The Secret Crush of a Devoted Eunuch

Mutual Secret Crush

The proud and violent princess, a favored daughter of heaven, VS her gentle, devoted personal eunuch, with a motherly streak

He has no right to be jealous. He can't even compete with the men in her harem.

He lets her have one man after another to make up for what he can't give her, but he will never allow any man to stay by her side for long.

Happy ending, both leads are each other's only partners

The heroine has strong arm muscles, practices the Taizu Long Fist, has a fiery temper and an occasionally unstable mood, and is blunt by nature. If she wants something, she gets it and gets it done.

The hero is the doting, domestic type, taking care of every household chore, with a slightly twisted side to him.

For similar stories, check out Fragrant Bait (some coercive romance, a little angst, very sweet, mutual salvation)

and Two Villains, One Kitchen (food-focused, goofy, very sweet).

A promo for Fragrant Bait, coming soon

1

Xie Congshan was an unlucky child. The power struggles of the great houses crushed him beneath a burden too heavy for anyone to bear.

He dragged his frail, half-crippled little body around the palace, kicked about like a ball, waiting to be crushed flat and left for the wild dogs to devour.

When he was nine, Princess Chaoqing held out a luminous pearl and asked if he wanted to go to the Cold Palace to look after a blind little crybaby.

To have enough money to eat his fill, he agreed.

2

The little crybaby loved to cry, but the princess said her eyes were bad and she mustn't.

So he made her laugh and played with her.

One day, the little crybaby said she liked him. Though she was blind, she was a strongwoman, and she forced him to bow to Heaven and Earth with her.

Though he was rather unwilling, Xie Congshan accepted the truth of it and did his best to keep his wife from suffering.

The Cold Palace was desolate. Beneath the warm winter sun and among the fireflies and cricket songs of summer nights, they embraced as they slept and passed three years together.

3

Later, the little girl regained her sight and was taken away by her wandering swordsman father.

He learned many things, and came to understand hatred. He began to lie low. In the long nights of the inner palace, his only company was a palace lantern shaped like his wife, its figure that of a celestial maiden. He sent his enemies to their deaths one by one, while his own heart crumbled along with them.

Xie Congshan was no longer kind. He became Tan Wuguang.

4

He wanted to find the little girl, but she had been reunited with her birth mother, the princess, and become a princess in her own right. She had changed her name, too. Zhu Qingyu was a lovely name, and she was preparing to marry a scholar.

He knew they were not meant for each other. Childhood games could not be taken seriously.

He had long since lost the right to love her. He never had that right from the very beginning.

Tan Wuguang decided to poison himself on his wife's wedding night.

5

Deep in hardship and misery, he curled up in the arms of the celestial maiden, ready to descend into hell.

In a haze, Zhu Qingyu suddenly rushed in, grabbed him, and tried to drag him away.

Mistaking him for a medicine-tester trapped in the Hall of Eternal Life, she insisted on helping him escape.

A man drowning for too long will crave even a taste of ordinary life. The rabid dog put away its fangs at its master's gentle touch.

Theme: Love is the surrender of free will.