Instructions for Using a Sympathy Doll

Everyone thinks the campus heartthrob, Qi Sizhao, is an aloof beauty perched high above the world.

Only Lu Mianzhi knows that he secretly changes into women's clothes in front of the empathy doll Lu gave him!

*

Lu Mianzhi has had a crush on Qi Sizhao for two whole years.

His sketchbook is full of secrets: his senior's eyelashes trembling faintly in the sunlight, the ends of his hair sticking up when he falls asleep in the library, and... countless "indescribable" drawings of the two of them blushing and getting their hearts racing.

On the day he confessed, he clutched the empathy doll he'd made with his own hands. Staring at the other boy's face, he was so nervous his brain shut down. He shoved the doll into Qi Sizhao's arms and ran.

Only after he came to his senses did he realize that he'd handed over the sketchbook full of his not-safe-for-kids secrets, too.

The whole school knows that Qi Sizhao is gentle yet distant, and that he throws away gifts he doesn't accept as soon as he turns around. Lu Mianzhi doesn't dare imagine what will happen, so he immediately posts online for help.

Lu Mianzhi's plea for help goes viral:

Anonymous User 5424: [I gave the empathy doll and my indescribable comics to the senior I have a crush on... Am I doomed?]

1L: [Oh wow? Did you include an instruction manual? You're really something.]

2L: [Could it be the campus heartthrob? He's the sort who'd toss the doll around and tear it up!]

After reading several floors' worth of horror stories, Lu Mian curls up into a blanket burrito and even writes his own eulogy: Sob...

But that very night, he suddenly feels someone gently draw him into their arms. A warm kiss lands on his forehead, and they even brush his hair for him.

Lu Mianzhi: The senior really is a gentleman!

The next day, he feels a chill on his body, as if someone has put him in a maid outfit!

On the third day, a qipao.

On the fourth day, a Lolita dress.

As Lu Mianzhi walks down the street, he keeps feeling like there's nothing underneath, which makes him terribly insecure!

Red-faced and bristling, his legs trembling, he angrily posts anonymously on the forum: [Help! Which pervert stole someone else's doll and dressed it in women's clothes?!]

Then he comes across a trending post on the campus forum:

Anonymous User 2070: [The person I like gave me a doll and ran off. Is that a hint that they want us to have children together soon? I am kind of handsome, and they're kind of... No, they're really pretty.]

The replies below start roasting him: [??? There's a limit to how narcissistic you can be!]

Lu Mianzhi is so angry he replies directly: [Look in the mirror, you delusional creep!]

One day, Qi Sizhao opens the notebook he accidentally came into possession of.

His gaze sweeps over the pages of portraits of himself, then comes to rest on the "indescribable" practice sketches. He raises an eyebrow and chuckles.

Oh, so you're not a little white rabbit. You're a little custard bun with yellow filling?

...Then it's all right if I do something even more outrageous to you, isn't it?

At last unable to take it anymore, Lu Mianzhi rushes over to get his doll back.

But Qi Sizhao gently pins him behind the door of the art studio, his fingertips brushing the damp, rosy-red corners of Lu Mianzhi's eyes as he pinches his flushed cheeks.

Qi Sizhao: "You drew all those pictures. Aren't you going to take responsibility for me?"

Lu Mianzhi: "Th-That isn't an instruction manual... You can't dress me in women's clothes anymore!"

Qi Sizhao: "The forum said it was a 'guide.' And besides, were you the one who called me a delusional narcissist in that post?"

Lu Mianzhi: !!!

How do you even know which anonymous account was mine?!

Qi Sizhao rubs the unruly cowlick sticking up on his head and kisses his lips:

"Good boy. We don't need the doll to show us how this time."

"Let's put it into practice ourselves, all right?"

Bonus scene:

1L: [So, what does the empathy doll actually feel like?]

Lu Mianzhi replies with an alt account: [Don't ask. Let's just say the senior really seems to have read the 'guide.' He's a very fast learner...]

Qi Sizhao replies using his main account, under his real name: [Mm. The teacher taught me well.]

The replies explode: Holy crap, that's the aloof campus heartthrob!

2L: [Wait, when did the senior find out the original poster was the OP??]

Qi Sizhao replies under his real name: [The first day.]

Lu Mianzhi vanishes into thin air again: …

I want to escape this planet!

3L: [So where's the doll now?]

Qi Sizhao replies under his real name: [Put away. We use it sometimes.]

Lu Mianzhi: Shut up!!!!!!!

The empathy doll has been completely worn out from use, okay?!

* Updates follow the rankings when ranked; otherwise, 7,000+ words weekly. Thank you for reading. Chapter comments are open. Updates usually come at 9 p.m.

* Cultured, wicked, secretly sensual top 1 x shy, enthusiastic, sunny bottom 0

* Pure love, 1v1, mutual pining, happy ending

* Mutual pining x identity reveal x forum posts x push and pull. They are both head over heels for each other. Readers with extreme preferences, please stay away.

[Going premium starting with Chapter 16. Thank you for your support!]

---- Below is the blurb for my upcoming story. Please support it ----

At 28, Shen Junnan is sent back to when he was 18. The first thing he wants to do is strangle his pathetic, useless younger self.

But he can't bring himself to do it. Instead, he becomes his own life mentor, and... his first love?!

At 28, Shen Junnan has become a joke.

His parents are divorced, his boyfriend has run off with the money, his company has gone bankrupt, and he is a million in debt.

Everyone avoids him as if he were a plague carrier.

A car accident sends him back ten years.

It's not that he is reborn. He becomes a "stranger" and stands before his 18-year-old self.

Remembering his own miserable fate and looking at the unlikeable boy he used to be, he considers ending the boy's life right there.

But seeing that the light belonging to an 18-year-old has not yet gone out in the boy's eyes, he finally unclenches his fist.

Shen Junnan swears that in this life, he will defy fate and save this boy.

But he soon realizes the script is wrong.

The notes he stays up all night preparing for Jiang Yanhuan are borrowed by the blushing top student from the class next door, who even gives him a movie ticket in return.

The captain of the school basketball team, one of the bad romantic prospects he fends off for Jiang Yanhuan, hangs his MVP medal around Shen Junnan's neck in front of the whole school after a game.

Even the strict teacher who called him a "good-for-nothing" in his previous life now keeps asking him to have heart-to-heart talks: "There's something broken about you that makes people want to get to know you better."

Shen Junnan stares at himself in the mirror, bewildered. How has the "most hated by everyone" guy whom people once avoided suddenly become so popular?

The most unsettling thing is the way Jiang Yanhuan looks at him.

It's no longer simple dependence. His gaze grows deeper and more intense, filled with an almost instinctive possessiveness.

"They're all looking at you." The boy corners him in an empty classroom after school, casually hooking a finger into his collar. "I don't like it."

Shen Junnan tries to play the role of life mentor: "Listen, you need to keep your eyes open and find a good partner in the future. Don't end up like me..."

"Like you how?" Jiang Yanhuan suddenly leans closer, his breath brushing Shen Junnan's ear. "Like you, getting cheated out of everything by a scumbag?"

Shen Junnan stiffens.

But the boy smiles, his eyes astonishingly bright. Each word is like a declaration, or a curse: "But you won't cheat me."

"No one in this world knows what I want better than you do. No one cares more about the pain I've suffered."

"The future me..." His fingers slide into Shen Junnan's palm, their fingers interlacing. "If even 'I' don't love 'me,' who else will?"

"So I've decided to love you. That is, love myself. Future me, can you fall in love with the me of right now, and only me?"

Shen Junnan's brain shuts down as if struck by lightning. "I told you to love yourself, not to love your-self!!!"

And I definitely didn't tell you to pin me against the wall and investigate whether "future me's kissing skills have gotten worse"!

*

The first time Jiang Yanhuan met Shen Junnan, he felt jealous. He envied this other version of himself from a different world, who was better than him in every way and even loved lecturing him like a father.

It irritated him so much that he secretly vowed to teach this man a lesson.

So he successfully tricked him into bed.

[No one understands my joys and sorrows better than I do. No one cares about my past and future more than I do.]

*

High-intensity love-rival showdown bonus scene:

Later, on the principle that "anyone who treats Yanhuan well is a good friend," Shen Junnan forms a "Jiang Yanhuan Growth and Support Group."

At the gathering, the icy top student pushes up his glasses and peels a shrimp for him. "Brother Junnan, have this. Your stomach isn't doing well."

The defiant school bully kicks the top student's chair aside and offers a glass of warmed milk. "Drink mine. It's good for your stomach."

The elite teacher silently moves both the shrimp and the milk away, replacing them with the health porridge he brought. "Food from outside isn't clean."

The three men's eyes meet, sparks crackling like fireworks.

Shen Junnan is delighted. "Look how well you all get along. You look like a family."

The moment he finishes speaking, the "family" nearly flips the table.

Under the table, 18-year-old Jiang Yanhuan gently hooks his little finger around Shen Junnan's and looks up with puppy-dog eyes. "Brother, they're so noisy..."

"Let's go home, okay? I don't understand my homework. I only want you to teach me."

As the three men glare murderously, he leans close to Shen Junnan's flushed ear and adds in a breathy voice:

"Or... you could teach me something else. I'm a very fast learner."

After one night, Shen Junnan rubs his aching waist and belatedly thinks: Wait, wasn't something off between yesterday and today...? Wasn't I supposed to change my fate? How did I end up here to lose my life instead?!

* A story of self-redemption. The 28-year-old and 18-year-old versions of one person help each other grow. Younger top, the collision of mature steadiness and youthful passion.

* Straightforward, sunny, sweet on the outside and dark within, puppy-like top 1 x reserved, gentle, strong, universally adored bottom 0

* At its heart, this is the journey from universally disliked to universally adored. Many people like Shen Junnan, but Jiang Yanhuan will stand out in the love-rival showdown. Shen Junnan only likes Jiang Yanhuan.

* Happy ending. I have struggled with myself for so long, and at last we become one.

---- Upcoming stories in the queue ----

The gods created the world, blessed all living things, and bestowed otherworldly species and supernatural abilities, bringing endless opportunities and dangers.

Xie Yanhen is one of the people chosen by the gods.

He has three abilities: first, he can summon objects with his mind and control gravity; second, he has incredible luck and can turn danger into safety; third, he can peer into memories and read people's thoughts.

A top heir to a wealthy family with all three abilities, he has had a smooth life apart from losing his parents early. His abilities have never failed, and he is accepted into the Otherworldly Species Administration Bureau.

He has only one problem: for twenty years, his nightmares have always featured a beautiful blond man, covered in wounds and with shattered eyes, leaving him shaken and unable to calm down.

At a bar, his dream becomes reality.

He meets the beautiful blond man, Dai Xilan.

The other man is as cold as ice and as beautiful as a collectible figurine. He also gives Xie Yanhen his first taste of an ability failing: his mind-reading stops working.

When he gazes into the beautiful man's abyss-like eyes, the eyes that render his ability useless, all he sees is inky blackness.

Confident in his top-tier looks and money, Xie Yanhen steps forward and holds out his hand. "Hello, I'm Xie Yanhen, your future boyfriend. Shall we get acquainted?"

Dai Xilan coldly sidesteps him, then swings a bottle in the opposite direction, precisely smashing it into the head of a harasser who had been whistling at him from the next table.

Blood and glass fly. He calmly wipes his fingers as if he'd merely squashed a bug, then raises an eyebrow at the young master.

Xie Yanhen: "..."

Great. The beautiful man isn't just beautiful, he's also a prickly hothead.

From then on, his nighttime dreams take on an even more intense, unspeakable hue.

Their second encounter, like a joke played by fate, takes place at their new workplace.

Xie Yanhen looks at the badge on his chest, marked [Trainee Officer], then at the badge of the aloof beauty a few steps away, surrounded by the respect of everyone around him: [Chief Executive of the Otherworldly Species Administration Bureau: Dai Xilan]

His direct superior.

Xie Yanhen lowers his head and opens the New Employee Survival Manual, carefully reading the rules:

[1. Otherworldly species are dangerous. Be sure to contain them properly according to protocol.]

[2. An officer's job is dangerous. Be sure to love your work and carry out your duties conscientiously.]

[3. The chief executive is extremely dangerous. Obey without question, keep your distance, show absolute respect, and do not offend, flirt with, or entertain inappropriate thoughts about him in any way.]

Xie Yanhen looks up. His gaze passes over his superior Dai Xilan's cold, perfect profile, the waist carefully enclosed in his uniform, and the pale, fragile stretch of neck above his collar, before returning to the manual.

He runs his tongue over his canine tooth and chuckles.

The third rule?

That's way too difficult.

Tsk... With a chief executive who looks like that, who could possibly follow rule three?

Everyone warns him that Dai Xilan is a walking abyss, a forbidden thing no one should touch.

But Xie Yanhen loves playing with fire, and isn't afraid of getting burned to ashes.

When you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes back at you, returning your reflection.

But when I gaze at you, all I want is to drag you down from your pedestal and make you mine.

Such is the cycle of cause and effect.

[Bonus scene]

Later, everyone at the bureau knows one thing: Xie Yanhen is pursuing Dai Xilan. He's so blatant about it that the whole department munches on snacks and watches the show every day.

"What did Xie Yanhen do today?"

"Brought breakfast to Chief Dai."

"Then what?"

"It got thrown away."

"Then what?"

"He brought another one and said, 'If you throw one away, I'll bring another. Let's see whether you can throw them away faster than I can bring them.'"

"...Damn, impressive."

What no one knows is that night, Dai Xilan is sitting alone in his office.

He looks at the dinner on his desk, the one he "threw away" that somehow appeared again.

After a long while, he raises a hand and gently touches the tip of his ear, murmuring softly:

"You'll regret liking me..."

It is still warm there, as if the other man's closeness and words from earlier in the day have left a trace.

Ridiculously cool, handsome, powerful, show-off peacock top 1 x cold, chaste, lofty beauty, beautiful and strong yet tragic bottom 0 (smiling top 1 x unsmiling bottom 0)

* Xie is the top and Dai is the bottom. The top pursues, spoils, and teases the bottom first. They both love each other deeply. Both perspectives are included. There may be an overwhelming amount of adoration for the bottom; extreme character fans, please excuse us.

* 1v1, intensely mutual love, all nonsense, needs editing

Theme: Say your love out loud