Between the Showers

Next up: Long Night Letter, a crime investigation story with a false-substitute romance. Blurb at the very end

Blurb

A quick heads-up: Except for the "Rain and Mist" arc, which takes place during their youth, everything happens after their reunion.

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The aloof, tough guy who pursued relentlessly ten years later: the top

The sunny boy who became obsessive and guarded ten years later: the bottom

[Rekindled Romance + Medical Business Rivalry + A Touch of Angst]

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Ten years ago, Bian Xu cut ties with his family's company, Huaixu Biotech, and prepared to go to university with Xu Zhihan. But when he returned to Huaishan, Xu Zhihan suddenly vanished.

Then a car accident forced him back onto the path he had been trying to avoid: going home, back to Huaixu.

His family first sent him to Seattle.

He went from an undergraduate degree in bioengineering to a PhD, then founded Vita, a biomedical research institute under Huaixu.

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Ten years later, rain fell endlessly over Seattle. At a banquet welcoming a prospective project partner, Bian Xu saw Xu Zhihan again.

After all these years apart, Xu Zhihan looked distant and desolate, his expression like a thorn in Bian Xu's heart.

Xu Zhihan stayed on at Vita as a researcher representing the partner organization.

Bian Xu discovered that the little sun he once knew had become cold as ice and withdrawn.

And yet Xu Zhihan refused to say a word about what had happened over the past ten years.

Bian Xu tried every way he could to probe him, hoping to uncover the reason for the drastic change in Xu Zhihan's temperament and find proof that he still had feelings for him. But he never expected that Xu Zhihan's probing would be even more intense than his own.

From then on, they were at each other's throats.

One was always testing the other, and the other was always hiding something.

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Later, the truth came to light.

Only then did Bian Xu learn that Xu Zhihan had left because of him, and returned because of him, too.

Ten years ago, he said business was a battlefield and didn't want Xu Zhihan caught up in it.

Ten years later, Xu Zhihan had plunged alone into the maelstrom of business warfare for his sake.

The source of this business war was the nightmare that had haunted Bian Xu throughout his childhood, and the past Xu Zhihan most wanted to erase.

"Bian Xu, shouldn't you hate me? Why do you always act as if you can't let go of the past?"

"Because I once heard someone say that, if he got the chance, he wanted to see me again."

Key points:

The main characters are both physically and emotionally faithful to each other. Happy ending. The pairing will not be reversed or broken up.

Everything the main characters do has a reason.

Neither of them got involved with anyone else while they were apart.

The story is told from the top's perspective, but both of them suffer. I can't say who has it worse, so readers with strong preferences should proceed with caution.

Coming Soon

Brilliant, calculating, righteous, and guiding police officer top VS gloomy, detached, revenge-driven undercover bottom who wants to destroy himself

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A year ago, an accident caused Xu Shaochen, undercover at the Kanna Group, to disappear for three months.

When he finally returned to the Kanna Group, everyone called him a madman.

He could coldly flick the butterfly knife in his hand between a subordinate's fingers over the slightest mistake. He could also venture into an underground fight club on the strength of a rumor, true or not, and come out covered in wounds.

Everyone wondered what had happened to him during those three months, but he never spoke of it.

As always, he kept watch over a bar called Fxxk Monday, moving through the gray areas of society.

A year later, a murder case brought Xie Yu, deputy captain of Beichuan City's criminal investigation squad, face-to-face with Xu Shaochen.

The first time Xie Yu saw him, his eyes were full of an inquisitiveness Xu Shaochen couldn't understand. After that, Xie Yu began frequenting Fxxk Monday, asking him over the bar's neon-lit din, "Do you know there's someone who looks exactly like you?"

Xu Shaochen snatched the glass from his hand and told him to leave.

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Xie Yu would never forget the senior at the police academy who had pulled him back from the brink during a competition, saving his college years and even his career. That senior was named Xu Shaochen.

From then on, Xie Yu developed feelings he couldn't quite explain for the kind, gentle, and humble senior.

Sadly, after graduation, he never heard from him again.

Until one day, in a bar called FxxK Monday, he saw a face identical to Xu Shaochen's.

The man was the bar's owner, and his name was Xu Shaochen, too.

Xie Yu knew something was wrong.

Because he was absolutely certain the man before him was not the senior he had known.

He tested him over and over, only to be turned away for good.

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The case Xie Yu was working on pointed to Kanna.

He joined the special task force and stuck to Xu Shaochen like a burr.

Xu Shaochen never imagined that the person he had most wanted to get rid of would, while investigating Kanna, pull him out of the mire time and again, holding up his constantly sinking body.

But a few months later, someone pinned him against the wall in the alley behind Fxxk Monday.

"Dont leave me into the abyss."

Xie Yu's cold fingertips traced the tattoo on his lower back, then slowly moved upward before gripping his chin. In his familiar, magnetic voice, he murmured,

"Little Golden Retriever, what abyss are you talking about? Is it what happened during those three months you disappeared that changed you so much, or... did you take someone else's identity?"

"Do you want me to be him?"

"I want you to be yourself. At least when you're with me."

Theme: Love can overcome anything.