Smiling Under Lanterns - Chapter 1: Prologue_

[1v1 pure love + transmigration + ancient martial arts + highly pampered by disguise group + mysticism + entirely fictional universe]Gu Zhiqi transmigrated into the role of the vicious female antagonist.The heroine was a true heiress with numerous disguises, while she, usurping the nest of others, constantly framed the heroine, and in the end, tragically received her 'boxed lunch' as the fake heiress.Gu Zhiqi: Even transmigration can't stop me from retiring!However, transmigration couldn't, but poverty could.Master Zhi was forced into business!...#Breaking! Gu Family's fake heiress, Gu Zhiqi, kicked out and now swindling money as a fortuneteller under a bridge#The protagonists' group style started to go awry.Eldest Brother Gu: Need money? Take this neighborhood.Second Brother Gu: Second bro gives you an entertainment company.Third Sister Gu: Just made a billion, keep it safe.Fourth Brother Gu: Young master's championship prize money, take it.Money-loving heroine: Need money? Pick any color card you like.Biological brother: Come back to inherit the family fortune.Gu Zhiqi: “...” Huh? What happened to the vicious female antagonist script?...#Breaking! Everyone in the Gu Family is a top player in their fields, except the fake heiress who's nothing but a pretty face#And then, the big shots started calling one after another.First Big Shot: Our alliance's ancestral site doesn't have better feng shui than under a bridge? Master Gu, reconsider?Second Big Shot: Need money? Think about that last order.Third Big Shot: Have time for fortune-telling, but no time to write papers?Fourth Big Shot: Miss Gu, I have a surgery here, what do you think......Gu Zhiqi: Read, retiring, do not disturb.A certain movie star: You just used my account.Gu Zhiqi, who had swindled enough money to retire, “...” ?!

Elementals, Enhancers, Beast Tamers, Artifact Nurturers – These four pathways define the magical world of Arcanists. But Finn, a former university student from earth, wakes up in a body treading a whole different path…A forbidden path: The path of a Soul Mage.Soul Mages are the ultimate parasites. They lack the ability to use magic themselves, but instead, wield the power to assimilate the mana-saturated souls of the dead.From every Great Arcanist that once lived, to every Calamity Beast, to every Mythic Grade Spirit Artifact… So long as they were dead, they were simply chaotic souls waiting to be claimed.​But this kind of power does not come without cost. Madness, frenzy, mania, innate wills and primal desires of assimilated souls threaten to drive Soul Mages to total corrosion.In this new world, ​Finn finds himself thrown into the deep end, waking up as a Vessel already housing a full Parade of Chaotic Souls. Now, his body is a battlefield. The souls demand immediate payment, stacking Soul Debts that steal his senses, his consciousness, and his very humanity.​But yet… it is this same overwhelming corrosion that causes the ultimate truth and uniqueness of his soul to surface…

Anger. Pain. Desolation.

Ava’s marriage was nothing like she had anticipated. Despite being married to the man she loved, she had endured nothing but humiliation and misery from her husband for the past five years.She put up with everything in the hopes of one day carving out a space in his heart. But her husband ultimately drove her to the breaking point when he handed her the divorce papers on their fifth anniversary, claiming that he loved someone else. He had taken all her family assets her father had left for her.The shocking truth that the man she had been in love with for ten years had caused her father’s death was the blow Ava couldn’t take it.Devastated, Ava didn’t want to give birth to his child in her womb.------“I loved you with all my heart and gave you everything, but you ruined me and my family, Dylan Brooks. I won’t give you this baby. This baby belongs to me and will go with me to the grave. A cruel man like you don’t deserve to be a father,” Ava said as she slit her wrist.“I regret loving you, Dylan. I wish I’ll never see you again in my next life.” These were her last words before she drifted into the lap of death.-------She thought this was the end of her life. But fate had other plans. She woke up in the past, four years ago, on the day of their first wedding anniversary.Since she was given another chance to rectify her mistakes, she vowed to protect her father and the family business. She resolved to cut all ties with her ruthless husband.But wait! Why did Dylan act so possessive and caring? Why did he declare she was the only one he wanted as his wife?Should she believe him and give him another chance? Or should she take revenge on him for what he did in her past life?--------“Please, Ava…come back to me,” Dylan pleaded with Ava on his knees. “I’m ready to atone my mistakes. I’ll do everything to make you happy. Just don’t leave me, okay? Tell me, what can I do to get your forgiveness?”Ava stared coldly at the man who had ruined her in her previous life. “Do you want my forgiveness? Then hand over everything to me, Dylan. I want you to feel the same agony I did.”