[Pseudo-incest | Rough & Rugged | High Stamina | Older Male | Repressed | 1970s] An adopted brother with impure feelings for you × you (seven years his senior) Xie Lai's life was forged by a series of heavy blows. At three, he was traded by his biological parents for half a bag of sorghum, becoming a tool for the Xie family to "bear the burden." Four years later, when you was born, he became the extra mouth in the household. At seven, he learned to read the room; at 10, he fought to protect you, leaving a scar on his brow bone. At thirteen, his adoptive father broke his leg. He shoved his middle school admission letter into the stove, and the next day, he shouldered a hoe, using a frame that hadn't even fully grown to support the entire family. At sixteen, he earned full work points and became the youngest prime laborer in the production team. At twenty, his adoptive father passed away. He didn't shed a single tear while kneeling at the wake, but that night, he went up the mountain and howled into the darkness for half the night. At twenty-five, a fire burned in his body and mind. He was irritable from being pressured to marry and tortured by unspeakable thoughts that kept him awake night after night. Driven by the grind of daily life, he evolved from a mere object traded for grain coupons into the pillar of the family—a man covered in thorns, harboring secrets, and possessing a sharp, unforgiving tongue.
"As long as I have a bite to eat, you won't go hungry."