Traces

Power couple | Straight man falls for another man | The real deal: one big dog and one even bigger dog | Childhood friends

Steady, restrained, fatherly top × sunny, energetic, loyal bottom

Please add my next book, Don’t Mess with the Rich Dream Guy, to your reading list. TT I’ll do anything, just please 🥺

*

Zhang Tianhe only figured it out later.

By the time he did, Fu Minghai was no longer by his side.

At fourteen, Fu Minghai was barely more than a kid himself, yet he was already acting like an adult. Every day after school, he waited outside Zhang Tianhe’s classroom, carried his schoolbag, and went home to wash his clothes and cook for him. Back then, Zhang Tianhe thought having an older brother was wonderful.

At seventeen, Fu Minghai’s school uniform jacket had been washed until it faded, and its cuffs were worn through, but he still couldn’t bear to replace it. He saved his money to buy Zhang Tianhe a pair of running shoes for training, worth thousands. With every step Zhang Tianhe took in them, it felt as if he were stepping on his brother’s heart.

At twenty, Fu Minghai went to college and worked three jobs a day, sending money home every month. He bought things for Zhang Tianhe, for their little sister, and for their mother, but never anything for himself.

*

For Zhang Tianhe, the first stirrings of adolescence began with trying to catch up to Fu Minghai’s height. He just didn’t know when following behind Fu Minghai had started to feel different from before.

One summer night when he was sixteen, Zhang Tianhe woke in the middle of the night and realized his face was nestled against Fu Minghai’s shoulder. His brother’s scent, mixed with soap, filled his nostrils. In a sudden rush of heat, he moved closer as if possessed and lightly brushed his lips against Fu Minghai’s chin.

It was over in an instant, like a dream.

Zhang Tianhe’s heart thundered. He froze, afraid to move, then after a long while quietly turned over and buried his face in his pillow.

*

Until he turned eighteen, he followed in Fu Minghai’s footsteps, growing up in his wake. The journey had always seemed so easy that he thought he could keep walking that road forever.

“Brother, let’s support the family together.” He wanted to tell Fu Minghai, You don’t have to carry everything alone. I’ve grown up, too. I can shoulder half the burden.

But he never expected growing up to drive a wedge between them. Nor did he expect this to be the first time Fu Minghai lost his temper with him. The slap didn’t land on Zhang Tianhe’s face. Fu Minghai slapped himself instead.

Zhang Tianhe would never forget that look. Bloodshot and unfamiliar, it held a disappointment he had never seen before. In that moment, the slap hurt more than if it had landed on his own face.

“What are you thinking? Do you really have to act like an idiot at a time like this? Do you know who you’re acting like, being so stubborn and ungrateful?”

Zhang Tianhe stood there, stunned, unable to say a word.

He knew.

He was just like his father.

*

Fu Minghai didn’t let him see him off the day he went abroad.

Zhang Tianhe stood on the balcony and watched the plane in the distance grow smaller and smaller. Later, he had to stand very, very high to see across the sea.

Fu Minghai was no longer anywhere in the house, as if he had never been there at all.

But Zhang Tianhe knew that the traces his brother had left behind had already grown into his very bones and blood.

He began trying to live the way Fu Minghai had. Washing clothes, cooking, saving up to buy things for the family. Walking the roads Fu Minghai had walked, enduring the hardships he had endured, and reaching the heights he had reached.

A long time later.

Long enough for Zhang Tianhe to learn to hide his love, long enough for the sharp edges of those youthful feelings to be worn smooth by time.

He stumbled across an old recording.

The background was noisy, filled with wind, passing cars, and Fu Minghai’s breathing.

His voice was low and indistinct, as if it had taken him ages to work up the courage to speak:

“Erbao, I really, really love you.”

“I haven’t spent enough time with you. Really, not nearly enough.”

-

The full blurb for the next book, Don’t Mess with the Rich Dream Guy, is in my author’s profile.

Power couple | Unconventional shared-rental story | Band story | They bicker like enemies, but the crush is real

Proud, unruly, handsome and hard-luck bottom × somewhat rotten rich-boy top

★

Zhuo Fei was absolutely certain that he and his new roommate were astrologically incompatible.

The day Zhou Jin moved in, Zhuo Fei was crouching on the balcony fixing the washing machine. The “celebrity face” the landlord had hyped up really was impressive, if you ignored what Zhou Jin called him: “Hey, you, the lousy fridge repairman.”

First of all, he fixed washing machines.

Second, who keeps a fridge on the balcony?

Zhou Jin was unlike anyone Zhuo Fei had ever met.

Zhuo Fei had met plenty of tough guys, but never anyone who was both broke and tough. Zhou Jin couldn’t cook and didn’t even know how to turn on a gas stove.

Sometimes Zhuo Fei wondered how someone who knew and could do absolutely nothing could still act like he was the greatest thing on earth, always prickly and cocky. How had he made it this far?

Patience is a virtue, and it wasn’t as if Zhuo Fei had any other choice. After all, Zhou Jin’s only redeeming quality was splitting the rent with him.

Until one late night, when Zhou Jin got drunk, walked into the wrong room, looked at Zhuo Fei’s face, and hazily kissed him. The moment the smell of alcohol hit him, Zhuo Fei clearly felt the warm, damp touch of Zhou Jin’s lips.

The air fell deathly silent.

That night, they lay in bed with their backs pressed together.

After a long while, Zhou Jin spoke first, his voice hoarse. “What did I… just do?”

Zhuo Fei sneered. “What, are you going to kill me to keep me quiet?”

-

Reader’s Guide to Traces:

1. One-on-one romance, happy ending, neither has been with anyone else.

2. Three-year age gap, with the top older.

3. A slow-burn, slice-of-life story about childhood friends growing up together.

4. If you’ve made it this far, please add it to your reading list, okay? ᐡ•͈ ·̭ •͈ᐡ

5. This is the second book in my school-days childhood-friends series. The other three, Puppy, Through the Years, and Blossoming, are in my author’s profile.

6. All the childhood-friends stories I write are slow burns. If you like a faster pace, check out my other series first and see if they suit your taste before starting this one.

Special note:

They are not related by blood or family.

They have different surnames and are not registered in the same household.

Theme: Give it everything you have, and you’ll still only be three-tenths like him.