The Sickly Beauty and the Two-Faced Minister [Dream of the Red Chamber]

[Blurb screenshotted on 2026.5.31]

Everyone in the Rongguo Mansion knew that Old Madam Jia had two darlings: her grandson Jia Baoyu, and her granddaughter Lin Daiyu, her daughter's child. Lin Daiyu was famous for being as delicate as a glass lantern, panting after only a few steps. Yet she had a face of ethereal beauty and a tongue sharp enough to infuriate anyone.

Who could have imagined that one day this sharp-tongued, ailing girl would be spirited away without a trace...

The bandit called himself Gu Canghui.

Daiyu still remembered his terrifying appearance: a bronze mask like the face of a vengeful spirit. They were strangers, yet he insisted on taking her to repay her mother's family debt.

When the girl awoke in an unfamiliar ancestral hall, she tried everything to escape, only to stumble upon the man's secret:

The living Yama, drenched in blood in the dead of night, was none other than Gu Zhaoming beneath the mask: the youngest Grand Secretary in the Great Yan Dynasty, the model scholar revered by all, praised by everyone as "a noble gentleman, refined as if carved and polished."

So one of the Gu family of the northern lands, whose entire household had been executed, had escaped!

The bandit relented. As long as Lin Daiyu behaved and stayed quiet, he would hide her in his home without telling a soul.

Knowing she'd become a bargaining chip in his hands, her reputation doomed, the delicate daughter of the Lin family smiled coldly. She'd always had a hard backbone.

At first, she was determined to die, insulting him at every turn. But who could have guessed that his temperament would turn on its head between day and night?

By day, Daiyu cursed the treasonous thief over the ill-gotten wealth filling the room, until anger brought on one of her attacks.

The refined, elegant minister Gu Zhaoming trembled as he summoned the best physician in the capital, then coldly watched her drink her medicine through tears.

At night, she vomited until she couldn't swallow anything and would rather starve herself and go without water.

The fiendish demon Gu Canghui was so furious his eyes reddened. He spoke harshly, yet clumsily hovered around her.

After this happened a few times, everything in Tingxue Pavilion was hers for the asking, and the little golden songbird inside finally quieted down.

But Daiyu hadn't accepted her fate. Lowering her eyes, she began quietly plotting:

If she pretended to be obedient and cold, and played both sides, perhaps she could still escape...

[Reader's Guide]

1. The entire Jia family are still villains.

2. The heroine is as fragile as crystal in body and as tough as steel in spirit: a sickly beauty with a poisonous tongue for self-defense. Original-characterization changes ahead.

3. Everyone has their reasons. Characters' actions don't represent the author's values. Discuss the plot and characters reasonably.

4. Includes court politics and revenge, not a tragic romance, despite what the blurb might make you think. Still a slow-burn romance. The heroine holds the upper hand in the relationship; the hero is clear-minded yet falls hard, stubbornly denies it, and gets jealous on his own.

5. The hero won't take revenge on the heroine. His true targets are the four great families: Jia, Shi, Wang, and Xue. The treason case was a false accusation.

6. One-on-one romance, happy ending. As usual, the ensemble cast gets plenty of page time, so proceed with caution if you only care about the main characters. Report complete.

Theme: In the depths of despair and darkness, she became the one person he was willing to bow his head to, his only salvation.