A Flawed Match

Please add this to your collection, goal: 100

[Fake siblings | Rekindled romance | The aloof beauty comes down from her pedestal for love]

Aloof beauty x ray of sunshine

*

Yan Qiao is the star student of Yu Xi, a brilliant physicist and trailblazer in his field. Every day, she smiles brightly at her cold, impassive mentor.

Perhaps her sunshine melted the ice.

One day, Professor Yu gives her a strange rock from outer space. An accident sends her to a parallel world, where she loses her hearing. Even worse, the aloof Professor Yu is now her stepbrother!

The good news: When she traveled there, she'd temporarily forgotten her memories of the past.

The bad news: Yu Xi in this world has a crush on her.

*

Eleven years later in the ordinary parallel world, for some reason, she and Professor Yu have long since parted ways.

After a period of unemployment, Yan Qiao finally finds a job doing translation for a major medical company.

She wonders why she's the only one who got hired.

On her first day, she sees the company president and is about to greet him obediently.

Yan Qiao freezes.

Isn't this Professor Yu, the man she abandoned eleven years ago?!

Yan Qiao thinks Yu Xi must hate her for what happened eleven years ago. But then he takes the initiative to call off his arranged marriage and even tells people that she's his girlfriend.

"I'll pay you back as soon as I can. Please don't let people misunderstand our relationship."

Yu Xi smashes something, his eyes reddening. "No matter what I do to you, you just never will like me, will you!"

He rolls up his sleeves, revealing several scars on his wrists. Losing all reason, he steps forward and kisses her.

"I'm powerful now. No one will dare say anything. Just like me, even if it's only a little."

When they lived in a small town, people framed them and rumors spread, so Yan Qiao cut off contact. She didn't know that for the thousands of nights after the younger brother she'd left behind was abandoned, he thought of her in silence and never stopped looking for her.

All he wanted was for her to love him. Such a simple request.

[At seventeen, Yu Xi truly wanted to be with Yan Qiao forever, to take her to Tanzania to see the great migration and to eat the most delicious cake. He wanted to hear her recite poetry and speak English. My dearest sister, I wish you a life free from worry.]

[Short scene]

"Watch fewer TV dramas and read fewer novels. Don't you know smoking too much gives you bad breath? Then everyone will say that guy is really handsome, but his mouth stinks. Even the most handsome guy loses points if he has smelly feet or bad breath."

Yu Xi stared at her, dumbfounded. He hadn't been smoking to look cool. He'd started sneaking cigarettes after his father died.

It was just something to ease his troubles.

"Fine." He tossed away the half-smoked cigarette and stamped it out.

Yan Qiao was still glaring at him.

"There, happy?" He wrapped the butt in a piece of paper.

"Fine." Yan Qiao was clearly a little angry. She stomped up the steps, making quite a racket.

"I was just joking. Why are you mad?"

Yan Qiao didn't answer. She stopped one step above him. "Yu Xi, you crossed a line just now. No brother and sister would act like that."

"Like what?"

"Do I have to spell it out?"

"I don't know."

Yan Qiao cupped her flushed face in her hands. A faint orange scent still lingered on her, gradually turning sweet and intoxicating.

She was angry and annoyed, and remembered that dream. "Anyway, we should keep our distance."

"Oh." He paused. "Then are you still riding my motorcycle tomorrow to get cream cakes? I heard they'll be gone if we get there late. If you sit behind me, we'll be way too close."

Yan Qiao clenched both fists, her shoulders trembling. "Obviously I'm still going! I'll figure something out."

"All right." Yu Xi tilted his head and lazily watched the back of Yan Qiao's head.

He suddenly thought the back of someone's head could be pretty cute.

[Reading Notes]

*Please add this to your collection, goal: 100.

*The first parallel world has a tragic ending. The two will meet again later, and the final ending is happy!

*The author is reliable, so don't worry about abandoned updates. There are chapters ready in reserve.

"Upcoming story"

A rental apartment romance, urban setting

Male tattoo artist x female police officer

1. Yan Siqing first met Yan Shu at the tattoo shop, where she mistook him for a sex worker, slammed him onto the table, and handcuffed him.

His verdict: "You've got guts."

At first, he didn't care for this woman. She was always spouting lofty slogans like Zhang Zai's "Establish a moral compass for Heaven and Earth, secure life and destiny for the people." She even tried to persuade sex workers to leave the profession.

"You'll get in trouble if you offend those people." He saw her settle a dispute, then sit on the steps at four in the afternoon to eat a boxed lunch.

She fell silent, and Yan Siqing decided to drop the subject.

"When my mom was young, human traffickers sold her into this business. Later, she got sick and died. If I can help, I will."

Only later did Yan Siqing learn that Yan Shu was an orphan. The "mom" she spoke of was her adoptive mother, a former sex worker who had taken her in.

2. Later, Yan Siqing and Yan Shu fell in love, living together in a seventy-square-meter rental apartment.

"I never thought I'd date an old man."

Yan Siqing rubbed his stubble against her face, making her beg him to stop.

"I'm only five years older, okay? Is twenty-seven really old? You're the one who lucked out. I'm still handsome. Besides, isn't older better? Older men know how to treat someone right."

Yan Shu lay in Yan Siqing's arms.

"I'm just afraid that when we're old, you might die before me. What would I do then?"

"That won't happen. I'll just live a little longer than you." He kissed her forehead.

3. "My condolences," everyone who came told Yan Siqing.

He regretted it so much. He should have avoided tempting fate.

The once-vivid photos of Yan Shu had become cold and monochrome.

She had died in the line of duty. Her killer was a minor and wasn't sentenced.

Ten years later, Yan Siqing called an investigative journalist.

[Reading Notes]

1. This story has a tragic ending. It's a short novel of about 100,000 words, written as practice.

2. It has a touch of mystery, but at its heart it's healing, not tragedy for tragedy's sake.

Theme: Staying true to the subject