My Green Tea Childhood Friend Climbs to the Top by Faking Illness

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[My latest story, The Substitute Gets Revenge, is now serializing. Please add it to your collection!]

Huai Xu has a tall, handsome childhood friend who's a real showstopper whenever he brings him along.

Unfortunately, his childhood friend is all looks and no stamina: a fragile giant over 190 centimeters tall, who's suffered every ailment from colds, fevers, and headaches to trips and falls.

Whenever his childhood friend gets sick, his family comes to the Huai household with an awkward look. "A Xu, we're counting on you. A Xuan will only take medicine if you feed it to him..."

Every time, Huai Xu takes on the responsibility of caring for his sick friend, giving him water and medicine and tending to him in every way.

Eventually, to make things easier, he lets his childhood friend move into his room.

After starting university, Huai Xu gradually notices a few things:

First, he sees his childhood friend, who claims to have sprained his ankle and needs care, playing like a powerhouse on the basketball court.

Then, his friend's classmates say he took on a whole gang of thugs single-handedly and beat them all.

And then, when they try sex for the first time, his childhood friend keeps him up for three days and three nights...

On the fourth day, Huai Xu is aching all over and can barely turn over, while his childhood friend looks completely satisfied.

He understands in an instant and pushes him away with all his might. "Frailty and illness? Needing care? Jing Zhengxuan, why don't you keep up the act?"

-

When they were children, the new neighbors came over to introduce themselves. It was the first time Jing Zhengxuan met Huai Xu.

At the time, he was sick and groggy, and thought the boy was so pretty, the cutest child he'd ever seen.

Seeing him sick, the other boy cared for him in a sweet, childish voice and even fed him medicine.

For the first time in his life, Jing Zhengxuan didn't knock away the medicine offered to him.

But after he recovered, the boy didn't pay as much attention to him anymore.

Little Jing Zhengxuan thought dejectedly: If he got sick often, would the boy take care of him all the time?

Douzhi's Guide:

※ Kind, beautiful shou and a gong who acts obedient but is actually a scheming green tea.

※ One-on-one, both virgins, devoted to each other.

※ No intimacy before adulthood.

※ Pure fluff, no angst, cozy daily life.

※ Alternate setting: same-sex marriage is legal.

★★★★★★★★

---- The Substitute Gets Revenge ----

Blurb:

My name is Gao Xin, and I'm a cannon-fodder substitute in a melodramatic novel.

Because I resemble the protagonist shou in spirit, my adoptive father sells me to the protagonist gong, Chen Xueli.

For two whole years, Chen Xueli abuses and tramples on me as he pleases.

When he's happy, I'm his white moonlight.

When he's furious, I'm his punching bag.

Only after the protagonist shou, Zhu Ruichen, accepts his confession does Chen Xueli decide to let me go.

But in the author's story, I fall in love with Chen Xueli because of Stockholm syndrome.

To stay by his side, I turn down money and status, going from substitute to secret lover, spending every day waiting for a man whose heart and eyes belong only to Zhu Ruichen.

Think that's the ending?

It gets worse.

Zhu Ruichen has a congenital heart condition and the rare Bombay blood type.

When he becomes critically ill, Chen Xueli discovers that our blood types match and forces me to give up my heart.

The kind-hearted Zhu Ruichen pretends he knows nothing about any of it.

The cold operating table becomes my final resting place.

Meanwhile, the two of them get their happy ending and grow old together.

Why me?!

One second before I sign the substitute contract, I awaken.

Everyone who hurt me will pay a terrible price!

-

Chen Xueli loves Gao Xin desperately and is willing to do anything for him, only to learn that Gao Xin has a boyfriend.

Distraught, he gets drunk late at night and decides to steal him away.

He knocks on Gao Xin's door, holding flowers and gazing at him tenderly. "Xin, marry..."

Before he can finish, Gong Zhengning steps to the door and shields Gao Xin.

Water drips from his hair onto his bathrobe. His dark eyes are icy as he asks in displeasure, "Is that how you address your elders?"

Chen Xueli sobers up on the spot. "U-Uncle? Why... are you here?"

-

As the head of the Gong Group, Gong Zhengning is an untouchable, top-tier power player.

He knows Gao Xin is approaching him with ulterior motives, yet he knowingly falls deeper...

--

Douzhi's Cozy Reader's Guide:

※ A beautiful shou who takes revenge on every slight and a domineering gong who falls knowingly.

※ One-on-one, both virgins, devoted to each other.

※ Eleven-year age gap: shou is 18, gong is 29.

※ Gong and Chen are uncle and nephew. The reason for their different surnames is explained in the story.

※ Third-person narration.

※ Alternate setting: same-sex marriage is legal.

Premise: True love can withstand the long passage of time