A Record of Ash & Ruin: The Grieving Lands - Chapter 12Book 3: : In the Shadow of the Peacock Throne

Li Qiao, a soft and glutinous girl, dresses up as the little daughter-in-law of a poor family.

Rural household registration, two dilapidated houses.

What she didn’t know was that her husband, who was not stingy at home, would become a business tycoon in the future, possessing supreme status and untold wealth.

What’s more, she didn’t know that the reborn step-sister was determined to take her place as the rich wife.

The step-sister is often persuaded to leave: brother-in-law drinks and fights, and is not good enough for you.

Li Qiao is irritable every day: He said he deserves me to death.

The step-sister added: He is too poor, you and your children suffer hardships with him.

Li Qiao blushed: He said that it is difficult to divide a child unless there is another one.

stepsister: …

- Description from novelbuddy

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.

He became a teacher at the best magic academy in the empire.
….For being mistaken for someone else.

Listen here, because I've seen it with my very own eyes.William Oh was born on the hundredth floor of The Tower, to the greatest Climbers of the ancient world, steeped in the Tower's lethal miasma from the moment he drew breath, giving him strange and unnatural powers.They say he is an immortal being who circles the dreams of mortal men, resurfacing wherever the need is greatest. Those who disparage him will fall into despair, but if you're a Climber in a tight scrape, look to the sky and say a little prayer.Maybe he will appear?Odds are probably better if you pay for my drink.- Rumor overheard on a 1st Floor Tavern. Originator did not pay his tab.