What Are the Younger Brothers Secretly Competing About Again?

One-on-one, pure sweetness, devoted to each other in body and soul.

1. Tang Nian has two rival little brothers, one born to her mother after she remarried, and the other born to her father after he remarried.

The two boys have completely opposite personalities.

Tang Mu is cheerful, sweet-talking, smiley, lively, and energetic.

Chu Chao is more reserved, cool and calculating, steady and self-controlled.

They've both loved clinging to Tang Nian since they were little, so they have to spend time together, but they don't get along. Whenever they meet, the usually composed one gets so mad he jumps around, while the unruly one gets even more irritable.

Their rivalry began when the two adorable toddlers seriously asked, "Sister, which of us is your real little brother?"

The master of keeping things fair, Tang Nian, handled it with an arm around each of them. She raised them together, praised them both, and bought everything in pairs.

But she never expected the boys, born just a few months apart, to inherit their parents' refusal to lose. Their competitive streak was extraordinary, and they were always eager to prove they were better than each other.

Thus began their decade-spanning "marathon rivalry" and their "battle of the victors."

Their contests were detailed and varied: who got more little red flowers, who got to wear a red scarf first, whose turtle was faster or whose paper plane flew farther, who was stronger or could blow a louder horn, and who was taller, had better grades, greater stamina, or a talent for some oddball skill.

They refused to stop until there was a clear winner. The loser was unhappy, and the winner would comfort him.

Tang Nian saw that their games involved healthy competition and even brought them closer, so she didn't put a stop to them.

They took turns setting the challenges and winning against each other, enjoying themselves for more than a decade.

Until one day, Tang Nian happened to see two tall, handsome boys clinging to each other like octopuses, looking overcome with emotion, their lips pressed together.

She was dumbfounded. What were her little brothers secretly competing in now?

Were they comparing mouths? Their kissing skills?

2. High school was busy, so they had fewer contests to choose from, and their challenges were limited to schoolwork.

Their friends hadn't had enough of watching the two of them bicker, so they egged the two campus heartthrobs on to compete over who got more love letters or turned down more girls.

The two exchanged a knowing look and promptly refused. This was a game that belonged to just the two of them. They wouldn't drag in innocent bystanders and trample on anyone's sincere feelings.

On the night of their graduation dinner, the boys drank themselves silly.

Chu Chao gripped his glass tightly, gazing tenderly at the person beside him. "Want to compete one more time? The last time."

Tang Mu stiffened. He drained his glass to hide his disappointment, then smirked. "Do you think I'm scared? What are we competing in this time?"

Chu Chao reached out and touched the boy's flushed cheek. "Do you dare to compete over how sincerely we feel for each other?"

One last time, then. They would compete to see whose love could be given to the other for a lifetime.

Theme: Childhood sweethearts, finding the courage to love