After the Strongwoman Married a Sickly Man

Please check out my other ongoing story, "After Faking a Gu Curse, I Got Together with My Junior Brother". I'd love a follow!

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Wen Qingshao was born freakishly strong, carefree, and willful. She never fit in with the delicate, gentle young ladies around her, yet she was sent to the palace to serve as the princess's study companion.

After eight years of hardship, she was forced to conform to society's expectations. Her playful stubbornness became a frail, delicate demeanor, while her unruly willfulness turned into feigned obedience and weakness.

At long last, she reached the eve of her departure from the palace.

Overnight, her father was imprisoned and the Wen family was raided. She was also granted in marriage to He Yusheng, the second son of Prince Dun's household.

Wen Qingshao, emotionally and physically exhausted: ...It was him?!

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He Yusheng was born frail, lived in seclusion, and was gloomy and taciturn. His father despised him, his mother was dead, and everyone bullied the poor thing.

He hated the world, other people, and himself. Yet he was willing to drag his broken body and heart through six years of struggle in politics and power, all for one person.

Later, that person fell on hard times, and a glimmer of hope rose within him in the mire of his inferiority: Maybe he could help her.

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Her father's case was unclear, her new relatives disliked her, and her frail husband was every bit as unusual and miserable as she was.

Everyone was waiting to laugh at them.

After pretending to be meek and enduring without success, Wen Qingshao simply used strength to overcome cunning. She investigated the case and protected her husband at the same time, and only then did she realize that society's so-called prejudices were nothing but a paper tiger!

One day, she looked at the clues delivered to her, then glanced at the pitiful young man in her arms, whom she had just rescued. His face was full of vulnerability. "..."

Well, well. She'd thought he was a harmless little lamb, but it turned out he was a scheming big bad wolf.

Much later, Wen Qingshao cleared her father's name and opened a martial arts school. When a willowy young woman asked her, "How do I win the heart of the current top scholar?"

She put on an inscrutable expression. "First, you have to be strong enough to carry him."

He Yusheng's ears quietly turned red. He pressed his lips together. She was right.

Everyone was exasperated. "...So the joke was on me?!"

P.S.

1. The heroine is a native of this world; the supporting heroine transmigrated into a book. See Chapter 31.

2. At first, the heroine is influenced by society and is rather restrained, not very direct.

The hero is taciturn and insecure at first, then becomes scheming and fond of acting cute.

3. One-on-one romance, with no other characters involved in their relationship.

4. Marriage first, love later, and mutual healing.

Blurb for the upcoming story "After Faking a Gu Curse, I Got Together with My Junior Brother":

Jiang Xuerong died in Xiang Riqing's arms. His burning tears fell on her frost-covered lashes, and his hands supporting her shook uncontrollably.

Just before her consciousness faded into nothingness, she heard him laugh. "Senior Sister, let me stay by your side. This time... you can't send me away."

"Senior Sister, do you know? I like you."

"I've liked you for a long time."

When Jiang Xuerong woke again, she had returned to the year before the disaster. Nothing had happened yet, and there was still time.

She could be a little less cruel to herself, and a little less cruel to her junior brother.

So she went straight to the point and confessed to him.

Then she was forced to fall under a love curse.

Junior Brother: Senior Sister is like an immortal, devoted to cultivation and ignorant of love. How could she possibly like me? She must be under a curse! Sob, sob. But her gaze really is so gentle. Sob, sob. Still, I can't take advantage of her. I'll definitely help Senior Sister break the curse. Sob, sob. But she said such sweet things to me. Break the curse, don't break the curse, break the curse, don't break the curse, break the curse...

Jiang Xuerong: ...Whatever makes you happy.

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Xiang Riqing never dared to believe that the senior sister he cherished in his heart could like him.

"Senior Sister, you're acting this way because you're under a love curse. I'll help you break it." He rejected her like this again and again, and reminded himself of it again and again.

So when she confessed, he didn't dare believe her. When she kissed him, he didn't dare believe her. Not until that night...

Xiang Riqing finally had to admit that in this false love, he had surrendered long ago. Every bit of his flesh and blood was boiling and shouting: Why not accept her? Didn't she say she likes you?

And so he bewitched and hypnotized himself. He gave in once, with a clear conscience, and let himself sink into ruin.

But the next day, the senior sister he saw had already broken the curse. "Junior Brother, I'm sorry. I shouldn't have forced you, but you know I acted that way because I was under a love curse."

The blood boiling through his body froze just like that.

Right. How could he have forgotten again?

She didn't really like him.

Theme: Being different is a kind of charm.