After Hiring My Male Idol as My Caregiver

Hidden identity / deliberate approach / happy cohabitation / sweet homebody vs. flamboyant charmer

Li Zhi had a fever, so she went online to find a caregiver to look after her at home. With her head growing heavier by the minute, she browsed the site for ages but couldn't find anyone she liked.

Then she spotted a familiar name and photo. Wasn't that her high school crush?

Full of questions, she opened a private chat: Excuse me, does the actual person look like the picture?

Two hours later, the actual person arrived at her door carrying two suitcases. He stood casually outside, grinning mischievously as he asked, "Does the actual person look like the picture?"

*

Though Jiang Xingyao had fallen on hard times, he still carried himself with effortless grace and composure. Even washing a handful of greens looked like he was admiring jade. His friends all said he didn't look like someone who did housework regularly.

Down on his luck, but still so refined, he immediately awakened Li Zhi's protective instincts. So she found all sorts of excuses to pay him overtime.

Watering plants and trimming the lawn, she paid him. Handling her parents, she paid him. Back massages, she paid him. Before long, she was even paying him to admire his abs...

Li Zhi was very satisfied with the pace and scope of their overtime, so she extended his one-week service period to two weeks.

One day, as she waited for dinner, a friend sent her a video of the newly appointed CEO of a pharmaceutical group giving a speech.

The CEO had an extraordinary presence and a voice like flowing water. What Li Zhi couldn't forget was his face.

It was exactly the same as the man cooking in her kitchen!

*

Just as he was taking up his new post, Jiang Xingyao suddenly announced that he would be working from home, leaving the entire executive office stunned.

Only Assistant Jiang knew that, ever since creating his account, Jiang Xingyao had spent two years lying low on the website as a caregiver, waiting for this day.

Next up: Fake Separation

Xu Shuling and Xie Yicun had been married for two years, and their lives had become one big "X". Aside from being at home and attending necessary social engagements, they barely saw each other.

Xu Shuling was quite happy with this arrangement. It was calm and comfortable.

The only problem was that both sets of parents kept urging them to have a baby, and the pressure was getting more intense. With no way out, she started thinking of how to dodge them.

She came up with the idea of staging a separation.

Xie Yicun was practical and capable, a traditional man with a strong sense of morality.

Xu Shuling knew he wouldn't play along, so while he was away on a business trip, she made a grand show of moving out of their marital home and staged a separation by herself.

That night, Xu Shuling celebrated over drinks with a friend. When she woke up the next day, she was surprised to see the man who was supposed to be away on business.

In the morning light, he sat on the sofa with his legs crossed, unhurriedly reading a document in his hands. He didn't look up until he'd reached the last page and closed the file.

He said, "We can live separately, but there's one condition: we have to see each other once a week. Any missed visits will add up."

They had always spent more time apart than together. The thing separation would affect most was their married life.

Did he mean that they should keep up the little contact they'd had before?

But now that she'd made a show of separating, they'd have to meet in secret.

Xu Shuling was naturally unrestrained and couldn't resist a little excitement and living in the moment.

She agreed, eagerly looking forward to their upcoming secret rendezvous, or rather, dates.

They went to the mall, an upscale restaurant, and the cinema... Then he took her home, and they each went back to their own place.

After all that, Xu Shuling began to suspect that the meetings he meant were genuinely, simply meetings.

Just as she'd stopped hoping for anything from their dates, they finally changed the meeting place to a hotel!

The night at the hotel was a whirlwind.

The next morning, things were heating up again when the doorbell suddenly rang, accompanied by a woman's voice: "Open up! It's your mother!"

Xu Shuling jumped and whispered to the man above her, "Whose mother?"

Xie Yicun paused, then said in a low voice, "Mine."

Theme: Growing up is a process of seeing through illusions.