Strong × strong | Childhood friends to lovers
A record of taming a rich, beautiful flower with a puppy-like young man
Anything could change before the story begins, except the author
A little story about 26-year-old Yaozu, who doesn't date or get married and still can't stop thinking about his first love.
*
Tahe is in the north, where oak trees are everywhere. Their branches spread wide, and acorns sometimes fall beneath them.
These trees have extremely long growth cycles, taking nearly forty years to mature.
Zhao Li stands beneath a tree, staring at its trunk and wondering how much longer it will take him to grow up.
*
Ten years. So very long.
More than three thousand days and nights: who waited for whom after school, who stood up for whom when they got into trouble, who held whom while they cried and laughed. The tears they'd shed could have joined together into a river. They lay in the same bed and swore to treat each other well for the rest of their lives… Ten years was long enough for Tian Shaoming to carve Zhao Li into his mind, long enough for Tian Shaoming to spend endless, difficult years reliving every little moment of their past, over and over, day and night.
Ten years passed in the blink of an eye.
The moment Zhao Li sees him, joy, hurt, bitterness, and helplessness fill his heart all at once. It is almost as hard as speaking for the first time. “Tian…”
The man turns to look at him, his gaze calm, even a little puzzled.
“It's me…” Zhao Li's voice trembles, and his body won't stop shaking. “Zhao Li. It's me.”
The man is silent for a long time, then says, “Sorry, I don't know you.”
Reader's guide:
1. 1v1, both are virgins, happy ending.
2. The story spans a long time and may be a little melodramatic.
3. Two boys awkwardly entangle their lives for years and grow into adults together. I'll try to keep it from getting too frustrating (probably).
4. The third book in a series about childhood friends at school. The other books are in the author's collection: Puppy, Traces, and Blooming.
5. Xiao Hui's childhood-friends stories are all slow burns. If you prefer a faster pace, check out the other series first to see if they suit you.
Theme: Keep moving forward. Keep moving forward.
