After I Toyed with and Abandoned the Cool, Aloof Young Master

Clever, bold maid x upright, ascetic third young master (Complete)

Huo Xiang was sold off because her father was paralyzed and her mother was a gambler. Passed from hand to hand, she eventually ended up serving a certain Lord Yan who'd come from the capital.

After one cup of love potion, he took her back to the capital.

Life in the capital was good: plenty to eat and wear, flowers and riches everywhere. All she had to do was look after Lord Yan. Sure, he was cold and distant, a little odd, and liked telling ghost stories in bed.

She was getting along just fine when one day she overheard two old maids whispering that the third young master was getting married. They secretly cursed her, saying she'd risen through the ranks by seducing him.

What a joke. If that Yan fellow were really the peerless, pure-hearted man they made him out to be, without a speck of desire, how could she have gotten her hooks into him? If he didn't like women, who would she dance for?

They were right about one thing, though: her days in the Yan household wouldn't last.

So Huo Xiang pawned whatever she could and ran away.

Yan Xingzhi had spent his life with an unblemished reputation, only to be dragged into the gutter by a cup of love potion and a woman. But what was done was done. A gentleman should be open and honest, and he couldn't just wash his hands of it.

He didn't love her.

It was merely a filthy desire.

He just had to cultivate his mind.

He told himself this over and over.

Yet his feelings burned within him like a spark struck from flint, scorching him without end.

Yan Xingzhi finally gave up and accepted that he was only a mortal, subject to the full range of human emotions and desires. He began making plans for their future. Then he came home from work and found that she had run away.

Yan Xingzhi's mouth twitched. He searched high and low, turning the world upside down, only to hear that she'd died in a fire.

He copied the Ksitigarbha Sutra 108 times to repent for his sins, only to run into her, alive and well, in a village.

Yan Xingzhi felt that everything from the past had become a joke. Furious, he wanted to see how this woman, who had always been so afraid of death, would tremble when she saw him. So he sent someone to deliver his calling card.

Huo Xiang glanced at the name on it, then looked up in confusion. “Who?”

(She hadn't even bothered to remember Old Third Yan's name.)

Literary version: The Buddha speaks of three thousand worlds, but I don't know which lifetime to search for you in. When I finally find you, you don't even know my name.

Plain version: Damn it.

(Silently falls apart, but still has to put herself back together.)

[Reader's Guide]

1. One-on-one romance, both sexually inexperienced, happy ending

2. A two-person romance. The heroine is vulgar and self-serving; the hero is awkward and repressed. They both have all kinds of bad habits. If that's not your thing, click away.

3. 50% of the novel is locked behind an advance-reading paywall, with a 72-hour delay

Theme: Self-reliance and strength