A Billion Dollar Exchange - Chapter 175: Does it hurt?

As a naive teenager, he was unaware of his own superiority.Shang Xiaojie realized the violent man who had tricked him into a hotel was actually his brother-in-law.He struggled and tears streamed down his face as he pleaded, “Let me go, you idiotic beast!”“I may be foolish, but a beast? Can’t you at least admit to that?” he asked.After drugging Shang Xiaojie, he callously taunted, “You’re just a male prostitute who comes running whenever I snap my fingers. You’re nothing, Shang Xiaojie.”Devastated, Shang Xiaojie swore, “Mussaf, I hate you and I’ll make you regret this.”Upon his return five years later, he was accompanied by a young boy.Shang Mingming asked, “Is that man my father?”Shang Xiaojie responded coldly, “No, I don’t know someone like him.”Furious, Mussaf demanded, “Where are you taking my son?”Shang Xiaojie grinned and replied nonchalantly, “I’m getting married to another man. There’s nothing you can do about it.”

CONTENT WARNING:/This novel contains mature themes, explicit sexual content, strong language, and adult situations. Reader discretion is advised./---She ran from the devil who raised her…And married the one who wore a crown.After her parents’ tragic death, Lydia Andreyevna’s life became a nightmare. Stripped of her name, inheritance, and freedom by her uncle—Lord Alexander—she was treated like property and promised to a Count four times her age.Desperate to escape, she fled into the cold night… and straight into blood.A stranger. Wounded. Beautiful. Terrifying.She should’ve left him.But she didn’t.She touched him once—and fate branded her forever.Her uncle caught her the next morning. Her escape failed. But when she begged Queen Olga for protection, the Queen offered her a deadly bargain:Marry the masked Grand Duke of Zolotaria.The king’s hunting dog. The butcher of the East. The devil in a crown.The man feared by kings.The heir to the throne.The same man she once saved.Ivan Romanov.They say he bathes in blood. That he kills without blinking. That he conquered kingdoms with a smile behind a mask. That no one sees his face—and lives.Some call him the devil. Others call him Death’s favorite son.But behind the mask is the same man she found dying in the dark.The same voice that haunted her dreams.The same hands she once held.Now, he’s her husband.Her jailer.Her obsession.She doesn’t know if she’s his prisoner, or his weakness.Cold and untouchable, Ivan doesn’t share his bed. Doesn’t share his secrets. But she sees it—the hunger in his eyes. The pain in his silence. The way he looks at her like she’s the only thing keeping his demons at bay.She should fear him.She should hate him.But the moment she dares to take off his mask… it’s already too late.Because Ivan wants her—her fire, her body, her heart.And in his world, what he wants, he keeps.Even if it means burning down the kingdom.She thought she was running from hell.She ended up in his bed.And the most dangerous thing of all?She doesn’t want to leave.

After a year of relentless effort, Alex becomes the first to conquer a tutorial quest deemed impossible by the entire playerbase of Endless Leveling Online. But instead of loot or leaderboard fame, he earns something far stranger—an invitation from the God of Games.His prize? A one-way trip to Arcana, a living, breathing world where stories shape reality—and a chance to become the Protagonist of his own story.In a land of endless possibilities and ever-shifting destinies, Alex would try to bend the rules, rewrite fates, and forge his own legend. But being the Protagonist means more than glory.It carries a heavy responsibility.As secrets unravel and alliances are tested, Alex must decide whom he must protect, and save before the world collapses under the weight of its own story.

The villainess sees herself executed in front of a large crowd by the order of the emperor (her husband and the one she loves). However in the next moment after her death, she is back in the past. Monique is sent back into the past because of her brutal memories of her previous life with a prince who was engaged due to their similar age. When Empress grew and looked at the past, she killed her emotions to live as an Empress and remained one emotion, that was sickening affliction. Where in her next life, she made new connections in order to avoid getting executed again…