While Nezha is called a demon for being a violent loner delinquent, Ao Bing is put on a pedestal by his own schoolmates. Everything and anything he does is perfect and to be worshipped. Once, Ao Bing casually said he's just a person, and everyone looked at him with a blank smile, going "Huh?" like his words couldn't register. He never mentions this again.

At home, Ao Bing isn't on a pedestal; his personal tutor, Shen Gongbao, doesn't hesitate to note his flaws, and his father Ao Guang doesn't hyperbolize his achievements. However, Ao Bing does bear a lot of expectations. Pretty much everyone in his family is an alumnus of East Sea Academy. His older brothers did some amazing things in the academy's name, and now everyone's hoping for "the Third Prince" to succeed them. Ao Bing knows his family loves him unconditionally, but they aren't his peers, and he doesn't want to let them down. Before meeting Nezha, Ao Bing never realized how bored and lonely he was.

The brawl between Chentang and East Sea happened when Achou was walking Xiaomei home with his gang, the Demon Hunters (everyone is aged to up to be teenagers here, except Xiaomei who's only in elementary school), and they happened to cross paths with a rival gang—the East Sea Dragons (the personified versions of some of the supporting dragon characters). One mocking remark led to another, and that led to an impromptu jianzi match in a community basketball court, which then devolved into a brawl.

Ao Bing saw the brawl from Shen Gongbao's car; he was getting a ride home with Xiaobao. He asks to be let off there because he believed his schoolmates were above this brawl and as their student council president, he must interfere. Shen Gongbao allows him to go, and Xiaobao follows so he can watch Ao Bing fight.

At first, Ao Bing focused on deflecting and negating impact because he doesn't actually want to fight; he even says so. However, Achou can't accept that because if the Demon Hunters backed down, the Dragons would take it as a win since Ao Bing represents East Sea. The Demon Hunters continue to attack, and Ao Bing starts using more aggressive techniques, hoping the pain would make them reconsider. It nearly works; most of the Demon Hunters feel its hopeless to keep trying, except for Achou, who dares to limp back into the fight. Xiaomei is pleading for him to stop, but he insists he can't (because stupid male pride and all that).

Xiaomei leaves the court to go get help—Nezha. Some time in the past, Nezha had helped Xiaomei when she was in trouble, and he promised she could find him again at the local park playing jianzi alone. So she does, and she tells him her brother is being hurt, and Nezha agrees to follow her. He didn't know that Xiaomei's brother was the same guy that influenced the entire student body of Chentang High to ostracize him. When he finds out, and he's also seeing Ao Bing getting jumped by five people at once, Nezha had half the mind to just let Achou get beat up.

At this point, Ao Bing was done playing. He defeats each member of the Demon Hunters in a series of rapid-fire attacks and is prepared to knock Achou out cold so the Demon Hunters would just pick him up and leave. However, right as Ao Bing's fist was about to connect, Nezha smoothly slipped in, maneuvered Achou out of harm's way, and struck Ao Bing where he was open. Ao Bing was sent skidding across the court, but he stayed on his feet and had barely managed to block Nezha's hit. Achou angrily asks why he's here, and Nezha pushes him into the arms of the Demon Hunters, telling Achou to stop worrying his sister. Then he turns to Ao Bing, who's trying to discern what Nezha's intentions were. Ao Bing asks who Nezha is. The latter smirks and proceeds to recite a poem introducing himself while doing martial arts poses, ending on a proper fighting stance. Understanding, Ao Bing also goes into a fighting stance, and beckons Nezha to make the first move.

Their fight is on a completely different level than the brawl. Ao Bing had been holding back when fighting the Demon Hunters; with Nezha, though, he actually gets to use the full breadth of Shen Gongbao's training. Nezha, too, is amazed that the defensive and evasive techniques Taiyi taught him are effective. They spar until they're both breathless. Nezha laughs. Ao Bing asks if he finds this fun. Nezha says yes, and asks "Don't you?" To Ao Bing's own surprise, he doesn't disagree. He also notices how Nezha wasn't fighting him like the others had. Nezha wasn't trying to dominate or defeat him. Rather, it felt like they were communicating. With every blow and parry, they were learning something about each other, and Ao Bing wants to know more.

The police, led by Lutong, comes to arrest everyone involved in the brawl. Nezha got caught right after helping Xiaomei climb over a fence to safety, whereas Ao Bing gave himself up to give Xiaobao enough time to run away. The two of them and the other students are then hauled off to the police station, where they wait in cells for their parents to come pick them up. The rivalry between Chentang and East Sea is so infamous, the students are purposefully placed in different cells. Nezha tries to convince one of the officers, Hetong, into putting him together with Ao Bing, but no dice.

In the Chentang cell, Achou thanks Nezha for helping Xiaomei, and the other Demon Hunters express respect for his fighting ability. Nezha is still very wary of them because they were literally his bullies; the Demon Hunters have jumped Nezha before and pulled pranks on him, though he usually outmaneuvered or outsmarted them. But he's willing to talk with them more when they start telling him about Ao Bing.

When Ao Guang arrives at the station, he's arguing with the officers that Ao Bing doesn't deserve to be here and this must be a wrongful arrest. When Li Jing arrives, Nezha is cursing under his breath because he thought Yin would come get him. Of course, Li Jing chastises Nezha for getting into trouble, but then he sees he has some dried blood under his nostril, and he quickly takes out a handkerchief and asks if Nezha is okay. Nezha snatches the hankie out Li Jing's hand because he doesn't want Ao Bing to see his dad wipe his nose.

Ao Guang is the headmaster of East Sea Academy. He loves this school and wants to make sure all students get the education they deserve. Unfortunately, the board of directors want to cut the funding, and they've already done so multiple times, to the point that Ao Guang and several staff members deliberately reduced their own income to produce funds. This is part of why the students of East Sea are stereotyped to be overachievers; they have to keep the school's rating high to justify being funded at all.

Li Jing and Yin work as firefighters. Their station is in Chentang Town. They met in Chentang High and became the it couple of their grade. Jinzha and Muzha also studied in Chentang and graduated with honors. The Li Family is pretty legendary amongst the community, and everyone was expecting Nezha to uphold this (made-up) legacy, but he could not be bothered. His family is fine with that; they simply want him to apply himself and not let his potential go to waste.

After meeting Ao Bing, Nezha starts applying for clubs. He hears Ao Bing is the principal flutist of the East Sea orchestra; Nezha joins the drum section of the Chentang orchestra. Ao Bing is a member of the Chinese chess club and debate team; Nezha joins those same clubs in his own school, and even studies up on strategies which he then teaches to his teammates so they'd have a better chance of getting through the tournament and facing off East Sea. Ao Bing is part of the swim team; Nezha decides he'll just come watch during competitions.

Ao Bing was surprised to see Nezha cheering him on at his swim meet. He really thought (read: hoped) he'd see Nezha in the pool with him (in a speedo...). Later, Nezha manages to sneak into the men's locker room, and Ao Bing quickly drags him into one of the shower cubicles so they can talk. They've spoken to each other in the other tournaments where their schools were facing off, but those were very brief interactions because their respective schoolmates would get in the way with their stupid rivalry. Sometimes, Ao Guang or Shen Gongbao would quickly usher Ao Bing off. This moment in the shower cubicle was their first proper conversation. And Ao Bing was in a jacket and a speedo.

Nezha admits he had joined the jianzi team instead because he loves playing that. Since his reputation at Chentang has improved, he now had friends (kinda) to play with, but the one Nezha wanted to play jianzi with the most was Ao Bing. So in this cubicle, Nezha asks Ao Bing if he'd like to play a round with him some day. Ao Bing answers yes and gives Nezha his phone number. Then he tells him to get out of there before the rest of the East Sea swim team are finished showering.

One Sunday afternoon, Nezha plays jianzi by himself at the Chentang community park, and Ao Bing comes to join him. In the past, Ao Bing was taught how to play jianzi by his older brothers, who were currently too busy working to spend time with him; Nezha went through the same thing with Jinzha and Muzha. They play together until the sun began to set. After that, Ao Bing decides he wants to quit swimming. He's good at it, sure, but that doesn't mean he actually enjoys it; much like how he can walk well, but that doesn't mean he's crazy about it. He wanted to quit the swim team so he can join the East Sea jianzi club instead. This club had few members and wasn't seen as anything serious. Once Ao Bing joins, he's able to get more members and proper training so the club can enter tournaments.

Before he officially quitted the swim team, Ao Bing consulted Ao Run, asking what Ao Guang might think about his reason for quitting. Ao Run assured him, "Your father will support you no matter what. You know that, don't you?" And she was right. Ao Guang was a little surprised, but he was fine with Ao Bing pursuing what made him happy.

Whenever Chentang High and East Sea Academy come face-to-face in tournaments, the members are all hurling insults and making rude gestures at one another, while Nezha and Ao Bing are delighted to see each other. They don't even hide that they're friends, but everyone around them thinks they're actually enemies who are just being classy.

Before meeting Nezha, Ao Bing would spend his free time studying or training. Now, Nezha's taking Ao Bing to watch movies, check out interesting shops, and eat at tasty cafés. Nezha also starts inviting Ao Bing to study at his house. Li Jing and Yin were surprised to see him at first; after that, Ao Bing was basically family. There was a day when Nezha brought Ao Bing over while Jinzha and Muzha were around, and of course they just had to be annoying the whole time; they're chill with Nezha and Ao Bing being friends, though. Meanwhile, Ao Bing hasn't told Ao Guang or Shen Gongbao that he's been hanging out with Nezha. Still, they can tell he's happier these days, and they're glad for him.

Jiang Ziya is here, too. He's Nezha's uncle, and Xiaojiu is his niece whom he's currently taking care of as she moved out of her village to study in the city. Nezha likes to bring Ao Bing to Jiang Ziya's house to play videogames on Xiaojiu's PlayStation 5. Jiang Ziya would have just cleaned the house meticulously, and then Nezha comes knocking stuff over on his way in. Yunxiang, De San, Zhazha, and Bingbing are part of this story as well—as very, very distant relatives.

It was definitely Ao Bing who confessed first. Nezha himself knew he had feelings for Ao Bing, and he was trying to find the right words/time to confess. When Ao Bing beat him to it, Nezha was a bit of a mess, barely able to sputter out, "Yeah, me too!" They come out to their families, who are all very supportive. Then they make it official on social media, and the fact hits every one of their schoolmates like a gold brick.

also the caption (loosely) says "she's here, he's here, the wage laborer duo's wallpapers are here! another day of 'going to work willingly'..."

hmm so they're one of those people who have lost connection with why they're doing the work they've been given, icic

"His mouth says one thing, but his actions say another"

Priconne in the big 25? anyone? i still wish it didnt get taken off of global servers 😞