Lin Yibai is from the countryside, but he's been delicate and sickly since he was in the womb.
He was born with a weak heart, and a fever as a child damaged his brain. His reaction time is long enough to circle half the globe.
When people call him an idiot, he argues, “I'm not slow, I just think things through carefully!”
When he got a little older, all the other children in the village could work in the fields. He would be panting just from doing housework. Everyone said he'd never grow up properly, but then, by sheer luck, the wealthy Nan family from the city chose to sponsor him.
So he packed his bags and huffed and puffed his way into the city!
After moving to the city, he gained an older brother. He was delicate, while his brother was fussy.
The first time his brother tried the pickled vegetables Lin Yibai had brought from home, he took one bite, covered his mouth, and burst into tears.
Lin Yibai thought they were tears of joy, so he rose onto his tiptoes to pat his brother's head and put more food into his bowl. “Don't cry, don't cry. There's plenty.”
Then his brother got gastroenteritis.
Later, he went to school and made new friends. City people were just too shy. They'd blush from merely holding hands and chatting.
Even stranger, whenever that happened, his brother would show up with a face like ice, and those people would scatter like birds and beasts.
Lin Yibai thought about it for a moment, then understood at once. He patted his brother's shoulder and comforted him: “It's not your fault that people don't like you.”
Nan Jing: “...”
*
The Nan family was wealthy and powerful. As its only son, Nan Jing was born a favored child of heaven, with everyone flattering him. What no one knew was that he was naturally emotionally detached and suffered from severe bipolar disorder.
His therapist suggested getting a pet to distract him, so for his sixteenth birthday, he received a country bumpkin.
The bumpkin dirtied his shoes, made him eat moldy pickles, and told him people didn't like him.
Worse still, the bumpkin was delicate. One moment he'd be causing trouble, and the next he'd be clutching his little heart and panting, using that pretty face to get people and situations riled up everywhere he went.
Everyone was waiting for the Nan family to throw the lawless bumpkin back into the countryside. Little did they know that Nan Jing's indulgence was exactly what made the timid little thing more and more brazen.
After all, as far as Nan Jing was concerned, Lin Yibai was just a pet. No one needed to be strict with a pet. But he also didn't like anyone coveting what belonged to him...
By the same token, he would never let a pet change his mind.
On the night he decided to study abroad, he ignored the little dumpling curled up against the doorframe, thinking he was hidden, and crying as quietly as he could.
But on the day the delicate little darling came of age, Nan Jing flew back to the country after more than ten hours in the air, only to see the little dumpling, drunk with flushed cheeks, leaning on someone else's shoulder.
That person smiled at him and asked, “Since Young Master Nan has had his fun, would you be willing to let someone else have him?”
Nan Jing suddenly felt his face burn. He had the venue cleared by the people he'd brought to the coming-of-age party, then tossed the bold little drunk onto the sofa. The little fool still had the nerve to shout that he wanted to go home.
Under the dim lights, the tall shadow of a grown man loomed over Lin Yibai like a mountain. A familiar large hand traced every inch of his body.
He trembled and cried, but it did no good.
Through the haze, only one voice came through clearly: “I raised you. If not here with me, where else could you call home?”
A naturally clueless, frail, delicate sweetheart who is the receptive partner x a cold-faced, arrogant, sharp-tongued top who does the laundry
P.S. 1. No romance before adulthood. Their childhood relationship is purely familial.
2. He is staying with the family, and they are not related by blood.
3. A slow burn focused mainly on their growing-up-together story and sweet romance.
Blurb generated on September 30, 2026.
Theme: Self-reliance and strength.
