Gardenia's Heart - Chapter 72: Calamity

Tang Qiu was a substitute bride–forced to take her half-sister’s place and marry the young master of the Jiang family, a deformed cripple with less than 6 months left to live.

“Who would have thought that even a sickly whelp like Jiang Shaocheng would find himself a bride?”

“I hear that he’s practically on his deathbed and he’s only marrying the Fengs’ daughter to improve his lifespan.”

Tang Qiu ignored the whispers around her and focused on her husband-to-be, who coughed violently in his wheelchair. At the altar, after they had said their vows, she lifted her veil and knelt in front of Jiang Shaocheng, pressing a hesitant kiss to his lips.

The marriage contract was signed. No matter his physical deformities, he was now her husband.

She wasn’t afraid of the scars that marked his face, nor was she repulsed by him being confined to a wheelchair. Every morning, she made him breakfast, attended to his needs, and thought of little else beyond her duties as a wife.

“Young Master Jiang is a cripple who can’t get it up,” her best friend argued. “When he dies, you’ll still be untouched. You should set your sights higher.”

“A sickly invalid like Jiang Shaocheng can’t give you happiness,” her ex-boyfriend insisted. “I’ll wait for you.”

But Young Master Jiang only scoffed. “I have plenty of time left to be with her.”

Later in their marriage, Jiang Shaocheng wanted to enjoy his little wife in all ways–the press of her lips against his, the brush of skin on skin; the way a husband and wife were supposed to. But Tang Qiu refused him, blushing. “No, we can’t. The doctor says you can’t exert yourself.”

Jiang Shaocheng’s desire was surging through him, a heat in his core that demanded to be satiated. He cursed, I should have gotten rid of that doctor and the wheelchair long ago.

But he yearned to make love to his little wife, and so he revealed his true identity. In the blink of an eye, the deformed cripple transformed into a powerful businessman–tall, dark, and handsome. He quieted Tang Qiu’s protests, his body positioned over hers, his arms caging her as she lay on the bed. His voice was low when he asked, “What about now?”

Humanity was on the brink of destruction. Muyoung, an assassin from the Forest of Death, fell to his knees. There were corpses all around him. For years, he had worked for the Forest of Death and had finally been able to eradicate them. Now, he, himself, was about to die. He closed his eyes as he felt his heart stop beating.

Having a rough life growing up, Wang Tong had numerous dreams of living a better life. However, his alcoholic foster father sells him off as a space settler of the distant planet Norton for some pocket change. Soon after his arrival, the Zergs overran the planet and obliterated its defenses in a matter of minutes. What awaited Tong on Norton was more than just an unbearable environment – its gravity alone was five-times stronger than earth – there were also swarms of bugs, constant hunger, thirst, and desolation.

While he lives a year of total carnage and survival, humanity’s Confederation eventually overcomes the Zergs on Norton and the powerful survivor Wang Tong is given a recommendation to a once famous, but now dying military academy where he begins his life anew.

- Description from Novelupdates

Recommended new novel: A heartwarming story set in the '90s, “Back to 1990, She Set the Surgical World on Fire”When Xie Wanying returned to 1996 and said she wanted to become a doctor, many laughed.“A phoenix begets a phoenix, a dog begets a dog. If a truck driver's daughter can become a doctor, then pigs can climb trees.”“Not only do I want to be a doctor, but I also want to be a female thoracic surgeon,” Xie Wanying declared. When medical relatives sarcastically told her, “There is not a single female leading thoracic surgeon in the country—who do you think you are!”After the college entrance exams, Xie Wanying entered the top surgical class in the country with the highest provincial science score, began as an intern in a top-tier capital hospital, and was fought over by the heads of surgery departments. She performed the world's first minimally invasive heart valve repair, marking the first surgery in the female surgical field!The Overseas Returnee Faction senior brother was a hot bachelor in the capital's circle and changed his QQ profile picture to one with his junior sister Xie.The young boss was a handsome man who came to the hospital every day to bring flowers and offer diamond rings.Not to mention the horde of well-wishers that had practically broken down the door of old Xie's house...——————“No woman loves a man who's not a little bit bad.”When a woman married him, everyone said, “This woman must be a bad woman who would stop at nothing to curry favor with him.”Everyone was curious about what kind of person Mrs. Xiao was when they heard that Mr. Xiao had gotten married.“My wife has overshadowed me. Everyone knows she is deaf, so they blatantly speak ill of her in front of her and openly discuss the bad things they plan to do to her,”Host: ............