The Naughty Child
Tags
Summary
[Past and present lives · two-volume linkage + ancient-style childhood friends + older partner upbringing + modern campus + senior and junior fellow disciples]
Thirteen-year-old rich young master Tang Tingyu is sent to live in Tangxia Village in the countryside, where he meets Zhang He, the taciturn yet gentle blacksmith next door. One is a cold, solitary boy who lost both parents and makes a living alone; the other is a pampered young master just beginning to taste the ways of the world. Zhang He teaches him to read and practice martial arts, cooks for him and repairs his windows, turning loneliness into protection through countless dawns and dusks. But fate has other plans: Tang's father returns, while Zhang He leaves for the frontier beyond the passes to repay his father's debts. The boy's feelings remain unspoken, and only a clay xun and a jade pendant become tokens of faith across mountains and seas.
On his first day at university, freshman Tang Tingyu encounters Zhang He, now a graduate senior. The latter rides an electric bike through rainstorms and sunshine, delivering books, peeling shrimp and marking key points for him, turning his coldness into open, unmistakable favoritism. Tang Tingyu crashes his classes, meals and dorm, plays games on his senior's bed and waits for his goodnight, brewing dependence into a racing heart. When his roommate teases, "Are you two together?", he no longer denies it. Only that jade Buddha worn close to the skin, and the words "I've wanted to give it to you for a very long time"—are they a joke, or a confession left unfinished from a past life?
Editor's review
Who it's for
A good fit for
- Romance readers who enjoy older-partner upbringing and senior-junior dynamics
- Readers who prefer a gentle guardian top paired with a bright, persistent bottom
- Readers who like past-and-present-life two-volume linkage with ancient-style plus campus structure
- Readers looking for light, sweet reading with everyday details in leisure time
Not a good fit for
- Readers who prefer strong plots, fast-paced conflict or suspense-driven storylines
- Readers impatient with past-life settings and slow-burn emotional development
- Readers expecting serious realistic themes or historical research content
Reading tips
- Read in the order of the ancient-style volume then the modern volume, and watch for echoes of tokens like the clay xun and jade pendant across the two volumes.
- Read Zhang He's silent actions against Tang Tingyu's inner monologue to appreciate the layers of emotional development.
- One or two chapters a night is enough; the book has a leisurely pace and suits light bedtime reading.
- After finishing, revisit the opening passages about being sent to the countryside—you'll find many details were foreshadowed early on.
About the publisher
Aiyue Meiwen is a Chinese digital reading platform and online-literature publishing brand that provides e-book reading services, with a focus on planning and publishing online literature. Based on the materials currently available, its publishing direction centers on fantasy genres such as otherworld continents and time-travel alternate worlds. Representative books include The Naughty Child and Divorcing the Husband, and its representative authors are Tiemadangdang and Shi Yedeng. Drawing on its digital reading platform, the press turns original online works into publishable content for electronic reading, favoring genre fiction with time-travel and alternate-world settings, and it has built its author resources around this direction. Because public information such as the founding year is limited, its profile can presently be outlined only through the two books in the database along with their categories and author information, which together sketch its basic position in genre publishing for online literature.
Contents
- 版权信息
- 上卷 少年游
- 第一章
- 第二章
- 第三章
- 第四章
- 第五章
- 第六章
- 第七章
- 第八章
- 第九章
- 第十章
- 第十一章
- 番外卷 鹧鸪天
- 一
- 二
- 三
- 四
- 五
FAQ
Must the ancient-style and modern volumes be read in order?
Is the emotional line fast-paced?
What role do the clay xun and jade pendant play in the book?
Comments
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About the author
Tie Ma Dang Lang is a Chinese web-fiction author who writes under a pen name; reliable public information about their real name, life, dates of birth and death, native place, and education is currently limited, with no verifiable records available. Based on existing materials, their work mainly falls within the otherworld-continent genre, and The Naughty Child (Wantong) is the one title currently known. The novel unfolds against a fictional world setting and carries the adventure and coming-of-age flavor common to online genre fiction, while the pen name itself suggests a touch of roguish humor. Because the author has produced few works and has little public presence or self-account, outside judgment of their style still rests mainly on The Naughty Child, and their future writing remains to be seen.
