After Marrying the Black Lotus, Sickly Beauty

Fake Brothers, Secret Identities, Secrets Come Out Later

Xie Yu thinks his stepbrother Tan Ling is vicious, cruel, and utterly heartless. Though blessed with a handsome face, Tan Ling will stop at nothing to get what he wants, making him nothing like Xie Yu's gentle and considerate mistress, Liu Qingyi.

As the eldest son of the Marquis of Zhenbei's household, Xie Yu has considered it his duty since childhood to look after his younger siblings, including the stepson who came with his concubine mother, a boy far too beautiful for his own good.

Tan Ling is afraid of thunder, so Xie Yu magnanimously pats the bed.

"Come on, sleep with your big brother. Then you won't be afraid."

Tan Ling is too thin and frail, so Xie Yu scrimps and saves for half a month's allowance.

"Come on, big brother will buy you something tasty."

The first madam dislikes Tan Ling and wants to sell him off.

Xie Yu: "Mother! If you're going to sell Tan Ling, then sell me first!"

Tan Ling's mother was a singing girl who entered the household on the strength of her beauty. She died young, just a few years later.

On the night Tan Ling's mother died, his small body curled up in Xie Yu's arms. He sobbed, his breath catching as he struggled to hold back his tears.

"Big brother, I'm scared..."

Xie Yu held him tight. "Don't be afraid. Big brother's here."

Later, when the Marquis of Zhenbei suddenly died overnight, Xie Yu clung to the First Madam's body as she hung in the ancestral hall, crying out in grief. Then he saw his once-frail, helpless stepbrother smiling with relief...

From then on, Xie Yu gave himself over to ruin, drinking day and night until the liquor wasted away his body.

Until he met that person.

The man wore a plain blue robe, like a floating leaf on the water. His refined, elegant beauty stirred Xie Yu's heart with every move...

Liu Qingyi.

Xie Yu became obsessed, his heart lost to him. Unable to marry him, he found an elegant courtyard and hid Liu Qingyi away. Before they were even wed, he got him pregnant, setting off a storm of gossip among the neighbors...

But Xie Yu didn't care. No matter what people said, he devoted himself to caring for his wife and child, taking every possible precaution.

But little by little, he began to notice something was wrong...

Why had his vicious, cold-hearted stepbrother started retching and feeling nauseous, too?

[Reading Guide]

1. A huge wave of melodrama is headed your way. There is angst before the secret identity is revealed and sweetness afterward. Please prepare yourself before reading.

2. Secret-identity story, 1v1, both are each other's only one, happy ending. Liu Qingyi is the bottom's secret identity, so there is no infidelity.

3. The bottom is neither a traditional innocent white lotus nor a black lotus. He has his own schemes, but his feelings for the top are genuine.

4. Male pregnancy, not intersex. There will likely be more than one child. Pregnancy and childcare should make up about 60:40 of the story.

5. Fictional setting with a mix of official titles. Everything serves the plot, so please don't read too much into it.

Enjoy!

Theme: A gentleman constantly strives to better himself