Horizon of War Series - Chapter 193: A Measured Advance

There is a famous fairytale. A kindhearted girl whose father and stepmother got married and became a family of five with her two stepsisters. The poor girl who was condemned by her stepmother and stepsisters when her father died. The very fairytale, Cinderella.

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.

To save the masses, Zhong Nianyao sacrifices herself to the heavens, thinking she would vanish into thin air. Surprisingly, when she opens her eyes again, she finds herself as the youngest daughter of the Zhong family in the imperial capital. In her previous life, as the national advisor of the Li Country, she spent her days in deep contemplation and eventually sacrificed herself for the people. Given a chance to relive her life, she decides to live freely and with ease. Zhong Nianyao, known in the capital as the infamous useless heiress who excels only in spending money, has been famously infatuated with the eldest young master of the Li family, Li Jingming. She even jumped into a river just on his saying. Later, to everyone's astonishment, Zhong Nianyao changed; she stopped chasing after Li Jingming and started setting up a stall on the overpass. People then said she must have gone mad. However, as time goes by—A real estate tycoon holds a black card, pleading for her to tell his fortune.A famous movie star clings desperately to her, crying for help.Even a renowned old artist brings his works to her, asking for feng shui advice.Zhong Nianyao didn't expect that just returning to her old profession would turn her into a master. She had always intended to keep a low profile! As she ponders this mystery, a man with a devilishly handsome face suddenly hugs her from behind, his deep voice filled with a seductive charm, 'My lady, when shall we start planning for a child?' Zhong Nianyao glances at the man and retorts with a single word— 'Scram—'(Sickly possessive lord VS Cunning heiress, pure love, those who like it, dive in!!)

The hearse with the weird odor slowed to a stop before the entrance. The sound of pebbles could be heard bouncing on the ceiling. There were footsteps coming from the corridor, and there seemed to be someone sawing next door. The door knob to the room rattled slightly, and the faucet in the bathroom kept dripping even though it had been screwed shut. There was a rubber ball that rolled on its own underneath the bed. Wet footsteps started to surface one after another on the floor.
At 3 am, Chen Ge held a cleaver in his hand as he hid beside the room heater. The call he was trying to make was finally answered. “Landlord, is this what you meant by ‘the house can be a little crowded at night’‽”

- Description from Novelupdates