Offering Autumn Heart

[White Knight Syndrome sufferer, merciful Guanyin-faced female official × vicious, crazed, true-believer assassin] Five-year age gap | The heroine has sexual experience, the hero does not | Happy ending | Slow burn Everyone in Yaodu knows that Wen Caiyue, an official in charge of the laws, has the face of Guanyin and a heart set on saving the world. She never turns away from another’s suffering and is a merciful, kindhearted goddess. Chu Guanqi has spent ten years honing himself, studying everything from the art of divination to medicine and military strategy. To assassinate this official, he doesn’t hesitate to commit a heinous act and poison himself into silence. He has planned every move in this game of chess, but before the match has even begun, he loses to love at first sight and falls hopelessly for her. From then on, he stops at nothing to win her pity. She has a devoted childhood sweetheart who is also her fiancé, so he schemes to break them up with a staged act of self-sacrifice. She likes playing the savior to others, so he becomes the most pitiful person in the world. Unfortunately, Wen Caiyue is no bright moon that shines on everyone. She is a stubborn stone that no warmth can soften. Her pity is false, and so is her compassion. Only his battered flesh and blood, with nowhere left to turn, are real. “Isn’t it that you want me to stay beneath him forever, my lady? If I say I’m willing, will that satisfy you?” “Couldn’t you give me even one day out of three?” “…Then what about seven days? Ten?” “I can be the one you keep hidden from the light. Please, please don’t treat me like this.” The gods hate him for his spite and make him fall in love with a false Guanyin. Chu Guanqi refuses to accept it. If he can’t get the stubborn stone to agree to him in this lifetime, he will never let go. … Wen Caiyue has always known what ails her. For more than twenty years, she has helped so many indistinguishable strangers, yet not one has ever lived up to her expectations. The desire to be depended on is a bottomless pit. Then Chu Guanqi appears. He is plainly crazed and cruel, yet willingly lets her train him into the person she needs. She feels a rush of pleasure welling up inside her. Perhaps she should keep him, for the rest of their lives. - Reader’s Guide: * Early on, the heroine has romantic scenes with the second male lead. The hero will not remain mute forever. * A fictional setting inspired by the Ming dynasty. The main characters are not based on real people. Some supporting characters’ names were inspired by the classic Huangmei opera The Female Prince Consort, but their characters are entirely different. Please don’t nitpick. * White Knight Syndrome: An overwhelming desire to rescue vulnerable, damaged people in order to satisfy one’s emotional needs and desire for control. Once the person being rescued gets better or refuses help, the rescuer immediately loses interest. Some even push the other person back into a weak or wounded state, trapping them in a cycle of rescue. * The title is adapted from a line of poetry in Returning to the Capital by Lu You of the Song dynasty. Theme: Freedom is not doing whatever you want, but being master of yourself.