Can an Honest Guy Be a Gold Digger Too?

New novel starts on October 13: "The Delicate Darling Comes to the City" (synopsis at the very end)

Naturally airheaded, pampered bottom x cold-faced, underwear-washing iceberg top

This novel

Fake honest, genuinely seductive, straight bottom x pure-hearted, self-deluding top

Lin Shiqiu finally made it out of his remote mountain village after twelve years of studying. Like any ordinary person, he dutifully went to college, graduated, and started an internship...

He hated trouble and was happy to enjoy his peaceful life, until his very first day as an intern, when the big boss dumped an enormous headache on him: the dim-witted young heir.

And so Lin Shiqiu started looking after the boss's kid. He was furious but didn't dare say so, and thus...

When the young master raced cars, he applauded. When the young master went on a hunger strike, he ate the food himself. When the young master drank, he slipped him something...

With the most honest, well-behaved face, he did the most underhanded things. He thought the young master would soon get fed up with him, but instead, the young master looked at him with increasing heat, and even blushed when caught.

Lin Shiqiu thought: What are you blushing for, you big egg? Is this young master a masochist?

Then one day, after getting drunk, he woke up in the young master's enormous bed. The young master leaned against the doorframe, all bashful, and said, "I'll take responsibility for you."

"?" He's a guy, what is there to take responsibility for?!

But the young master was offering far too much. After twenty years of being honest, greed got the better of him. He figured he might as well take the money, and there was no need to be so strict about gender.

Once you've taken someone's money, you're in their debt. Lin Shiqiu played house with the young master for a year.

But honest people like him were traditional to the core. A playboy like the young master was fine for a fling, but marriage was absolutely out of the question.

So he got what he could and ran, accidentally hitting the young master on his way out.

He thought he had finally gotten away, but just after he'd found his footing in another city, the young master transformed into his client.

After work that day, Lin Shiqiu was dragged into a discreetly luxurious Maybach. The young master pinned him against the seat, eyes red, and demanded, "I held you in my heart, and after you got what you wanted, you kicked me into a ditch?"

Lin Shiqiu clutched his lower back and wondered miserably: Is it too late to take it all back?

Young master: Too late. Now it's your turn to take responsibility for me.

One was overcome by greed, the other was perfectly willing.

P.S. They're each other's only partners. Neither the top nor the bottom is perfect.

Coming soon

"The Delicate Darling Comes to the City"

[My next novel, already drafted. I'll start as soon as it hits 200 favorites. Please add it to your favorites!]

Naive, blunt, sickly, pampered bottom x icy, sharp-tongued, tsundere top

Older man/temporary stay/cherished by all/everyone's favorite

Lin Yibai was a country boy, but he'd been born with a delicate constitution.

He was born with a weak heart, and a fever when he was little damaged his brain, giving him a reaction time that could circle half the globe.

When people called him an idiot, he'd retort, "I'm not slow, I just think things through really carefully!"

As he grew older, all the other kids in the village could work in the fields, but he'd get out of breath just doing housework. Everyone said he would never grow up properly, yet by sheer luck, the wealthy Nan family in the city chose to sponsor him.

So he packed his bags and puffed his way into the city!

After moving there, he gained an older brother. He was delicate, and his brother was fussy.

The first time his brother tried the pickles he'd brought from home, he took one bite and covered his mouth as tears fell.

Lin Yibai thought they were happy tears because the pickles were so good, so he rose on tiptoe to pat his brother's head and kept piling food into his bowl. "Don't cry, don't cry. There's plenty."

Then his brother got gastroenteritis.

Later, when he started school, he made new friends. City people were just too reserved: they blushed from nothing more than holding hands and chatting.

Even stranger, whenever it happened, his brother would appear with an icy expression, and those people would scatter like birds and beasts.

Lin Yibai thought about it for a moment, then understood. He patted his brother on the shoulder and comforted him: "It's not your fault people don't like you."

Nan Jing: "..."

*

The Nan family was rich and powerful, and as its only son, Nan Jing was born a pampered darling whom everyone flattered. What no one knew was that he was naturally cold-hearted and suffered from severe bipolar disorder.

His therapist suggested getting a pet to distract him, so for his sixteenth birthday, he received a bumpkin.

The bumpkin dirtied his shoes, made him eat moldy pickles, said people didn't like him, and went around flirting with everyone.

And the bumpkin was so delicate, too. One moment he'd cause trouble, and the next he'd be clutching his little heart and panting, putting on an adorable face to get his way.

Everyone expected the Nan family to send the increasingly unruly bumpkin back to the countryside. But to everyone's astonishment, Nan Jing didn't mind. Instead, he spoiled the once-timid little thing until he grew more and more brazen.

Nan Jing spread his hands. "It's just a pet. If I want to spoil him, I'll spoil him."

But he wouldn't go easy on anyone who had other ideas. After all, he hated people coveting what's his, even if it was only a pet.

And naturally, he couldn't let a pet sway his own decisions.

The night he decided to go abroad, he ignored the little darling crouched by the doorframe, thinking he was hiding, crying as quietly as he could.

Yet on the day of the darling's coming-of-age ceremony, Nan Jing flew back for over ten hours overnight, only to see the little darling, drunk and flushed, leaning on another man's shoulder.

The man smiled and asked him, "Since Young Master Nan has had his fun, would you be willing to let someone else have him?"

Nan Jing suddenly felt his face burning. He cleared out the coming-of-age party with his people, then tossed the gutsy little drunk onto the sofa. The little fool still had the nerve to yell that he wanted to go home.

Under the dim lights, the imposing figure of a mature man loomed over Lin Yibai like a mountain. Familiar, broad hands traced every inch of his body.

He trembled and cried, but it did no good.

Through the haze, only one voice rang clear: "I raised you. Where else could you call home besides my place?"

P.S. 1. No romance before adulthood. When they were children, their relationship is purely familial.

2. He's staying with the family, and they aren't blood-related.

3. Slow burn, with lots of caretaking and sweetness!

Theme: Be strong and brave for love.