At sixteen, Shen Jiang was taken home by the twenty-year-old Jiang Qizhi. As they spent day after day together, she quietly fell for the kind man who cared for her. She had planned to keep her feelings buried, but encouraged by a friend who told her, “If you love someone, be brave and say it,” she worked up the courage to confess.
Before she could speak, however, she accidentally stumbled upon Jiang Qizhi arguing with his elders about marriage. When she heard him say firmly, “I only think of her as my little sister. I’ve never had any other feelings for her,” Shen Jiang’s heart sank. She quietly slipped away, secretly relieved she hadn’t confessed. At least she could still stay by his side as his “sister.”
After the birthday party, Shen Jiang agreed without hesitation to return to Country Y, hoping to escape her feelings, which had nowhere to go. After she left, Jiang Qizhi gradually sensed that something was wrong. Shen Jiang’s messages grew fewer and fewer, and her social media feed fell silent.
Then a friend showed him a photo of Shen Jiang smiling and flashing a peace sign with a foreign guy. He said, “Impossible,” but felt inexplicably troubled.
A semester passed, and Jiang Qizhi eagerly awaited Shen Jiang’s return to the country. Instead, she told him she “wasn’t coming back this year.” His long-suppressed emotions erupted, and he immediately booked a flight abroad. When he saw Shen Jiang deliberately keeping her distance, Jiang Qizhi finally came to his senses: what he felt for her had never been brotherly affection. Deep down, he had always wanted her to become his wife.
