Nothing Ventured, Nothing Gained

[Rivals to Lovers] After Yu Sen and Bai Xiang spent seven or eight years at each other's throats, fate forced them both to hit pause. Yu Sen's career had been dragged down by his company, leaving him disgraced. With paparazzi blocking his apartment building and nowhere else to go, he knocked on his rival's door. “Hello, I'm here to work as your caregiver.” Bai Xiang had broken his left leg and lost his sight in a sudden accident. He didn't even recognize the face he hated standing outside his door. Bai Xiang said, “I have a lot of requirements for caregivers.” Yu Sen nodded. “Anything goes.” Bai Xiang required him to cook all three meals every day. Yu Sen ordered takeout every day just to mess with his stomach. Bai Xiang demanded no physical contact? Yu Sen, right in front of a sasaeng fan, chomped down on his mouth. The sasaeng was livid. Bai Xiang stood by his bed with a knife that very night. Bai Xiang demanded that Yu Sen read out his scandalous rumors as a bedtime story? Yu Sen read out Bai Xiang's rumors too: #Yu Sen's scandalous rumors hit the trending list. Bai Xiang's accident happened because he was worried about him!# #Two-time Best Actor pines in vain. His years of dragging Yu Sen were just a way to get his attention!# Bai Xiang listened, dazed and with an upset stomach. “Inseparable, passionately devoted, faithful until death... Me and Yu Sen at eighteen?” Yu Sen: “That's right. You even bottomed for love.” Bai Xiang calmly went to the bathroom and threw up for a while. No one knew that these two, who'd been at odds since their debuts, came from the same small town in Jiangnan. Green hills and clear rivers, all misty and picturesque. They'd known each other since childhood and knew one another's most shameful flaws and deepest secrets. For years they went out of their way to target each other, yet they always had the unspoken understanding not to go too far. After the accident, someone asked Bai Xiang, “Was Yu Sen behind the accident on your set?” Bai Xiang replied offhandedly, “It wasn't him.” Someone asked Yu Sen, “Do you think Bai Xiang deliberately got you into this mess?” Yu Sen gave them a lazy glance. “No.” “He wouldn't dare.” They told their respective friends the same thing with a laugh. “He knows damn well that if I die, he'll have to lose a layer of skin too.” - The day their secret identities were exposed, Yu Sen dragged his good leg, the one that wasn't lame, and made an offer. “Coming or not?” Bai Xiang: “...Going where?” Yu Sen: “Back to Jiangnan.” They drove an off-road vehicle onto the highway and set off on a New Year's road trip spanning thousands of kilometers. They hit the road in pouring rain, camped out in heavy snow, and rolled into fields of rapeseed flowers under the blazing sun... Trading punches as they reminisced about old times and settled old scores. But as they kept fighting, something seemed off. Yu Sen silently pulled Bai Xiang's hand out from under his clothes Bai Xiang curled his lips. “You said anything goes.” A rival is there to be taken. Don't ask how. [The irreverent version] As the saying goes, two tigers can't share one mountain. Yu Sen and Bai Xiang were those two tigers. Netizens munched on popcorn and happily watched them tear into each other. After a while, they even started sensing a little genuine affection. Why were the two of them so laid-back with everyone else, but always ready to stab each other in the ribs? Netizens hammered away at their keyboards: “They only have eyes and hearts for each other. If that's not love, what is?” The day after their shipping hashtag blew up, Yu Sen was hit with a major scandal, and Bai Xiang suffered a safety accident while filming. They even got into trouble together. How could that not count as another kind of dying for love? For the two months around Lunar New Year, the “star-crossed” rivals disappeared without a trace. Then spring came. Bai Xiang, recovered and in good health, made his first public appearance, a plain ring glittering on his ring finger. That same day, a passerby photographed Yu Sen strolling alone on a beach overseas in a Hawaiian shirt, a matching ring hanging against his chest. An insider revealed even more: for the whole stretch around New Year, Bai Xiang had been driving an off-road vehicle with Yu Sen on the road back to their hometown. The long-silent fans of the couple stared in shock. I was just shipping them for fun! You never said my ship was actually real!!! P.S. 1. Two strong leads, genuine rivals. 2. Very little showbiz plot, mostly everyday life, with a touch of road trip. 3. His blindness will be cured. 4. For detailed reading guidelines, see the author's note in Chapter One. Theme: Don't let setbacks defeat you too easily. There's always a way forward in life