Brotherhood

01

Eight-year-old Chu Buye hates nine-year-old Chu Qinchun.

In his eyes, this brother who appeared out of nowhere is gloomy and fragile, with strange red hair and a pale face. He doesn't fit in with the Chu family. He's an intruder in the family of three.

Chu Buye ostracizes his brother and subjects him to the silent treatment, yet each time he sees the other boy's patient, yielding gaze, he feels the first pang of conscience in his life.

Eighteen-year-old Chu Buye loves nineteen-year-old Chu Qinchun.

In his eyes, the brother just one year older than him is intelligent and levelheaded, independent-minded and considerate, gentle yet dignified, and exceptionally talented without being conceited. He's more perfect than any lover and understands him better than any friend.

Back then, with all the confidence of youth, they both thought this newly budding, uncertain love could last forever.

Twenty-eight-year-old Chu Buye hates twenty-nine-year-old Chu Qinchun more than anyone.

In his eyes, Chu Qinchun is a rising power who can call all the shots, a defender of the privileged, an enemy who betrayed him, and a villain seated high on the throne, trampling his pride.

His heart is full of hatred, jealousy, longing, regret, resentment, and countless other feelings. Only love is buried away, becoming a thorn that stabs deep into his heart whenever he wakes from a dream at midnight.

02

"Their relationship is rife with differences in faith, emotional setbacks, clashes of personality, and struggles for dominance. Tenderness and understanding have all but vanished, yet sparks of love still flare in the long night of hatred. Like two brambles twining around each other in an embrace, each sustaining and restraining the other."

[Reading Guide]

1. The first part of the blurb is from the gong's perspective. The main text is split evenly between the two. Note that this is an age-gap pairing with the younger one as gong and the older brother as shou.

2. The second part of the blurb references the preface to the 1994 Chinese translation of The Rainbow by British author D. H. Lawrence.

3. The illustrations are still being treated in the electronic stomach-nourishment collection on Xiaohongshu, "Brotherly Bones."

Theme: Never submit to darkness. Keep your heart turned toward the light, and believe that justice will prevail.