Where Did My Sweet Childhood Friend Go?

The upcoming novel, Enemies Come from Afar, is open for follows. (The blurb is below this one.)

This Novel's Blurb (Story Complete)

After being exiled to a remote mountain village, Jinshi returns to the capital after many years away. His thoughts are filled with his sweet, adorable childhood friend

Liang Fang, the young master of the Imperial Preceptor's residence, is polite, proper, and charming. He smiles at everyone, but his smile for Jinshi is especially sweet. He always goes along with whatever Jinshi wants.

When Jinshi plays house and wants to be the husband, the young master, despite being a boy, automatically takes the role of the wife.

When Jinshi wants braised pork knuckle, the young master, who never eats strongly flavored food, sneaks out to buy some for him.

When Jinshi falls ill and loses consciousness, the young master, whose own injuries have only just healed, refuses to eat or drink and stays by his side.

In Jinshi's memories, there was just one shame: Liang Fang wasn't a girl. If he had been, Jinshi would have already vowed to marry him and no one else.

But when they meet again as adults, the young master has become the Imperial Preceptor, wielding sole authority over the Bureau of Array Design.

Rumor has it that the Imperial Preceptor is a cold-blooded killer, merciless and autocratic.

Every movement of his makes the array designers in the Bureau of Array Design tremble with fear.

Jinshi watches Liang Fang, his expression indifferent and stern, radiating an icy aura. The array designers stand in terrified silence, heads bowed.

Only Jinshi's mind is elsewhere, filled with one thought

Where did my adorable childhood friend go? What have you done with him?

Just as Jinshi begins to wonder if someone has possessed his childhood friend's body, that friend produces a scroll bearing an array contract, written in his own terrible handwriting

"Today, A Fang is my bride. In the future, I'll be A Fang's wife., Wang Jinshi"

Only then does Jinshi realize that his dear childhood friend tricked him into selling himself when they were kids?!

The innocent childhood filter through which he saw his friend shatters completely.

*The scheming Imperial Preceptor is the gong, and the sunshine-like childhood friend is the shou.

*The gong has been a little black-hearted since childhood.

Bonus Scene

Liang Fang as a child:

Jinshi (tugging his sleeve): Let's play house.

Liang Fang (smiling sweetly): Sure.

Jinshi (testing him): I'll be the husband, and you be the wife.

Liang Fang (smiling sweetly): Okay.

Liang Fang as an adult:

Jinshi (cautiously): I was thinking...

Liang Fang (without looking up): No. Absolutely not.

Jinshi (angrily): I haven't even finished. How can you say "no" already?

Liang Fang (calmly): If it were something I would allow, you wouldn't be asking in such a guilty tone.

This novel will enter the paid section with Chapter 24 on November 11.

Upcoming Novel

Enemies Come from Afar

A childhood-friends-to-lovers reunion story, with an older emperor gong.

Eleven years ago, young Shen Li, idling away his days at the Celestial Mechanism Pavilion on Mount Qiyang, met Wen Yuming, the young lord of Yueli.

Sixteen-year-old Young Lord Wen was as handsome as a fine jade, with a delicate build and a faint air of melancholy. He captured the heart of twelve-year-old Shen Li at first sight.

Thus began the boy's first stirrings of love.

Little Shen Li used every bit of his cleverness, every trick he could think of, and every tantrum he could throw to try to make Wen Yuming stay.

But the young lord, heir to a powerful family, ultimately chose to leave the mountain and return home to fight for power.

Eleven years later, Shen Li carries the Celestial Mechanism Order, which grants him the authority to interfere in Yueli's affairs of state. Bathed in the pitying, regretful gazes of the people around him, he makes his way toward Yueli's imperial city, one step at a time.

"The previous Celestial Mechanism Envoy died under suspicious circumstances. How dare the Pavilion send someone else?"

"What a shame. He's so young, and he's going to die."

Shen Li pays them no heed. He knows only that behind those gold-and-red brick walls is the person he has been longing for over the past eleven years.

In the golden palace, among the ministers kneeling before him, Shen Li raises his head without permission and meets the gaze that has been fixed on him all along.

In that moment, the passage of time leaves its mark.

The impish boy of those days has grown into a handsome, gentle young man.

And Wen Yuming, once a gentleman of impeccable bearing, has become a tyrannical ruler whose name strikes fear into everyone's heart.

Wen Yuming asks in a chilly voice, "Why is it you?"

Shen Li chuckles. "The Celestial Mechanism has issued its order. I dare not disobey."

Yet late at night, when no one else is around, he picks up a strand of Wen Yuming's black hair, which falls across his chest, and murmurs clingingly, "Of course it would be me, Brother Zili. I've come to collect a debt."

Wen Yuming gives the little rascal a cold look. "What debt?"

Shen Li leans close to his ear, his breath fragrant and his words deliberate. "A debt of love."

Shen Li is full of confidence. He has spent ages planning this gesture and these words. Surely, after this exchange, his shy Brother Zili won't know how to handle him!

But then an arm tightens around his waist, and his face bumps into the chest that he remembers as slender, but which is now firm with muscle. Wen Yuming's voice sounds in his ear, fierce and possessive: "Remember, this is what you chose."

At the darkest point in Wen Yuming's life, a little nemesis barged in, carrying the sunshine with him.

Wen Yuming fought to keep himself from dragging the boy into the darkness, even if it meant returning to the abyss alone.

He never expected the boy to jump in after him, bringing his own light.

Since that's the case, Wen Yuming won't let go of this light that he can keep all to himself.

Eleven years ago, sixteen-year-old Wen Yuming, a gentleman of impeccable bearing, watched the child named Shen Li carefully count the spring lotus candies one by one. Shen Li pushed a portion toward him, then waved his little hand with an air of generosity. "There are seventy-three in all. Half each is thirty-six. You're a guest, so you can have the extra one."

Wen Yuming's good manners made him swallow the words, "But I paid for these candies," and accept little Shen Li's "generosity."

Eleven years later, twenty-seven-year-old Wen Yuming, a violent and capricious ruler, silently pushes a plate piled high with spring lotus candies toward Shen Li. When Shen Li looks at him questioningly, he says in a deep voice, "You're a guest. They're all yours."

But the little rascal from back then pushes the candies aside, braves the tyrant's icy aura, and moves closer. In a soft, sweet voice, he says, "But, Brother Zili, I don't want to be your guest. I want to be your wife."

Wen Yuming's hand, hidden beneath his sleeve, trembles. He closes his eyes and accepts his fate.

Eleven years ago, he couldn't outmatch this boy. Eleven years later, he still can't.

Wen Yuming (gong) x Shen Li (shou)

A gloomy, brutal ruler who seems intense but is secretly a flirtatious, repressed cool guy gong x a beauty-obsessed, healing shou who talks a lot of flirtatious nonsense but is actually pure-hearted

Reader's Guide:

1. This story is told primarily from the shou's perspective.

2. Childhood friends reunite after a falling-out. The first part features them as children; the later part follows their reunion after ten years apart. The story is told in chronological order.

3. This is a fantasy world with some supernatural elements, but it is neither a cultivation story nor purely a court-politics story.

4. There is a cannon-fodder gong.

Theme: Everyone has to grow up. Face the challenges of growing up bravely and become a stronger version of yourself.