MTL - Reborn to be a Stepmother - Chapter 170 On the highest state of pretending

Eira Hax, the daughter of a once-wealthy heiress, has spent her entire life in the shadows.Twenty-two years ago, her mother, a kind-hearted but naive woman, was deceived by her husband, a ruthless businessman. He stole her entire fortune and framed her for a crime, sending her to prison, unaware that she was pregnant and secretly battling terminal cancer.Eira’s mother died alone behind bars, but not before giving birth to Eira, entrusting her with a burning desire for revenge.Now, two decades later, Eira returns with one goal: to destroy the man who ruined her mother’s life—her own father.To do so, she strategically marries his most powerful rival, Callian Reed, a man as dangerous as he is influential. Together, they plot to destroy her father’s empire, piece by piece.But as Eira is pulled deeper into a world of business, power and revenge, she’s forced to confront her own problems and decide just how far she’s willing to go to avenge her mother.“I’m not your enemy, darling…you should know that by now.”“Callian, everything you do is not written in our contract. Why are you breaking it?”“The more I learn about you, the more I hate everyone who hurt you. So please, Eira, let me get rid of them for you.”

He is a firefighter, his face blackened by smoke, coming from the flames, and in one glance, his life was set.The first time he met the young girl, she bent slightly towards him and said, “Sir...”He was amused, thinking she was a little eccentric...She had never seen such a handsome man, tall like a general, and when their eyes met, she was bewildered and forgot she wasn't in the palace...Later, during the school art performance, the young girl sat on stage, dressed in ancient costume, with a veil covering her face, holding a pipa, her eyebrows shy, appearing both delicate and graceful...He raised his alluring eyes, recalling the girl said she knew a little about musical instruments and chess; she was modest.Seeing him in the audience, her heart raced, wanting to perform well but accidentally struck the wrong chord, fortunately unnoticed by him...Later still, the young girl, now grown, suddenly confessed to him, and the usually calm and composed man was caught off guard...It was a love she had hidden deep in her heart for many years, like shards of glass in her palm, both a patient endurance and impulsive agony...The joy of love at first sight, a hidden affection...She would never know that the brother she secretly admired had been waiting for her to grow up...

Sometimes dying isn’t even the worst part of your dayMark has been reincarnated into a dead town in a bog, one that has been recently destroyed and occupied by ravenous undead. They disappear every day and return again at night, mindless and hungry, hunting for any survivors. He’ll need to use cunning and subterfuge to avoid them, because since he was transported into the body of a child, he can’t level up. At least not yet.Bog Standard. It means “totally normal”, right? But for the small towns found in these bogs, there's no quick rescue and not much trade. Everything has to be made to last. To them, it means “excellent quality”. Mark will have to prove he's Bog Standard if he hopes to survive.This is an Isekai of excellent quality. It’s a progression fantasy set in a LitRPG world, rags to riches with an eventual OP main character. The pacing is slow-burn, incremental progression, sometimes slice-of-life, punctuated by moments of intense violence and possibly traumatic content.

Chi Xiaochi: fourth-rate citizen at birth, three-time award-winning film emperor, second-rate temper, first-class looks. He crawled his way out of hell on hard mode to become a winner at life.

Then, he was smashed into a vegetative state by a chandelier.

061: Hello, here’s a brief rundown on the scum gong reconditioning system. This system measures the regret level of the scum gong. Every time their regret level reaches one hundred points, you will be able to leave the current world. A friendly tip, usually, through dedication and self-sacrifice, our employees slowly foster a sense of dependency in the scum gongs, gradually making it so the scum gongs can’t live without them.

Chi Xiaochi: How many regret points is a complete loss of reputation and standing worth? How about a fall from grace? Or wanting something but never being able to obtain it?

061: ……

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