"I'll inherit everything my brother had, including you, my dear... sister-in-law."
In 2125, supernatural phenomena surged. Cities fell, and humanity teetered on the brink of extinction. At this desperate hour, a small number of people awakened special abilities, turned the tide, and established twelve safe-zone cities. The laws of the world were rewritten.
The Bureau of Supernatural Phenomena Research was founded and overseen by the Eight Great Houses.
In 2126, the neon lights of Xingji Domain pierced the gloom of the apocalypse.
Kui Shu's fingertips traced the line of her lover Xi Chen's jaw. The familiar curve of his eyes put her at ease. He was the head of the Xi family, the foremost of the Eight Great Houses, her childhood sweetheart and lover, and the undisputed ruler of this safe zone.
In the Xingji Domain government offices, the real Xi Chen stared at the report on special abilities before him, his knuckles white as he clutched his pen. His fingertip ground over the name "Kui Shu" on the page. Pain and joy surged wildly through their shared senses: it was the sensation of his younger brother, Xi Yu, embracing his "mysterious girlfriend."
Xi Chen's throat tightened. He and Xi Yu were identical twins. After the apocalypse, their awakened abilities let them share touch, pain, and powers. No one in the world could tell them apart. But he had never imagined that the secret his brother had kept for so long was that, while wearing his face, he would kiss the woman he loved.
The upheaval came without warning.
After an assassination attempt against the Xi family, the body of "Xi Yu" was publicly identified, while the lord of Xingji Domain remained "Xi Chen." Only Xi Yu knew that from then on, he had become his brother's shadow, continuing to be her lover under the eyes of the world.
Until the night he went to discuss marriage with her.
Kui Shu slapped him hard across the face, her voice as cold as ice. "Xi Yu, you wear your brother's face to touch me. How are you any different from a pervert lusting after his sister-in-law?"
He let her hit and curse him. Even as blood seeped from the corner of his mouth, he didn't flinch. Only when she had run out of strength did he speak quietly. "The Kui family is about to fall apart. Only a marriage alliance between the Xi and Kui families can save them." He paused, his Adam's apple bobbing. "Once you can stand on your own and no longer need the Xi family, I'll agree to a divorce."
"So marrying me is such a hardship for you?" she said with red-rimmed eyes and a smile.
"The hardship is that I'll have to divorce you!" he suddenly blurted out. Years of suppressed pain and hurt churned in his eyes. "Kui Shu, I like you. I liked you for three years before Xi Chen ever did. You were the one who first told me you liked me. You were the one who first said you wanted to marry me! Have you... forgotten? You suddenly became his girlfriend, suddenly didn't want me anymore, and now you want me to call you sister-in-law? But before you fell for someone else, you always called me Banban... Why? Kui Shu, why did you throw me away?"
His words struck her like a thunderclap.
That night, Kui Shu dreamed she was seventeen again. The boy Xi Yu crouched beneath a cherry tree, the tips of his ears bright red as he ate the candy she held to his lips.
She rose on her toes and whispered in his ear, "Xi Yu, I like you."
The dream felt as vivid as a memory of something that had really happened, but her own memories held no trace of it.
The gears of their contract marriage began to turn.
They shared a bed and an embrace, but in the depths of the night she kept seeing young Xi Yu's tears in her dreams and hearing him ask, "Why did you throw me away?"
Even more unsettling, old candy wrappers found in a desk drawer, faint writing in a diary, and even traces of energy left over from when her abilities awakened were all quietly proving that those "dreams" might be the truth that had been erased.
Beneath the colored-glass lamp, Xi Yu wiped the medicine from the corner of her mouth. The warmth of his fingertips came through their shared senses, overlapping with the touch of the boy in her dream.
Kui Shu suddenly gripped his hand. "What did you sense when Xi Chen died?"
Xi Yu's fingers trembled, and the disguise in his eyes shattered piece by piece.
It turned out that their shared senses had never been one-way. The tenderness she had thought belonged to "Xi Chen," and the long-forgotten stirrings of her heart, had already carved someone else's name into her nerve endings.
And Xi Chen's death may conceal a secret far more frightening than the stolen identity...
Tips for this story:
1. This is a fictional post-apocalyptic urban fantasy. All the world's laws, ranking systems, and the characters' abilities and jobs are made up. Don't compare them to real life!
2. Because of the premise, the heroine has dated both the male lead and the second male lead at different points in time. They have both shared ordinary romantic and intimate moments with her, and they were genuinely in love. (She was never intimate with both of them at the same time!)
3. This might count as taboo romance: the younger brother-in-law, Xi Yu, and his sister-in-law, Kui Shu? The older brother-in-law, Xi Chen, and his younger brother's wife, Kui Shu?
(In short, these events happen without the heroine knowing. She only finds out afterward. The relationships are explained in the main story, but I can't say too much without spoiling the experience. If this bothers you, please proceed with caution!)
4. Xi Chen and Xi Yu are identical in appearance and voice. They are biological twin brothers. After the apocalypse, their awakened abilities let them share each other's sense of touch, pain, and emotions, and directly use each other's awakened abilities.
(There are special conditions and restrictions on how this works.)
If any of the above bothers you, please proceed with caution. I hope you enjoy reading!
Core Theme: Heaven and earth were born with me, and all things and I are one
