The Foolish Servant

[Sweet, innocent beauty × brooding general] [New story: Absolute Control]

[The male lead dotes on the female lead and is infatuated with her]

The Great General Who Protects the Nation had turned thirty without taking a proper wife. A Taoist fortune-teller predicted that if he didn't marry a woman with an exceptionally light fate, he would die on the battlefield the following year.

The Old Madam hurriedly summoned every matchmaker in Changjing to find this woman with an exceptionally light fate.

They found her. She was sixteen, with a sweet face, but... she was premature and a little dim-witted. She was also born to a courtesan and didn't even have a father. Her name was carelessly chosen too: Sha Nu.

The day she was born, she was so frail she nearly died, while her mother, who had been bedridden, recovered. When Sha Nu was ten, she was injured by a horse, and her older sister became the most popular courtesan in the brothel.

When her birth chart was considered, it really did seem that her fate was exceptionally light.

And so, in a daze, Sha Nu married into the Li family.

Li Yuanshan looked at his new wife, whose face was still childlike. Hesitantly, he picked up a piece of candy and called, "Sha Nu, come here."

Sha Nu obediently sat on his lap, her little face smiling as she held the candy in her mouth.

*

In the eyes of outsiders, Li Yuanshan was cold and heartless.

But with Sha Nu, he wished he could spoil her to the heavens.

He held her while she ate and coaxed her to sleep.

He held her hand when she walked and kept an eye on her whenever he could.

He wanted to be by her side every moment.

Even when he went to war, he sent her a letter every three days.

*

The disaster the Taoist had predicted arrived right on schedule. Perhaps Sha Nu's fate wasn't light enough after all, because the general's manor received word that the general had lost a battle.

The emperor flew into a rage, stripped Li Yuanshan of his official post, and confiscated his estate. The Li family fell into ruin overnight.

Worse still, Li Yuanshan's leg was broken, and he could never ride or shoot again.

The villains fled with the family's wealth, the servants were all dismissed, and Sha Nu's sister came to take her away. But Sha Nu shook her head.

"I'm not leaving."

"The candy he gives me is sweet."

*

Li Yuanshan was left disabled, and his moods became unpredictable. When he was in a bad mood, he told Sha Nu to get lost. When he was in a good mood, he fed her candy.

Sha Nu took a liking to something he couldn't afford, and because of it, he lost his temper again.

What happened after that?

Later, he had money again, because he wanted to buy Sha Nu every wonderful thing in the world.

But Sha Nu secretly went to her sister and said she wanted to leave.

Both leads are virgins, and both are faithful to each other. The male lead loves only the female lead. It's a short story, bittersweet and sweet.

[Things to note]

1. The male lead has a concubine, but they never have a physical relationship; it is only nominal (the woman once helped him). He remains devoted to the female lead alone throughout (his characterization never changes).

2. The female lead is physically sixteen or older. At first, she pretends to be foolish to protect herself, but in reality, she is an adult who isn't very clever.

-----New serial: Absolute Control-----

[Sweet, naturally airheaded soft girl × obsessive, abstinent doctor]

You've come?

Then you can't leave.

*

Lin Xian, the school heartthrob at Deyuan High, was an excellent student, gentle and refined, with calm eyes that always seemed to smile at everyone.

Even when the brash Su Tian suddenly confessed to him, he politely turned her down without showing the slightest impatience.

*

Su Tian was the apple of her family's eye. Her parents doted on her, and her brother loved her more than life itself. Whatever she wanted, she could have.

Except Lin Xian.

To get closer to him, she went from a laid-back slacker to a relentless hard worker and made it into his advanced class.

Just when she thought she had finally reached that star, she overheard Lin Xian telling a classmate:

"After the college entrance exams, I'll explain things to her. We're not right for each other."

Su Tian suddenly understood those looks from Lin Xian, when he had seemed to want to say something but stopped himself. From then on, she never spoke to him again.

On the night the college entrance exams ended, the Geminid meteor shower appeared. Lin Xian found her with a telescope. His face was unusually pale, but he still managed a strained smile. "Tiantian, let's go watch..."

Su Tian looked innocent. "Lin Xian, your smile looks so fake. Do you really have to smile like that?"

*

When they met again, Lin Xian was the youngest attending cardiac surgeon at First Hospital. In her father's hospital room, Su Tian was asking the old man to help her choose flowers for her engagement ceremony.

Lin Xian put away his stethoscope. His cool eyes held not a trace of emotion as they swept over her face.

Only then did Su Tian realize that Lin Xian had changed.

He no longer smiled or acted gentle. His gaze was cold and distant, and he rejected anyone who tried to get close or show him affection.

The conversations between an attending physician and a patient's family member were brief and dull, and Su Tian's attention wandered time and again.

No one knew that back then, when the usually aloof and restrained Lin Xian kissed her, his hands had gripped her waist hard enough to leave it bruised.

*The male lead's perspective:*

Lin Xian had always known he was obsessive, with a pathological need to control everything.

He loved her too much to let her get close, afraid she would get hurt.

She was always losing things, from shoes to hair ties. She had a lot of belongings and didn't care much about them.

Every night, Lin Xian would choose one "keepsake" to sleep with.

His life was orderly, and he allowed no surprises.

There had only ever been two surprises in his life: the first was when she walked toward him.

The second was when he frightened her away and she left.

*

Both leads are virgins and faithful to each other. The male lead is a model of virtue, and his secret crush comes true. He loves the female lead so much it's a little frightening.

Theme: Love comes from nowhere, yet once it arrives, it runs deep.