There is an old photograph in the bedroom of He Xiling, heir to the He family's medical empire. An MIT professor stands in the middle, flanked by his two favorite students. The man on the left is He Xiling's boyfriend.
Only He Xiling knows that the one he has loved all along is the man on the right: IT genius Huo Chengfeng.
After his boyfriend dies, whenever Huo Chengfeng achieves something that draws the world's attention, He Xiling sends him a bouquet of flowers.
Anonymous and in secret, from the capital all the way to the far northwest. He does this for years.
*
As the creator of Dreambound, Huo Chengfeng leads a revolution in global gaming. What kind of player could possibly catch his attention in his own game?
There is one who repeatedly chooses to die in the game, forcing Huo Chengfeng to turn his attention to him. Then he discovers that the player is the same-sex lover of his late dear friend.
Gentle yet obsessive, refined yet reckless, He Xiling is an enigma.
Excellent! Solving puzzles is Huo Chengfeng's lifelong passion.
*
Dreambound, the fully immersive game developed by Huo Chengfeng, lets players enter the game through an incense-burner-shaped brain-computer interface. They feel no sense of anything being virtual. It is a real world.
From then on, friends can get together, families can share a meal, and people can travel, all in Dreambound.
He Xiling is rational, articulate, and has a wide range of interests, but whenever Huo Chengfeng gets close, he clams up.
Huo Chengfeng thinks: My lover gave his life to save me. He must truly hate me.
When He Xiling returns to Dreambound later, he finds all his friends have disappeared. Only Huo Chengfeng is there.
Huo Chengfeng: Sorry, now you can only look at me.
He Xiling: Sorry, then I won't let you go again.
[IT genius top] X [rich family's disowned bottom]
His secret crush is deafeningly loud yet utterly silent. His motto is to deny it to the bitter end.
The aloof top comes down from his pedestal. He turns a straight man gay, and he'll flirt with you so subtly you won't even see it coming.
Brought together by a single stick of incense, mature men in love either walk away or make a commitment.
Theme: A romance brought together by a stick of incense
