Su Wan is the real daughter of the Su family, who was lost and raised elsewhere before being found eighteen years later. No one truly welcomes her: her stepsister makes snide remarks, and her relatives are waiting for her to embarrass herself. Su Wan doesn't care. She came back for one reason: to find her missing mother.
Gu Wang is the illegitimate son the Gu family cast aside. He's sickly, coughing every few steps, and looks as if he could drop dead at any moment. Yet he keeps showing up in front of Su Wan. The first time they meet, he “faints” at her feet. The second time, he leans on her shoulder. The third time, he simply hands her a key. “Let's work together.”
One feel of his pulse is enough for Su Wan to understand: he really is ill, but not nearly as weak as he pretends to be. He's putting on an act. She doesn't call him out. Instead, she smiles at the surveillance camera he installed.
On the other end of the screen, Gu Wang coughs up blood, but his eyes gleam. “Now this is interesting.”
And so they start putting on a show for each other. He acts weak to test what cards she's holding, while she plays dumb to figure out what he's after. But as they keep acting, all their secret identities come tumbling out: the top hacker, grandmaster of ancient martial arts, and master physician are all her. The Dark Night Emperor and the hidden God of War are both him.
Every time he has a “relapse,” she can't help stepping in. Every time she's in danger, he risks his life to protect her. They both know something is off about the other, yet neither is willing to let go first.
When things turn sour, he says coldly, “Go. Stop following me.” She really leaves, and he coughs blood until he can't stand.
When things turn sweet, he rises from his wheelchair and drops to one knee. “Honey, how many more skills do you have that I don't know about?”
Basically, one of them gets hooked on pretending to be sick, and the other gets hooked on being fiercely protective. Only after they expose each other's secret identities do they realize that there was never any testing or probing. It was true love all along.
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