The Despised Husband

Alternate-Republican-Era setting, complete

Foreign-educated young master X cool, beautiful man

A young master who prides himself on being above it all is called home after ten years abroad when his father falls critically ill.

Only after disembarking does he learn that his marriage has been arranged for him. A young master who believes in the freedom to love refuses to bow to this, until on his wedding night he sees his wife for the first time: a slender-waisted, delicate-featured man dressed in a long gown.

Raised under old-fashioned beliefs, his wife is like a lotus blooming from the mud.

“Master, spend one night with me, just to make Father happy and help him live a little longer. After that, you can go or stay as you please.”

The morning after their wedding night, the young master boards a ship and leaves, intending to head to the capital and make his mark.

Five months later, he and his classmate are thriving in business and preparing to work with a powerful tycoon from the north.

They pass behind a screen into a room warmed by a brazier. His classmate says, “This tycoon is incredibly powerful. He controls countless ferry terminals and ports.”

The tycoon praised by so many is dressed in a plush fox-fur coat, holding a hot-water bottle as he lazily reclines in a rocking chair. Against that lovely face, he looks like a snow spirit.

He stands. His swollen belly makes him ungainly, and he braces a hand against his lower back. With a soft voice and smiling eyes, he says, “I’m afraid I’ve made a spectacle of myself.”

That is the wife he married back home.

-

A pregnancy-and-childbirth story, with lots of pregnancy. Not a two-male-pregnancy story!

The gong is a clueless hothead at first, comes around midway through, and becomes extremely, extremely clingy and devoted like a loyal dog in the later part.

The shou is frail and often ill, gentle but not weak-willed. He is a concubine-born son raised in a grand household, with a real talent for getting things done. He is not a pure, helpless flower.

Pregnancy before love, sweet romance.

Coming soon in the author's collection: The Brother Everyone Covets

Zheng Mingyi X Chen Boxu

Gentle wife X gentle, lovesick yandere

Mingyi's life is as bright and fortunate as his name suggests.

At twenty-five, he has a lover who was his classmate, has become a university professor, has a respectable job, and has a well-behaved younger brother who gets along wonderfully with him. His future looks bright.

But in the Republican era, same-sex relationships are still not widely accepted.

On Mingyi's twenty-fifth birthday, his lover breaks up with him and chooses to go home and marry.

Mingyi is heartbroken, but he cannot bring that heartbreak home with him.

His parents died when he was young, and he was adopted by Uncle Chen, a friend of his father's. Later, Uncle Chen's family also met with misfortune. Mingyi grew up with his younger brother, Chen Boxu, looking after the old family estate Uncle Chen had left behind.

There are several servants in the household, and his younger brother has always been obedient. His studies have never given Mingyi any cause for worry; he is sensible and well-behaved.

When Mingyi comes home with eyes red from crying, his brother is perceptive enough to notice his low spirits. He holds a pillow and talks with him all night, helping him work out whether the two of them might still reconcile.

His younger brother nestles in his arms, playing with his hair and pecking at his face. Nearly six feet three inches tall, he presses down on Mingyi and murmurs, “The pressure of society may just be too much. You should give him another chance, Brother. You're so wonderful, he can't fail to see that.”

Mingyi nods and strokes his head. “Be good. Let's not do anything tonight. My eyes hurt from crying.”

Chen Boxu looks disappointed. “Then after you get married, will I not be allowed to come in anymore?”

Mingyi hesitates. As an older brother, perhaps he has indulged his younger brother too much.

But Uncle Chen had treated him well and raised him for years. Until Chen Boxu falls in love and gets married, perhaps helping him with some physical needs is simply what an older brother should do.

Drowsy in his younger brother's arms, his fingers forcibly laced with Boxu's, Mingyi smiles and says, “You were so small when you were little. Now you can hold me in your arms.”

As he drifts off to sleep,

Mingyi thinks he hears Chen Boxu whisper beside his ear, “Brother, if you have a child for me, you won't think about anyone else anymore, will you?”

Six months later, when Mingyi's former fiancé comes back, hoping to reconcile,

The Chen family's gates open, and Mingyi appears in a loose dressing gown, his belly swollen.

“You said he was just your younger brother?”

Mingyi is confused. He's glad his lover has changed his mind, and earnestly explains, “He just wanted a child... What's wrong with that?”

“Boxu is still young and still in school, but he wants to be a father. I can only help him...”

The gong is extremely possessive and very dependent on the shou.

Theme: Everyone is equal