- The Head of the Family Who Took Charge
Xia Cheng Qing was the eldest of the Xia family, with a younger brother and a younger sister.
He also had an unofficial “younger brother,” a boy who had lived next door when they were children. His name was A’Ying, and he was one year younger than Xia Cheng Qing.
There was quite a large age gap between Xia Cheng Qing and his biological siblings. He had originally been the Xia family’s only child and grew up carefree until the age of nine, spending every day fooling around with A’Ying. Then one day, the two little troublemakers had a brilliant idea: they dug some condoms out of Xia Cheng Qing’s parents’ wardrobe, stuck them to the wall, and used them as targets for dart practice…
Ten months later, Xia Cheng Qing gained a pair of boy-girl twins as his younger siblings, bringing his carefree childhood to an end.
Babies really were so noisy and so smelly. And they stole away their parents’ love and attention too…
When Xia Cheng Qing was little, those younger siblings who could not understand a word of human speech drove him absolutely crazy. Yet both of them were incredibly clingy with him. In order to cultivate “sibling affection,” their parents frequently made Xia Cheng Qing help “look after the children.”
After the umpteenth round of washing diapers, picking up toys, playing with them and soothing their crying, getting kicked and scratched, and having countless strands of hair yanked out, ten-year-old Xia Cheng Qing—who had already developed bald patches—finally exploded!
Clutching A’Ying, he burst into tears. “I don’t want those two! I wish you were my little brother instead!”
A’Ying could do nothing against his crying, so from then on, he came over every day to help him “look after the children.” The two brothers washed diapers together, picked up toys together, played with the babies and soothed their crying together, got kicked and scratched together, had their hair yanked out together, and developed bald patches together.
Fortunately, their hair eventually grew back. Otherwise, this AU really would have become impossible to keep writing.
When Xia Cheng Qing was fifteen, his parents, who were in business, died in a car accident. All at once, the household was left with fifteen-year-old Xia Cheng Qing, two younger siblings who did not know how to shed tears and only knew how to drip snot, a houseful of servants, and a swarm of relatives who had come to divide up the inheritance.
At fifteen, Xia Cheng Qing turned the situation around. He drove away the relatives, shut down his parents’ company, settled its debts, sold the enormous villa they could no longer afford to maintain, dismissed the servants, bought an apartment near the school, and moved there with his younger brother and sister.
He knew perfectly well that until he graduated and started working, the three siblings could only draw their living expenses from their parents’ inheritance. The inheritance was fairly substantial, but they certainly could not afford to simply live off it until it ran dry. So he kept only one nanny at home to take care of his younger siblings, while he himself lived frugally, studied with all his might, and shouldered the entire household on his still-young shoulders.
The carefree young master he had once been became, overnight, the head of the family who could take charge of everything on his own.
The only downside was that he became extremely bad-tempered.
Which was understandable. Fifteen was already an age when schoolwork was demanding. Anyone who spent the entire day studying hard at school, only to come home to two noisy little troublemakers and then have to calculate every last household expense—firewood, rice, oil, salt, water, electricity, gas—would probably become rather irritable too.
And that troublesome little brother of his! Even while he was still in diapers, he wrecked the house like a puppy tearing apart its own den. The moment he could run and jump, he started provoking cats and dogs, stirring up trouble everywhere, and generally wreaking havoc. He could drive away three nannies in a single year.
For the first few years, Xia Cheng Qing still managed to suppress his temper. He earnestly studied Parenting Tips and worked hard to become a warm and amiable older brother… to no avail.
Later, he happened to watch an animal documentary and discovered that dogs had a very strong sense of hierarchy and of following a pack leader. You had to make proper use of force and establish your authority in front of them before they would obediently listen.
Nothing more to say, then. His little brother’s hide was thick enough by now anyway. Time to start hitting him.
Xia Cheng Qing decisively became an irritable older brother and started coming down on his younger brother with heavy fists.
Thankfully, there was some consolation: his younger sister was clever and sensible, well-behaved and adorable. Aside from disliking physical labor, disliking going out and socializing, being something of a homebody, and being rather introverted, there was nothing particularly strange about her.
Even more comforting was that A’Ying often came over to see him and help out, continuing to “raise the children” alongside him every day. Although A’Ying was a pampered young master from a wealthy family who swaggered around outside like the king of all the neighborhood children, the moment he entered Xia Cheng Qing’s home, he reined in all his spoiled little habits. He helped with the laundry and cooking, tidied and cleaned, helped calculate the bills, and even joined Xia Cheng Qing in beating up his younger brother…
Aside from being an atrocious cook, he practically qualified as a model wife.
Elio’s Notes: 贤内助 is a traditional compliment for a capable, supportive spouse, especially a wife. The narration applies it jokingly to A’Ying here.
When Xia Cheng Qing was eighteen, even his younger sister Xiao Mang could not resist secretly asking him, “Why is Brother A’Ying so good to us? Could he be Dad’s illegitimate son from outside? Is he trying to take a share of our family inheritance?”
Xia Cheng Qing: “You’re only eight! Stop watching those rich-family inheritance-war soap operas all day!”
After criticizing his sister, however, Xia Cheng Qing himself became faintly uneasy. During lunch break, he secretly studied A’Ying, who was asleep on his family’s sofa, for a very long time. Only after failing to find the slightest resemblance between A’Ying’s face and anyone in the Xia family did he finally breathe a sigh of relief.
The only strange thing was—why did A’Ying’s face get redder and redder the longer he slept?
- As If Everyone Had Been Given a Second Life
When Xia Cheng Qing was nineteen, he entered university.
He did not know why, but ever since childhood, he had always felt an unusually strong need to cherish the chance to study. After entering university, he continued burying himself in his books and working as hard as ever. He majored in architecture and often stayed in the university library doing surveying and drafting work until late at night. A’Ying would stay at his house keeping an eye on his younger brother’s studying, send Xia Cheng Qing messages, then meet him on the bench beside the library with late-night snacks and hot coffee.
A’Ying did not like studying. He really, really hated studying. His family had money anyway, so after finishing secondary school, he simply stopped. By nineteen, he was already managing a car dealership of his own.
The car business was difficult and competition was fierce. The owner of the dealership across the street was a gangster who would periodically bring three or five underlings over to cause trouble. A’Ying and his employees fought them several times but never gained much of an advantage, and his anger kept building.
Sitting on the bench beside the library, A’Ying said bitterly to Xia Cheng Qing, “They’re seriously bullying us. I’m thinking of joining up with a faction myself and finding a ‘big boss’ to back me.”
Elio’s Notes: 拜山头 literally evokes paying respects to a mountain stronghold. In underworld slang, it means attaching oneself to a gang or faction and recognizing a boss in exchange for protection.
Xia Cheng Qing silently looked at him for a long time before saying very seriously, “A’Ying, if you don’t want to study, I won’t interfere. I know you’re smart enough to make a living for yourself. But if you go and run with a gang, then you and I won’t be brothers anymore.”
A’Ying’s face went white from the shock of his words.
That very night, he had nightmare after nightmare and woke up crying several times. By the next morning, he had inexplicably developed a high fever that refused to go down, leaving him desperately ill. His parents went to a temple on Lantau Island to pray to the gods and Buddhas, then found a master to perform several days of exorcism rites for him. Only then did he finally recover from death’s door.
Xia Cheng Qing also felt that what he had said was too absolute. Hearing that A’Ying had fallen ill only made him more uneasy. He asked his teacher for leave and went to A’Ying’s home to take care of him.
During the day, A’Ying slept while Xia Cheng Qing studied beside his bed. At night, whenever A’Ying had nightmares, Xia Cheng Qing would reach out and hold his hand.
A’Ying startled awake from a dream and said to him through tears, “I won’t go find a ‘big boss’ anymore. I’ll only be brothers with you.”
Holding A’Ying’s burning-hot hand, Xia Cheng Qing had no idea what possessed him. As if compelled by some ghost or god, he suddenly confessed, “I actually don’t want to be brothers with you.”
A’Ying thought he was still trapped in a nightmare. Xia Cheng Qing’s words frightened him into another bout of loud crying and left him drenched in sweat. By the next morning, the shock had cured his illness.
Once he recovered, A’Ying behaved himself and never mentioned joining a gang again. He simply worked honestly at his business from morning till night. Before long, the rival dealership across the street was completely busted for illegal activity. With his competitor gone, A’Ying’s business grew more prosperous by the day.
When Xia Cheng Qing was twenty-three, he graduated from university and joined an architectural firm, beginning as an intern assistant.
He continued living frugally and working diligently. There was still some of his parents’ inheritance left. For his younger sister, who loved music, he hired the best piano teacher, sent her to an arts high school, and later to a conservatory. As for his younger brother, Xia Cheng Qing used every combination of threats and inducements available to him—with his fists providing additional encouragement—to drag the boy through secondary school. In the end, his younger brother successfully entered the Police Academy.
By the time Xia Cheng Qing was twenty-eight, he sat among the family members at his younger brother’s oath-taking ceremony and watched that foolish little brother standing there in a crisp police uniform, raising his hand to swear his oath. Tears he had not shed in more than a decade finally fell.
The sunlight that day was so warm, and the air was steeped in the scent of grass, as though everyone had been given a second life.
Leaving his foolish younger brother behind at the Police Academy, Xia Cheng Qing walked out through the gates alone. A’Ying was waiting outside in his newly bought Ferrari.
Xia Cheng Qing asked him, “Why didn’t you come in? When A’Hao was taking the oath, he kept looking around for you and even got kicked by his instructor.”
A’Ying scratched his hair. “I don’t know. The moment I come here, I get scared… But with you here, I’m not so scared anymore. I regret it. I should’ve gone inside just now.”
Oh, forget it. The two of them climbed into the car together and let out a long breath at the same time, like a pair of parents who had suffered through years of hardship and had finally managed to lock their troublesome child away in kindergarten. They glanced at each other and suddenly burst out laughing.
“I finally have time of my own,” Xia Cheng Qing said with a laugh. “I’m planning to start my own business and open a studio with some colleagues.”
“Mm. My dealership is opening a branch too,” A’Ying said with a smile. “Where should we go to celebrate later?”
“Let’s go home and cook. What do you feel like eating? I’ve been trying out a few new dishes lately…”
Before he could finish speaking, A’Ying’s phone rang.
A’Ying lowered his eyes to look at it. His expression stiffened slightly, and he raised a finger, intending to silence the phone.
Xia Cheng Qing stopped him and smiled. “Your girlfriend looking for you? Go have dinner with her. I still have some work to do anyway. I’ll take a taxi back to the firm myself.”
- Because He’s an Asshole
Xia Cheng Qing and A’Ying were two hot-blooded young men, so naturally they had fought and roughhoused plenty from childhood onward.
Once they became adults, the physical scuffling became less frequent, and at most they would trade a few verbal jabs. Even when they did fight, they still fought fairly and avoided punching each other in the face. After all, both men still had to go into their respective companies the next day and lecture their subordinates.
But when Xia Cheng Qing was thirty-five, he finally lost his temper and drove a vicious punch straight into A’Ying’s face.
The cause could hardly have been more ridiculous: Xia Cheng Qing wanted to buy a car of his own.
A’Ying: “I’ll give you one!”
Xia Cheng Qing: “I have money to buy one myself. I don’t need you to give me one.”
A’Ying: “Where do you go that I don’t drive you? Why waste that money?”
Xia Cheng Qing: “That’s exactly why. I don’t want to keep troubling you to drive me around every day. My clients all think you’re my chauffeur.”
A’Ying: “I’ve got money and free time. I’ll do whatever I want. Why are you suddenly so interested in buying a car anyway? Planning to drive those female clients of yours out for coffee?”
By that point, his tone had become far too snide and insinuating. Xia Cheng Qing drove a ferocious punch straight into A’Ying’s face, turning the handsome boss of Ching Ying Automotive Trading Company into a panda-eyed mess.
The two fought and yelled their way through Xia Cheng Qing’s home—from the kitchen to the living room, from the living room to the entryway, and finally all the way into the elevator—where they happened to run straight into Xia Hao, who had come to visit.
Their younger brother called them “you two assholes,” so naturally they took the opportunity to give him a mixed-doubles beating and relive their childhood.
After beating up the younger brother, A’Ying stormed away in fury, while Xia Cheng Qing hauled his brother back home.
His younger brother asked in utter confusion, “Why did you fight with Brother Ying?”
Xia Cheng Qing’s face darkened. “Because he’s an asshole!”
Fortunately, his younger brother had been thoroughly beaten since childhood and knew how to read the room, so he did not ask any more questions. Xia Cheng Qing cooked him a bowl of noodles, fed him, and sent him out the door. Left alone at home, Xia Cheng Qing grew angrier the more he thought about it. He neither smoked nor drank and had nowhere to vent his fury, so he went into what had once been his younger brother’s bedroom and was now the workout room and started pounding the punching bag. After half an hour, he still had not worked it out of his system, so he simply changed into sportswear and went jogging along the seaside path outside the residential complex.
It was a long—long—seaside path. Starting from Xia Cheng Qing’s apartment complex, if you kept running and running, you could make it all the way to the villa district at the foot of the nearby mountain.
And so he happened to run into A’Ying, who had also come out of his villa for a night jog.
A’Ying stood far away from him with one eye swollen black, staring at him warily.
“Are you stupid?! Don’t you know you should put ice on that?!” Xia Cheng Qing shouted from a distance.
“Are you stupid?! Why the hell would I bring ice with me when I came out jogging?!” A’Ying yelled back.
“Go back right now and deal with it! Xiao Mang and A’Hao are coming over for dinner tomorrow night!”
“I won’t! Let them see what you did to my face!”
Xia Cheng Qing raised a fist at him from afar. A’Ying pulled an unbelievably childish panda-faced grimace, then turned around and ducked back into the villa.
The next afternoon, Xia Cheng Qing worked an extra half hour at the office before finally going downstairs.
As always, rain or shine, the Ferrari was waiting by the roadside. Xia Cheng Qing climbed into the passenger seat with a cold expression. The moment he entered the car, the smell of smoke assaulted his nose. The ashtray beside the armrest was stuffed full of cigarette butts. Who knew how long A’Ying had been sitting there smoking?
“You’ve been waiting this long and didn’t know how to get out and have a cup of coffee?” Xia Cheng Qing scolded with a frown.
“None of your business,” A’Ying said around his cigarette.
Xia Cheng Qing endured it, then endured some more. He still badly wanted to give A’Ying another black eye so the two would make a matching pair.
Neither of them said a word the entire way. A’Ying finished one cigarette and was about to light a second when Xia Cheng Qing snatched the pack from his hand and threw it out the window.
A’Ying muttered “asshole” under his breath and did not dare say anything else.
The younger brother and sister had already arrived early at Xia Cheng Qing’s home to prepare hotpot. Xiao Mang had bought all the ingredients, while Xia Hao had washed and cut all the vegetables. The fiery red broth base churned in the pot. When Xia Cheng Qing came through the door and saw it, his expression did not change. He simply smiled and greeted his siblings, took off his coat, and poured himself a cup of hot tea.
Instead, A’Ying immediately began lecturing the two younger siblings. “Your brother’s stomach hasn’t been doing well lately. Why didn’t you prepare a clear broth too? Fine, fine. I’ll go make him a bowl of noodles.”
“You think anything you cook is edible?” Xia Cheng Qing cursed at him. “Even a dog could cook better than you. A’Hao, you go make it.”
Xia Hao obediently stood up and put the noodles into the pot. Only then did he realize that apparently he was the dog.
The family sat together, laughing and chatting as they ate. Well, mainly Xiao Mang and Xia Hao were laughing. Xia Cheng Qing sat there calmly, while even the normally eloquent A’Ying barely spoke that evening.
One of his eyes was still swollen. It hurt when he ate, and it hurt even more when he talked.
Xiao Mang wanted to ask after her “Second Brother’s” eye, but just as she was about to open her mouth, Xia Hao secretly kicked her under the table.
After dinner, Xia Hao voluntarily went into the kitchen to wash the dishes, while Xiao Mang followed under the noble pretext of “supervising.” The siblings hid in the kitchen and whispered to each other.
“Brother fought with Brother Ying yesterday.”
“Another ‘fight’?”
“Shh, not the kind of ‘fight’ you mean. They fought in the elevator and were even calling each other assholes.”
“Brother hit him way too hard. What if it leaves a scar?”
“Brother knows his limits. When he hit me as a kid, only about one out of every ten times actually hurt. Brother Ying must’ve said something nasty and really pissed him off.”
The two siblings mulled it over again and again but could not figure out the reason. Since their eldest brother was still angry, neither dared ask. Eventually, their conversation wandered over to the new trainee at the Forensic Pathology Service, and no one paid any more attention to their “Second Brother,” who had “definitely deserved it anyway.”
- Are You Planning to Marry Under False Pretenses?
Adults never seemed to get much time together. After dinner, Xiao Mang had to go home to catch the finale of her variety show, while Xia Hao had to return to the police station to work overtime. Only Xia Cheng Qing and A’Ying changed into sportswear and went out together for a run to vent their anger.
The night wind was cool, whistling against A’Ying’s bruised and swollen injuries. He clenched his teeth in pain but stubbornly refused to make a sound.
Xia Cheng Qing slowed down, took off his own jacket, and threw it at him. “Wear mine. It has a hood.”
The two exchanged jackets and continued running in silence. A’Ying pulled the hood strings tight, wrapping his head inside. Every breath was filled with Xia Cheng Qing’s scent.
The blue-black seaside path stretched away toward the distant sea, lined along the shore with warm yellow lamps. Yellow and blue reflected against each other, creating a vivid, almost dazzling beauty.
They ran all the way to a bend in the path, where a lookout pavilion stood—the place where they usually stopped to rest.
Before sitting down, A’Ying instinctively felt for his cigarette pack, only to remember that Xia Cheng Qing had thrown it away. Disgruntled, he simply sat down.
His injured eye still throbbed faintly. He sniffed, feeling terribly aggrieved.
“Thirsty?” Xia Cheng Qing asked irritably.
“Hmph.”
Suppressing the urge to hit him again, Xia Cheng Qing went to the nearby vending machine, bought two bottles of water, and threw one to him.
The two sat together in silence. A’Ying stared fixedly at the sea, rubbing the water bottle between his hands as he remained lost in thought for a long time.
Suddenly, Xia Cheng Qing said, “You were upset yesterday and deliberately picking a fight because you heard a female client invite me out for coffee, weren’t you? Why is it that you can have a girlfriend, but I can’t?”
A’Ying immediately became agitated. He yanked off the hood, revealing a face flushed red with anger. “Haven’t you spent all these years burying yourself in studying and work because you ‘didn’t want to date’?”
Xia Cheng Qing said calmly, “It isn’t that I don’t want to. It’s that I can’t.”
A’Ying froze for a moment before stammering, “Y-you… do you have… a problem in that area?”
Xia Cheng Qing’s face darkened. “I’m perfectly fine in that area, thank you for your concern! If I met the ‘right person,’ I would be willing to date. If you can date, then of course I can too. That’s my freedom, isn’t it?”
A’Ying lowered his eyes and sulked for a while. “Y-yes. It’s your freedom.”
“Then that settles it. Let’s go back.”
The two ran back to the Xia residence in silence. The Ferrari was still parked downstairs. A’Ying dejectedly opened the door and sat inside. Just as he was about to start the engine, Xia Cheng Qing knocked on the window.
A’Ying rolled it down. Xia Cheng Qing bent over and leaned close to his face. “A’Ying, go home and think carefully. If you still want to be brothers with me, then you have to accept that I’m going to date. You can’t drive me around for the rest of your life. Eventually, I’m going to marry and have children.”
Ignoring A’Ying’s stunned expression, Xia Cheng Qing calmly turned around and went upstairs.
He might have spoken casually enough, but Xia Cheng Qing himself felt terribly aggrieved. He stood in front of his door with his thoughts in turmoil and entered the wrong code several times before he finally got the lock open.
He finally entered the apartment, turned on the lights, and was just about to close the door when an arm suddenly thrust through the gap. A’Ying forced half his body inside, panting heavily from running.
A’Ying slammed the door shut and demanded fiercely, “You’re eventually going to marry and have children? Are you planning to marry under false pretenses?”
Xia Cheng Qing’s mind went buzz. For a moment, he was completely stunned. “Y-you… what are you talking about?”
A’Ying’s entire face was red with anger as his words tumbled out incoherently. “You like men! I know! I’ve always known you like men! I knew back in secondary school! You went out with that senior, and he kissed you—I saw it, I saw it! I’ve always known! All these years, you’ve secretly been dating men, right?! And then at university, that guy, and what’s-his-name, and now your business partner!”
His eyes were red with anger as he struggled to continue. “If it were just them… fine. All these years, I put up with it. I didn’t want to discriminate against you. You were still my best friend, my best brother! But now you can be with women too? You’re not going to be gay anymore? Or are you planning to deceive some woman into marrying you?!”
Xia Cheng Qing’s head rang loudly. It took him a tremendous amount of effort to process everything A’Ying had just said.
A’Ying finished speaking and simply stood there breathing hard, glaring viciously at him. Xia Cheng Qing’s face went from shock, to fury—and then suddenly became calm and numb.
He said flatly, “That’s right. I don’t want to anymore. Being gay is exhausting. I’d rather be with women. Tomorrow, I’m going to accept An Qi’s invitation for coffee.”
A’Ying froze. He remained mute for a long while before finally saying stiffly, “H-how can you be so casual about something like that?”
Xia Cheng Qing said coldly, “I can. You said it yourself. It’s my freedom. It’s late. Get out. I’m going to rest.”
He stepped past A’Ying and reached for the door, intending to shove him straight outside. The moment his hand pressed against A’Ying’s sweat-damp chest, however, A’Ying grabbed him and forcibly slammed the door shut again.
The two struggled and shoved each other in the entryway until Xia Cheng Qing suddenly let out a low cry!
A’Ying lunged forward and kissed him. He came down too hard and too fast; their teeth crashed together, splitting Xia Cheng Qing’s lip.
Xia Cheng Qing answered him with an even heavier punch. Bang! Now the pair of black eyes was complete!
A’Ying clutched his eye and stumbled into the metal door with a heavy thud. His face and neck flushed scarlet as he roared, “Why can all of them—but I can’t?!”
“You’re the only one who can’t!” Xia Cheng Qing roared back. “Back then, when that senior pursued me, I never agreed! Those two at university were just friends! There was never any romantic relationship! My business partner even less so! But you?! From secondary school until now, how many girlfriends have you had?!”
His voice went hoarse with anger. Gritting his teeth, he charged forward, seized A’Ying by the collar, and slammed him viciously into the door again!
“If you knew all along, then why did you keep getting girlfriends?! And now, after all this time, you suddenly start pretending you like me and interfering with who I date?! What right do you have?! Who the hell are you to me?! Get out—!”
Hysterical with rage, he kicked A’Ying hard several more times, wrenched open the door, and threw him outside like a piece of garbage!
The moment the door shut, his legs gave out. He collapsed onto the floor and covered his face in pain.
- Crying Like a Bigeye Fish
A man does not shed tears lightly. Xia Cheng Qing did not cry at all. His parents had died young, his younger siblings had once been infants crying to be fed, and he had fought his way through all these years. He was very strong.
He was merely in pain. Terrible, terrible pain. Without saying a word, he spent the entire night in the workout room beating the punching bag. By dawn, he had even beaten the bag apart. When he took off his gloves, the skin across his knuckles had been rubbed raw, bloody and mangled, while the joints themselves were swollen and bruised.
Xia Cheng Qing could not feel the pain. Numbly, he touched his own blood.
So he knew all along, he thought coldly. All those years I spent holding myself back were completely idiotic. That heartless asshole—if he ever dares show his face in front of me again, I’ll beat him every single time I see him.
Thirty-five seemed to be a major hurdle in his life. Fortunately, his younger siblings had finally grown up: one had become a teacher, the other a police officer. And a hopeless love had finally reached its end.
It was time to begin a new chapter of his life.
He washed up, changed clothes, and reset the passcode on his front door. Then, looking energetic and refreshed, he went downstairs.
The Ferrari was still parked exactly where it had been. Xia Cheng Qing did not so much as glance at it as he walked straight out of the residential complex.
A man does not shed tears lightly. A’Ying, hiding inside the Ferrari, spent the entire night shedding them heavily. He cried until his already bruised and swollen eyes looked like two enormous black walnuts. His whole face resembled a big-eyed frog, his eyelids reduced to narrow slits until he could barely see anything at all.
He felt terribly guilty, terribly regretful, and terribly aggrieved.
Back then, he had seen that senior invite Xia Cheng Qing into the alley behind the school. After exchanging a few words, the senior had kissed Xia Cheng Qing. A’Ying was so frightened that he turned around and fled immediately; he never saw Xia Cheng Qing reject him afterward. And after that, the senior still came looking for Xia Cheng Qing from time to time, while Xia Cheng Qing never seemed particularly distant toward him—that senior was still Xia Cheng Qing’s friend even now and occasionally invited him out for drinks!
Then there had been those university classmates of Xia Cheng Qing’s—what’s-his-name and what’s-his-name—the ones who dressed so flamboyantly that one glance was enough to tell they were little gay guys. Xia Cheng Qing laughed and chatted with them too.
And then there was Xia Cheng Qing’s business partner, who had originally been a colleague at his old firm. One glance and you could tell his orientation was not exactly “normal” either. The two of them had even opened a studio together. Was that so they could conveniently fool around?!
A’Ying had been furious, yet he had no idea why he was furious or what right he had to be. He did not dare confront Xia Cheng Qing about it. He endured and endured until he could no longer stand it, then thought, Why the hell can’t I find someone too? So he got one girlfriend after another… but not a single relationship lasted longer than a month!
And they usually ended with the woman screaming contemptuously, “You don’t love me at all!” or “Are you impotent or what?!”—or with one scorching slap across his face.
Everything Xia Cheng Qing had yelled at him last night was completely true. Of course it was his own fault. Of course he deserved it.
But—but I didn’t know! If I’d known you were never actually with any of them, I would’ve—aaaah—!! I regret it to death—!!!
After crying until dawn, he vaguely saw Xia Cheng Qing emerge from the building through the narrow slits of his eyelids and instinctively tried to open the car door to stop him. But he had cried himself stupid and could barely see; he fumbled around for ages without even finding where the door was!
By the time he finally squeezed himself out of the car, Xia Cheng Qing had long since disappeared.
A’Ying’s eyes were so swollen he could not see anything. Like some blind deep-sea monster fish, he struggled and wriggled around for a long time before finally managing to retrieve his phone from the car. Squinting at the screen, he first called Xia Cheng Qing.
Naturally, Xia Cheng Qing ignored him—and blocked his number.
A’Ying cried for a while longer. Only when he was nearly crying himself unconscious did his survival instinct finally kick in, and he called—Xia Xiao Mang.
A’Hao was at work, so there was obviously no point relying on him. All A’Ying could do was hope Xiao Mang was not teaching a class right now.
Luckily, Xiao Mang had no class and lived in the neighboring residential complex, so she arrived quickly. From a distance, she saw the miserable state of her “Second Brother” and felt both sympathy and amusement. First, she hid in the roadside bushes and laughed for five full minutes while secretly taking several photos. Only then did she compose her expression, put on a concerned face, and come over to help her “Second Brother.”
Originally, she had planned to help “Second Brother” into her elder brother’s nearby apartment to rest, only to discover that her brother was so furious he had even changed the door passcode. Xiao Mang therefore had no choice but to take “Second Brother” back to his villa, where his household staff cried out in alarm and rushed over to help their “young master” inside.
After watching “Second Brother” stagger unsteadily into the house, Xiao Mang turned around and immediately messaged her younger brother, complete with photos and a detailed account of everything that had just happened.
Xia Hao was staking out a suspect inside a van. He opened his phone and saw Xiao Mang’s message—“Brother Ying cried until he looked like a bigeye fish. [Photo attached]”—and laughed so hard the entire van started shaking.
Hahahahahahahaha, sorry, sorry, Brother Ying, but you really do look exactly like one, hahahahahahahahaha!
- That’s Way Too Scummy
A’Ying was thirty-four this year and the only son of the Xu family. He owned three chain car dealerships, several prime commercial properties, four or five luxury cars, a yacht, three floors of rental apartments, and shares in several of his parents’ trading companies. He was one of the city’s outstanding young elites, a tycoon among tycoons, the kind of man who could lie at home without moving and still make money.
And this particular tycoon lay at home without moving—and making money—for three days and three nights, crying until he was almost blind. He frightened his elderly parents and the entire household staff half to death. Remembering what had happened years ago, his parents went back to the temple on Lantau Island to have him exorcised again.
The temple master patiently advised them, “Amitabha. Benefactors, if your son is ill, you really should send him to a hospital. We handle evil spirits. We do not treat illnesses.”
So the family took their son to the hospital instead. His elderly parents argued for ages over whether he should go to ophthalmology or psychiatry. In the end, the old butler overruled everyone. “Treat the eyes first! Then treat the brain!”
Fine. That was how they would treat him.
He was kept in the hospital for an entire month.
A month later, his eyes had recovered and he was once again a bright-eyed, dashing handsome man. His brain, however, remained somewhat abnormal. Every day, he sat wrapped in his blankets in a hospital gown, wallowing in melancholy. A single leaf falling outside the window could make him cry for half an hour.
He had cried his face thin, leaving himself pale and haggard.
Relatives who heard the news all came to visit and told his parents, “Doesn’t he just need a good beating? You two can’t control him?”
“We can’t! Ever since he was little, he only listened to that studious handsome boy next door. Now that boy has finally realized what kind of useless bastard he is and doesn’t want anything to do with him anymore.”
“Ah. Serves him right!”
Every medical indicator was normal, so the hospital refused to keep him any longer. He was moved back home, where he spent every day sprawled beside the second-floor window of the villa watching for falling leaves.
The little garden outside the villa was planted entirely with evergreens, and the gardener pruned the branches and leaves every day. He watched for three days without seeing a single leaf fall. Now he did not even have an excuse to cry!
A’Ying was miserable, but Xia Cheng Qing had not managed to become particularly carefree either. He had thought time would heal everything. Instead, after an entire month, it had not even worked as well as an adhesive bandage.
Xia Cheng Qing had realized his sexual orientation at sixteen and buried it deep in his heart for almost twenty years. A’Ying might have been an idiot when it came to romance, but in every other matter, he had always put Xia Cheng Qing first. They had endured every hardship together, tasted every joy and sorrow together, and even raised his younger siblings together. Every memory remained vivid. How could Xia Cheng Qing possibly forget all of it so easily?
And that was not even mentioning everything else. Ever since A’Ying’s business had gotten on track and he no longer had to work from dawn to dusk at the dealership, he had practically become Xia Cheng Qing’s personal driver—taking him to and from work, driving him to client meetings, accompanying him on business trips out of town, going out with him during their free time. They spent every day together, more like an old married couple than an actual old married couple.
And after all that, A’Ying still thought Xia Cheng Qing had secretly been dating other men?! Was he blind in the eyes, or blind in the heart?!
During the day, Xia Cheng Qing went to work with his heart as still as water. At night, he came home and furiously kicked the hell out of his new punching bag. He was so angry he felt wrinkles forming, and went to bed applying a facial mask with a face green from fury.
One day, the senior he had not seen in ages got dumped yet again and invited Xia Cheng Qing out for drinks to drown his sorrows.
This was the very senior who had confessed to Xia Cheng Qing in high school and stolen his first kiss. Although the senior had received a black eye for it afterward, he had also been the first person of the “same kind” Xia Cheng Qing had ever met, so the two of them had remained friends.
The moment Xia Cheng Qing saw the incoming call, he remembered his stolen first kiss and A’Ying’s twenty-year misunderstanding, and immediately wanted to paste the senior’s photograph onto his new punching bag and kick it.
The senior, completely unaware that bloody disaster was approaching, waited eagerly for Xia Cheng Qing at the bar.
The moment they met, he tried to pour out the misery of his latest heartbreak. Instead, Xia Cheng Qing smacked him squarely on the head.
“Ah?! What was that for? Waaah!” The senior clutched his forehead and cried out in pain.
“Nothing. Go on.”
This senior got dumped five times a year. A tough fem bottom—“motherhood makes one strong,” after all—he bounced back after only two glasses of alcohol.
Elio’s Notes: In Chinese gay slang, 0 refers to the receptive partner. 母0 describes a feminine bottom. The narration combines 母, “feminine/mother,” with the saying “a mother becomes strong” for the joke.
Unexpectedly, however, the person who truly opened the floodgates today was the normally calm and reserved Xia Cheng Qing.
“That asshole! He’s the worst one of all! He knew from the very beginning that I like men, and all these years he just stood there watching! He’s had one, two, three, four… twelve girlfriends! Twelve! And he has the nerve to tell me I can’t date?!”
The senior was utterly shocked. “That’s way too scummy! Who is this straight guy? You’ve never mentioned him before!”
Xia Cheng Qing angrily tilted his head back and swallowed another glass of whisky. “I knew he was straight, so I never set my sights on him. If there had been anyone else I could choose, I would’ve liked someone else years ago.”
The senior immediately sensed an opportunity and began posing flirtatiously. “Then have you ever liked anyone else?”
Xia Cheng Qing glared. “I spend every damn day with him! How am I supposed to like anyone else?! And he still thought I was secretly dating you guys?! When would I even have the time? While I’m in the bathroom?!”
The senior: “Uh… what about right now?”
Xia Cheng Qing turned his head and stared at him for a long time.
The senior: “Heart fluttering yet?”
Xia Cheng Qing smacked him hard on the head again. “It’s you! You’re the one who ruined things for me!”
- The Ship Can Switch, but It Must Not Split
Late at night, Xia Hao received a call from his elder brother’s phone, but the person speaking on the other end was an unfamiliar man. “Are you A’Qing’s younger brother? He’s drunk and refuses to come to a hotel with me. Can you come pick him up?”
Xia Hao held the phone between his head and shoulder while massaging the shoulders and neck of Forensic Pathologist Xiao He, who was helping him write reports. “I’m working overtime with a colleague and can’t get away. Sorry for the trouble. Call my second brother.”
The senior searched through the contacts for ages but could not find anyone named “Second Brother.” Nor did it occur to him to search the blacklist for “Asshole,” so in the end he called “Little Sister.”
“Ah?” Xia Xiao Mang sounded anxious and distressed. “How did Brother get drunk? He normally doesn’t like drinking. Thank you for looking after him, I’ll come right away… Ah, wait. Is he so drunk he can’t stand up? Then… um… do you think he still has enough strength to hit people?”
The senior rubbed his swollen forehead. “Probably not anymore.”
“Okay. Thank you.”
Twenty minutes later, a Ferrari came tearing into the bar district at breakneck speed and stopped in front of the little tavern.
A’Ying rushed out of the car first, followed by Xia Xiao Mang, who was still traumatized from the high-speed drive.
Xia Cheng Qing was actually a very peaceful drunk. He lay motionless over the bar as though quietly asleep. The senior kept watch beside him, somewhat drunk himself, and the moment he saw Xiao Mang and A’Ying come in, he said, “Are you A’Qing’s sister? He’s over here!”
“Who said you could call him A’Qing?!” A’Ying immediately focused on the wrong thing.
“We’ve always called him that,” the senior said in confusion. He shook his head and thought for a long time. “Why do you look so familiar? Have we met somewhere before?”
With Xiao Mang’s help, A’Ying had already hoisted Xia Cheng Qing onto his back. He glared bitterly at the senior.
From that gaze, which looked exactly as envious, jealous, and resentful as it had all those years ago, the senior recognized his junior from the past and suddenly had a flash of realization. “Ah! You’re that straight guy! He’s been cursing you all night. You really are a scumbag!”
The jealousy and resentment on A’Ying’s face instantly turned into guilt and regret. His eyes dimmed as he lowered his head. For once, the normally competitive A’Ying did not talk back. He simply steadied Xia Cheng Qing on his back and walked silently outside.
Xiao Mang, who had remained behind, could not stand it and spoke a few words of “justice” on behalf of her “Second Brother.” “Brother Ying isn’t straight, and he isn’t a scumbag! He treats my brother incredibly well! They only had a little quarrel! I’m very grateful that you looked after my brother tonight, but don’t even think about taking advantage while he’s vulnerable! They’ve been together for more than ten years. Their ship can switch, but it must not split, understand?!”
The senior was stunned senseless by her scolding. Only after she chased A’Ying out of the bar did he blankly think, “Together” for more than ten years?
How is that completely different from what A’Qing told me???
Did she misunderstand, or did I hear something wrong??
With Xiao Mang’s help, A’Ying got Xia Cheng Qing out of the car, into the house, and onto the bed.
The moment Xia Cheng Qing reached the bed, he vomited. The sheets and covers were a complete disaster, and he himself reeked of alcohol. The mighty, dignified image of the eldest brother collapsed utterly.
A’Ying told Xiao Mang, “It’s too late. It’ll be inconvenient for you to go home now, so stay here and rest. I’ll change the sheets. I’ll take him to wash up first.”
Xiao Mang had class early the next morning and was truly exhausted. Yawning, she returned to the room at the far end of the corridor—the one she had lived in as a child. Xia Cheng Qing had kept it exactly as it was, even leaving some spare clothes there so she could come back and stay whenever she felt nostalgic for her childhood. Only their younger brother’s room had been converted into a workout room, so whenever Xia Cheng Qing missed his brother, he could beat up a punching bag instead.
Before leaving, she told A’Ying meaningfully, “If you two are going to ‘fight,’ keep the noise down.”
A’Ying looked at Xia Cheng Qing, who was limp as mud, and answered honestly, “We won’t fight tonight.”
Xiao Mang yawned regretfully and went to sleep.
A’Ying had underestimated the stamina Xia Cheng Qing had built from beating punching bags every day. The moment he helped Xia Cheng Qing into the bathtub, Xia Cheng Qing woke up. Still muddled with drunkenness, he saw that it was A’Ying, immediately became furious, and set about fulfilling his vow of “beating him every time he saw him,” raising his fist and trying to hit him right there in the tub.
A’Ying knew he was in the wrong and did not dare fight back. Xia Cheng Qing dragged him into the bathtub and gave him a thorough beating while both of them got soaked. His clothes were drenched through, bruises bloomed all over his body, and even his lip split open after striking the side of the tub.
After finally escaping Xia Cheng Qing’s drunken-fist barrage, he still had to endure the pain and bone-deep cold while coaxing Xia Cheng Qing through his bath, drying him, wrapping him in a bath towel, and sending him to the sofa. Then, sneezing, A’Ying changed the filthy sheets and covers before “inviting” the still-cursing eldest Xia brother back into bed.
After cursing enough and hitting enough, Xia Cheng Qing was fed half a cup of warm water. He rinsed his mouth, curled up inside the soft, dry blankets, and fell asleep in satisfaction.
A’Ying, meanwhile, was cold and aching all over as he silently sorted the dirty sheets and covers in front of the washing machine. He felt that everything was over, that Xia Cheng Qing would never forgive him, and finally found yet another reason to cry for a while.
He stripped off his own clothes and threw them into the washing machine too, then stumbled off in a daze to take a cold shower. The bruises Xia Cheng Qing had given him hurt more and more under the water. Hissing against the cold, he put on Xia Cheng Qing’s robe, forced himself to find the first-aid kit, and clumsily smeared iodine over his wounds in front of the mirror.
Once he finished, possessed by the reckless, nothing-left-to-lose thought that he would never be allowed to see Xia Cheng Qing again anyway, he took off the robe, boldly crawled under Xia Cheng Qing’s blankets completely naked, wrapped himself around Xia Cheng Qing, and fell asleep.
The next morning, the truth was buried.
After being beaten and chilled, A’Ying developed a mild fever. His face was flushed red, and he kept slipping into nightmares. Partway through one, birdsong outside the window woke him. He groggily opened his eyes and saw Xia Cheng Qing sitting at the head of the bed like a ghost, face deathly pale as he stared at him.
A’Ying broke into a layer of cold sweat from fright. Even his voice was hoarse when he opened his mouth. “Y-you… what… happened to you…?”
Xia Cheng Qing was still hungover, his head splitting with pain, and no matter what he did he could not remember what exactly he had done the previous night. Wrapped in the blanket, he stared in shock for a while at A’Ying’s fever-flushed face and strangely split, swollen lips, then reached out to lift A’Ying’s blanket.
A’Ying thought Xia Cheng Qing still had not beaten him enough. Red-faced, he clutched the blanket and tried to burrow underneath it. “Don’t… spare me… I—I have a fever already… I feel terrible…”
Xia Cheng Qing’s face cycled through red, blue, and every shade in between. “I just want to check. Ahem… did you clean up?”
A’Ying thought Xia Cheng Qing was disgusted that he had climbed into bed. “I’m not dirty. I took a shower…”
Xia Cheng Qing became anxious and tried again to lift the blanket. “Are you stupid? Did you catch a chill because you took a shower? Let me see! Are you hurt?”
He saw the strange red marks across A’Ying’s collarbone and the dark bruises covering his shoulders. A’Ying was so frightened that tears filled his eyes as he nodded repeatedly. “I am hurt! I put medicine on myself! Last night hurt so much… and I was so cold… I washed the sheets too. I—I know I was wrong. It’s all because I’m awful… I’ll apologize to you properly later. I just feel really terrible right now…”
Xia Cheng Qing’s expression could hardly have been more spectacular.
At that moment, Xiao Mang knocked outside. “Brother? Are you awake? I’m leaving for class. Are you two okay?”
Someone answered from inside. Only after a long while did Xia Cheng Qing, wrapped in his robe and wearing an extremely complicated expression, open the door a tiny crack.
Xiao Mang grinned and tried to peer inside. “Made up?”
Xia Cheng Qing held the door firmly. “…Mm.”
“Ohhh—‘a couple fights at the head of the bed and makes up at the foot,’” Xiao Mang said earnestly. “Brother Ying worked so hard last night. I even heard him come out in the middle of the night to wash the sheets and rummage through the medicine box.”
Xia Cheng Qing’s expression became even more colorful.
He had “worked hard” all night, still washed the sheets himself, and even applied his own medicine. So strong. So virtuous. So humble.
Xia Cheng Qing began to feel that perhaps he was actually the scummier one.
Xiao Mang’s ship of more than ten years had not sunk. Completely satisfied, she happily went off to work.
- How Can There Be Such Stupid Damn Lovers?
Xia Cheng Qing boiled a kettle of water, warmed a cup of honey tea, and carried it into the bedroom for A’Ying. With a dark expression, he apologized, “I was drunk last night. It was my fault. If you really mind, then hit me.”
A’Ying had somehow been launched straight from hell into heaven. The sudden increase in altitude was so extreme he nearly got altitude sickness and suffered a nosebleed. Wrapped in the blanket and leaning against the headboard, he anxiously held the cup and shook his head again and again. “No, no. It was all my fault. I know I was wrong. I’ve regretted it every single day.”
“Stop talking. Your voice is already that hoarse,” Xia Cheng Qing said in distress.
A’Ying immediately fell silent and only drank his honey tea in tiny sip, sip, sip sounds.
“I’ll go to the pharmacy later and buy you some cooling patches. What do you feel like eating?” Xia Cheng Qing asked gently again.
What did A’Ying feel like eating?! He was shocked, frightened, and deliriously happy all at once. All he wanted was to run downstairs and sprint laps, and he was so overwhelmed he wanted to dig his wildly thump-thump-thumping heart straight out of his chest and eat it! If he had known one beating and one fever were all it took to coax Xia Cheng Qing back, he would have stripped himself naked and soaked himself in ice a month ago!
A’Ying spent a perfectly comfortable day recuperating at Xia Cheng Qing’s home. After work that evening, Xia Hao and Xiao Mang both came to visit, fussing over him and asking after his health. He thoroughly enjoyed receiving the full “sister-in-law” treatment.
While Xia Cheng Qing and Xia Hao cooked dinner in the kitchen, Xiao Mang crouched beside the bed, propped her chin in both hands, and curiously asked him, “Brother Ying, you and my brother still ‘fought’ last night, right?”
A’Ying’s fever had almost completely gone down. He remained bundled inside the blanket, his face still warmly flushed. “Ahem. Yes. Mostly he hit me.”
“Mhm, mhm. I can tell. By the way, after all these years of you two ‘fighting,’ is it usually him ‘hitting’ you, or you ‘hitting’ him?”
Although A’Ying could not understand why Xiao Mang’s eyes were shining when she said the word “hit,” he thought about it seriously and answered honestly, “About half and half. He hits me a little more.”
“Ohhh—” Xiao Mang nodded knowingly. “Switchable but inseparable. I understand. After all, you’re both manly men.”
What? What does that mean? I don’t understand. Is she watching some new drama again? The generation gap between me and my little sister keeps getting wider. Kind of sad.
The two of them chatted for a while, talking completely past each other yet somehow lining up perfectly. Xia Cheng Qing called from outside, “Dinner!”
“Coming!” Xiao Mang shouted. “Brother Ying, I’ll help you. You’re having trouble walking, right?”
A’Ying really had been kicked several times in the ass by Xia Cheng Qing the previous night, so he was limping a little. As his younger sister helped him out of bed, he marveled at her thoughtfulness. “Thank you.”
“It’s nothing, it’s nothing. It’s only right. It’s all Brother’s fault for having such powerful hips.”
Kicking someone really did require hip strength. A’Ying sighed. “He trained it by kicking punching bags. Now he uses me as the target.”
“Ohhh—”
Still talking completely past each other. Still somehow lining up perfectly.
When Xia Cheng Qing saw A’Ying slowly emerge while holding his waist, his expression became extremely complicated again. Of everyone in the house, only Xia Hao remained innocently oblivious, enthusiastically praising the new colleague at the Forensic Pathology Service for how well he wrote reports.
Xiao Mang whispered to him, “They ‘fought’ again last night. After the ‘fight,’ they made up.”
Xia Hao: “Ohhh—”
Xia Cheng Qing glared at him. What the hell are you “ohhh”-ing about? Do you even understand what your sister means? Do you know what that “ohhh” means before you say “ohhh”?
Xia Hao lowered his head and shoveled rice into his mouth, baffled and faintly annoyed. Of course I know. My sister told me ages ago. It’s just fighting on a bed, isn’t it? There’s a mattress underneath, so I guess it doesn’t hurt as much.
—Still talking about two completely different things. Still somehow lining up perfectly.
The family happily finished dinner. Xia Hao was just about to obediently get up and clear the dishes when Xia Cheng Qing suddenly said, “Wait. I have something important to announce.”
The younger brother and sister immediately sat up straight and waited for the “head of the family” to announce an important household decision. A’Ying in particular, with no idea what fate awaited him, was so nervous his heart was pounding thump-thump-thump.
Xia Cheng Qing cleared his throat and announced with steady authority, “Your Brother Ying and I…”
A’Ying was so nervous his heart nearly leapt out of his throat. Is this a Hongmen Banquet? Is he formally cutting ties with me? Was all that kindness today just one last flash before death??
Elio’s Notes: The Hongmen Banquet is a famous historical banquet remembered as a dangerous political trap in which one guest’s life was under threat. Calling something a “Hongmen Banquet” means suspecting that an apparently friendly gathering is actually a setup.
Xia Cheng Qing: “We’re together.”
A’Ying: “??????”
The younger siblings, on the other hand, were completely unsurprised. Xia Hao: “Weren’t you always together?” Xiao Mang: “Exactly. You’ve been like an old married couple for more than ten years. We figured it out ages ago.”
Xia Cheng Qing: “??????”
Xia Cheng Qing: “What the hell have you been imagining? What do you mean more than ten years?! We only got together last night! He was such an asshole before. Who the hell would’ve wanted to be with him?!”
Xiao Mang was instantly shocked. “Last night?! Don’t tell me last night was the first time you two—???”
Xia Cheng Qing: “Yes.”
Xiao Mang’s entire worldview regarding this ship collapsed! “You mean when we were little and you two locked yourselves in a room to ‘fight,’ you were actually fighting?!”
Xia Cheng Qing: “Of course we were actually fighting!”
Xiao Mang: “And when both of you had ‘mosquito bites’ the next day, those were actually mosquito bites too?!”
Xia Cheng Qing: “They were actual mosquito bites! How many melodramatic soap operas did you watch when you were a kid?!”
Xiao Mang slapped the table and shot to her feet. “I don’t believe it!! I refuse to accept this!! Last night was really your first time?! After all these years, you never got pent up?! You’re both already this old!! You clearly liked each other, yet you wasted all those years! Are you idiots?!”
Xia Cheng Qing: “……”
She struck him straight through the heart, metaphorically making blood gush from all seven orifices! Humiliated into fury, Xia Cheng Qing rolled up his sleeves and prepared to commit the ultimate outrage—beating his younger sister!
Xiao Mang was not frightened in the slightest. She was completely consumed by the fury of having shipped this couple wrong for more than ten years! Ahhh! How can there be such stupid damn lovers?! I want to write ten random-stranger NTR fics and have both of them screwed into rag dolls just to vent my rage!!
Elio’s Notes: NTR, from Japanese netorare, is fandom shorthand for a partner-stealing or cuckolding scenario. Xiao Mang is so furious with their twenty years of romantic incompetence that she jokingly wants to torment both of them in fanfic.
Xia Hao had not understood a single thing they were arguing about, but he was extremely skilled at recognizing the warning signs that meant his older brother was about to hit someone. He immediately jumped up to intervene. “Brother! Sister! Wait! Look at Brother Ying! What’s wrong with him?! He hasn’t said anything this whole time!”
The noisy room fell silent for one second.
“Brother Ying fainted—!!”
Brother Ying, who had become so excited that he actually passed out, collapsed face-first into the leftover soup and rice and was carried away by Xia Cheng Qing for a bath.
Taking a bath meant taking off his clothes, and the moment those clothes came off, the buried truth finally came to light.
Xia Cheng Qing: “……”
So even their supposed “first time” had never actually happened.
Thirty-five really was one enormous hurdle in life.
Even his intelligence had apparently taken a cliff dive.
He had even come out in the most humiliating fashion imaginable, destroyed what had once been a perfectly harmonious relationship with his younger siblings, and reduced the wise and mighty image of the eldest brother to ashes.
That very night, he packed up the asshole who was the root of all evil and threw him straight back to the villa.
The person most devastated by the entire affair was Xiao Mang.
It was as though she had shipped this couple for more than ten years—and also as though she had not.
It was as though she and her younger brother had spent more than ten years shipping them together—and also as though her younger brother had never once been shipping the right thing. (A’Hao only learned what “fighting in bed” actually meant after having his own pipes unclogged.)
It turned out that the road of this ship had been so rugged, so lonely, and so very long.
Truly tragic.
Even more tragic was this: when the two of them really did “fight,” who exactly was the one “hitting” whom?
That would have to remain an unsolved mystery too!
And somehow, Brothers? still got its happy ending.
Alternate version of the coming-out scene:
Xia Cheng Qing: “Ahem. Regarding your Brother Ying, I have something important to announce.”
Xia Hao: “What is it? Did you finally find evidence proving he really is our biological brother?!”
Xia Cheng Qing: “Even if you did find evidence, you’d better keep your mouth shut!!!”
Author End Note:
Thank you all for accompanying me through this AU fanfiction of over twenty thousand words. This fanfic series officially comes to an end here.
My original intention was to write a clean and upright A’Hao, and a Xia Cheng Qing living a peaceful and tranquil life. Both of these wishes have been fulfilled. I had a great time writing this, and I hope all of you enjoyed reading it as well.
The reason Xia Cheng Qing only comes to understand his feelings at the age of thirty-five is because that is precisely the age at which Azure Dragon died. The twenty years that Azure Dragon and A’Ying spent together are mirrored in the parallel world as the twenty years between Xia Cheng Qing and A’Ying. However, Xia Cheng Qing ≠ Azure Dragon, and A’Ying ≠ A’Ying—these two characters are significantly OOC. This is also why they are able to reach a HE in the parallel world.
In the original work, the relationships among Azure Dragon, Liu Yi, Xiao Man, and A’Ying are extremely complex. Even when I reread the “Brothers” extra, I felt deeply moved by that sense of inescapable entanglement and inevitable destruction.
A few days ago, a friend who had read “Brothers” asked me what Azure Dragon had wanted to say to A’Ying before he died. I went back to reread it, and I think Azure Dragon actually wanted to apologize.
He was shocked, but he did not hate A’Ying. He was only astonished by how deeply A’Ying had misunderstood him, and by A’Ying’s anger over his feelings for Liu Yi. Years of accumulated disagreements and misunderstandings had pushed their relationship onto an irreparable path.
Before that, however, Azure Dragon had always been soft-hearted because of their once-deep brotherhood. He chose not to pursue the matter, not to reflect deeply on it, and not to guard against it—so in the end, he was caught completely off guard and was harmed by A’Ying.
After rereading “Brothers,” I feel that Azure Dragon’s feelings toward A’Ying were more disappointment and guilt, rather than hatred.
If he were reborn in a parallel world, I think he would also be willing to untangle this relationship anew (though not necessarily as a romantic one). However, if reborn within the original storyline, then what they had sown together in that harsh and dangerous environment would still bear its bitter fruit—their relationship and ending would likely remain unsolvable.
I would rather attribute their tragedy in the main story to that particular era, the dark environment they lived in, and their own flawed personalities.
In the parallel world, although the era and environment are better, I have still retained Xia Cheng Qing and A’Ying’s flawed personalities. This is also why it took them twenty years to understand each other’s feelings.
Xia Cheng Qing always believed A’Ying was straight, and A’Ying also believed himself to be straight—or perhaps he truly is straight, except for Xia Cheng Qing alone.
But regardless, if not for their twenty years of inseparable companionship, if Xia Cheng Qing had had a more suitable “partner” to choose from, then given their personalities, they still might not have ended up together.
This is not only because A’Ying is closeted, slow-witted, and emotionally oblivious, but also because Xia Cheng Qing endured for twenty years under the belief that “the other person is straight.”
Fortunately, this is AU fan fiction after all—give them enough luck, and just a little more courage than in the original work, and achieving a HE is not a problem.
I wish that everyone in this parallel world may find happiness and fulfillment.
P.S. Some readers have wondered whether Azure Dragon and Liu Yi would end up together if placed in another world. Personally, I think that with Azure Dragon’s personality flaws, he would lose to the bold and relentless “green tea” Xiao He in any world.
In a better, brighter world, Xiao He wouldn’t have to compete with the dead, and A’Hao wouldn’t have psychological barriers—wouldn’t that make things even smoother? Xiao He would probably “fix A’Hao’s pipes” within three months—why wait three years?
P.P.S. As for whether Xia Cheng Qing and A’Ying are top or bottom, there have already been several hints in the previous and current chapters. But since this is fanfiction, I don’t want to limit anyone’s imagination—ship whoever you want as the top, feel free.
Finally, presenting A’Ying the “big-eyed chicken” who has accompanied everyone these past days—considering that he’s now become a crying baby, let him have his HE.
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