Falling in with Bandits

After both his parents die, Shen Lang takes what little family fortune remains and heads to the capital to seek refuge with his uncle's family. But before he can even enter the city, he's kidnapped and taken to a bandit stronghold by a group of burly, muscular bandits. * The cripple is beautiful, but has a strange temper and is always cold and silent. The bandit chief has a perverse streak. The less someone wants to deal with him, the more he enjoys teasing them. When he manages to make them blush with anger, he feels much better. Then one day, the crippled young master, left without anyone to look after him, wets himself in bed. The bandit chief grew up poor too, so he immediately tries to pull down the young man's underclothes and clean him up. But the cripple refuses, no matter what. The bandit chief's perverse streak kicks in again, and he keeps tugging at him even as he gets slapped. At what he sees, even the bandit chief, who prides himself on being worldly, freezes. “You...” He clears his throat a few times. “I'll go get someone.” * Shen Lang has actually fallen for the bandit chief too, but he knows that bandits can hardly expect a happy ending. One day, a bandit gang “kidnaps” a young woman who has walked up the mountain herself in her wedding dress. She says she has come to repay the bandit chief for his kindness and wants to marry him. The bandit chief had argued with the cripple the night before. Thinking of how coldly the young man treats him every time he visits, he immediately decides that tomorrow he'll host a banquet and introduce his new bride to everyone. The news spreads, but the cripple shows no reaction at all. The bandit chief is so angry he kicks over two wine jars, thinking, “He's a cripple. Why should I care what he thinks!” The next day, the whole stronghold is busy preparing for the wedding. Halfway through the banquet, the bandit chief throws down his wine bowl. Unable to give up, he decides to go find the little cripple after all. But when he kicks the door open, he discovers that the room is already empty. Note: 1. Burly, rough bandit seme × frail, disabled, beautiful intersex uke My next modern danmei novel, Shared Stand-in, is open for advance bookmarks. Please add it to your collection. Here's the blurb: Chen You is an orphan. After his grandfather passes away, Chen You spends his days wandering aimlessly around the sprawling city. When he gets hungry, he goes into a restaurant and eats the food left behind by customers. One day, he gets into serious trouble, but his “victim” says he won't press charges and even offers to find him a good job. So Chen You foolishly follows him home. * Chen You moves into a huge house like a paradise and gets new clothes. Every day, there is more food on the table than he can finish. He thinks he must be lucky to have met someone as kind as Jian Zhichuan. But with time, the man's vicious nature begins to show. If Chen You so much as disobeys his rules, he gets beaten and scolded at best, or locked up at worst. When Chen You sees him bring another man home for the night, he jumps off the sofa and argues with him. Chen You thinks they are a couple, and that the handsome man who came home with him is the other man. But Jian Zhichuan coldly slaps him. That day, Chen You understands: they aren't a couple, and they don't need to be faithful to each other. So from then on, whenever someone says they like him, he sleeps with them. He hides the things they give him in a box under his bed. That night, Chen You walks into the room of the piano teacher the man hired for him and says forlornly, “He yelled at me again.” “If I ignore him, he kicks me. If I kiss him, he yells at me. I really don't understand.” “He's just a bastard,” the man says. Chen You replies, “He is a bit of a bastard, but don't say that about him. He's very busy with work, so he's a little short-tempered.” That night, Chen You sleeps in the piano teacher's room. Jian Zhichuan, who lives on the same floor, doesn't know a thing. At last, one day, Jian Zhichuan discovers the big box Chen You has hidden under his bed. He thought Chen You was his private substitute, but he had no idea that anyone could have him. Theme: The world isn't just black and white.