Thousand Autumns Donghua

Susan Miller, my father's caretaker, often complains that the supplements keep running out. The wild kingroots that are worth 500 thousand dollars are completely used up even though Susan has only made soup with them twice in a row. As I filter through the medicinal residue with a frown on my face, Susan sinks down to her knees and begins slapping herself. "They must have melted in the soup because of my lack of attention! Please dock my pay, Ms. Lawson, but please don't fire me!" But that night, I come across a post uploaded by Susan's son, Roman Cox, on Instagram. "Hi everyone! Today, I'm challenging myself to eat two wild kingroots in one go!" When I see Roman picking up a familiar-lookng giftbox, I feel my temper flaring instantly. Then, I order a packet of potent aphrodisiacs meant for animals on the spot. It turns out that Roman intends to chug down my prized Romanee-Conti in the next episode of his stream. Well then, I'll let him have his feel of drinking something else!

"I, Alpha Luca, reject you as my mate. Leave my premises!" A sharp emotional pain attacked my chest, and I gasped, staggering backwards. "You cannot be serious—" "We're done." He interrupted, eyes blazing like a thousand infernos. "Leave while you still can. Do not make me lose my mind." I had no idea which one hurt more: the fact that Luca had cheated, or the fact that he'd cheated on me with my own sister, under my own nose. Turning away, I left the room, leaving behind shattered hopes and a heart heavy with betrayal. ****************************** She was betrayed and rejected by her sister and her mate, and subjected to a ruthless demise, she vowed to get her revenge for her sister's betrayal. However, the moon goddess blesses her with a second chance mate but her first mate, Alpha Luca returns to claim her. What happens when she realizes that there are deep secrets between Alpha Luca and Alpha Roland? What happens when Alpha Luca wages war against Alpha Roland, in the quest to reclaim her heart and the throne?

"I don't love you. This is just a contract." That was what Damien Vane told her on their wedding day. Violet agreed to become his wife to save her father and pay off their debts. She expected a cold marriage, a lonely life, and a heartless husband. What she didn't expect was the way he looks at her. The way he gets jealous. The way he claims her as his own. "You are mine, Violet. Even if this marriage is fake, you are still mine." But behind his cold eyes lies a dark secret. Damien Vane rules the underworld. He has enemies who want him dead. And now, they know that his weakness is his wife. When bullets flew and lives were threatened, Damien showed his true self. He was willing to kneel down in the dirt, willing to get beaten, just to save her and her sister. "I would rather die a thousand deaths than live one day without you." Can their love survive the bloodshed? Can a contract marriage turn into a forever love? Or will the dangers and the people who want to tear them apart succeed?

For a thousand years, Roman, the Alpha, has waited to destroy the wolf tribe that betrayed him — the same tribe that murdered his mate, stole his future, and condemned him to exile. His revenge requires patience, and above all, the rebirth of the Arion. For his revenge to happen exactly the way he wants he has to wait for his perfect weapon, her. But when his most sought after moment came, fate played a cruel trick instead. On the night of the Blood Moon ritual, fate turns against him. Instead of binding Marcelene to her tribe, the magic ties her to him—heart to heart, soul to soul. Dragged into the shadows, Marcelene swears to hate him. Yet every heartbeat betrays her, pulling her closer to the very Alpha who wants to use her for revenge she knows nothing about. But Marcelene is more than a weapon. She is the reincarnation of his lost mate — the only one who once loved him and who he still loves. Bound by blood and vengeance, high emotions, and destiny itself, they must decide: destroy each other, or defy fate together.

On a stormy night during the apocalypse, my own mother threw me out of the house while I was burning with fever, along with my husky, so my little brother would have a better chance of surviving. She shouted through the crack in the door, “Take that useless mutt and go die somewhere. Stop wasting your brother’s food!” I huddled in a pile of trash with my dog in my arms, convinced I was going to die. Then my husky suddenly spoke. “Host’s vital signs critically low. Infinite Supply Search System activated.” “Supermarket warehouse one hundred meters ahead. Three thousand freeze-dried meals detected.” “Pharmacy five hundred meters to the left. Five hundred boxes of antibiotics detected.” Three days later, I’d built a fortress with packs of dogs and mountains of supplies. I sat inside eating steak and watching the show. Outside the barbed wire, my mother and brother were on their knees, fighting each other over half a piece of moldy bread. I smiled. “Mom, even dogs wouldn’t eat that. Better savor it.”

For seven years, I thought Declan was just an ordinary Beta. That was until I secretly traveled a thousand miles to his pack, wanting to surprise him. Only to find other werewolves calling him Alpha. And more importantly, he already had a Luna. The wolves around me started whispering. “Is that the Alpha’s secret lover?” “The nerve of her, showing up here… so shameless.” I wanted to argue, to tell them they had it all wrong. I was his real girlfriend. His Fated Mate. But then, a woman in a gorgeous dress walked over. The wolves bowed their heads respectfully. “Luna.” She was on the phone, her voice a sweet, playful pout. “The blessing ceremony for the heir is about to start, and the Elders are getting antsy… I know you’re busy, but this is our child. You have to be with me.” The man’s voice on the other end was deep and gentle, a voice I knew better than my own. “I know, my Luna.” Just a few nights ago, he had whispered loving words into my ear with that same gentle voice, his body moving powerfully inside mine, holding me so tight. It was my lover, Declan.

I had a cousin my age. She overslept and was late for her SATs. Yet, she pinned the blame on me, saying that I made her take some fever medication. She stole 300 thousand meant for Grandma's surgery, claiming it was to buy me a car. She even insisted I was at fault when she accidentally got pregnant and took the wrong abortion pills, leading to severe bleeding. She vehemently insisted I pushed her, causing her to fall. My boyfriend stood by her side time and time again. Eventually, he finally gave up on me, telling me it was over. My aunt shoved me down the stairs, accusing me of ruining her daughter's life. My boyfriend witnessed the whole thing, but he told them I had fallen by accident when the police came. I died without ever seeing justice for myself. When I thought my life was finally over, I opened my eyes. I had returned to the day my cousin stole the money meant for Grandma's surgery.

Because I made Sam Whitaker's "perfect girl" take a cold shower, he threw me inside a freezer and locked the door. "Nancy caught a cold, so now I'm going to make you suffer with her!" I desperately clawed at the freezer door, screaming for help, but all I could see was Nancy Bullocks' lips moving. "Sam cares too much about me, so there's nothing I can do to plead on your behalf. I'm afraid you'll just have to endure this one." She set the temperature to the lowest possible setting, and the last sliver of my vision faded as the dust cover slipped into place. When Sam returned from his honeymoon, he finally showed some mercy and said he would let me out. "I'll let it slide this time, but let's see if you dare target Nancy again." 'I won't dare to target her again because I have already become a massive block of ice. One touch and I will shatter into a thousand pieces,' I said to myself.

I went on a graduation trip with my boyfriend, Marcus Hale, only to have my shameless roommate, Vanessa Quinn, tag along. On the way to Rybia, our plane was caught in violent turbulence and plunged toward the Egete Ocean. Because of a malfunction, only half the oxygen masks dropped. The spiteful Vanessa snatched the oxygen mask meant for a Rybian socialite, Layla Al-Farouq. Unable to stand by, I shared mine with the woman, saving her life. After the emergency landing, her powerful oil tycoon husband, Khalid Al-Farouq, adopted me as his goddaughter out of gratitude, while throwing the vicious Vanessa into the Kibera Slums. Later, I married Marcus, but on the day we went skydiving, he suddenly unbuckled my parachute and shoved me from ten thousand meters above, leaving me to crash into nothing but broken flesh. "If you hadn’t meddled and saved that old woman, my darling Vivi would still be alive!" Only then did I realize the two of them had been betraying me all along. When I opened my eyes again, I was back at the exact moment the plane first took off.

The day after the new year, during a family gathering, my aunt sneered at me as I worked overtime, reviewing a proposal. "Why are you pretending to be so busy? It’s not like we don’t know you only make three thousand a month. Real money-makers are people like my daughter, a designer so successful she doesn’t even have time to come home!" I ignored her, but she directed her spoiled son to delete all my files while I was in the bathroom. My hands trembled with rage. "This proposal is due in ten minutes—if I don’t submit it, everything is ruined!" She scoffed dismissively. "He’s just a kid. What could he possibly know? Besides, your job isn’t even worth much. If you lose the files, you lose them. Worst case, you get fired." I chuckled coldly but said nothing. She had no idea it was the proposal her daughter had spent an entire month working on. And I was the client who held her daughter’s fate in my hands.