His Flame

Lei Shuning hated trouble more than anything.

She was a sweet girl, raised by her adoptive father and cherished like a treasure. She spoke softly and walked quietly, like a squishy little milk candy that everyone wanted to give a squeeze. On her first day after transferring to Class Seven, Senior Year, at H Province No. 1 High School, she heard the name She Chengyi: the most untouchable person in school, a top student who had ruled the rankings for years, and a school bully who hated having a deskmate so much that he drove everyone away.

And somehow, she became his new deskmate.

On the first day, he didn’t chase her away. On the second, he cornered her in the classroom, gripped her chin, and said, “Be my girlfriend.”

Lei Shuning thought she’d misheard. They came from two different worlds. He had known her for only two days, and they’d barely spoken. What gave him the right?

But She Chengyi had never cared about reason. If he wanted her, he wanted her, and he’d take her by force if he had to. He ignored her refusals and took her resistance for coyness. The more she tried to escape, the harder he pursued her. In the classroom, on the rooftop, in an empty classroom after school, he pulled her into his arms whenever and wherever he pleased, kissing her until her legs went weak.

She called him a bastard. He smiled and wiped the moisture from the corner of her mouth. “Even a bastard is your boyfriend.”

Lei Shuning felt she’d gotten herself saddled with trouble she could never shake off.

What she didn’t know was that this boy, who had never been loved in all his life, had felt a fire ignite in his heart the moment she smiled and showed her dimples.

What surprised her even more was that the school bully from the rival school, Zhou Jieyu, had brought people to corner her one day. The moment he saw her face, he froze. She looked exactly like his mother.

He stroked her hair and let her go.