The Wolf Cub Is Getting Above Himself

When Gao Xingmiao was fifteen, he lost his last surviving family member.

At the funeral, dressed in black, he stared vacantly and lifelessly at the guests coming and going. It seemed he had cried out every tear he would ever shed.

Near the end, a man entered, holding a black umbrella, the cuffs of his suit trousers spattered with water.

His expression was indifferent. He clasped his hands together and bowed three times toward the portrait at the center of the mourning hall.

For some reason, Gao Xingmiao couldn't help being drawn to him.

The next moment, their eyes met. Gao Xingmiao keenly sensed a fleeting change in the man's gaze.

Then the tall, handsome man walked toward him and held out a large hand with long, distinct knuckles.

"Allow me to introduce myself. My name is Li Mengshu."

"Come with me, or stay here and fend for yourself. You choose."

Gao Xingmiao went home with him.

Things seemed to get better. The man was cold and a little domineering, but he treated this unrelated outsider very well.

He gave him food, drink, and money, and let him live in a huge villa.

Anyone else would have been over the moon.

Gao Xingmiao often felt grateful that he had agreed to go home with him, until he learned that his uncle's death had something to do with him.

With nowhere to vent his feelings, the swimming pool became Gao Xingmiao's last refuge.

From the World Junior Championships to the World Championships, and then to the Olympic podium, he cut through the blue waves like lightning tearing through the night. Yet after touching the wall, he always instinctively looked toward the stands, though perhaps he didn't even know what he hoped to see.

*

Li Mengshu had gone to his "enemy's" funeral on a whim.

He went alone, but came back with a beautiful child, pale as jade, whose face showed no emotion.

No one knew that the fearsome head of the Li family was actually a bit of a beauty enthusiast. He liked anything beautiful.

And Gao Xingmiao, dressed in black with his head lowered, black hair falling over his porcelain-pale, haggard face and lending him a fragile, breakable air, was the most beautiful sight Li Mengshu had seen in over twenty years.

So he played the good Samaritan and took the boy home to raise him.

But a secret can't stay hidden forever.

"Did you cause my uncle's death?"

A glass shattered on the floor at his feet as the words rang out.

The underage boy was no longer meek and well-behaved. His eyes were bloodshot, and he looked like a little wolf with its hackles raised.

Li Mengshu avoided answering. He picked up the shards and accidentally cut his finger, letting the bright red blood trickle down as his smiling eyes remained ice-cold.

"If you keep locking yourself in your room, I won't mind sending you to join your uncle."

Watching the boy press his lips together and hold his chin high, like a stubborn little wolf unwilling to lose face in front of him, Li Mengshu felt, for the first time, as if his heart had been tugged.

It turned out not to be an illusion. The feeling only grew stronger with time.

By the time he abruptly came to his senses, he found he could no longer bring himself to be cruel to the man who buried his face against his chest like a well-behaved little... no, big dog.

News that Li Mengshu had taken in his "enemy's" child had already spread through their circles.

People secretly laughed that he was raising an untamable wolf and bet that sooner or later it would turn on him.

Instead, they heard that he was an old bull eating young grass. Was that even reasonable?

Little scene:

After they finished, Li Mengshu wanted to light a cigarette.

He put one between his lips and was about to use his lighter when a large hand reached over and snatched it away.

He turned his head and saw a handsome face, damp with sweat and so seductive it made his legs weak, looking at him disapprovingly.

"All right, all right. I won't make the world champion breathe secondhand smoke." Li Mengshu gave in readily, as if he had said this countless times before.

Then he muttered under his breath, "This is unbelievable. How did I end up getting topped by this kid..."

Please note before reading:

- One-on-one romance, no blood relation, and they are not registered in the same household.

- Wild and untamable champion top x cold on the outside, crazy on the inside CEO bottom.

- An alternate world where same-sex marriage is legal. The romance begins after the younger lead reaches adulthood.

- The swimming events are not professionally accurate. The romance is the focus, with the career as a secondary storyline.

Theme: The world is vast. Please grow up with joy and hard work.