld, words suddenly appeared before my eyes. [Marry her and you're dead! She's actually in love with your stepfather. This whole thing is a trap to make him swoop in and steal the bride! [Run now while you still can. Otherwise, she'll auction off your virginity tonight in front of everyone and let her rich girlfriends have their turn with you! [Three days from now, after she's had you beaten within an inch of your life, she'll tell everyone you died of a sudden illness and dump your body in the outskirts for the wolves!] Last time around, I bolted the moment I saw those messages. That was a mistake. I got grabbed by Yvette Sinclair's enemies and brutalized. Meanwhile, my stepfather took my place in the wedding car and became the crime boss's pampered husband. After narrowly escaping death and finally making it home, he was already standing in the doorway with tears in his eyes. "I know you hate me," he said, "but why did you knock me out and throw me into another woman's bed?" My mother didn't even let me explain. She said I had humiliated the family, and she threw me out without a second thought. Told everyone she'd never had a son like me. My sister, the one who had always doted on me, stood there and watched me burn alive. Then she locked the door and walked away. It wasn't until after I died that I found out the truth. My stepfather had written those messages himself. Then I opened my eyes again, and I was back to the day of the wedding. The same words were already floating in front of me. I watched my stepfather fuss over my tie with a warm, satisfied look on his face. I grabbed the kettle and poured boiling water all over him. This time, I was going to give him a taste of his own medicine!

The day my ex cheated on me, I cried for about ten minutes before digging out the jewelry box he gave me. I sold everything valuable inside for four hundred dollars and used the money to buy a huge box of black candles. Today, I crouched outside his apartment complex, arranging the candles in a circle and lighting them one by one. “You crazy woman! Why are you lighting black candles? Are you trying to curse my son?” His mother stormed out and jabbed a finger in my face. The other woman hid behind my cheating ex and spoke in a choked voice: “Don, I’m scared… What if she still hasn’t gotten over you? What if she does something terrible?” The onlookers shook their heads and concluded that the breakup had driven me insane. Then a ding rang inside my head. [You lit two dollars’ worth of black candles. Ten-thousandfold cashback triggered. Twenty thousand dollars has been credited to your account!] I reached for the remaining candles and lit them one by one.

"Sienna, he looks so pitiful." In my last life, I listened to my younger sister and chose the black fox who hadn't even taken human form as my fiancé. I poured everything I had into helping him take human form, but he carved out my inner core and presented it to my sister to curry her favor. When I lived again, at the mate-selection ceremony, my sister once more pointed pitifully at the black fox. In front of everyone, I chose the four-tailed white fox she wanted most. Then I "gifted" the black fox to her.