Vintage Strong Liquor

[Gentle, resolute, hardworking poor boy struggling to repay his debts x charming, emotionally detached rich playboy]

Xu Nian had an extraordinary talent for painting, but after his family fell into ruin, his father accumulated loan-shark debts, and his mother died by suicide, he was forced down a very different path.

To pay off the debt, he got into graduate school and worked his way through his studies, holding several jobs every day.

Until a friend introduced him to a tutoring job

Xu Nian recognized that his student's older brother was the person he had secretly loved in high school. The first time they met, the man asked for the fountain pen he had given him back in high school.

It should have been a story about returning something to its rightful owner, but Xu Nian handed over his heart once more, along with the pen.

*

Chen Xubai was born emotionally detached. When he was young, his mother abused him in an attempt to get back at his father, tormenting her child in the hope of receiving even a little love.

From then on, Chen Xubai believed love was the most terrifying thing in the world.

So Chen Xubai went through girlfriend after girlfriend, always paying them a huge sum when he ended things.

But recently, he met someone interesting, and that person was a man.

1.

An unintentional tryst after drinking too much.

Chen Xubai lit a cigarette and said casually, "Xu Nian, why don't we give it a try?"

Xu Nian stiffened. "You're drunk."

Beneath the moonlight, Chen Xubai leaned in to kiss him, smiling with certainty. "Xu Nian, you've fallen for me."

2.

Everyone in their circle knew Chen Xubai was dating again, but this time seemed different from all the others.

A friend who knew him well teased, "Young Master Chen has hidden a beauty away in his golden house. Just what kind of beauty is it?"

"Are you really going to settle down this time?"

Chen Xubai said nothing. After a moment, he stubbed out his cigarette and replied, "As if."

Chen Xubai was born a playboy. Xu Nian could only carefully pray that the fraying thread between them would take a little longer to snap.

But he knew very well that it was bound to break sooner or later.

So when he heard Chen Xubai chatting with a friend,

he let go of the thread himself.

3.

Over the next five years, the company kept expanding its ambitions into overseas markets. A reporter asked Chen Xubai, the head of the group:

"Mr. Chen, what is the reason for your push to expand the group's overseas market?"

Under everyone's gaze, Chen Xubai suppressed the deep fatigue in his eyes.

"I'm looking for someone."

[Content warning: The top has to grovel to win the bottom back. The bottom is hurt early on, and the top is hurt later.]

[A purely melodramatic romance written by an author indulging a personal ship.]

Most important warning: The top is a playboy who has had many girlfriends, and there will be kissing scenes, but the top and bottom are each other's first.

Theme: Grow resilient through hardship and bravely step toward the future that belongs to you