Can a Poor Little Thing Be the Pampered Favorite of a Wealthy Family?

[Pretty, Gloomy Bottom x Crazy, Fatherly Top]

Shen Wangshu is a poor little thing with a skin-hunger disorder.

He is gloomy and beautiful, but his parents are harsh with him, his younger brother despises him, and even the household staff call him a "freak" and a "pervert" behind his back.

All because, when his condition flared up as a child, he would cling to one of his older brother's shirts and rub against it, his expression rapt and his lashes damp.

After they discovered him, his family locked him away in the attic, where he never saw the sun.

Only when they made him paint portraits of his younger brother could he catch his breath and briefly lose himself in the world of art.

Then the Shen family's finances collapsed, and with a marriage contract, they sold him to the eldest son of the Qin family.

According to rumor, the man was cold and distant, ruthless and decisive.

On his very first day there, his unmentionable condition flared up again. Trembling with fear, he hid in the closet and sobbed, his eyes red as a rabbit's. The man patiently coaxed him out.

The next day, he accidentally knocked over the paints and stained a carpet worth tens of millions. He knelt and begged the man not to hit him, but instead, the man gently soothed him.

A few days later, he nervously sniffed the man's overcoat.

It smelled faintly of cedar, just like the clothes of the boy next door who had once been like an older brother to him.

Later, his parents knelt before him and begged him to spare the Shen family. His younger brother slapped himself and called himself a beast.

Later still, everyone noticed that the once-obscure eldest son of the Shen family was beginning to make a name for himself at art exhibitions all over the country.

The famously ascetic eldest son of the Qin family brought him to every banquet, cradling him in the crook of his arm as if he were a child, with a startling possessiveness in his eyes.

*

Qin Yuchuan is cold-hearted and emotionless. He commands the Qin business empire and is known as a financial titan.

But no one knows his secret.

He has an overwhelming need to control everything around him. His family considers him a monster, and countless attempts to persuade him to seek treatment have failed.

To bring good fortune to an ailing elder, he was forced to marry a boy.

The boy looked obedient, but was covered in injuries and had suffered through too much.

He brought the boy home and raised him all over again.

The boy had little sense of security and couldn't bear to be apart from anyone.

So he deliberately engineered one coincidence after another, until the boy came trembling into his arms.

He also made the boy report every detail of his schedule, from meals and daily routines to whether he'd had sex that night.

He expected the boy to hate him, but instead, the other drew out a smile, stunningly beautiful against his sickly face.

He smiled, too.

They were clearly made for each other.

Later, he built an island filled with endless summer hydrangeas.

He would make sure every day of the boy's life from then on was happy and carefree, and that his flowers would never fade.

*

When Shen Wangshu's condition flared up, his slender spine went rigid, the backs of his hands scratched into shocking red welts. His body swayed as if about to collapse, like a pear blossom growing sparse and delicate in the rain.

Qin Yuchuan held him tight, repeatedly kissing his soft, fine hair.

"Be good, Shu-shu. Your husband is right here."

Reader's Guide:

1. They marry through an arranged contract, but the top ends up being a doting dad. He takes care of the bottom like a baby.

2. The bottom is a poor little thing who desperately needs love. He wants to be loved every moment of the day.

Theme: Love gives you the strength to grow.