[Free-spirited, charming, deeply devoted, and roguishly handsome top x stubborn, resilient, puppy-like bottom]
Hua Jincheng first met Zhou Qinien in a dim alley. The young man was covered in wounds, a knife hidden in his sleeve, and eyes as fierce as a little wolf ready to bite at any moment. Hua Jincheng kindly rescued him, but Zhou Qinien coldly told him to mind his own business.
Hua Jincheng smiled with carefree insolence. "I'm a cop. If you're in trouble, come find your big brother in the police force."
Zhou Qinien scoffed. "If going to the police were any use, I wouldn't have ended up here."
Years later, the young man had grown up and become a criminal investigator. It was only because someone had once told him that if he didn't know how to repay a kindness, he should become a good person.
They investigated cases together, went on missions together, and returned to the same home together.
Until a cross-border relic-smuggling case led them to "Mist," a criminal organization that had been hidden for years. Within the mist lay countless precious relics that had been lost overseas.
When the trail went cold, Hua Jincheng decided to infiltrate the heart of Mist. Zhou Qinien objected.
Hua Jincheng casually leaned closer. "Worried about me?"
Zhou Qinien turned away, stubbornly denying it. "Who said I was worried about you?"
Hua Jincheng's smile deepened, his tone as obnoxious as ever. "Who knows?"
Zhou Qinien said he didn't care what happened to him, but whenever danger struck, he was always the first to arrive.
Two months after infiltrating Mist, Hua Jincheng lost all contact with the police. When Zhou Qinien finally found him, all he saw was a blood-soaked man who was barely alive.
In that moment, Zhou Qinien's mind went blank. He could only remember Hua Jincheng telling him countless times: When something happens, don't panic. Save the person first.
But this time, his hands wouldn't stop shaking.
They had both thought that reaching the end of the mist would reveal all the answers. But when the mist finally cleared, they discovered that there was more behind the relic-smuggling operation than a simple trade in profit.
There was also the truth Zhou Qinien had waited ten years to learn.
[Reader's Guide]
* Eight-year age gap, one-on-one pairing
* Two criminal investigator partners, with cross-border relic crime as the main plot
* A touch of a growing-up-together dynamic. The main timeline begins after they move in together, with few flashbacks
* Set in a partly fictionalized world. Professional knowledge and invented details are mixed, so please don't apply it to real life
* More to be added if anything else comes to mind
Theme: Recovering precious things that have been lost
