Content warning: The early chapters are a slow burn with some angst, while the later chapters go all in on the groveling exes trying to win him back.
[Prison Warden Meng Xia X Inmate Zheng Qian]
[Reborn, possessive fake younger brother Zheng Yan X long-suffering older brother Zheng Qian]
[Fake young master Lin Hanyun, searching for true affection X Zheng Qian, an expert at raising kids]
Zheng Qian spent his teenage years, from fourteen to eighteen, in a psychiatric hospital. The beautiful years of his youth, from eighteen to twenty-three, were cut short behind the prison walls.
Meng Xia: How will you survive under these prison walls?
Zheng Qian: I'll trade my freedom for protection and my body for survival.
But Zheng Qian regrets it. He doesn't want a reduced sentence or special treatment. He just wants to never see the warden again.
Zheng Yan: I've loved you for fifteen years. I just fell in love with someone else too. Can you understand me, big brother?
Zheng Qian: If you don't love me, then let me go.
And now Zheng Yan is the one crying and begging Zheng Qian to come back.
Lin Hanyun: Let's go abroad. No one will find us there. We can live peacefully for the rest of our lives, and I'll stay by your side forever.
Zheng Qian: I waited for you at the airport overseas for a whole day and night. You never came. Zheng Yan did! Why did you lie to me and betray me?
Lin Hanyun: Because you lied to me first and abandoned me to human traffickers. This is your punishment!
And now Lin Hanyun stands in the pouring rain, swearing to heaven that he'll endure any hardship, as long as Zheng Qian gives him one chance to start over.
Love and hate intertwine, and it's hard to tell what feelings are real. In the end, how much do they truly care for Zheng Qian?
There are clues planted early on, and all the loose ends will be tied up. A little angst, at least in my opinion. Lots of sweetness later on. Should I make this a choose-your-favorite kind of story?
