That Summer, I Stayed in My Cousin’s Rental in Dongguan

By day, she was my gentle older cousin, doing my laundry and cooking for me in our rented apartment. By night, she was Sister Yue beneath the neon lights.

She helped me soar. She was the person I most wanted to protect, and the debt I could never repay in this lifetime.

When I wanted to spend my whole life making it up to her, she turned and fell into someone else’s arms, personally severing every thread of my infatuation. I thought that was the end, never realizing it was only the cruelest joke fate had played on us.

When we met again, I was Mr. Chen, a man who could turn the tide at will, while she was a scarred single mother. Only when I saw the paternity test report did I realize that what lay between us had never been as simple as calling each other “cousin”...

There is a kind of love that says, “I have no choice but to push you away.” And there is another that says, “I would conquer the world for you.”