The Man from the Future

Lin Wangshu had a dream. He dreamed he leapt from the roof of a building, filled with regret and in unbearable pain.

He couldn’t remember why he’d jumped in the dream, but the emotions lingered, and for the first time, he left home to go to school by himself that morning.

Then he ran into his classmate Xiao Ran at the entrance to their apartment complex.

Xiao Ran excelled at school and was clever and studious, but his family was poor. He was so quiet in class that he seemed like a shadow.

Lin Wangshu barely knew him, but from that day on, Xiao Ran seemed to be everywhere.

On the roadside during a torrential downpour, at the school gate when Lin Wangshu forgot his student ID, in the exam room when he hadn’t sharpened his pencil, Xiao Ran always appeared in time to lend a hand.

At first, Lin Wangshu thought it was just a coincidence. Then, after asking his stepbrother for help with a math problem, he found two exercise books full of mistakes on his desk, both bearing Xiao Ran’s name.

Inside were all the problems he’d gotten wrong, along with the best solutions. One book was for his first year of high school, the other for his second.

Only then did Lin Wangshu belatedly notice Xiao Ran’s discreet yet focused gaze.

Xiao Ran’s family was poor. Poverty breeds change, as well as gloom and resentment. Fortunately, at the tender age of fourteen, when he was most sensitive and insecure, he met a softhearted moon.

Xiao Ran knew how far apart they were in status, and didn’t dare hope the moon would shine on him alone, so he buried all his shameful desires deep in his heart.

Until he saw his moon leap from a building and shatter on the ground.

After spending twenty years taking revenge, Xiao Ran jumped from the same rooftop on the day his vengeance was complete, hoping to join his moon.

When he opened his eyes again, he was reborn twenty-one years earlier, a year before Lin Wangshu’s jump. Looking at the other boy’s vibrant figure, he thought:

In this life, no matter what, he had to stop the tragedy from happening. The first step was to cure Lin Wangshu’s lovesick brain.

At first, Wangshu thought Xiao Ran was a peeping, stalking creep. He was both frightened and helpless, but actually, Xiao Ran was only using the advantage of being reborn to remember every little detail about him.

Years later, when Xiao Ran really did put a tracking device on him, Wangshu said to a friend who thought he’d developed Stockholm syndrome:

“Xiao Ran just wants to know where I’ve gone. He isn’t controlling me, so what did he do wrong?”

[Adorable, softhearted, lovesick bottom x gloomy, deep, controlling top]

Theme: It only counts as love when you’re with the right person.