[Size difference | Blended family, pseudo-siblings | Reunited after a breakup | Handsome older gong and beautiful shou]
[Formerly cold, now doting-on-his-younger-brother proud genius gong x pampered, clingy, pretty, spirited shou]
A reluctant softie who says one thing and means another x an affectionate, clingy flirt, like a frozen river and a twinkling star
Short blurb:
When Li Yinli was in his senior year of high school, his mother brought home the son of the man she was dating and told him to call him big brother. Li Yinli and the guy exchanged a glance, then silently looked away. Li Yinli thought: Yeah, right.
Li Yinli once thought they could keep up their unspoken agreement to go their separate ways whenever they went out. But little by little, his soon-to-be stepbrother seemed to change his mind.
One day, on his way home, he ran into the aloof academic star who had topped the grade rankings for years. His outgoing friend complained to the star, “I hear Xiaoli's stepbrother is a pain. Xiaoli hates him most of all!”
After saying goodbye to his friend, the academic star and Li Yinli walked one behind the other, arriving at the same home. He held the door shut and asked Li Yinli with a teasing smile, “You hate me?”
“Is it the kind of hate where you were asking me to kiss you harder just last night?”
Long blurb:
01.
In 2017, Li Yinli quietly opened the door in the middle of the night and stood on tiptoe to kiss the person waiting outside. The man was much taller than him. One hand covered the back of Li Yinli's head as he called him his good boy in a husky voice, pulled him close, and kissed him deeply.
As Li Yinli lost himself in the kiss, he reached out to embrace the man and felt a tiny mole behind his ear.
In 2022, after his mother had urged him time and again, Li Yinli finally rushed home on New Year's Eve.
When he opened the door, the steamy aroma of soup filled the room. Someone at the dining table had rolled up his sleeves to make dumplings. His profile was as elegant as a snow-covered mountain, and his fingers were long and well-defined as he pinched the dumpling wrappers closed.
His mother came out of the kitchen and called, “Shi Fang.” The man answered, then turned, revealing a tiny mole behind his ear.
When he turned back, his eyes met Li Yinli's.
Li Yinli looked at him, then slowly called him big brother.
02.
The summer after high school graduation was hard to endure.
In a dim, sweltering town in the south, they squeezed together on the sofa. The tablet's heat seeped through their clothes. Li Yinli turned his head, saw that thin letter of admission, and suddenly started to cry.
Years later, summer returned.
He found a cookie tin in the old study. It was stuffed with letter after letter, all filled with longing for Ji Shifang.
“I once had a kitten.”
“Even though I know he left me, that he was the one who walked away first...”
“...I still can't let him go.”
As everyone knows, a mirror that can be put back together either was never whole to begin with or was never broken.
“My thoughts of you never cease, day and night. You haunt my dreams.”
*The cover is custom-made, but the background image is not exclusive.
Reading guide:
1. Both leads are each other's first and only. No breaking them up, reversing roles, self-insert fantasies, or bashing.
2. An everyday story with a slow-burn romance, focused on the relationship between the two leads.
3. The gong and shou have never been on the same household registration. They were adults when they fell in love. There are reasons for their separation, and both had their difficulties back then.
Blurb screenshotted on 2025.9.15
Theme: Love can help people become better versions of themselves.
