I Want You to Love Me

[Preorder in the author's column: the pseudo-siblings story The Thirst-Quenching Drug. Please add it to your favorites! It'll begin once it reaches fifty saves. If it doesn't, I'll start writing once I've saved up enough chapters. Blurb below.]

[Minor fixes to bugs in this story are ongoing...]

Pseudo-siblings | Fake and real heiresses | The groveling chase [Soft-spoken girl with a dry sense of humor × sharp-tongued young master]

When she was cornered in an alley and called a "slut," Xia Xiyi never imagined this kind of melodramatic story would happen to her.

Soaked to the skin, she was brought back in a wretched state and stood in the lavish villa's living room, where she was told she was the long-lost younger daughter of the Xie family.

She knew she could never be lucky enough to have a life like this, no matter how hard she worked, so she did her best to fulfill her role.

She poured tea and fetched water for her parents, cared for her bedridden grandmother at the nursing home, and looked after her brother, who was always drunk...

Even though nobody cared about the bruises that occasionally appeared on her body.

Even though her household registration was never transferred to the Xie family, from beginning to end.

Even though the boy who was her brother in name only was distant and impatient, and told her, "Don't call me your brother when we're outside."

But only a fool would care about that.

Things changed one day when Xia Xiyi was hiding in her room as usual, applying ointment to her wounds.

The brother who had treated her like air ever since she returned to the Xie family knocked on her door.

"You got bullied and didn't tell anyone at home?"

"It's okay. It won't affect my studies."

Maybe out of pity, or because of that barely perceptible tie of kinship, he clicked his tongue as if she were a nuisance, then said:

"What do you want to learn? I'll teach you."

Later, the man was visibly restless, his grip reddening her shoulders. His voice was husky, and he laughed in disbelief.

"What? Want me to teach you how to kiss?"

"Don't you know you have to open your mouth when you kiss?"

They kissed and caressed each other in every unoccupied corner of the house. Neither said they were in love, but everything they did spoke of love.

She thought she had become a fool after all.

Xia Xiyi's dream shattered after the college entrance exams ended.

The Xie family's real younger daughter had been brought home.

Her father's voice, suppressed with anger, came from the study: "She has to meet Mr. Duan. Or do you really want your sister to go instead?!"

That night, she took Xie Jian's hand and asked if he could be with her.

The man stood there casually, as if he'd heard a joke, and slowly pulled his hand away.

"But you're my little sister."

Those four words left no room for hope. So she did as she was told and met the Duan family's young master, who was rumored to have a violent temper.

Then she left for good.

A year later, one day, the young master of the Duan family waited a long time at the airport for Xia Xiyi, but she never showed up.

He didn't know that at that very moment, she was pinned against the door of a lounge.

The man who had always been cold and aloof now had desire surging in his eyes. He wiped the lipstick from the corner of his mouth with his thumb, then pressed it against the pink mark on her neck.

Every time she said she was leaving, he made her even more of a mess.

His voice was hoarse with longing.

"Didn't you say you needed my love? Xiaxia, don't leave."

[Reader's guide]

1. The leads are not blood-related and are not on the same household registration. The male lead has always known the female lead isn't his real sister.

2. The male lead isn't pushing the female lead out of the way to protect his real sister. He has another reason.

3. The female lead suffers a little at first, the male lead suffers a little later, but overall it's sweet.

4. The leads are mutually in love. One-on-one | happy ending | both leads have only ever been with each other

[A fake prude, secretly deviant researcher × a fake rebel, secretly timid and well-behaved college girl]

When Su Litang was eight, she lost the last member of her family in a dilapidated house in a narrow alley.

Just as she was feeling most frightened and helpless, a hand wiped the tears from her face. A low sigh sounded in the darkness. "Come with me."

Xu Mu became her older brother.

A strict, old-fashioned older brother.

She had to be home by ten at night.

She had to wear underwear even at home.

She had to knock before entering his room.

He even tried to control her love life.

"Su Litang, you can date, but you can't go home with him. You can't stay out past ten on a date, and no kissing."

"...?"

Su Litang figured that a brother like hers would probably never find her a sister-in-law in his entire life.

Until she found a diary in his room.

She opened it to the first page.

[Her skin is so white. It looks like it would be easy to leave marks. I want to try...]

Su Litang: ?!

*

After discovering the diary, Su Litang became too distracted to eat.

The sister-in-law she'd once imagined didn't fill her with the anticipation and joy she'd expected. She wasn't ready to share her brother with someone else.

So, in a fit of rebelliousness, she began breaking Xu Mu's rules one by one.

"It's ten, brother. I'm still not home. Come pick me up?"

"Wearing underwear is uncomfortable, brother. Just for a little while."

"I did knock, brother. Didn't you hear me? What are you doing...?"

"Stop fooling around."

A hoarse voice came from the darkness. "Get out."

Xu Mu seemed to have stopped caring what she did. He hardly came home and spent all day in the lab.

Su Litang slung on her backpack, gathered some friends, and went on a month-long trip.

Then one night, after staying out late, she returned to her hotel room and found an unexpected guest inside.

His black trench coat was dusted with frost, and his deep, ink-dark eyes were fixed on her.

That night, he pinned her against the floor-to-ceiling window. Her cheeks were flushed, and mist came and went on the glass.

Xu Mu reached around from behind, gripped her chin, and tilted her head up.

Through a gap in the curtains, she could see her so-called boyfriend kissing another woman passionately in the room across the way.

"You have such terrible taste in men, and you still dare to travel with him? Need your big brother to help you?"

His voice by her ear held a desire she'd never heard before, and the hand on her waist burned with longing.

Heat spread through the room. Everything was in disarray, and reports that hadn't been put away lay scattered across the floor.

The word *addiction* stood out starkly on one report.

Su Litang's eyes reddened at the corners. She struggled to turn her head. "Don't you need me to help cure you, too?"

"We're treating an illness, right?"

Xu Mu kissed her neck, leaving a mark, and looked down at her intently.

"Of course."

*

The rebellious girl Su Litang had always loved to have fun, but suddenly she started skipping group outings again and again, and people often couldn't find her.

No one knew that the two of them, who were just ordinary siblings in public, were secretly tangled up in each other's arms.

Su Litang trembled as she lifted her foot and placed it on Xu Mu's shoulder.

"I've already broken up with him. When will your illness... get better?"

Xu Mu kept moving at the same leisurely pace.

"It won't."

[Reader's guide]

1. The female lead's boyfriend doesn't really count as a boyfriend.

2. The leads are not blood-related and are not on the same household registration.

3. Both leads have only ever been with each other. Happy ending. One-on-one.

Theme: You deserve to be loved.