A Burning Heart That's Hard to Cross

[Coming-of-age, taboo, both virgins, happy ending, feel free to skip the first three chapters]

The place they rented back then was tiny. The ten-square-meter room had just enough space for a bed. Because of the trauma she had suffered as a child, Meng Yin was adamant that she would not share a room with a stranger.

At the time, Xiao Mingsong worked at a construction site during the day and came home exhausted every night. Seeing the dark, cramped rental room always left him feeling uneasy, but Meng Yin insisted, so he agreed.

To avoid any misunderstandings, he hung a curtain between them. At night, lying in bed, neither of them could see the other, and he thought that would keep things proper.

But he forgot that their rental was in a chaotic neighborhood full of all kinds of unsavory people. So when strange noises came from upstairs one night, he looked into Meng Yin's puzzled eyes and felt overwhelming regret.

“What are they doing?”

In the bitter winter cold, Meng Yin shivered as she lifted a corner of the curtain and asked from underneath, trembling.

Her dark eyes were clear as jade, so pure that they seemed completely out of place in their surroundings. She was full of fear and anxiety about the unknown.

Xiao Mingsong's heart ached at the sight. He reached over to cover her ears and whispered, “It's nothing. They're just arguing.” In that moment, he silently vowed that one day they would have a home of their own, far away from those people.

He would shut out all that foul language so Meng Yin would never have to hear or see any of it. He would keep her eyes clear and innocent forever.

Now, lying in the stillness of the night and looking back, he felt he had succeeded, and yet somehow not entirely.

Because those filthy sounds were echoing through his memories, vivid and intense.