Blacksmith vs. the System - Chapter 185

“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.

Sophisticated and abstinent domineering CEO + world-class beauty + pure love + flash marriage + secret crush + marriage first, love later + sweet pamperingIn the third year of being with Isaac Sutton, Clara Sterling finally realized he had been pretending to be poor to manipulate her feelings.She thought he was such a poor student that he couldn't afford to eat.Yet he spent 300,000 casually on a bag for another woman.She heard Isaac Sutton say, “She's from a single-parent family and has been missing a father's love since childhood. I'm just doing it to amuse her. Could I really marry her home?”When her mother was diagnosed with stomach cancer, Clara Sterling asked Isaac Sutton for money, but he was still crying poor.She turned around and married the aloof and abstinent Crown Prince.Later, Isaac Sutton drank so much he got gastric bleeding, and called begging to reunite.Silas Sheffield’s voice was cold, “She's asleep. Whatever you have to say, say it to me.”Clara Sterling initially thought she and Silas Sheffield were just in a mutually beneficial agreement.Later, she discovered that Silas Sheffield had secretly loved her for many years.

When others transmigrate, they are responsible for having babies with the male protagonist, and have a happily ever after. She is also a female protagonist when she transmigrates into various novels, but the female protagonist after the happy ending, when love between the couple is weathering, when the male protagonist is tired of the female protagonist, when he is cheating with a mistress, etc., and many other chicken feathers.

[Host, the task assigned to you by the system is, ‘After happy ending, the female protagonist’s bleak divorce life!’]

“Go away, s*upid system! I want to transmigrate to before ‘Happy ending’!”

One sentence introduction: Today is another day of happily divorcing.

Chicken feathers: small annoyances

- Description from Novelupdates

In a world where everyone awakens a Trait to start their cultivation, Rhys's was considered a joke: he would never age.In a world that worships raw combat power, a Trait granting eternal youth was worthless. To his powerful family, Rhys was a talentless failure, a stain on their name. With disgust, they cast him out onto the streets, leaving him with nothing.Alone and powerless, Rhys's life was shattered when he was caught in the crossfire of a terrifying battle between two god-like cultivators.Mortally wounded and left to bleed out in an alley, he faced a lonely, pathetic end.But as Rhys's vision faded and his last breath drew near, a new power roared to life within him.[Lifespan Burning System Activated]Suddenly, his useless Trait became Rhys's greatest weapon. His infinite lifespan was now the ultimate fuel source.A divine martial art that takes a genius a hundred years to master?[Consume 100 years of lifespan. Skill comprehended to Maximum Level.]A fatal wound that no healer can mend?[Consume 10 years of lifespan. Body restored to peak condition.]An ancient, unreadable text holding the world's greatest secrets?[Consume 500 years of lifespan. All knowledge unlocked and understood.]From the brink of death, Rhys rises with a burning purpose.The world saw him as trash, but now he will trade his endless years for the strength to stand above all.(Posting this on RR under pen name Unnikuttan)