Raised by My Aloof Childhood Friend

[It’s decided! My next novel will be "Becoming the Antagonist’s Childhood Bride". The blurb is at the very bottom. Please check it out and add it to your reading list~]

Percival first met Yan Shu on Christmas when they were eight.

The black-haired, dark-eyed Oriental doll sat alone beneath the Christmas tree, knees drawn up and arms wrapped around them, perfectly still.

Later, at school, some kids mocked Yan Shu, saying he was a bastard his parents didn’t want. Yan Shu neither argued nor fought back. He never said a word, simply sitting quietly at his desk.

That day, Percival couldn’t take it anymore. He chased off the kids making fun of Yan Shu, then said, “I think you could stand up to them a little, don’t you, Yan?”

Yan Shu blinked his pitch-black eyes and stared at him blankly.

After a long while, he stammered in heavily accented English, “I… don’t understand…”

-

Percival Andre came from a distinguished family and was the school’s famous young master.

One day, an Oriental boy began spending all his time by Percival’s side.

He would take off his scarf and wrap it around him, kneel to help him put on his shoes, hold an umbrella over him, and blow on piping-hot food before feeding it to him.

Then, one day, when they were arguing, Yan Shu shoved Percival and bit his hand. Everyone around them was stunned. How could anyone dare lay a hand on Young Master Percy?

But Percival simply took Yan Shu’s hand and said gently, “You didn’t bite hard enough, Yan.”

He wiped the tears from the corner of Yan Shu’s eye. “You have to hurt me. If you hurt me, I’ll remember not to argue with you again.”

“Don’t cry.”

-

When Yan Shu was sent abroad, he had no idea what had happened back home. Somehow, he’d been dumped in a strange country, in unfamiliar surroundings, surrounded by people speaking a language he didn’t know.

At least Percy was there with him.

Snow fell outside the window. Everything was so quiet. Yan Shu nestled in Percy’s arms, feeling his warmth.

He loved Percy’s eyes most of all. They were pale blue, like stars in the sky.

“Percy, will we ever be apart?”

Percival held his little doll close and thought back to that Christmas long ago. He had made a wish, and God had sent him his Christmas present.

“No, Yan. I’m yours.”

“Forever.”

Later, Yan Shu’s parents brought him back to their country. Everyone assumed life abroad had been hard for him, so the Yan family laid on their most lavish welcome for his first meal back.

It was meant to make amends, but also to put him in his place.

They wanted him to understand his situation and obey without question.

But when Yan Shu saw what was on the table, he frowned.

“The milk I asked for should be 58 degrees. Even a slight difference affects the taste.”

“I can’t eat seafood prepared like this. I hope you can arrange something else.”

“This wine is rather low quality. I’ve never had such cheap red wine.”

“What happened to your table manners?”

Everyone was stunned. Yan Shu’s supposed parents looked especially horrified, and everyone thought he was ungrateful.

That day, a distinguished guest came to the Yan Group. They said he was an old-money tycoon from overseas, the kind of man who could bring in hundreds of millions with a single deal.

Not a soul from the Yan family dared breathe too loudly in front of him.

Only Yan Shu, the one who supposedly “didn’t know what was good for him,” ran straight toward the blue-eyed, blond-haired tycoon and threw himself into his arms. He tilted his head up, eyes sparkling. “You’re here, darling!”

The Yan family: “???”

A pampered, sunny bottom x a cold, powerful top

Reader’s guide:

1. Childhood friends who grow up together. The story starts when they’re young, and the romance doesn’t begin until they’re eighteen.

2. Blurb dated January 14, 2026.

3. A slow-paced slice-of-life story.

Blurb:

Jiang Chenghe had known since childhood that he lived inside a novel. He was destined to become the villain, with a nonsensical life, doing nonsensically evil things before dying for no apparent reason.

Young Master Jiang jolted awake. If he was already a villain, why bother being a good kid?

So eight-year-old Jiang Chenghe wreaked havoc everywhere. One day, he blew up the garden of the Jiang family’s business rival. The next, he set fire to the rooftop of his own house. The day after that, he covered some family’s heir’s head and beat him black and blue. Finally, after ruining a business deal worth hundreds of millions, his father shipped him off to a small county town.

On his first day at his new school, Jiang Chenghe established his dominance by blowing up the school auditorium.

Chaos reigned. All the kids screamed and ran, except for one filthy little boy still lying on a bench in the corner of the auditorium, apparently asleep.

Jiang Chenghe woke him up.

The boy stared blankly at the smoke-filled auditorium and the pandemonium around him.

Jiang Chenghe asked, “Why aren’t you running?”

The boy blinked his big, shining eyes and slowly wrote on Jiang Chenghe’s hand: I can’t hear. Thank you for waking me up. You’re a really good person.

-

Jiang Chenghe thought the kid was pretty much his type.

The boy couldn’t hear or speak. He just quietly followed Jiang Chenghe around.

He even took the only bandages he had and carefully stuck one over the tiniest cut on Jiang Chenghe’s hand.

The boy had fallen too, and his hands and knees were covered in scrapes. Still, he shook his head foolishly and slowly wrote on Jiang Chenghe’s hand:

[I’m fine. It doesn’t hurt.]

His smile was silly, but he was cute and clean.

Jiang Chenghe couldn’t figure out why Chi Hao smiled so much.

He wrote the question on a piece of paper: “Why are you always so happy?”

Chi Hao looked up, smiling that silly smile again, and wrote on his hand:

[Because I don’t have anything, so when you’re even a little nice to me, A-He, it makes me so happy.]

Thinking about the mess that awaited him in the future, Young Master Jiang figured that if he was going to die as the villain, someone ought to inherit his fortune. He slapped the table and told Chi Hao, “You’re going to be my wife from now on!”

Chi Hao: “?”

-

Everyone at school knew Young Master Jiang feared no one, cared about no one, and looked down on everyone equally.

When they saw the deaf and mute kid trailing after him every day, they all thought the boy was in for it. The moment Young Master Jiang was away, they banded together to mock him, calling him Jiang Chenghe’s little lackey.

Usually easygoing, Chi Hao panicked. He grabbed them and earnestly tried to explain, writing on their hands:

[No, no, I’m not his lackey. I’m his wife!!]

Everyone: “????”

-

Chi Hao had been deaf since birth. He couldn’t hear, so he couldn’t speak either. He grew up with his grandfather, and after his grandfather died, he lived alone. Now he was going to be sent to an orphanage.

On the day he was supposed to move, he met the young master who ruled the school.

The young master suddenly told him, “Come home with me. I’ll raise you, and when we grow up, you can be my wife!”

Chi Hao didn’t know what a wife was, but he knew Jiang Chenghe was the best.

He gave him lots of delicious food, helped him get dressed and put on his socks, and worried about him being cold, hot, lonely, or left alone. He always held Chi Hao’s hand.

Jiang Chenghe was the best person in the world.

One day, Chi Hao’s hearing improved a little. He wanted to surprise Jiang Chenghe, so he didn’t tell him.

That night, as Jiang Chenghe held him while they slept, Chi Hao heard him whisper right by his ear, “I don’t want to be the villain anymore. I don’t want to be apart from you.”

Later, once Chi Hao’s hearing was fully restored and he learned to speak, the first thing he said was, “A-He, we’ll never be apart.”

-

The filthy little mute boy from childhood had been raised by Jiang Chenghe into a fresh-faced, dewy-skinned beauty, like a pretty peach.

One day, after they’d grown up, someone came looking for Chi Hao and said sternly, “Jiang Chenghe is a major villain. You need to run and stay away from him. He’ll lock you up one day!”

The truth about Jiang Chenghe’s role as the novel’s villain was exposed. He lit a cigarette and said nothing, thinking that the man knew him well. If Chi Hao tried to leave, he really would lock him up.

But Chi Hao’s eyes were sparkling. He took Jiang Chenghe’s hand.

“If you’re going to lock me up, you’d better line the chains with something soft. Otherwise, they’ll be cold.”

“You can’t skip any of my three meals a day. I want nice clothes, and I want to change my jewelry and gold every day.”

“I’ll need a gym, too. Otherwise, I’ll get fat being cooped up in a room all day.”

“Most importantly, A-He has to visit me every day. We agreed from the start that we’d never be apart.”

The man: “?”

Jiang Chenghe: “!”

A cute, fussy bottom who starts out pitiful but is spoiled into a little handful x a villainous young master who looks down on everyone except me, a domineering top

Theme: Keep striving, reach for something better, and face setbacks without fear. Those who keep working hard will make their dreams come true!