After Lodging with a Pretty, Socially Anxious Person, I Was Raised as His Wife

★★ Ning Zhi was a beautiful, delicate child, like a snow doll, but suffered from severe autism. He recovered as he grew up, though he was left with social anxiety and couldn't speak to strangers.

After he started college, his family worried he wouldn't adjust to dorm life, so they asked the son of an old family friend in the city where his school was to look after him.

That son was also the childhood friend Ning Zhi had once been so close to.

Reunited with an old friend, Ning Zhi was overjoyed. He packed his things early and went to his childhood friend's home. He knocked cautiously, steeling himself to greet him aloud.

But when the door opened, a cool guy a head taller than him, with a muscular build and a striking, rebellious face, looked at him with impatience. After leading him inside, he warned, "I don't care who you are or what my mom told you, but I'm not used to having anyone in my space. While you're in my house, behave yourself, got it? And from now on, you clean the living room and make breakfast for two. Understood?"

He shot Ning Zhi a glance, his glare murderous enough to knock a person's head clean off.

Ning Zhi: QwQ

He hadn't expected his childhood friend to grow so fierce. The slender, pretty young man froze on the spot, frightened out of his wits.

The words he'd prepared in his head vanished, leaving nothing but a blank.

After standing there dazed for a moment, he fumbled out his phone and typed with trembling fingers: O-okay. qwq, I'm sorry for intruding. I'll move out as soon as I can.

Rong Yu: ...Damn, why is he such a polite little mute? I think I was way too harsh just now...

In the middle of the night,

Rong Yu stared blankly at the ceiling: I'm the worst...

Unable to sleep, the cool guy sprang out of bed, cleaned the living room with a stony expression, then made a lavish breakfast for two.

After that, he took care of lunch, dinner, and all the housework, doing everything he could to look after Ning Zhi and make it up to him.

Then one day,

Rong Yu went to the mall with his best friend and heard Ning Zhi talking to someone in a rabbit mascot costume. His voice was clear and gentle.

He wasn't mute.

He could talk.

And he had a lovely voice.

So that's how it was. He'd been pretending to be mute all along to get Rong Yu to take care of him!

Rong Yu went home, suppressing his anger, planning to settle things with the little mute that evening.

But that very night, the little mute started packing. He left Rong Yu a note saying he'd found a place and was going to move out.

Rong Yu's anger instantly fizzled out.

He realized he'd rather pretend he didn't know and keep taking care of the little liar than let him move away.

*

Later, Rong Yu discovered that the pretty little mute was his childhood friend, and that the shabby rabbit plushie the little mute carried everywhere and couldn't bear to part with was a toy Rong Yu had given him as a child.

The little mute stubbornly believed that every rabbit plushie in the world had a good person inside.

Both leads are virgins. A sweet romance.

Theme: Love makes people better.