[Smiling, sun-bright King of Hell top x obsessive, love-starved shadow bottom] A clash of equals + obsessive redemption + the working stiff's stress tolerance → Love makes us whole. May you and I shine together.
The Xiaozhou Patrol Office has two sharpest blades.
One is the sun: Qiao Boci, captain of the Red Kirin Squad, twenty-two years old, with a smile as bright as a boy's.
The other is his shadow: deputy Chu Wenran, twenty-three, who knows his captain as well as he knows his own bones.
Everyone says they're a match made in heaven, the perfect symbiosis of light and shadow.
Until Black Flower descends and evil takes hold of Chu Wenran's heart.
Chu Wenran locks his sun in a stone chamber with his own hands, shackles around his ankles and a dagger through his shoulder.
He thinks he finally has this light all to himself.
“Ci, stay here. You'll be safe.” He rests his head on Qiao Boci's shoulder, whispering like a lover.
But when the Patrol Office's pursuers close in, and he frantically demands to know where Qiao Boci is
those eyes, vacant for so long, slowly come into focus.
Qiao Boci looks at him and says, one word at a time, as if it hardly matters:
“Luoxia Mountain.”
“I'm not the sun you imprisoned, Chu Wenran.”
Even after their brutal struggle, Qiao Boci's eyes remain bright.
“We're the Patrol Office's two mad dogs.”
We were before.
We still are.
“So.”
Qiao Boci opens his arms to him, eyes crinkling with a smile:
“My deputy Chu, when are you coming home?”
He shackled the light, never knowing it had already slipped through his fingers, waiting for a true union.
In a forgotten corner, the villain Black Flower asks: What about me? Where's my part in the blurb???
No more main story below
[Bonus Scene: The Working Stiff's Resolve]
Qiao Boci, back from being imprisoned: Great, the world is in chaos, everyone at the office is in tears, there's more than eight hundred letters of reprimand from headquarters, and files are piled up halfway to the ceiling
Qiao Boci: Where's my deputy? Where's my beast of burden (crossed out), my strong and capable helper?
(He turns to look.)
“Oh, he's still locked up in the woodshed in the back for imprisoning his superior.”
This is urgent, bro. Ten hours away from my desk and the world falls apart.
How does someone have to fight a villain, keep his dog on a leash so it doesn't get lost, and run around putting out fires all at once?!
Qiao Boci: Setting the facts aside, couldn't you imprison me and take care of the paperwork for me at the same time?
Chu Wenran: ??? Are you even human!
[Some other rambling]
*The neighboring story, Against the Current, has an AU without Yang Qi. Qiao Boci is off the job the whole time, drawing nearly all of Black Flower's fire.
And now, let's interview Black Flower: Madam, as the only villain, do you have anything to say?
Black Flower: Chu Wenran, I f, ing [beep] you!
(Sweating profusely) (Quickly mutes herself) (Calmly covers her mouth)
Thank you, Madam Black Flower, for your hard work! Invading the world only to run into a clueless couple is just one of those things that happens in war (not really)!
Don't forget, in the neighboring story, Against the Current, Madam Black Flower gets to dish out one hundred percent of the damage (during the process)! We look forward to seeing her in the other set!
For modern Qiao and Chu, see: Feng Lin F4 Are Still Wrecking Each Other Today
Energetic Qiao Boci spends the whole story messing with his colleagues and tormenting his wife, then goes to a parallel world to mess with other versions of himself and his wife. You two, get together and do something I can write about, please.jpg
[One last note]
Rule One of the Black Flower Villain's Guide to World Domination: Stay away from gay men. Especially gay men who haven't realized it yet!!!
Theme: So long as the light endures, the shadow shines too.
