When Shen Niannian was three, she was sent to the Lu family to be raised as a future bride. The two families' grandfathers had made the decision while drunk. When Lu Qichuan was seven, he saw the little girl for the first time, curled up in a corner and chewing on her fingers. She looked up at him with a smile, drool all over her face. In that moment, he decided he would raise this silly little prey himself.
And so the young master of the Lu family began his long “taming plan”:
At four, he taught her to write, deliberately making the three characters in “Lu Qichuan” especially large so that his would be the first name she learned to write.
At seven, when other children bullied her, he scared them off with a cold glare, then gently wiped away her tears. “From now on, I'm the only one who gets to bully you.”
At twelve, he began bringing her a piece of candy every day because she'd once said, “Candy from Brother Chuan is the sweetest.”
At sixteen, he rejected every girl's love letter, always giving the same reason: “There's a silly little rabbit at home I have to feed. I don't have time.”
At eighteen, in front of both families, he calmly declared, “I'll honor the engagement, but Niannian has to marry me willingly.”
Shen Niannian always thought Lu Qichuan spoiled her like a little sister, until her twentieth birthday, when he pinned her against the wall, his voice low and husky. “Shen Niannian, how much longer are you going to make me wait?”
She stared at him in confusion. “W-wait for what?”
“For you to realize I never thought of you as my little sister.”
