Capturing a Crispy Shark

Sickly | Beautiful, strong, and tragic | Redemption | Pseudo-forced love

[A work for fans of sickly gong characters. Please read the guide before you start.]

A-list actor Qi Xunye is so beautiful he looks like a fairy. His life seems glamorous on the surface, but in private he's as fragile as paper, and he loves flirting with one person after another.

Those who like him call him a once-in-a-generation star, wicked but beautiful. Those who hate him say he'll bring about his own downfall sooner or later, and that his worsening health is only the beginning of his retribution.

Qi Xunye doesn't know if he'll die, but after taking seven months off, he returns to a set and runs into Jing Wen again, the young master from the entertainment industry who loves to slack off. Qi Xunye had hit on him a year earlier.

Qi Xunye remembers how Jing Wen rejected him outright last time, insisting he was straight. But now, every time they meet, those eyes keep looking his way, deliberately or otherwise.

Ahhh, the young master regrets it! Qi Xunye doesn't have time to play romance games with him now, but there are other things he needs Jing Wen to help with.

Qi Xunye puts his looks to use and wins over the straight guy with a guilty conscience in just three days. But after he gives him a trial romance card, the young master actually asks to sign up for a long-term plan.

Unfortunately, this establishment doesn't offer that service yet, and has no plans to offer it, because...

"Jing Wen, I've already decided to die."

Qi Xunye is used to playing with people's feelings. That's what Jing Wen has learned.

When they argue, Qi Xunye acts too sick to take care of himself, using an act that's seven parts real and three parts fake to make Jing Wen soften and apologize. Then, just as Jing Wen finally gives up resisting, Qi Xunye tells him, "I was lying. I never planned to date you."

As if! After that kiss last time, Jing Wen couldn't sleep for seven months. He finally overcame his mental block and came back to find him. Did Qi Xunye really think he could just run off?

The young master of the Jing family in Jinghai has his own network of connections. It would be easy for him to get whoever he wanted, but Qi Xunye is fragile. The slightest breeze leaves him with an injured arm or leg. Raise your voice at him and he'll cough all night just to show you.

After learning his lesson time and again, Jing Wen came to another conclusion: Qi Xunye is a beautiful wreck, and he can't use force with him.

Then Qi Xunye pushed his luck and said he only planned to live until spring.

So Jing Wen stopped drawing conclusions and simply had him admitted to the hospital for treatment.

"Please, Jing Wen... Let me die..."

/

A half-dead, black-hearted, unhinged playboy gong

X

A stubborn young master with a terminal case of knight-errant syndrome, the shou

Reading Guide:

1. A high concentration of illness and fragility; characters can be rough with each other. Not for fans with strict preferences or readers outside the target audience.

2. Modern alternate universe, with an entertainment-industry backdrop, but this is not an entertainment-industry novel. Qi is the gong and Jing is the shou. Don't switch them. One-to-one romance. The shou pursues the gong at first, then their feelings become mutual. A little melodrama from time to time.

3. Chapters 1-8 are from the shou's perspective; the gong's perspective begins in Chapter 9 and becomes more frequent as the story goes on. The whole story centers on the gong and their relationship. After much deliberation, I chose the gong's perspective as the main one. (The shou's perspective works better for setting up the background. Please understand.)

4. Lots of gong worship. The gong is sickly, but not weak.

5. All medical, business, and legal plotlines are written as needed. They make no logical sense, so please don't overthink them.

6. Feel free to discuss the plot, but no writing advice, personal attacks, or microscopic literary analysis. No need to announce it if you're dropping the story. Love life, be civil online, and let's clean up the internet together.

Theme: Ah, the sea!