My Sickly Younger Uncle Keeps Trying to Stop Me from Going Down with Him

Lin Zheyu is the most cherished young master of the Lin family’s main branch. His spiritual power is abundant and his talent extraordinary, yet he is a sickly young man plagued by a curse, said to be unlikely to live past thirty.

When Lin Mingyi, the son of a collateral branch of the Lin family, was two, he was fortunate enough to be chosen as the personal guard sworn to serve this generation’s family head, Lin Zheyu. He formed a blood pact with the head of the family to take on his pain in his stead.

As an adult, Lin Mingyi accidentally wandered into the ancestral hall and saw a sacrificial tablet engraved with his birth date. Only then did he learn the truth: serving the family head was a pretense, taking on his pain was just appearances, and he had been born to be a sacrifice. He was meant to trade his life for another’s, to die in Lin Zheyu’s place when Lin Zheyu turned thirty.

That day, he pinned Lin Zheyu, coughing up blood, against the altar table in the ancestral hall. Holding one hand over Lin Zheyu’s heart, he demanded, “When you used me to ward off misfortune, did it hurt here?”

Lin Zheyu’s stomach seized as if a sharp blade were twisting inside him. He stumbled after the furious boy, but could not catch up.

Halfway down the road, Lin Mingyi turned back. With red-rimmed eyes, he looked down at Lin Zheyu, who was kneeling in the muddy rain and coughing blood, then bent to gather his thin body into his arms.

Half-conscious, Lin Zheyu heard the boy call his full name in a trembling voice.

Later, Lin Mingyi discovered that even with him as a sacrifice, his uncle still got hurt. Even when he took the misfortune upon himself, his uncle continued to grow weaker by the day. Everyone told him it was because Lin Zheyu had been frail from birth, and that the problem did not lie with him as the sacrifice.

Later still, holding Lin Zheyu’s blood-soaked body, Lin Mingyi learned in pain and despair that the so-called truth was actually a lie. He was not a Lin at all. He was a substituted sacrifice, unable to bear any of Lin Zheyu’s pain, let alone trade his life for Lin Zheyu’s.

And Lin Zheyu had known all of this for a very, very long time.

The unruly but fiercely protective younger wolf-dog, sacrificial top Lin Mingyi, vs. the beautiful, strong, tragic sickly family head who is cold on the outside, warm on the inside, and used to hiding his pain, bottom Lin Zheyu.

[Reading Guide]

1. The setting is wildly detached from reality, and the medicine is not medically accurate. Don't look for historical or medical accuracy.

2. The bottom is in extremely, extremely, extremely poor health.

3. Younger top.

4. They are not actually uncle and nephew, and have no blood relation whatsoever. They only fall in love as adults, and both know they are not related before they confirm their relationship.

5. No switching roles or pairings. Not suitable for fans devoted to either character.

About the template character-design cover: The character designs on the cover are licensed online commercial-use assets purchased by the artist, not exclusive assets. They are not unique, but the cover is free of copyright issues and the design is original.

The blurb was written on February 1, 2025. All subsequent edits have been archived.

Theme: Struggle through mud and blood until flowers bloom.