[Two male leads + contemporary romance + healing]
Qing Lin: The cast-off son of the Gu family, with a burn-shaped scar on his back. As silent as a deep pool, he hides his tenderness in the careful heat of melting sugar. When it comes to protecting Xia Ying, he can blaze into a fierce, all-consuming rage. The sugar jar is his obsession, and his salvation.
Xia Ying: A survivor carrying a silver whistle that plays off-key, with memories of the fire hidden in his leg injury. Soft as a marshmallow, yet brave enough to face a flash of steel with a wooden stick. The whistle is his armor, and his private signal to Qing Lin.
Synopsis of Unopened Evening Breeze:
The attic fire destroyed Qing Lin's sugar jar, but it couldn't burn away the obsession he had hidden in the ashes. Then he met Xia Ying, a boy who played "Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star" so wildly off-key and always slipped him strawberry candies, saying, "You've had enough bitterness. It's time for the sweetness to come back."
When the silver whistle sounded among the ruins, the charred painting revealed the starry sky Gu Nian had never finished. They made candy in an abandoned factory, wrapping strawberry sweetness in the tartness of lemon to fight the Gu family's persistent shadow. A copper star-shaped longevity lock swayed in the wind, as if someone were saying, "Don't be afraid."
Only later did they understand: the burn scars, tear-sweet candies, and off-key whistle had already simmered their lives together into a candy that could never be pulled apart. The sweetness wrapped in its bitter shell was the way they looked at each other, the tenderness the evening breeze had finally unsealed.
