Qin Yu was sold to the Jiaofang Bureau as a musician when she was little. Her exceptional beauty made her popular from a young age. Her life seemed full of glamour, but it was also rife with rivalry and intrigue.
She always wanted to buy her freedom, so she took on all sorts of work. When she was sixteen, she paid a hefty sum to the manager of a tavern to find her a good job.
Later, when she was led to the place where she would work, she discovered that the job required her to pretend to be a child's mother.
The child was a small, thin boy of about seven or eight, with big eyes and fair skin.
His name was Ji Chuchu.
At their first meeting, he hid behind someone and peeked at her, timidly calling her Mother. Thinking of the generous pay, she stamped her foot, gritted her teeth, and took the job.
As they spent time together, she discovered that the child was gentle and clingy, and blushed at the slightest thing. He even gave her an expensive white jade necklace that he had saved a long time to buy.
It was a part-time job. Qin Yu could only reach her employer's home late each night, but Chuchu would stay up no matter how late she was. He would wait for her to come back, then slowly warm her bed before leaving. This continued until Chuchu was fifteen. By then, Qin Yu had already bought her freedom, opened a jewelry shop, and become its manager.
Later, her employer became embroiled in a major case and fell from grace, telling her to stay away for the time being. While she was away, she learned that her employer's son, Chuchu, had escaped. With no one to rely on, he was sleeping on the streets and begging as he searched for her.
She did not want to get involved, but her heart softened. She sent word to Chuchu about where she was. When he found her, he was so thin he was skin and bones, still dressed in tattered clothes.
As soon as he came in and saw her, he burst into tears without saying a word. His eyes red, he said he had been worried about her, missed her, and wanted to protect her.
Her shop had been sealed, and all her wealth was tied up in a shipment of goods. She could barely protect herself. With no money and people after her, she had been hiding in a village.
The villagers thought she was an ill-omened widow who had killed her husband and would never find another match, doomed to live alone for the rest of her life.
Qin Yu did not care. Then, when a junior manager from her shop secretly came to tell her that the shipment had sold and she had become a wealthy merchant again, Chuchu saw them without knowing the truth. He thought she was having a secret rendezvous with a lover behind her husband's back.
With red eyes and pursed lips, he comforted her in a miserable little voice, saying it was all right and that he would not tell his father. (The heroine and the hero's father have an employer-employee relationship. There is no immoral affair.)
After that, Chuchu stayed gloomy, as if he had something weighing heavily on his mind.
Qin Yu felt she had hurt his feelings. She tricked him, saying that her heart felt empty, lonely, and miserable, and that was why she had... But then Chuchu said he would not let her be alone and helpless. He knelt before her, outrageously, and said something nonsensical.
He asked whether Qin Yu liked him. If she did, he could take his father's place, or the junior manager's, and added that no one there would ever know about their relationship.
Theme: Strive for self-improvement.
