The Seventh Year After My Brother's Death

[Dark, Manipulative, Unhinged Younger Brother × Cool, Gentle Married Older Brother]

Chen Du and Xie Wang had depended on each other ever since they were in the orphanage.

He was seven years older than Xie Wang, and it was only right that he look after his little brother as he grew up.

Luckily, Xie Wang was a hard worker too, and made it all the way into a top university.

Until that night, when Xie Wang got drunk and, by a twist of fate, pinned him to the bed...

Chen Du felt as if every bone in his body had come apart. He waited until his brother fell asleep, got dressed, and fled in a panic.

Then he stood by the roadside all night, letting the cold wind blow over him as he watched the sky slowly brighten.

He thought that once Xie Wang sobered up, he probably wouldn't remember a thing.

So Chen Du would bury this secret deep inside and remain Xie Wang's older brother.

-

By full daylight, Chen Du had slowly made his way home on unsteady legs.

He wanted to buy a couple of fried dough sticks downstairs to bring back for breakfast,

but discovered that the breakfast shop had been completely transformed into a hardware store.

Everything around him was familiar, yet terrifyingly strange.

With trembling hands, Chen Du pushed open the front door.

The little brother who had once needed his protection stood behind it, dressed in an expensive bespoke suit. The youthful innocence had left his face, and he had grown even taller.

Xie Wang stared at him in disbelief.

Then he pulled Chen Du into a crushing embrace, holding him so tightly it seemed he wanted to grind him to pieces.

Two tears slid down Chen Du's neck as Xie Wang whispered in his ear, "Brother, I thought you'd abandoned me."

-

Only then did Chen Du learn that he had been gone for just one night, yet somehow transmigrated seven years into the future.

It turned out Xie Wang was the younger son of a powerful conglomerate family who had gone missing.

He had been reunited with his family seven years ago, and was now the unquestioned head of the clan.

And, fortunately, the Xie Wang of seven years later seemed not to remember the reckless thing they had done that night seven years ago.

Chen Du was taken to a mountaintop villa far from civilization.

Every day, there was warmed bird's nest soup, freshly pressed pajamas, and a family doctor on call around the clock.

Xie Wang treated him wonderfully and would give him anything he wanted, with just one exception: he could never ask to leave the house.

-

Some time later, Chen Du suddenly began to feel sick and vomit.

He secretly went to the hospital for a checkup, only to be told he was pregnant.

The child was Xie Wang's. Chen Du had planned to quietly abort it, but at the last moment, he couldn't bring himself to go through with it.

Chen Du was planning to slip away, but discovered that Xie Wang's control over him had long since become inescapable.

The day Xie Wang learned he was pregnant, he stared at Chen Du's belly as if he had gone mad, his eyes filled with vicious fury.

His words were cruel and venomous: "Whose bastard is in my brother's belly? How dare he take up space there?"

Chen Du begged Xie Wang to let him keep the child, but said nothing at all about the child's father.

Xie Wang bent down and stared at him for a long time. Suddenly, he reached out and caressed his cheek. The fury in his eyes slowly faded, replaced by a smile so gentle it was chilling.

"It's all right. My brother's child is my child."

"He can call me Father."

Later, news arrived that Xie Wang was to enter an arranged marriage.

Chen Du knew he couldn't stay any longer.

Pregnant and struggling to keep his balance, he fled all the way to a remote little town.

Within days, Xie Wang appeared before him again.

"Where are you going, Brother?"

"It doesn't matter if you're carrying someone else's child, Brother. Everything you have belongs to your little brother, so the child belongs to me too."

[Reading Notes]

● They are not related by blood and are not registered in the same household.

● Coercive romance, fleeing while pregnant, a rivalry over the love interest (only the pursuer himself is involved).

● Even seven years later, the younger one is still younger.

● A younger brother who sometimes treats himself especially harshly because he loves his older brother too much.

2026.7.19

Theme: You are the shining coordinates of the universe