Chen Yu has been frail since childhood, and sometimes he sees things other people can't.
The year he got into university, his parents died in a car accident. When his aunt heard the news, she rushed over from the countryside that very night to take him in. "Xiaoyu, come with me. I'll take care of you."
Chen Yu nodded. But when he got to the village, before he'd harvested any rice or gone fishing, he had already set his sights on the man from the house beneath the old pagoda tree at the village entrance.
The man was a little strange. Whenever it rained or the sky turned overcast, black smoke poured from his body.
His aunt introduced them. "This is Chen Ziji. He's older than you, and he went to university too. You should call him big brother."
Chen Yu admired Chen Ziji's beautifully defined muscles, then looked down at himself and called out awkwardly, "Big brother."
Chen Ziji stubbed out his cigarette and asked, "Chen Yu, as in the Chen Yu of 'so beautiful that fish sink and geese fall'?"
After that, Chen Yu found himself calling him "big brother" more and more naturally.
"Big brother, how do you thresh rice? I don't know how. Help me."
"Big brother, everyone's catching cicadas. I don't know how. Help me."
"Big brother, there's a fish in the water. I can't catch it. Help me."
"Big brother..."
Though Chen Ziji hated men who were so limp and useless, Chen Yu's repeated calls of "big brother" inevitably made half his body go weak. He ducked behind a wall and smoked three cigarettes, then turned around and asked, "Chen Yu, have you ever been in love?"
Chen Yu shook his head.
Chen Ziji said, "It's all right. You don't know how. Big brother will teach you."
Chen Ziji thought this little brother was wonderful in every way, though the black smoke he gave off on cloudy days wasn't exactly eco-friendly. That was until he found a gravestone bearing the name "Chen Ziji" on the hill behind the village.
That night, Chen Yu had nightmares until morning. The next day, just as he was about to run away, Chen Ziji caught him.
A little afraid, Chen Yu said, "Big brother, people in the village don't approve of two men being together."
Chen Ziji didn't suspect anything. He smoked two cigarettes, then replied, "I'll take you away."
They would leave, all right. It was just a question of whether the living were allowed to stay wherever they ended up.
Frailty-ridden shou ✖️ country-bred grown-man gong
Also known as: The Chen Family Village Love Story
Reading guide:
1. Set in the early 2000s. Age-gap romance, with the gong older than the shou.
2. Both are each other's first and only.
3. The story is a little supernatural.
Theme: Keep the plan to revitalize the countryside close to your heart.
