花瓶 by 困困 / 困倚危樓
Chapters: 20 chapters + 6 extras
Summary from Myrics (please support the author!):
In the bright and dazzling entertainment circle, the older one is, the more fetters one is shackled with. As such, Gu Yan makes the most realistic choice — accepting the help of big financial backer Qin Zhiyuan and becoming a flower vase.
Satisfying a financial backer in bed isn’t anything too difficult, and Gu Yan even has a knack for maintaining such a relationship over the long years — smiling when he has to, and feigning ignorance when it’s necessary, no matter if it’s overlooking gossipy sex scandals or the sweet-sounding fake-real words spoken by that man…
The flower vase’s heart is elsewhere, the financial backer’s love is absent, all debts are bought and paid for. With his mouth curved into a perfect arc of a smile, Gu Yan does his utmost to play the most flawless role in his life, all the while hiding those feelings that he shouldn’t have in his heart…
Basically, a sugar daddy/sugar baby relationship that eventually grows into love.
Note that while the two leads’ relationship isn’t abusive (just… mostly kind of emotionally unequitable and unhealthy at the beginning), there is a sexual assault/drugging scene (committed by a third party) as well as references to past sexual assault/drugging in Gu Yan’s history. The chapters in which this occurs and/or is mentioned will be warned for.
Also, since I am translating from the uncensored Myrics edition, there will be sex scenes sprinkled throughout the story. Not super explicit, but not fade to black either.
Volume 1 (01-10 + 2 extras):
Volume 2 (11-20 + 4 extras):
The entire story is free on Jinjiang (censored) and paid starting from the seventh chapter on Myrics (uncensored), and Myrics is very easy to register and top up on, so I highly recommend it!
Regarding the chapter count: while both Jinjiang and Myrics show different chapter counts, the Myrics version is clearly just directly mirrored from the published edition (most likely posted by the publisher themselves, actually, as Uei Shang has other older novels of theirs up on the site, which they’ve posted about on their social media), and as such, there are internal chapter numbering that (I assume) matches the volume chaptering and was simply split up for easier reading on the web. I’ve elected to follow the volume numbering in this case, since it’s easier to follow.
Downloads: EPUB ver2.0 / PDF ver2.0
I’ve also made a carrd for this story here.
And, if you’re interested in more works from the author, they also have another series The Missing Piece officially available in English that you can buy.
Shrimp Chips Translations 