A Wager

Preorder: A sweet-but-angsty brother romance, The Way You Suddenly Left Me. Blurb at the very bottom. Please leave a little star!

-

The lights flashed in the club, and Lu Yingyu spotted that unforgettable face again:

Playing all aloof by day as my son's piano tutor, but now working as a fake, fawning male model?

A customer asked, "You won't drink, and you won't go upstairs with anyone. How are you supposed to keep the customers happy?"

Li Chenyu blinked, picked out the plumpest French fry, dipped it generously in ketchup, and held it up to the customer's mouth.

Lu Yingyu: ...

Beneath his mask, Lu Yingyu raised an eyebrow. He decided to teach this hypocritical boy a lesson, posing as a mysterious customer and playing the "Good night, but meet me at the bar" game with him for ages.

One day, Lu Yingyu showed up without his mask and deliberately caught Li Chenyu in a lie.

"Didn't you say good night? What are you doing here?"

Li Chenyu: ? Aren't you here too?

-

Later, Li Chenyu's countless lies finally landed him homeless, just as he deserved. Lu Yingyu took him home and felt so sorry for him that he wished he could tuck him into his pocket and carry him everywhere.

Li Chenyu: I don't love you.

Lu Yingyu: Lying again.

-

Sinister, controlling CEO top x naive, money-loving, compulsive liar bottom

[Reading Guide]

1. Expect secret identities, hilariously poor communication, and a groveling pursuit. Both leads have plenty of issues at first, but they grow together.

2. Age gap: 10 years. The top is older.

3. The top's son is not his biological child.

Three weeks after his parents abandoned him in a rented apartment, Yu An became Shen Jinchuan's little shadow.

Shen Jinchuan called him a little troublemaker, but took in the homeless boy, got revenge on the kids who bullied him, and gritted his teeth to buy him the most expensive, best glasses...

Yu An also complained about Shen Jinchuan. He spoke harshly, resorted to corporal punishment at the drop of a hat, and tried to control everything: what Yu An wore, when he slept, his homework, even his friends...

But if anyone tried to sow discord between them, Yu An would bristle. "My brother may not be perfect, but who are you to criticize him?"

The big-brother-obsessed little shadow stuck to him for eight years.

They thought two unfortunate souls would keep drifting through life together like this, but when Yu An was eighteen, he learned by chance that his brother had never needed to struggle so much.

One day, Shen Jinchuan woke up to find that the person who had eagerly thrown himself into his arms and shared a passionate night with him was gone.

All that remained was a mud-stained bedsheet and a note: I hate you controlling me. I don't owe you anything anymore.

Eight years of history were wiped away completely. Was one night in bed supposed to settle everything?

-

The heir to the Jin family doesn't have the surname Jin. It's Shen.

When the two met again three years later, their status was worlds apart.

Shen Jinchuan pinned Yu An, dressed in a bartender's uniform, to the bed and said coldly, "I raised you all these years just so you could go out and do this?"

Only after Yu An had been pushed to exhaustion and fallen asleep did Shen Jinchuan pull him into his arms. His expression, cold and hard all night, finally relaxed. "Didn't you say you didn't want me to control you? How did you end up like this?"

-

Cold, scheming, fiercely possessive, dom-like illegitimate son top x naive, adorable, thick-skinned bottom who never learns his lesson

Shen Jinchuan x Yu An

Theme: Love makes people brave and strong.