A Blind Date with My Archenemy

[Next up: "Ninety Days of Immersive Bottom-Tier Roleplay", please add it to your favorites OvO] [There are two other upcoming stories in my column. Feel free to check them out if you're interested!] Blurb: What's it like to end up on a blind date with your sworn enemy? Answer: After weighing the pros and cons, you become contract husbands. In public, you're perfectly cordial and treat each other with respect; in private, you dig up each other's embarrassing secrets and trade attacks. Jiang Gang and Chen Yuduo have been at odds since high school. They openly clashed and privately mocked each other. After graduation, they deleted each other on WeChat, went their separate ways, and swore never to meet again. But ten years later, they unexpectedly meet again on a blind date. Jiang Gang glances sideways at his suit. "All dressed up, but still a dog." Chen Yuduo looks down at his multicolored shirt with disdain. "You look like a walking eyesore." [Bar owner bottom x surgeon top] [I can't stand you, and you can't stand me, but due to circumstances beyond our control, we're still getting married √] Chen Yuduo is an illegitimate child from a wealthy family. In high school, his half-brother relentlessly targeted him because of his family background, and the whole gang of idle troublemakers in their class looked down on him too. That included Jiang Gang. But Jiang Gang had a distinctive way of "bullying" people. He mocked Chen Yuduo, every word a barb, but tossed him a piece of candy when he hid away crying. He was bossy and often ordered people to bring him food, but he knocked over Chen Yuduo's cup after someone had poured paint into it. Chen Yuduo couldn't help falling for him. He planned to confess after graduation, but Jiang Gang deleted him. Deleted him??? Chen Yuduo, caught up in youthful spite, deleted him back on the spot. But years later, when he couldn't find any way to contact him, he regretted it for a long time, tossing and turning at night. He thought the two of them would never meet again, but he hadn't expected the name of the blind date his coworker had arranged to sound so familiar. Coworker: If you don't want to go, I... Chen Yuduo: I really want to go. Let's get married right away, thanks. *Includes the author's own setting: same-sex marriage is legal. *Blurb revised on March 21, 2022. Next up: "Ninety Days of Immersive Bottom-Tier Roleplay", blurb below OvO Shu Yu is a method actor. If he can't understand a character, he can't get into the role. The characters that made him famous over the years have all been gloomy, mercurial, and moody, just like him. One day, his agent lands him a script about a doormat bottom who always tries to please others, and whose partner treats him as a substitute. Shu Yu's first reaction is that he can't play the role, but his agent tells him the film could win awards. Shu Yu: I'll give it a try. But leaving his comfort zone is hard. Feeling troubled, Shu Yu goes to a bar to drown his sorrows and accidentally sleeps with a handsome guy. The next day, the handsome guy throws a bank card at his face. Shu Yu is about to get angry, but the man tells him what happened the night before was an accident: he mistook Shu Yu for the one he loved but could never have. Shu Yu: ... Hold on a second. Shu Yu volunteers to be the handsome man's substitute lover, just so he can experience firsthand the circumstances and emotional journey of a doormat bottom. Gu Songnian doesn't disappoint him. Everything he does is just like the scum top in the script, often making Shu Yu want to slap him. But it's all for work, so he puts up with it. Three months later, Gu Songnian feels his love for his idealized first love slowly fading, and finds himself falling for the substitute instead. But Shu Yu says, "Sorry, filming's wrapped." Gu Songnian immediately: ??? Theme: Give the other person a chance, and give yourself a chance too.