Industrial Strength Magic - Chapter 257: Short Respite

[Volume 1: Dante Blackthorn]When Anastasia and her sister Marianne are captured and shipped across the seas by pirates, they become commodities to be sold in a distant land. Marianne is taken as a courtesan, while Anastasia barely escapes a terrible fate by pretending to be mute. She is forced into the lowest ring of servants at the royal palace, where she endures a life of servitude and creates beautiful artwork to mask her pain.Despite years passing, Anastasia has never forgotten her sister's promise to return to their family together. However, with her movement restricted and the guards vigilant, escape seems impossible.When Anastasia comes into contact with the Forsaken Prince, her life spirals out of control and she triggers a Crux of incredible proportions. Now battling her own inner demons while navigating the treacherous politics of the royal court, Anastasia must confront the truth about her sister's fate and make a choice that could alter the course of an entire kingdom.[Volume 2: Emily Blackthorn]Princess Emily's life takes a turbulent turn when she is rejected, leaving her heartbroken and her soul at the brink of corruption. In a desperate bid to save herself, she journeys to the West.Enter the Storm Prince, a charismatic archdemon with striking blue eyes, with a saint-like smile. Emily had hoped she'd seen the last of him, but fate has other plans. As if her soul dying isn’t enough, someone wants to steal it!Caught between the suitors and the haunting nightmares that have plagued her since childhood, Emily begins to see Raylen in a new light. The blue-eyed demon may not be the monster she once thought.

The pessimistic and negative daughter of a concubine living in the ancient times thought – since life is so difficult, why should one invest serious effort in struggling to live?

The life of an ancient noble woman is often determined and controlled by her family. Moreover, one’s actions often implicate one’s entire family – thus, it is fairly common to see an unexpected calamity result in suffering borne by one’s whole family. Managing to live a good and successful life while retaining one’s dignity is simply too difficult to achieve.

Ah, living in the ancient times is simply too dangerous – we should all just sleep till we die.

- Description from Novelupdates

On the day she, as the villainous sister-con supporting character, prepared to meet her death, she discovered her darkened brothers suddenly gained the ability to read her mind?!Qiao Chuchu stood on the high platform, wailing: “You’ll always be my brothers! I’ll die right in front of you, haunting your memories for all eternity!”But what the seven gorgeous brothers heard was: [Hahaha, goodbye suckers! With my billion-dollar assets, I’m going to be a rich lady! You can all stay in this world and suffer! After all, none of you will meet a good end!]Before she knew it, someone grabbed her arm. She looked up in confusion to find her brothers gripping her tightly: “Tell us more about how we won’t meet a good end.”Qiao Chuchu: “?”–Seeing the female lead, Qiao Chuchu thought: [So this is the woman my brothers fell in love with at first sight, the one they’d die for.]The seven men uniformly looked at the female lead: ? That’s it?Seeing the villainous second female lead, she felt sympathetic: [Although you and the male lead are in love now, he’ll emotionally cheat with the female lead who’ll become the third wheel, and you’ll end up committing su*cide.]The elegant young lady second lead: ??Seeing the powerful bosses, she sighed: [Although the big shots have class, unfortunately, you’ll all soon end up dead in the streets because of the female lead.]The powerful and wealthy bosses: ???Soon, Qiao Chuchu noticed her brothers had changed, becoming increasingly doting towards her.She also found herself surrounded by villain bosses who stuck to her daily, seemingly trying to win her favor.Not only that, why did the male and female leads end up bankrupt and dying miserably on the streets?!Qiao Chuchu turned around in confusion, only to see a group of bosses and her brothers looking at her with adoration: “Because we have you.”Qiao Chuchu: “Huh?”

Zhong Yansheng lived for eighteen years. After accidentally falling into the water, he dreamed and found that he was living in a book. In the book, he was a fake young master who was mistakenly adopted by the Marquis. After the real young master came back, he {real} was not taken seriously by the family and was driven to a separate courtyard in the suburbs of Beijing. His parents only doted on him {fake}, and they turned the real young master into a black hearted man, and finally his family was ruined. After waking up, Zhong Yansheng learned the news that Master Zhen returned to the house three days ago, but the whole family only revolved around him {fake} who was sick.