The Young Master in a Qipao [Republican Era]

Yun Ce had an older brother, a child their father had found outside. They grew up together, spending more than a decade carefree, until the situation grew unstable.

“Will you come with me?”

At fourteen, his brother was resolute and silent, his head bowed as he said nothing.

Their father urged them to hurry from outside the door. Yun Ce had only asked on a whim, and soon turned away without a backward glance.

It rained heavily that day. As the car slowly drove away, Yun Ce turned and saw his brother standing alone in the rain. A tiny bit of guilt stirred in his heart.

But time was running out, and the ship was about to leave the harbor. He had no choice.

Only ten years later did Yun Ce learn that on the day he left, his brother had stayed behind in their ancestral home in his place.

Yun Ce grew unable to sleep, often jolting awake from nightmares. Before his eyes flickered the memory of his brother's face and voice as a child, then the indistinct face of the man who had died a grisly death in their old home.

When they met again, one was an actor in a vivid qipao, the other a dapper owner of a medicine shop.

“Will you come with me?”

The rouge on his lips was gently wiped away. Yun Ce raised his head and looked at his brother, now grown tall and handsome. His eyes reddened.

“I can't leave.”

The man's whole body stiffened, the smile vanishing from his lips.

“But you just promised me. You promised forever.”

*

His older brother had protected him for most of his life so he could live in peace. Yun Ce felt it was finally his turn to be brave for his brother.

Theme: Redemption