Offering Autumn Heart

[White Knight Syndrome, a sickly Guanyin-like female official x a ruthless, obsessed true-believer assassin]

Five-year age gap | Female lead and male lead are both virgins | Happy ending | Slow burn

"The young lady just wants me to always be beneath him, doesn't she? If I said I was willing, would that satisfy you?"

"Can't you give me even one day out of three?"

"...Then what about seven days? Ten days?"

"I can be the one hidden from the light of day. Please, please don't treat me like this."

Everyone in Yaodu knows that Wen Canyue, an official in the Department of Statutes, has a face like Guanyin. She is always devoted to helping the world and never turns away from another's suffering. She is a benevolent bodhisattva, kind in both appearance and heart.

For ten years, Chu Guanqi immersed himself in bitter study, from the arts of divination and geomancy to medicine and military strategy. To assassinate this female official, he even poisoned himself into muteness.

He had schemed through countless possibilities, but before the game had even begun, he lost to love at first sight and fell hopelessly in love with her.

After that, he stopped at nothing to win her pity.

She had a childhood sweetheart and fiance who loved her deeply, so he devised a scheme to drive them apart.

She liked to play the savior to others, so he would become the most pitiful person in the world.

Unfortunately,

Wen Canyue was never a bright moon shining on everyone. She was a stubborn stone that could never be warmed.

Her pity was false, and so was her compassion.

Only his bloody, battered body, with nowhere left to retreat, was real.

The gods hated that he harbored resentment, so they made him fall in love with a false Guanyin.

Chu Guanqi refused to accept it.

If he could not make the stubborn stone yield in this life, he would never let go.

Wen Canyue had always known about her own affliction.

For more than twenty years, she had helped so many indistinct passersby, yet none had ever fully satisfied her expectations.

The desire to be relied upon was a bottomless pit.

That was, until Chu Guanqi appeared. He was clearly vicious and obsessed, yet willingly let himself be tamed into exactly what she needed.

She felt a rush of pleasure stir within her.

Why not keep him, for all eternity?

-

Reader's guide:

* The early chapters include romantic scenes between the female lead and the second male lead. The male lead will not remain mute forever.

* The setting is fictional, modeled on the Ming dynasty. The main characters are not based on real people. Some supporting characters' names were inspired by the traditional Huangmei opera The Female Prince Consort, but their characterization is entirely different. Please don't nitpick historical details.

* White Knight Syndrome: An intense desire to save vulnerable, flawed people in order to satisfy one's emotional needs and desire for control. Once the person being saved improves or refuses help, interest immediately disappears. In more extreme cases, the helper pushes the person back into a vulnerable or injured state, creating a cycle of rescue.

* The title adapts a line of poetry from Returning to the Capital by Lu You of the Song dynasty.

Theme: Freedom is not doing whatever you want, but being master of yourself.