Listening to the Cranes Sing

※ Please add my upcoming book, My Possessive Arranged Marriage Partner Has Fallen for Me, to your reading list. The blurb is at the end. This book has been fully revised. The complete short story costs only 3 RMB. Please support the official version! Serious pineapple-headed top x flirtatious fox-like bottom~ Mutual pining, lots of sweetness and affection :D Jiang Yueming, master of the Red Crane Pavilion, watched his sect fall with his own eyes, but was powerless to help. His senior brother disappeared with the magical artifact Zhu Yan Mirror, and Jiang Yueming was left with a severe eye condition. When his condition flares up, his whole body turns icy cold. To uncover the truth, he throws himself down the mountain path But instead of hitting the cold ground, he lands in a warm embrace. A beautiful man’s teasing laughter rings in his ear. Jiang Yueming can only see those familiar pale gray eyes. - I’ve seen this beauty before. ** Yu Wang wants to get his hands on the Zhu Yan Mirror. He flirts with and dotes on Jiang Yueming at every turn, never expecting to truly fall for him. When Jiang Yueming’s eyes feel as if they’re on fire, while the rest of him is unbearably cold, Yu Wang holds him tightly and soothes him gently, stroking his back. When Jiang Yueming falls into an illusion and tries to hurt himself, Yu Wang steps in front of him and takes every blow. Jiang Yueming, who has always kept everyone at arm’s length, finds himself falling for Yu Wang too. ** Yu Wang is afraid of the dark, so Jiang Yueming quietly moves closer to him in the dark. Yu Wang is a picky eater, and Jiang Yueming remembers what he likes even better than he does. No one has ever treated Yu Wang this well before. He started out trying to lure someone in, but ended up falling for him himself~ Jiang Yueming runs his hand over that lean waist again and again. Watching Yu Wang grow flustered, he teases, "Scared? Where did all that bravado go?" Yu Wang’s face turns bright red, but he’s also a little eager. "D-don’t get carried away." Jiang Yueming laughs and lets go. "Will you still flirt with me next time?" Yu Wang mumbles, "Yes..." Jiang Yueming: "..." ** The truth behind the Zhu Yan Mirror is far more complicated than they imagined. What you want to protect may not be real. The person you want to save may be a stranger. This world is full of lies. Fortunately, they have each other, and what they share is real. Yu Wang: "My flute is called Crane's Song. What’s yours?" Jiang Yueming: "Crane's Whisper." Tonight the moon shines bright, and everyone looks up at it. I wonder whose home the autumn longing will reach. One-on-one, happy ending, after all the twists and turns, they’ll find each other again. ❤️Please add my upcoming book to your reading list❤️ Modern danmei: My Possessive Arranged Marriage Partner Has Fallen for Me. Top: Real estate CEO / beautiful but tragic / possessive and controlling / sickly but not weak (older). Bottom: Outdoor tour leader / stubborn / passionate and free / has a hard life but never lets it crush him. As an illegitimate son of the Chen family, Chen Qi never imagined that one day a CEO would buy him and take him home to get married! The marriage will get him out of the Chen family, help his grandmother move to a better hospital, and even let him pay off his online loans. It seems like a good deal, but the price is his freedom. His husband, Lu Changye, is extremely controlling. He not only fills Chen Qi’s schedule with lessons, but also dictates his meals and curfew... He even confiscates his phone and forbids him from taking tour groups for work. Chen Qi is fed up, but he soon realizes that beneath this seemingly cold man’s exterior, there may be a vulnerability. On a stormy night, on the roof of a shopping mall, Lu Changye clutches his knees and trembles. "Does your leg hurt?" Chen Qi reaches out to help. Lu Changye pulls away in a panic. The wind snatches their umbrella, and they both fall into the mud. "Are you out of your mind?" Rain pounds down on them. Chen Qi wipes his face. "Where does it hurt? Tell me!" "Let me stay here." Lu Changye finally speaks. "No one cares." Out of basic human concern, Chen Qi still drags him home. From that day on, Chen Qi realizes that caring for Lu Changye has its benefits, acting obedient has its benefits, and being useful has even more benefits. So he changes his tune and stops going against Lu Changye. When Lu Changye tells him to come home on time, he never stays out late. When Lu Changye asks him to take part in a company project, he does a great job. When Lu Changye’s father makes unreasonable demands and tries to hit someone, Chen Qi steps in front of him. Lu Changye gently rubs Chen Qi’s injured wrist and asks quietly, "Why?" "Because I care about you." Chen Qi smiles. Of course not. He just needs to hold on a little longer, and he’ll have saved enough money. Unfortunately, his savings plan is discovered. "Was everything before this fake?" Before Chen Qi can explain, Lu Changye asks again, "Where did you sell my Patek Philippe?" "I didn’t steal it!" Chen Qi’s face turns red. "If I was faking it, what about you? Were you ever sincere with me?" Chen Qi slams his hand against the locked door. "Did you ever trust me? Did you ever respect me?!" That night, his grandmother’s condition turns critical. Chen Qi climbs out the window and rushes to the hospital, injured. His grandmother still dies, and the only person he had left is gone. His phone screen keeps lighting up with incoming calls. He throws it into a discarded medical waste bin in disgust and disappears into the rainy night. Chen Qi flees to Gannan, opens a small inn, and works part-time as an outdoor tour leader. It’s the rainy season, and there are few tourists. A black SUV stops outside the inn. The window slowly rolls down. The handsome man’s bloodshot eyes stare through the curtain of rain. He walks closer, his wet, icy presence surrounding Chen Qi as his shadow falls over him. "Come back with me." Lu Changye brushes the hair away from Chen Qi’s eyes. "The altitude is so high here. I have a headache. Whenever I felt unwell before, you always listened to me." [Bonus Scene] Later, at a banquet, Chen Qi attends as Lu Changye’s partner. Lu, a CEO who usually looks down on everyone, notices that Chen Qi’s shoelace has come undone and gets down on one knee in front of half of high society. As he gets up, he deliberately lets his suit sleeve ride up. A snowy white bandage is wrapped around his wrist, with blood seeping through. Chen Qi looks down. "What happened to your hand?" Lu Changye rubs Chen Qi’s fingertips with his injured wrist. "I was delirious with a fever last night. I called out to you, but you didn’t answer. I looked everywhere for you... then I saw the fruit knife on the coffee table." Lu Changye tilts his head slightly, revealing a pale, beautiful smile. "I just wanted to see how it felt for you back then. Whether it hurt." "Chen Qi, now we’re even, aren’t we?" "If you’ve tamed me, then we’ll need each other.", The Little Prince Theme: We’ll get through every hardship, one step at a time!