Dr. Xie, Do You Take Scrap?

[This novel is being stockpiled, and will start once it has enough bookmarks!]

Xie Tingchuan is the youngest attending surgeon at the First Hospital of the Capital.

His life is practically perfect: a privileged family, a top-tier education, and a prestigious job. He is every bit the favored son of heaven.

But one accident turned everything upside down.

Now he has become a wreck who relies on alcohol to get through the day.

His friends and family trick him into going to a small village. Staring at a drafty thatched hut and an old earthen stove, he finds himself questioning the very meaning of "survival" for the first time in his life.

One day, so hungry that his head is spinning, he goes outside and runs into the same person three times in a row.

The first time, behind a smoky barbecue stall, a young man with a defiant look is deftly turning skewers on the grill.

The second time, the man is wearing a cleaner's uniform and sweeping the street under the blazing sun.

The third time, he's riding a tricycle and shouting, "Scrap for sale!"

Xie Tingchuan: "Man, why is your career doing a reverse sprint?"

The other man glances at him coolly. "Protecting the environment is everyone's responsibility."

Back in the day, Bian Chengxiao was a notorious rich playboy, a fixture in nightclubs who got into fights as easily as breathing. Just when everyone had decided he was a hopeless case, he reinvented himself as a model of rural reemployment.

Far from high society, Bian Chengxiao's life is fairly peaceful. But then, out of nowhere, some troublemaker keeps picking fights with him.

Bian Chengxiao finally loses his patience. "What the hell is wrong with you?"

The other man merely gives him a sidelong look. "Yeah."

Bian Chengxiao grabs him by the collar. "Heh, you've got the nerve to provoke me. You want to die!"

The other man replies calmly, "Sorry, this right eye is artificial. I can't see out of it."

Bian Chengxiao takes him for a liar and gives him a thorough dose of "ideological education."

Then one day, Bian Chengxiao sees Xie Tingchuan emerge from a dilapidated thatched hut, bits of straw clinging to his hair and his white shirt covered in dust.

He immediately understands: this is a poor little waif with nowhere to go!

Bian Chengxiao waves a big hand. "Don't be scared! Stick with me! I'll support you by collecting scrap!"

Xie Tingchuan: ?

He seems to have misunderstood something, but I don't really want to explain either.

What's it like having a roommate who works a bunch of different jobs?

The answer: there's endless barbecue to eat, endless scrap to collect, and endless roads to sweep.

Xie Tingchuan is deeply troubled by this. He mistakenly assumes Bian Chengxiao is so poor he has to handle every service in town just to pay his mortgage, so he decides to "help the poor" in a targeted way, only to discover... oh no! He's falling for him, but the other man is a total straight guy!

Reader's Guide:

1. Down-on-his-luck, funny, stubborn bottom x fierce, straightforward, warmhearted top. The top turns straight to gay; both are inexperienced.

2. They each think the other is a poor little waif and try every way they can to help him, only to end up being "supported" by the other instead.

3. The top dated women in the past, but none of the relationships lasted more than three days (they were for convenience).

4. The side couple's romance won't get much attention in this novel (they'll get their own book).

5. This is entirely fictional. Please read with a level head.

[Synopsis screenshotted and evidence preserved on September 24, 2025. Plagiarism will be pursued.]

Theme: Persevere and keep striving