A Scavenger Dodging the Kill Line Hooks a Lazy Fish

Lie-flat slacker | Beijing-circle young master gong x American sweetheart | A fishing-and-scheming shou who becomes a flirt to dodge the kill line

A down-on-his-luck sweetheart, trying to dodge the "kill line," decides to hunt a lazy fish from the East.

Jiang Lin is a famous slacker in Beijing's elite circles. His life motto is, "Hard work doesn't guarantee success, but not working hard is definitely easy."

After his family cut off his funds and sent him to America to "experience life," he took his lie-flat philosophy to the limit: choosing the easiest classes, earning just enough to pass, and, as his older brother put it, "sprawling like a Buddha in a penthouse on the Upper East Side, wasting your life."

Until he discovered that his supplementary card had been canceled, too.

At the time, he was lying on his apartment sofa, wondering whether to order General Tso's chicken or orange chicken for dinner.

Jiang Lin: "...What the heck."

Experiencing life doesn't mean experiencing poverty!

*

Eli Lancefield is a golden-haired, blue-eyed professor's favorite, with a 4.0 GPA and a transcript full of honors. His parents are Wall Street elites, and his practiced smile is always perfect. He's the quintessential American sweetheart.

But nobody knows his family declared bankruptcy last month, leaving them completely out of cash.

The steep tuition, the rent on a Manhattan apartment, and every expense required to maintain his "elite" image...

To keep from falling below the "kill line," he grits his teeth and maintains appearances, while privately needing to "hunt" down a reliable source of income, fast. Ideally, someone stupid, rich, and undemanding.

He carefully narrows down his options, and finally sets his sights on the new young man from the East.

He keeps to himself, wears expensive clothes, and is a typical international student from the East who'll return home after graduation. Most importantly, the lazy fish's eyes had lit up with admiration when he first saw Eli.

The perfect prey.

*

Eli carefully plans countless "chance encounters."

A seat beside him in the library, sharing a table at a coffee shop, even taking the same easy elective.

He smiles like California sunshine, takes care of the entire group project, shares his notes, and greets Jiang Lin in clumsy Chinese.

Jiang Lin always gives a mild nod, takes what he's offered, thanks him, and goes right back to daydreaming.

Eli begins to question his own existence: Is this guy made of stone?

Until one rainy night, Eli stands drenched outside Jiang Lin's apartment, water dripping from his hair, his baby-blue eyes glistening like a puppy caught in the rain. The plan is to claim he forgot his keys and ask to stay over.

Jiang Lin opens the door and looks at him for three seconds.

Then he turns around at an unhurried pace, gets a towel, and drapes it over Eli's head.

"Trying to strike gold with me," Jiang Lin says, his voice flat, yet making Eli go rigid. "Don't they teach you American sweethearts how to recognize a truly lazy person in training?"

*

Jiang Lin had figured it out long ago.

He noticed Eli calculating the price of every item he wore. He noticed that Eli was far warmer to his rich, spoiled friends than to him. He noticed the anxiety and exhaustion threatening to break through the American sweetheart's radiant smile.

He couldn't be bothered to expose him. He even found it entertaining.

Watching a pretty guy work so hard to keep up the act was more interesting than a textbook.

He waited to see when Eli would finally show his hand, whether he was after money or affection.

He never expected Eli to choose to "con" him into giving up himself.

When the golden-haired sweetheart corners him in an empty hallway in the academic building, fingers tugging at his clothes, and says in halting Chinese, "Teach me... how to stop caring like you do," Jiang Lin feels, for the first time, that there might be one thing in his lie-flat life worth sitting up for.

Like teaching this desperate little schemer what it really means to "capture" someone.

#About how I dodged the kill line only to get bound to the one lazy fish who doesn't want to work hard#

#He used every trick to win me over, while I lay flat and watched him act, until I took both his heart and his person#

#The hunter always appears as prey, but the lazy fish is the real endgame#

Theme: Justice will ultimately prevail over evil