Centripetal Force

[Chapter comments are now open. If you read pirated copies, you'll miss revisions and frequent follow-up posts. My new novel, After a Straight-Laced Guy Accidentally Sleeps with His Scheming Childhood Friend, is advertised at the very bottom. Please add it to your reading list.]

Fake-cold, handsome, strong, tragic, all-round top student x Fake-gentle, secretly competitive, lopsided-subject genius

Meng Jingqiao x Shi Huaiyu | Academic rivals from top high schools, attending different schools

During the summer break before their first year of high school, Shi Huaiyu met a boy from his school's rival at an intensive physics competition training camp. This boy, Meng Jingqiao, was a renowned all-round top student, but he always carried himself with the distant coolness of an iceberg.

That made sense, Shi Huaiyu thought as he looked at their names side by side on the score sheet. Meng Jingqiao was a student at the strongest school in the province, after all.

But as they spent time together, Shi Huaiyu realized that Meng Jingqiao acted a little differently around him. The way Meng Jingqiao looked at him didn't seem to be just the way one rival regarded another, someone competing for their respective schools' honor. It was as if he were hiding some unfathomable feelings from his youth.

That look was as though they had known each other for a long time.

Bound together by their passion and dreams, he and Meng Jingqiao grew ever closer. At some point, their camaraderie as competitors began to give way to a different kind of affection amid their constant race to outdo each other, leaving Shi Huaiyu at a loss.

But just then, amid the brilliant fireworks lighting up the bustling city center, Meng Jingqiao grabbed his wrist. Dressed in the formal uniform of their rival school, he made a solemn confession.

With his heart burning in his hands, the young man looked at the person he loved most and said that all he wanted was to hold his hand and go with him to a faraway place.

He also said that they would be the best of soulmates.

On the day the competition results came out, Shi Huaiyu gazed out the bus window at the ever-changing cityscape, lost in confusion. The passionate pursuit of dreams brought moving family bonds, friendship, teacher-student relationships, and love. Of course, the road was also full of thorns and painful setbacks.

During the last vacation before the college entrance exam, he and Meng Jingqiao went on a trip together. Beneath a vast, sparkling canopy of stars by the lake, Meng Jingqiao lay among the flowers under the moon and asked him, lying beside him:

"Boyfriend, do you regret failing the physics competition?"

"No regrets."

"Why not?"

"Because I dared to chase my biggest dream at the best age of my life, and because of it, I got to meet the best version of you from our youth again."

1. Pure, wholesome romance. Both are each other's first love, with no previous partners. One-on-one, happy ending.

2. Set under the old college entrance exam system. The first three volumes cover the physics competition, and the fourth covers the college entrance exam.

3. This story isn't suitable for people who are possessive about particular characters or dislike alternate pairings and reversed ships.

4. At its core, this is an inspirational ensemble story, with supporting couples of various orientations.

5. Part of the Words, Promises, and Stars series. Author's Weibo: @Gugu Gu Xingyue.

[Please add my new novel, After a Straight-Laced Guy Accidentally Sleeps with His Scheming Childhood Friend, to your reading list.]

Beautiful, gloomy, devoted artist from a wealthy family x Adorable, slow-to-catch-on, earnest straight STEM guy

Pei Qingchi x Chen Lie | The top is secretly in love | Turning a straight guy gay | Sex first, love later

Chen Lie is a stubbornly straight guy, as straight as they come.

Then one day at college, he went out drinking and accidentally slept with Pei Qingchi, his longtime best friend.

And he was the bottom.

Chen Lie: ...

Chen Lie was utterly shaken. He felt he could no longer face his identity as a straight guy, or his friend. Just as he finally managed to get his head straight, his childhood friend, the guy he'd always had right under his nose, suddenly confessed to him.

Pei Qingchi: Chen Lie, I've actually been in love with you for a long time.

Chen Lie: ?

Wait, man, you never told me you were gay!

What do you mean you told me ages ago and I just didn't get it???

Hold on, are you trying to date me? I seriously didn't notice????

Pei Qingchi was the only son of a wealthy family, but he fell in love with Chen Lie at first sight during a childhood trip, then spent the next twelve years secretly pining for him.

He came all the way from a thousand miles away for Chen Lie, carefully maneuvering himself into the role of Chen Lie's closest companion. He even used a secret identity to lure him to a university in his hometown.

But Chen Lie turned around and gave him a friendzone card, saying he was the most reliable friend in the world and that the two of them were closer than any couple.

Pei Qingchi: .

Standing in his art studio, Pei Qingchi smiled at a wall covered in portraits of Chen Lie. He knew how to wield his good looks and flirt with a plan. Even if Chen Lie insisted he was straight, Pei Qingchi had ways to win him over.

After all, he liked Chen Lie so much.

One day after they got together, Chen Lie happened upon Pei Qingchi's old, melodramatic teenage diary about his unrequited love and teased him with a laugh:

"Weren't you always so impressive after you started college? How come you were such a coward in high school, writing stuff like this every day?"

Without blushing or missing a beat, Pei Qingchi snatched the diary away, turned his head, and kissed the handsome young man in his arms on the cheek.

"That was puberty. It's normal for your feelings to be different from how they are now. Back in high school, you also said that when you got married, I had to be there and you'd ask me to be your best man. Do you remember?"

Chen Lie's face suddenly turned red, but Pei Qingchi pulled out a diamond ring. Smiling, he looked at the stunned man before him and said:

"You can't go back on that. I have to be there when you get married, Lie. But since we've already slept together, why not give me a promotion, from best man to groom? What do you say?"

1. Both are each other's first love, with no previous partners. One-on-one. There are some bumps along the way, but it's sweet overall. Happy ending.

2. The bottom has never liked a woman. He just thought he was straight.

3. The top has an awkward teenage crush in high school, then gets very calculating in college.

4. The story opens with a college one-night stand. All the high school scenes are flashbacks.

5. This story isn't suitable for people who are possessive about particular characters or dislike alternate pairings and reversed ships.

6. Possessive comments will be deleted. Anyone posting "gksk" will be blocked immediately.

7. Part of the Shanghai Elite series. Literary title: Crossing the River Together.

Theme: Love and passion are the most romantic things of all.