Affliction of Love

[This novel has been signed for print publication. For updates, see Weibo @Mu Yu Yuan.] Gloomy, possessive hero * frail, sickly beauty Second chance at love / Marriage first, love later / Healing Yu Qing Wan is Lincheng's famous sickly beauty, a delicate flower raised in a greenhouse, with skin like ice and bones like jade. People joke that even a little breeze could knock her over if she walked a few steps. Then, overnight, the Rong family that had adopted her went bankrupt. Rong's elderly patriarch died of a sudden heart attack, and his adopted daughter, Yu Qing Wan, was about to be thrown out and become the laughingstock of Lincheng. At the funeral, Yu Qing Wan came face-to-face with the man who had orchestrated the Rong family's bankruptcy. A light drizzle fell over the cemetery. The man stepped out of a Porsche Cayenne in a black suit. Tall and imposing, he seemed like a ruler of the underworld come to collect his due. Of all the people who had ever bullied or betrayed him, Yu Qing Wan was the only one left. In the rain, she knelt before the grave, her thin, frail body trembling. No one dared to hold an umbrella over her. He crouched down, gripped her chin, and forced her to face the headstone. Feeling her tremble, He Sheng leaned close to her ear and smiled with cruel satisfaction. "The tree you've been depending on has finally fallen." "And now, you can only come beg me." Yu Qing Wan bit her lip, then abruptly turned her head and sank her teeth into his palm. She raised her face and said each word slowly: "In your dreams." Even as blood began to seep from the wound, the man still didn't let go. His smile was cold. "Unfortunately, you don't have a choice." * One day, a series of photos of up-and-coming painter Yu Qing Wan at work went viral online. In the photos, she wore a black jacquard modern Chinese dress. Her skin was whiter than snow, and her waist was so slender it could be encircled with one hand. Not long afterward, a mysterious buyer paid a staggering hundred million dollars for Yu Qing Wan's dark oil painting, Evil Deeds, the work that had made her famous. The head of the He family was said to have the worst reputation and the least appreciation for art. Yet, to the media's astonishment, he was spotted at Yu Qing Wan's private exhibition for the first time. A reporter nervously approached him. "Mr. He, what about this painting has kept you standing here for so long?" He Sheng stared at the painting without looking away. "The artist." "And..." He glanced up lazily, his tone impatient. "Is there a problem with my wife painting me?" "And you paid a hundred million dollars for it..." "To make her happy." Comments flooded the internet, all pitying the frail beauty for ending up in the hands of the underworld king. She must have been forced into it. "Now that the He family head has claimed her, will the sickly beauty get even sicker from being scared within a few days?" Then, not long afterward, the media who had been staking out the place for ages released a new video. The fearsome head of the He family was crouched down, holding a bowl of medicine and patiently feeding the sickly beauty. He didn't even care that his cuff was stained with medicine. He lowered his voice and coaxed her gently. "Wan Wan, be good. Have one more sip." Without you, I'd become truly evil. A flower blooming in the mud * mud Wolf * rabbit / both virgins / happy ending Reading guide: 1. Don't judge the hero just from the blurb and say you can't understand why the heroine would fall for him after he bankrupted her family. The situation in the novel is special. You'll understand once you read it. 2. The medicine the hero feeds the heroine in the blurb is herbal medicine, not a capsule. Coming soon: Homecoming. Add it to your collection from my author page Gu Yanchao * Gu Niao Blurb: When she was thirteen, Gu Niao went out in a pretty princess dress and brought home a stray dog. At first, the stray dog only knew how to bite people. But she was patient. She taught him how to disguise himself and how to love others. She only forgot to teach him to repay kindness. When they met again, their positions in life were worlds apart. She was an actress in the entertainment industry, while he was a high-flying Wall Street financial tycoon, refined on the surface and ruthless and terrifying behind closed doors. Gu Niao naively thought that even though she'd left without a word back then, they were still adoptive siblings with no blood ties. After all, she had once treated him so well. Her on-screen boyfriend fell into trouble and was facing prison. With nowhere else to turn, she swallowed her pride and went to him for help. "Brother, please help him." The first word Gu Niao had taught him was kindness. She thought he might at least try to live up to it. By the floor-to-ceiling window, the man stood with his back to her, his handsome face veiled in shadow, his expression impossible to read. He laughed only after hearing what she said. "I let him stay by your side for so long. You tell me, was that not kind of me?" - One day on a film set, a sharp-eyed crew member noticed that lead actress Gu Niao got into a low-key, mysterious luxury car between takes. Unable to resist, they started gossiping. Someone in the know helpfully explained: the two had once been adoptive siblings, so he often came to visit her on set. They were as close as blood relatives. In a secluded corner of the parking lot, Gu Niao sat on the man's lap, biting her lip, her skirt wrinkled. Close? She hated him so much she wanted to kill him. But the man paid no heed to the hatred in her eyes. He withdrew his hand, casually wiped the tears from the corner of her eye with his fingertip, and spoke in what he thought was a very reasonable tone. "If you take the initiative once, I won't come back next time. Hmm?" Gu Yanchao usually gave people who betrayed him only two possible endings. The first was death, and then he could let bygones be bygones. The second was that they stayed alive. He would keep them chained by his side for the rest of their lives, leaving them no chance to betray him again. Unfortunately, Gu Niao was the second kind. Because he couldn't bring himself to choke her to death, he could only keep her chained to the bed. Theme: Love means learning to let go