A hollow briquette of a woman × a solid tangyuan of a man
A cold, calculating little fox who plans every move × a sickly beauty, handsome as jade and frail as a willow
Building the sickly beauty literary genre 😋😋😋
When Xie Lingchun married Zhao Yan, he was still a poor scholar with a bare house and a body ravaged by illness. The doctor said he wouldn't live more than two years.
Xie Lingchun was only a concubine-born daughter of a collateral branch of the Xie family, sent to take her elder sister's place.
Her original plan was to wait for Zhao Yan to die, become a carefree widow, and collect a sum of money from the Xie family to start over. By any measure, it seemed like a good deal.
But more than two years after their wedding, Zhao Yan was still alive. Meanwhile, her legitimate elder sister, who had refused to marry Zhao Yan because he was poor and frail, began frequently sending people to ask after him once he'd placed first in both rounds of the imperial examination.
Xie Lingchun thought she might never live to see Zhao Yan die, nor get to enjoy the day he passed the imperial exams.
So Xie Lingchun chose to leave.
"I was never the person you wanted to marry," Xie Lingchun told him. "Now your health has improved and you have a bright future ahead. It wouldn't be right for me to keep this place."
She gave Zhao Yan no chance to stop her.
*
Three years later.
It took Zhao Yan just three years to rise from a humble scholar to a close confidant of the emperor.
His ruthless methods and deep scheming meant no one in the court dared underestimate him.
During those three years, Xie Lingchun lived simply, but freely and without constraints. She was quite content.
That was, until the Xie family's main branch came looking for her, claiming she'd run away after divorcing Zhao Yan and that she should be taken back to answer for it.
The authorities had blocked the street, and she was truly out of options.
That night, Xie Lingchun didn't sleep a wink.
Before dawn, she finally made up her mind and went to the door she'd been avoiding for over three years.
The door opened from the inside.
Zhao Yan held a plain umbrella, a cloak draped over his shoulders. His eyes lowered slightly as he stared at her without blinking through the heavy curtain of rain.
He was thinner than he had been three years ago. The sickly air had completely left his features, replaced by an aloofness and dignity she didn't recognize at all.
With red-rimmed eyes, Xie Lingchun gripped her damp sleeve and forced a pitiful smile she'd practiced for a long time. "Zhao Yan, do you still want me?"
Zhao Yan tilted his head slightly and gave her a gentle, innocent smile.
Then he spoke, his voice as gentle as ever, but sending a chill down Xie Lingchun's back. "Didn't you say you were never the person I wanted to marry?"
*
Zhao Yan had always believed Xie Lingchun left because he wasn't prominent enough, didn't hold a high enough position, and couldn't give her the wealth and status she wanted.
So he fought his way up with everything he had, until everyone knew his name.
Then he waited for her to come back.
"If what she wants is wealth, fame, or status, then I'll earn it for her."
Blurb written 2026.4.27, archived.
Theme: A light purse needn't bring hardship; the rarest thing is being young together as husband and wife.
