But You Can’t Unspill the Milk [Entertainment Industry]

[Cold, Sharp-Tongued Mentor Top * Neurotic, Hedonistic Trainee Bottom]

Originally titled: It’s Too Late to Take It Back

Eight years ago, in pursuit of his debut, Bai Yixuan went alone to Italy to attend a music summer camp.

He was born carefree and flirtatious, and fell at first sight for a withdrawn, taciturn boy. He flirted with him relentlessly, pestering him every chance he got.

Just when he thought he’d finally won him over, everything came to light, and he never got to say, “I like you.” His own mother had him committed to a psychiatric hospital, where he remained for eight years.

Eight years of a life worse than death. Eight years later, he had lost all his memories.

Returning to his homeland burdened with chronic ailments, Bai Yixuan met a cold, aloof mentor who seemed to harbor a deep hostility toward him on the set of a music competition show.

The mentor clasped his hands, wearing black leather gloves, a chill hidden in his eyes.

Bai Yixuan licked his lips, and a long-dormant desire to conquer flared within him.

*

On Ming Ru’s seventeenth birthday, his parents died before his eyes.

Poor, withdrawn, and cold, with thorns all over him, he lived in dark, clinging muck.

He thought he would go on struggling alone forever, until a dazzling boy barged into his world.

The boy approached him, fawned on him, kissed him, and pried open his shell, setting his lifeless world ablaze, only to vanish from his life completely after Ming Ru had fallen for him.

On his twenty-first birthday, Ming Ru clawed his way out of hell, pouring everything he had into reaching the boy.

But the other man looked impatient, with a lover in his arms.

“Let’s break up. I was only playing around with you.”

Only then did Ming Ru realize that all his heartfelt devotion had been nothing more than a whim to the other man. That beautiful face hid a heart that was fickle and unfaithful.

But he couldn’t accept it.

Later, Ming Ru fought his way through bloodshed and storms to become a newly risen top-tier star adored by millions. Fate played a cruel trick, bringing him face to face with the man who had disappeared for years.

But the man had completely forgotten him.

The man said, “I lost my memory.”

Looking into those eyes, now full of distance, Ming Ru felt boundless anger and fury flare in his heart.

*

“...Have you remembered yet?” Ming Ru’s expression was cold, but his rough actions were the exact opposite of his tone.

He held the other man’s hands firmly in place, leaving him no chance to resist.

Bai Yixuan panted twice, looking disheveled. He narrowed his eyes and smiled, his voice hoarse.

“No... Teacher Ming, are you going to punish me again?”

Ming Ru lowered his gaze. The other man’s flushed cheeks, slick with a light sheen of sweat, were reflected in his eyes.

Dazzling, beautiful, fair-skinned.

And utterly infuriating.

Reader’s Guide:

1. This is really a devoted, hopelessly lovestruck top * a pessimistic, world-weary bottom who’s given up. Expect melodrama, angst, and cathartic payback.

3. The bottom has severe anxiety and depression, and is also rather neurotic in everyday life.

P.S. The “lover” is a misunderstanding. No one cheats.

6. The past and present timelines run in parallel. Chapters set in the past will be marked [ed].

[Years apart, I only dare let the boyhood affection wander through my dreams late at night.

I want to show the past some mercy, too.

But once love flares, it can never be taken back.]

Coming Soon

Come check out my upcoming novel, The Art Student Woke Up with a Husband!

One moment, my teacher was pointing at me and scolding me for using colors that were too warm. The next, I was sitting in a golden sandalwood chair, holding a jade-handled cane carved with a dragon’s head.

A man knelt awkwardly before me. “Boss Shang! Spare my life, I didn’t know any better...”

“Spare your life?” A pleasant, cool voice chimed in. A handsome man sat in my lap and breathed against my ear. “Boss Shang, if you let him off once, there’ll be a second time.”

Me: “...”

I slowly tightened my grip on the dragon-headed cane.

...Can you really get killed for failing the color section of the art-school entrance exam?

Q: An art student wakes up as a big shot controlling the economic lifeline of City A, and somehow gets a gorgeous husband out of nowhere. What should he do?

A: Thanks for the question. This is probably the art student’s final fantasy before dying from having to draw fifty sketches as punishment.

But Shang Huaian really is facing exactly this situation right now.

And this husband who appeared out of nowhere isn’t just anyone. He’s the younger schoolmate Shang Huaian pursued again and again, only to fail every time.

After falling asleep while watching the teacher’s demonstration and opening his eyes again, his father’s loan sharks no longer needed to be paid back, he didn’t have to take the color exam he’d failed, the man he’d pursued for so long had married him, and every blink cost him several million.

Could life really be this blissful...?!

Whenever people speak of Jiang Qingxu, they lament that such a talented man would willingly lower himself to serve the powerful.

But no one knows that he once misjudged people, mistook a villain for a trusted confidant, and believed his slander. He thought Shang Huaian had approached him only because he coveted his family fortune.

He ruined that man’s reputation and nearly destroyed his family... When he learned the truth,

he finally saw the light, and bitterly regretted what he had done.

The man gritted his teeth and climbed back up from rock bottom. Jiang Qingxu knelt before him and pleaded in a hushed voice:

“Please... let me help you.”

Shang Huaian looked at him, his gaze deep and unfathomable. After a long pause, he chuckled.

“Perfect. I’m still missing a dog.”

Jiang Qingxu was willing to spend the rest of his life lowering himself to atone. He never expected that after an accident, Shang Huaian would lose all his memories.

Looking into those eyes, clear once more, Jiang Qingxu’s heart tightened.

He had dreamed of winning that man’s heart. Could this... be heaven giving him a chance?

Later, Shang Huaian realized that life really didn’t offer easy bliss, and husbands didn’t appear for no reason.

No matter how high his position, he had fought for it through the cracks, through blood and blades. He had paid the highest price for his husband: he had to risk his life to win him.

He sat at the top, but was weighed down by chronic ailments and had long since lost all hope in the world.

On the day his memories returned, he stood in the Shang family basement with a cleaver in hand. His husband knelt before him, pleading in a broken voice:

“...Huaian, it was my fault. I lied to you. Don’t leave me...”

Looking at the other man’s miserable state, Shang Huaian let out a soft, cold laugh.

“Too late.”

Reader’s Guide:

1. Melodrama, a groveling top, feel-good revenge, a comeback, and scum getting what they deserve.

2. A carefree, flirtatious, nonchalant bottom * a younger, sweet-faced but scheming top.

3. The top’s wrongdoing toward the bottom does not involve cheating.

Theme: Even if you’re shattered to pieces, you can still pick your dreams back up.