After Sharing Dreams with an Ascetic Young Noble

A Jin is an inconspicuous maid. Lately, she seems to have been cursed.

Though she has always been timid, she keeps dreaming that she is "seducing an immortal."

The immortal lord's hands are long and elegant, his shoulders broad and his waist slim;

his voice is deep and magnetic, restrained yet captivating;

and his patience is extraordinary. A Jin made the first move, but soon found herself unable to stop.

Not long after their dream tryst, he had grown addicted to the pleasure and asked to meet her in the real world.

Late at night, she nervously hid among the flowers, and sure enough, she heard footsteps approaching.

When she cautiously peeked out, a startled cry caught in her throat.

What immortal lord? The man who had come was the manor's legitimate eldest son, that aloof, celibate scholar who had no regard for anyone beneath him!

After much deliberation, A Jin ran away after all.

He was cold and indifferent, a heaven-blessed son of the Xiao clan. She had never dared do more than gaze at him from afar, much less let him know she had desecrated him in every way imaginable in her dreams.

_

Xiao Ke was born proud and aloof, the most peerless gentleman in Chang'an. Years of strict self-discipline had taught him to act with propriety and never overstep the bounds.

Yet on the very night he returned to the capital, he had a strange dream.

A delicate young woman. A dimly lit bedchamber.

The strange dream grew increasingly outrageous, and the sensation of being controlled left him in a wretched state. Unable to restrain himself, Xiao Ke suspected someone was using dark magic to control his dreams.

He pretended to surrender, setting a trap when passion was at its height, all to expose the culprit and punish them swiftly. But when he arrived at the appointed place, she was nowhere to be found.

Why hadn't she come?

The aloof, celibate young nobleman entered her dream, caressed the tear-dampened cheek of the girl, and pressed her for an answer: "Qingqing, are you afraid of being exposed, or do you think I haven't done enough?"

"Do you like it this way? Or... this way?"

The girl bit her lip and stayed silent. He said coldly, "Then we'll do it all."

_

One day, a delivery of fresh flowers arrived at the flower room. A maid, so nervous that she accidentally knocked over a potted plant, hurriedly apologized.

The man seated above her didn't even look up. He merely said, "It's all right."

Later, her companions praised the top scholar as a broad-minded, gracious gentleman.

That night, A Jin stumbled to the floor, clutching her nightclothes around herself.

The top scholar, so refined and distant by day, lifted her chin and regarded her at his leisure, like prey that had walked right into his trap.

"Let's see just what you're capable of."

"Can you make me forgive you for desecrating your master, just as I did in your dreams?"

Reader's guide:

1. A conservative little maid who only dares to fantasize, paired with a celibate, proper, high-demand dragon of a man.

2. My own fictional setting. The plot serves the romance, with no fantasy elements.

Coming soon: Marrying My Ex's Older Brother. Blurb:

Marriage First, Love Later | Love Triangle | Fallen Heiress x Aloof Nobleman | SCHE

Cui Fu was betrothed in infancy through an agreement made by their families.

Her match was the fourth young master of the Wang clan, an elegant, dashing young man from a distinguished family.

Their families had been close for generations. Even though the Cui family seemed to be marrying above its station, the wedding went ahead as planned.

Who could have guessed that news would arrive from the capital on the wedding day that her fiance had run away from the marriage?

The guests whispered among themselves, and her stepmother watched the spectacle with amusement. Cui Fu stood abandoned, so humiliated she could have died, when the clatter of hooves suddenly sounded behind her.

Tears in her eyes, she turned and met a pair of cool, handsome eyes.

The dignified, noble young man wore wedding robes. His voice was indifferent as he said, "Wang Jun of Langya has come to take his bride."

-

Wang Jun, eldest son of the preeminent Wang clan, was a man of sterling character, as elegant as jade and as graceful as an orchid. Yet to clean up after his younger brother, he married the daughter of a disgraced official.

It was like a flawless white jade falling into the dust, acquiring a blemish that could never be removed.

Everyone thought Cui Fu had humble origins and a delicate temperament, making her unfit to be an eldest daughter-in-law and clan matriarch. They thought it only natural that Wang Jun would keep his distance and feel no affection for her.

Cui Fu, too, always remembered his words: he had married her out of duty alone, with no romantic feelings involved, and none ever would be.

Later, Fourth Young Master Wang returned to the manor and knelt beneath the veranda, bearing thorny branches as punishment.

Little did he know that just beyond the wall, his normally proper, aloof elder brother had pinned someone against a doorway and caught her rosy earlobe between his lips. In a cold voice, he asked:

"A Fu, tell me again. Whose wife are you?"

Theme: Like a lotus beneath the water, blooming to reveal the Buddha.