The Sword and Heir of Shadows - Chapter 14: Doubt in his Mind.

“Block him.”“He's technically still my boss.”“Then block him with dignity.”The call ended again.And then started again.I let out a sound somewhere between a growl and a sob, then finally answered with the enthusiasm of a snail crawling through salt.“Yes, Mr. Walton?”“Have you changed your mind yet?”I collapsed onto the towel and gazed at the sky as though it might consume me entirely if I pleaded sweetly enough.“Do you ever take a break?” I asked, shielding my eyes with one hand.“You're avoiding the question.”“Because it's a dumb question.”He exhaled, the sound sharp and irritated even over phone. “It's not a dumb question. It's a business offer.”“It's a weird offer-one that I already said no to.”There was a brief pause, and I could practically hear him clenching his jaw through the speaker.“You are acting unreasonably.”“ Unreasonable?” I sat up. “I'm not the one drafting fake girlfriend contracts like it's a normal Tuesday.”“Isabella-”“Certainly not, Mr. Walton.” I mimicked his tone perfectly. “I told you I'm not doing it. You need to find someone else to play pretend with.”SYNOPSISIsabella Miller thought saying no to her boss’s fake dating offer was the end of the story.But Adrien Walton doesn’t take no—especially not when he’s convinced she’s a gold digger.Suddenly, her student loans are piling up, her father’s vet clinic is on the brink of eviction and her brother is about to be kicked out of college. Coincidence? She thinks not.Adrien Walton is calm, calculating—and he's just pulled every string to corner Isabella into the perfect position.Now she’s stuck choosing between pride and survival.So she agrees to his offer: be his fake girlfriend.No feelings attached. No drama. Just business.Or so she thought.“Conference Room B. Fifteen minutes,” he said, passing by without a glance.The folder he pushed across the table landed with a thud.I opened it. The contract. All of it.---Enemies to lovers? Check.Slow burn? Hmmnyea.Banter so sharp it might file your nails? Yes.Delicious workplace tension? Of course.Tension that could melt steel?Absolutely.Smut?? Wanna find out?Welcome to corporate romance warfare. There’s no escaping this contract.

The world was hit by an abnormal narcolepsy, and there was a mass coma. Lee-joonhyuk was transferred to a dimensional battle field as he fell into an abnormal narcoleptic sleep. This is the story of him as he starts as a minion.

Lived for the sword, died for the sword.

Back in 1996, when the daughter of the Old Xie family, Xie Wanying, said she wanted to be a doctor, many laughed.“Phoenix begets phoenix, dog spawns dog. A truck driver’s daughter becoming a doctor is as likely as a sow climbing a tree.”“I’m not just going to be a doctor, I’m going to be a female chest surgeon,” said Xie Wanying.Her words provoked even greater waves of disdain within the doctors' community.Relatives who were doctors ridiculed her mercilessly: “Do you know how high the admission scores are for medical students? Do you think you can make it?”“There are zero female chief chest surgeons in the country. Who do you think you are!”A bunch of people mocked her: “You'll probably only get into a third-rate medical college and end up as a health worker in a small county town. It's easy to imagine what sort of marriage you'll have.”After the college entrance exams, Xie Wanying entered the top surgical class in the country with the highest science scores in the province, with department heads in the Capital’s top-tier hospitals vying for her from her internship beginnings.“Student Xie Wanying, come to our digestive surgery department.”“No, she must come to our urological surgery—”“Pediatric surgery is in short supply of female doctors like student Xie Wanying.”Circles of relatives and friends: …At this time, Xie Wanying independently completed the youngest Tetralogy of Fallot surgery in the country, represented the national association of chest surgery at an international medical forum, and published the world’s first minimally invasive heart valve repair surgery, becoming truly the foremost surgeon in the field of female surgery!As for the marriage concerns that everyone “worried” about:A brother from the Returned Overseas Faction, a hot bachelor within the Capital, changed his QQ profile picture to Junior Sister Xie.The young CEO, a handsome man, came to the hospital every day with flowers, keen to offer a diamond ring.Not to mention, a whole host of suitors had long since worn a path to the Old Xie Family's doorstep...