The Academy's Terminally Ill Side Character - Chapter 13: Rin Evans 4

The betrothal gift is two million bucks, not a single cent less. Jiang Yu is already eighteen years old and can get married now. Send the money to my card, and this matter is settled!" Jiang Yu looked at her mother, who was talking non-stop on the negotiation table. She watched as her mother named her price as she sold Jiang Yu. Jiang Yu could not believe it. Eighteen years ago, they brought the wrong baby home from the hospital, and Jiang Yu, the real daughter of a wealthy family, ended up in an orphanage until a year ago. Jiang Ran, the fake daughter of the Jiang family, grew up with a silver spoon in her mouth. With superior resources since she was young, she was more outstanding than Jiang Yu in every aspect and became the pride of the Jiang family. Jiang Yu, who wandered most of her time in the outside world, was nothing but a country bumpkin who made her mother a laughing stock in the socialite circle. However, Jiang Yu had no idea how great her mother's hatred for her was. On the day she turned eighteen, her mother 'sold' her with a named price. Jiang Yu said, "If you want to marry your daughter to someone else, it should be Jiang Ran. I'm your real daughter. You're the one who mistakenly brought Jiang Ran home!" Her mother replied, "Shut up. I wish I hadn't given birth to you. You've brought nothing but shame to me!" Jiang Ran said, "Big Sis, everything Mom does is for your own good. Don't blame Mom." Her mother said, "I'm convinced she's nothing but a debt collector who's come to me to collect her debts! Either you give me two million bucks, or you get married obediently!" Jiang Yu left home in despair. By a freak combination of factors, she found herself accidentally marrying a Mr. CEO. From then on, the thirty-year-old man pampered his eighteen-year-old wife to the heavens. The little girl said, "Mister, someone bullied your wife!" The man, "Which incompetent fool is so blind that he dares to bully you?"

Zev prowled towards her, all shining, brutal beauty, his chin low and those incredible, piercing eyes fixed on her. He didn’t stop until they were toe-to-toe and he blocked her view of every other male in the circle.

His eyes dipped to her mouth as he leaned in, his whisper playing on her skin.

“You. Are. Mine.”

His deep voice twanged in her belly as the howls of the wolf pack rose from behind him to echo across the mountains of Thana, while the other Chimera protested his claim.

Fighting the urge to stroke his broad, bare chest with her shaking hands, Sasha forced herself to tilt her head and raise an eyebrow. “So bold for a pup who just found his fangs.”

The other males roared with laughter.

Ignoring their taunts, Zev’s eyes sparked and he leaned even closer, the scruff on his jaw tickling her cheek as he smiled. “So bold for a human who already knows the pleasure of gasping my name.”

She shivered when his teeth grazed her ear.

*****

Just days after Sasha gave herself to her childhood love, he disappeared. Five years later, on a dark city street, Zev came back—with danger on his tail.

Zev is Chimera: Half-human, half-wolf. Made in a secure research lab, his existence is a secret. But when the powerful men who created him try to kill the only woman who ever made his heart sing, Zev snaps their leash and steals her away to the brutal, hidden world of the Chimera clans.

Torn between the magnetic draw of her first love and the painful betrayal of his disappearance, Sasha tries to keep Zev at arms-length. But when they reach this mysterious world, Zev discovers that in his absence the humans took control and stole almost all the females. The Chimera are dying—and Zev isn’t Alpha anymore.

Now, Zev must fight his own people to win the right to mate his only love. Can he prove to her that his long-ago promise to protect her heart, as well as her body, was true? Or will the humans cross worlds to hunt the wolf and tear the lovers apart forever?

[Mature content, no sexual assault]

The world is a sea of bitterness.

The mortal swims in the sea.

The body is the vessel.

The soul is the mortal on the vessel.

The vessel carries the mortal as it sails endlessly towards the other side of the sea.

Does cultivating the body strengthen the vessel enough to reach the other side of this sea of misery?

Or does cultivating the soul give the mortal on the vessel the ability to master swimming?

Cultivating according to the martial path allows one to become an Earthly Immortal.

Cultivating according to the immortal path allows one to become a Divine Immortal.

Which path should be chosen?

- Description from Novelupdates

Yuan Ye and film emperor Fang Shaoyi were married for ten years. After a stamp from the Ministry of Civil Affairs, they got divorced and their red booklets became green booklets. Back when they had gotten married, they had proudly announced the news to the whole world. After their divorce, though, neither dared to speak up, determined to hide this development.