Mark of the Fool - Chapter 18: Using What You Have (Interlude)

The Peng Society for Gentlemen — a secret friend-making club for the homosexual men of the Great Xia Dynasty. Its services were designed to help its members along in their quest for their lifelong partners. Upon paying a monthly fee of fifty coins, members could get themselves listed in The Pengornisseur after providing a self-portrait, a mailing address, their age and hobbies, as well as a self-introduction. All members would receive a copy of the monthly publication, and they could communicate with one another in private using the information in The Pengornisseur.

Wu Xingzi, a bachelor about to turn forty, worked as the adviser to the magistrate in Qingcheng County.

Qingcheng County was a place with barely any resources. In other words, it was poor. In the list of counties of the Great Xia Dynasty, it had been ranked at the bottom for the past two hundred years.

Wu Xingzi felt that his life was hopeless: not only was he a homosexual, he was also a virgin. Even his retirement fund was lacking. Worse still, his looks were… forgettable.

He might as well die.

Hence, Wu Xingzi decided to commit suicide on his fortieth birthday. However, he was unwilling to remain a virgin to death! And so, gritting his teeth, he joined the Peng Society for Gentlemen and received The Pengornisseur. It was very painful; after all, fifty coins were the sum of his daily expenditure for ten days! He would only pay it once, and he was determined to succeed on his first try.

She was dressed in white, with a mysterious orchid imprint on her forehead, her skin like jade is always covered with a veil. Since childhood, she had left her parents due to her special status and lived her life with her master in the clouds. She was not yet ten when her medicinal skills were renowned in the world. In order to save the people, she descended the mountains, however, she encountered a storm on the way to the epidemic area. The man who saved her would tease her for enjoyment, little did they know…

“You want me to go on an impossible journey, sacrifice everything, and risk my own life for a mere 1,000 gold? Hell no!”Lukas never really had anything going in his previous life. When he found himself transmigrated into a new world, he had hoped the soft and gentle touch of a hot milf would mark the beginning of a lavish lifestyle befitting a king.Instead, he quickly learned that he was just some random extra. Worse than that, this extra was only known by everyone as the “Divine Simp,” someone who would do whatever the gods asked.“Divine Simp? Fuck that!”Refusing such a pitiful existence, Lukas decides to take this new life in his own hands. Instead of waiting for some lavish life to fall in his lap, he would create one for himself.How?Well, the gods seem to love him. They shower him with quests, thinking that he will just take them for free. Little do they know... that old extra is dead and gone now.The Divine Simp has become the Divine Extortionist: someone who can obtain the greatest rewards for completing the easiest tasks.

“You’re ours,” Varen whispered, his voice a velvet threat, “and we don’t share unless it’s with each other.”I was never supposed to matter.An omega raised in the shadows, hidden behind my warrior family's shame, I only ever wanted to survive. Maybe, if I was lucky, find love with someone like me— someone quiet. Gentle. Unseen.But the moon had other plans.And under its eerie blue glow, three impossibly powerful, dangerously beautiful Alphas—triplets— claimed me as their mate.Varen. The charming firebrand with a wicked tongue and a sugarcane smile.Kiel. The silent forest poet who sings to wolves and kisses like moonlight.Thorne. The battle-scarred leader who doesn’t believe in fate... yet burns when I walk away.They were meant to lead the pack.I was meant to be nothing.Now I’m caught between them — between chaos and devotion, between savage protection and secret longing. I should have run the night they called me “mate.” But when my bloodline reveals a rare power the world thought extinct, I become the key to a storm that could tear our world apart.Betrayal bleeds through every shadow.My family sold me.My enemies want to own me.And love? It was never supposed to look like this.But maybe fate didn’t get it wrong.Maybe I was never made for one mate.Maybe I was made for them all.