A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands - Chapter 49Book 2: : The Belly of the Beast

Killing a person in ten steps will never stop a thousand miles away!

The evil leader broke through the barrier of time and space and became a descendant of Chinese medicine.

An era in which traditional Chinese medicine is in decline and ineffective.

Medicine is declining

Budo is fading

humanity is sinking

Under the surface of the peaceful world of singing and dancing, there is another treacherous and unfathomable world.

Experts can cure diseases, and national players can save people’s hearts.

- Description from novelbuddy

This is the love story of the 2nd brother of the Dragon Family. He is one of the most successful businessman in the capital and one of the Emperor’s favourites – he is the most eligible bachelor in the capital and every lady in town wants to marry him.

The story starts with the female lead, Ju Mu Er, a blind teacher of guzheng, who goes to pay a visit to Long Yue to ask him to build an awning on his popular business street so her friend, a flower seller, will not get wet and fall sick. Long Yue laughs at her (because he loves money and is calculative) and she makes a bet with him that she can allow him to escape from a pesky female suitor without making it obvious.

She successfully wins the bet and from then on, Long Yue constantly makes her life a trouble (since she costs him so much money)…. not realizing he is slowly falling for her.

- Description from Novelupdates

A fourth chance at life. The last chance.Zarek remembered when he first experienced the Godsfall Apocalypse. Those tears of red and sparkling rouge that split the skies, opening up one dangerous realm after another.That feeling of helplessness had been palpable, heavy... suffocating. It hung above his head like a guillotine, an edge graced by death's kiss...He grinned at it.One last ride, no Talents left on his stat screen, and nothing but a dull machete and his girl by his side. What was a better thrill than that?How could he possibly fail a fourth time?Unfortunately, there were others. Other Rebirthers. Some that might have been on their last attempt just like him, or some that still had more to give to this cruel world.None of it mattered, though. He had planned everything out meticulously, each life playing its own role.He would come out on top this time. How could he not?He was Zarek Ashborn.

After being torn from the only life she knew, 16-year-old Margo is forced into a new home with strangers who call themselves her parents. Haunted by memories of her past and consumed by feelings of isolation, she struggles to adapt to her unfamiliar surroundings. School offers little relief—until she meets Lucien, a mysterious boy who appears just when she needs a friend the most.Gabriel is everything Margo needs: kind, attentive, and always ready to whisk her away from her troubles. Each night, he invites her to secret places—an abandoned playground, a fog-choked garden, a crumbling train station at the edge of town—each more unsettling than the last. Yet with every chilling rendezvous, Margo feels more alive... more seen.But something isn’t right. Gabriel never comes to school during the day. Her adoptive parents never see him. And when they catch her talking to thin air, their concern deepens into fear. They say Gabriel isn't real—that he’s a figment of her imagination. Margo wants to believe them, but Gabriel feels real. More real than anything else in her life.As the nights grow colder and more twisted, Gabriel’s true nature begins to surface. Shadows move where they shouldn’t. Time warps in his presence. And the places they visit seem to echo with whispers from another world. Margo is forced to ask herself: Who—or what—is Gabriel? Why does he only want her? And what will happen on the final night he asks her to come with him?As the line between reality and delusion begins to crumble, Margo must make an impossible choice: stay in a world where she feels loved, or return to one that barely feels real.But one thing is certain—some friendships never let go.