No Losing Your Mind

When Xu Zhenchao was in his final year of high school, his parents brought home a boy two years younger than him.

His father said, “Call him your little brother.”

Xu Zhenchao: “...”

Standing on the spiral staircase, he met the gaze of the thin, tense boy.

The boy had beautiful eyes, deep and dark, like slowly swirling black fog, layered upon itself and bottomless.

Luo Yi's parents had died in an airplane accident. Xu's mother brought the poor child, who had neither cried nor made a fuss at the funeral, home and treated him like her own son.

Luo Yi had pale skin, soft black hair, a slender neck, and delicate features. When he smiled, dimples appeared in his cheeks.

He seemed gentle, soft, fragile, and harmless.

Until the summer Xu Zhenchao came home during his sophomore year of college and absentmindedly opened the little study Luo Yi never let anyone enter. The snow-white walls were covered in photos: countless snapshots of Xu Zhenchao at school during the two years he'd been away, some taken from social media, others taken in secret...

At that moment, Xu Zhenchao realized that Luo Yi was sick, and seriously so.

He stood at the door for a while, pretended he hadn't seen anything, and closed it.

He put on the watch Luo Yi had given him, engraved with “loyi.”

He let Luo Yi put car air freshener that smelled like him in his car.

He allowed Luo Yi to show up at his class reunions and make vague remarks that drew knowing, suggestive looks.

How do you tame a madman?

First, tell him that you belong to him.

Then tell him...

“No going crazy.”

At last, one day, Luo Yi mustered the courage to see a therapist.

Xu Zhenchao (top) × Luo Yi (bottom)

2026.5.18 (reading guide updated; not part of the story)

Reading guide:

* Slow burn, everyday life, happy ending, sweet and fluffy.

* The early chapters are mostly from the top's point of view; the bottom's perspective features more in the later chapters.

* The bottom really is ill, and needs treatment.

The next novel is also about a couple taking center stage:

“Can a Fake Little Sunshine and a Fake Paragon of Righteousness Find Real Love?”

Lin Ji and Yun Tianshu are the envy of everyone at the Xianmiao Sect.

Lin Ji is the sect leader's youngest personal disciple, warmhearted and generous, with a glowing reputation.

Yun Tianshu is the sect's senior disciple, a formidable cultivator and the greatest of his generation, sworn to make vanquishing demons his life's mission.

They became cultivation partners three years ago, and their relationship is a close one.

As if.

Lin Ji came from a poor family. The sect leader found him as an orphan in a ramshackle village. He has no grand ambitions in life. Though he cultivates, all he really wants is to run a small business, make a little money, and buy a small house.

To make connections and build up his supply chain, he acts warmhearted and pretends to be generous. In truth, he's a miser who wears cheerfulness like a mask.

Yun Tianshu is afflicted with a deadly poison. To stay alive, he needs endless rare treasures to nourish his body. He cultivates day and night for one reason only: to win more life-preserving spirit herbs at the next Immortal Sect Tournament.

One moment, he's making a righteous speech at the oath-taking ceremony; the next, he's figuring out how to get the better of his opponents.

Three years ago, the Xianmiao Sect responded to a call to action by encouraging its disciples to focus on their love lives. Disciples who found a cultivation partner within two years of joining the sect would receive two hundred gold. If their partner was also a sect disciple, they'd get an additional two hundred gold and a spirit herb.

Lin Ji and Yun Tianshu exchanged a look and gritted their teeth.

Fine, let's become cultivation partners!

-

For three years, they've played devoted partners in public, all the while seeing right through each other's tricks.

Lin Ji shows kindness to the new disciples.

Yun Tianshu sneers. “Hypocritical.”

Yun Tianshu times his moves to swoop in at the last moment and claim the Immortal Sect Tournament championship.

Lin Ji rolls his eyes from the sidelines. “Underhanded.”

But every now and then, Lin Ji thinks Yun Tianshu is actually a decent person. Like when he spent half a year's allowance to celebrate Lin Ji's birthday.

Watching the fireworks in the sky screen, Lin Ji suddenly says, “Let's be real partners.”

After a brief, deathly silence...

Yun Tianshu: “When are we getting married?”

Lin Ji: “...Haha, I didn't say anything.”

Yun Tianshu: “I heard you.”

Lin Ji: “Why do your ears work so well at times like this?”

Yun Tianshu: “Other parts of me work well, too.”

Lin Ji: “Shut up!”

Theme: Maintain a healthy mind and personality