Can We Play a Couple Today?

Apologies for changing the premise. This was originally meant to be an infinite-flow novel, but plans changed. I'm truly sorry to readers who bookmarked the old blurb.

I'm now writing an older-man-younger-man entertainment-industry story.

A top who thinks of himself as a gentle, fatherly type, sometimes tender and sometimes cold enough to freeze you;

A bottom who seems angelic but is actually devilish, and wants to be a good person as well as rise to the top.

*The blurb is from the bottom's perspective, and the top's perspective has been deliberately omitted for narrative reasons. The story's point of view will serve the plot.

**Please pay close attention to the content warnings at the end.

At seven, child star Bai Can appeared in a supporting role in a plane-disaster movie. In a scene where a family huddles together in terror, trying to survive the disaster, Du Ranggui, who played his older brother, was the first to embrace him. Du became Bai Can's first scene partner.

That was Bai Can's debut. Back then, he never imagined that for the next decade and more, he would work with this man, ten years his senior, more than a dozen times, seeing him year after year.

At first, their repeated encounters were all coincidences, not planned. They both loved horror movies.

Bai Can signed on for another haunted-house horror film. He looked up and realized Du Ranggui was playing his young father.

Bai Can: "...Huh? Big brother, I mean, Dad."

Du Ranggui encouraged him: "Be professional, sweetheart."

At twelve, Bai Can went to act in a campus horror movie and discovered Du Ranggui was his homeroom teacher.

At sixteen, Bai Can ran for his life and reported a crime in a murder-mystery horror movie, while Du Ranggui played the police officer.

At twenty, Bai Can played an evil ghost, only to discover that Du Ranggui was playing the victimized protagonist, fleeing in terror from him.

So even though he and Du Ranggui had never played a couple, people gradually started calling them, "Oh my god, the screen's horror couple."

Now and then, Du Ranggui would take a role in a non-horror film as a favor to a friend. Whenever Bai Can heard about it, he would go audition too.

Bai Can had no idea what Du Ranggui thought about it.

Although Bai Can really was secretly in love with Du Ranggui, Du had already married young before Bai Can ever fell for him. So all Bai Can could do was love him in secret.

Before he was reborn, when Bai Can was twenty-nine, the two of them were acting in a movie called Night Shift when an accident happened on set. They both died.

When the fire broke out, Bai Can was actually close to an exit and could have escaped alive.

Unfortunately, he searched for Du Ranggui and realized that his "big brother, father, teacher, police uncle, prey, boss, celestial master, partner, neighbor in his apartment complex, fellow passenger in the same subway car..." had happened to be feeling unwell that day and couldn't move quickly. He was trapped.

So Bai Can hurried back to find him.

And they died together.

Bai Can was reborn.

Content warnings:

1. Updates will be irregular, and no speed is guaranteed.

2. The author wants to write the atmosphere of a secret crush in their own style, so their relationship won't change rapidly just because Bai Can is reborn.

3. In this fictional world, same-sex marriage is legal. The story includes a process of replacing the disposable bottom, which will not be glossed over. Although the top's relationship with his ex-husband has already cracked like the East African Rift Valley, before the divorce, the top never considered what he felt for the bottom as love, due to his marital responsibilities and the age gap. (Please note: he never even thought about it.)

The bottom has some sense of morality and won't break up the top's marriage without reason, but whenever he notices incompatibilities between the disposable bottom and the top, he'll do a little to drive them apart. The top and bottom also have poor boundaries with each other. Readers with strong moral sensibilities, please take note.

4. Characters from other entertainment-industry stories, such as Lei Xiao and Zhou Tang, may make guest appearances. Readers who can't stand these characters, please take note. (Guest appearances aren't guaranteed, nor is a significant role. Tan Shao and Du Zong don't quite fit the same style, so there probably won't be a crossover this time.)

5. Since the bottom actually thinks being a third party would be pretty nice, readers who favor the bottom should read with caution.

Readers who favor the top should also read with caution. The top has strong desires, and in 90% of their sexual encounters, he takes the dominant role. The bottom has always had the ability and desire to take the dominant role, but the top will demand that he play along and act obedient.

Readers who require every character to be sexually inexperienced should stay away.

6. There may be stories within the story, and I can't give content warnings for them in advance. If I spot any common red flags in these sections, I'll do my best to flag them in the author's notes during the relevant chapters, but I can only do my best. If you're concerned, please don't continue reading.

7. More content warnings may be added at any time.

Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way.