Tall Tree

This novel will enter VIP status tomorrow (2023.4.26). The discounted chapters will be Chapters 24 through 70, so please don't buy them twice~ Original titles: "The Tall Tree Has Nowhere to Lean" and "After I Broke Up with Him, My Scumbag Ex Went Mad." It's finished! My "Tall Tree" is back! Tip: This novel was revised after completion, so all pirated versions online are different from the official one~ When Qiao Chen was 19, he was forced to come out and driven out of his home with a club. With nowhere to go, he became a bartender at a KTV. Qiao Chen had a remarkably handsome face, but he would only sell drinks and wouldn't let anyone touch him. His backbone was harder than a liquor bottle. People sneered at him for being so high and mighty, so he had no friends and spent over a year living all alone. Then, beneath the dazzling disco lights, he met Lin Fusheng. He fell for him, but refused to become his kept lover. Lin Fusheng indulged him and said, "Fine, then let's date." Qiao Chen thought he'd found the kind of love-at-first-sight romance you read about in storybooks, and was so happy he nearly went crazy. - Lin Fusheng wanted to keep a canary. The bird was naturally proud, and even when they talked about romance, he kept a straight face and said he would only accept a relationship. Good-naturedly, Lin Fusheng gave him what he wanted. In his mind, dating and keeping a lover were no different. - The two of them happily spent over half a year wrapped up in their relationship, but their good times didn't last. Lin Fusheng's father took it upon himself to arrange a marriage for him. When Lin Fusheng came to Qiao Chen with an engagement ring and called him the other man... Qiao Chen stared at Lin Fusheng's ring, his face deathly pale. He had refused to be a kept lover, yet had unwittingly been forced into becoming the other man. He asked Lin Fusheng to explain, but Lin Fusheng had only found out a month before him, and he had too many things to worry about... His mother, imprisoned in darkness for over a decade, never seeing the light of day; Qiao Chen's life and safety, under an implicit threat; His friend's business dealings and the flow of funds; Faced with Qiao Chen's questions, all he could do was shake his head. "That's how it is." After that, Qiao Chen would rather drown in the sea of human suffering than reach for Lin Fusheng, that floating log, ever again. - Lin Fusheng never expected his obedient little bird to resolutely break up with him and flee his side in an instant. It had been nothing more than a fleeting affair, gone in a moment, but Lin Fusheng was determined to pursue him to the bitter end. He rejected the engagement and sent his father to prison... He lost all composure and went mad, chasing Qiao Chen all the way to the muddy countryside, where he pulled him from a dilapidated house. But Qiao Chen could only retreat, his voice hoarse. "Lin Fusheng, stop tormenting me." - Early Lin Fusheng: It's just for fun. Who's thinking about spending a lifetime together? Comfort someone? Never in this life. How embarrassing! Later Lin Fusheng: Please, Qiao Qiao. A lifetime, a real lifetime. Come home with me, Qiao Qiao. Qiao Chen (coldly): Bah! Scumbag! One-on-one; happy ending; ten-year age gap; older seme; a light "chasing his husband to the crematorium" plot (the seme pursues the uke); mutual salvation Reading guide: 1. Both leads are each other's first and only, and their feelings are mutual from beginning to end. 2. The uke isn't completely blinded by love. He really does have a backbone; he just longs for love too much. Please check out my school-life novel next door, "North and South, Together [Soul-Swapping]"~ Blurb for "North and South, Together [Soul-Swapping]" [In this rotten world, reason won't get you anywhere. You have to rely on your fists.] A ruthless, taciturn seme who is vicious in a fight x A lively, boisterous, guileless uke Chen Nian Nan knows he's got nothing to lose, so he fights viciously, aiming to take lives and not caring if he loses his own. He has nothing and no one to hold him back. To him, dying is happier than living. The most cowardly thing he ever did was secretly love Duan An Bei for two years. He didn't dare say a word, and could barely look at him for more than two seconds. If he looked any longer, his face would turn red. A cool, tough guy isn't supposed to blush. So in two years as classmates, he and Duan An Bei hardly spoke. They were like strangers. Just as he thought this love would sink into the earth along with him, a strange thing happened... Every night from 18:30 until 6:30 the next morning, he and Duan An Bei would swap souls. Afterward, everyone noticed that Duan An Bei couldn't look in a mirror without blushing. Duan An Bei: We're both top students, so pretending to be each other shouldn't be hard to pull off, right? It's pretty simple. Just be more lively and smile more. Chen Nian Nan, who never smiles unless he's about to throw a punch: Ha, haha... Like this? Both leads are each other's first and only; one-on-one; happy ending The soul-swapping stops eventually. It won't go on forever. Theme: Live well, keep looking forward, and always be happy