Low-Quality Love [GB]

Black-bellied "gentle" heiress * tender-hearted genius painter with inner strength A bittersweet read, angst first and sweetness later, hurt/comfort (h/c) [Because of the subject matter, skipping chapters is not recommended if you want the best reading experience. The whole story costs no more than a glass of iced lemon water. Thank you for supporting the official release / cat sprawled out] Content warning: The male lead is the female lead's adopted brother. He was sexually abused by her father, so he is not a virgin. * The chapters before the return are titled "Illusion" and "Rupture." The "Rupture" section contains more upsetting scenes. Blurb: Song Wang is the perfect heiress to a prestigious family. She excels academically, is exceptionally talented, and wins every kind of award, yet she is never snobbish. She is the fairy-like big sister who is always featured in campus forum posts. If nothing unexpected happens, she will get into X University with excellent grades, go on to become a university professor, and marry the heir to a business empire chosen by her father. But in her senior year of high school, she accidentally sees a boy lying in her father's room, his clothes in disarray. His eyes are red and his lashes wet with tears. When he looks at her, there is no light in his eyes; they are like a stagnant pool. Song Wang knows him: Song Xie, her senior. Unlike Song Wang, who is adored by everyone, Song Xie is a notorious oddball. Song Wang first saw him when she started high school. He was cold, solitary, and gloomy. He never spoke to anyone or attended class, only occasionally walking down the corridor with a drawing board in hand. He spent all his time in his own studio. Rumor had it that he was a genius painter. Another rumor claimed that he was being kept by some tycoon to promote his name. He looked aloof, but who knew what despicable tricks he might use behind closed doors? He was someone everyone avoided, yet Song Wang could not take her eyes off him. Something inside her grew wildly, like weeds. But before long, her father took him by the hand and introduced him to her. "Sweetheart, this is Song Xie." "He's a child I've adopted and raised for many years. From now on, we're one family." Looking at Song Xie's dazed, unfocused eyes, and remembering what she had seen earlier, Song Wang was swept up in a tangle of emotions: disgust, hatred, and something twisted. She chose to go abroad to continue her studies. Five years later, her father died suddenly, and she had to return home to inherit everything, including Song Xie. When she returned to the house, he was standing at the door, bowing to welcome her. He still looked cold and distant, the gloom between his brows as thick as rain in June that would neither clear nor fall. "Madam." That was all he called her. ***Some additional details about the blurb: When the female lead first witnessed what happened, she called the police, but there was not enough evidence to do anything. The perpetrators will definitely be punished later. There will be no plotline that whitewashes or excuses sexual abusers. The two leads save each other; it is not just the male lead who is saved. (Also, if any of the descriptions in the blurb make you uncomfortable, you will probably see the story mock them.) Theme: Be self-reliant and keep striving.