Plucking the Hibiscus

Coming soon: "Spring Breeze Through the Pear Blossoms"

Actually, I knew long ago that my refined, handsome cousin was two people inside. He only let this secret show when he was with me.

In public, my cousin was as gentle as jade, and his presence was like a spring breeze. Everyone praised him. I, too, enjoyed spending time with this version of him. But that gentleness would always shatter in an unexpected moment, and in an instant he would turn gloomy and crazed, asking if I only loved his gentle side and not him.

I had no romantic feelings for my cousin, but I didn't dare say so outright, afraid he might do something obsessive.

When he was ordered to take up a post out of town, I breathed a sigh of relief and urged my parents to find a suitable match for me. I couldn't marry my cousin, who had two people inside him, even if one half of his soul was gentle to the bone and the other could send me tumbling into an abyss.

But just as I was about to meet the man my parents and I had chosen, my cousin suddenly appeared from his post out of town. Without a word, he gripped my wrist and dragged me away.

His face was dark with anger as he asked why I would choose to marry someone else.

"Don't you love me?"

I met his gaze, so intense it seemed ready to devour me, and said, "I don't. I only think of you as my cousin. Nothing more."

He gave a cold laugh and told me not to waste my efforts. I was destined to be his wife.

I had thought only the gloomy, crazed soul was unreasonable. I never expected his gentle half to give me the same answer. He raised a hand and caressed my face, his eyes smiling, their depths clouded with unyielding possessiveness.

"How could I let someone else have my cousin?"

My cousin soon returned to the capital to take up his post, sent a betrothal gift, and married me.

I couldn't escape his control. Whether he was my gentle cousin or his gloomy, frenzied counterpart, both were deeply in love with me, and both spent every night making love to me.

They even competed with each other, asking which cousin I liked more.

Me: ...

Theme: Treasure the present and enjoy life.