After a Straight-Laced Guy Accidentally Eats the Scheming Grass by His Nest

[Completed. One week after it goes on hiatus, I'll start a second-chance romance, The Sickly Beauty Drops In at His Puppy Ex's Office. The blurb is in the author's note of Chapter 1. Please add it to your reading list!]

Gloomy, beautiful, devoted painter from a wealthy family x sweet, slow-witted, pure-hearted straight STEM guy

Pei Qingchi x Chen Lie | Top has a secret crush | Turns a straight guy gay | Sex first, love later

Chen Lie is a rock-solid straight guy who never bends.

Then one day in college, he went out drinking and accidentally slept with his longtime best friend, Pei Qingchi.

And he was the bottom.

Chen Lie: ...

It hit Chen Lie like a ton of bricks. He felt he could no longer face his straight-guy identity or his friend. Just as he finally managed to get his head straight, his best friend, the one he'd always thought of as ripe for the picking, suddenly confessed to him.

Pei Qingchi: Chen Lie, I've actually had a crush on you for a long time.

Chen Lie: ?

Dude, you never told me you were gay!

What do you mean you told me ages ago, and I just didn't get it???

Wait, dude, are you trying to date me? I seriously didn't notice?????

Pei Qingchi was the only son of a wealthy family. He fell in love with Chen Lie at first sight during a childhood outing, then began a twelve-year secret crush.

He came all the way from home to be with Chen Lie, carefully maneuvering his way into becoming Chen Lie's closest companion. He even used a secret identity to lure Chen Lie into a university in his hometown.

But Chen Lie turned around and gave him a “good guy” card, saying he was the most dependable friend in the world and that their relationship was stronger than any couple's.

Pei Qingchi: .

Standing in his private studio, Pei Qingchi smiled at a whole wall of portraits of Chen Lie. He knew how to seduce with his looks and how to play mind games. Even if Chen Lie insisted he was straight, Pei Qingchi had a way to win him over.

After all, he liked Chen Lie so much.

One day after they got together, Chen Lie stumbled across Pei Qingchi's old diary of teenage angst and unrequited love. He teased him with a laugh:

“Weren't you always so confident after starting college? How come you were so timid in high school, writing stuff like this every day?”

Without blushing or batting an eye, Pei Qingchi snatched the diary away, turned his head, and kissed the cheek of the handsome young man in his arms.

“That was puberty. It's normal for my feelings to be different from how they are now. Back in high school, you also said that when you got married someday, I had to be there, and you'd ask me to be your best man. Do you remember?”

Chen Lie's face suddenly flushed. Pei Qingchi, however, pulled out a diamond ring. Smiling, he looked at the dazed man in front of him and said:

“You can't go back on that. I have to be there when A Lie gets married. But since we've already slept together, how about you promote me from best man to groom?”

1. Both are virgins and each other's first love. One-on-one pairing. Mostly sweet, with some bumps along the way. Happy ending.

2. The bottom has never liked men, but only thought he was straight.

3. The top has a sweet, innocent crush in high school, then goes full strategist in college.

4. It opens with a college one-night stand. The high school storyline is all flashbacks.

5. This story isn't suitable for readers with strict character preferences or those who dislike changed pairings.

6. Six months after completion, the title will be changed back to its literary name, Crossing Rivers Together.

7. Part of the Shanghai Elite series. Author's Weibo: @Gugu Gu Xingyue.

Theme: Best friends for life