Name: Coveting
Author: Half a Handful of Snow

Synopsis

1.

Cheng Xi is the well-behaved top student in everyone's eyes,

but no one knows she's been fantasizing about someone for a long time.

Ever since she found out that she wasn't actually his biological younger sister.

She listens to the audio dramas he performs in, hears his restrained panting through her headphones, and drifts off to sleep.

In her dreams, she sees the man she's yearned for all these years, dressed in clothes she wouldn't dare imagine, standing right in front of her,

then kneeling before her reverently.

Like a knight facing his one and only queen.

Everyone says she's lucky to have such a wonderful older brother, and that her future sister-in-law will surely treat her well, too.

Cheng Xi just smiles when she hears that.

That night, in her dream, she makes him call her "sister-in-law."

She may never become his real sister-in-law, but in her dreams, she makes all the rules.

In her dreams, they cling to each other, sharing the sweetest words of love, unable to bear being apart.

But when she wakes the next day and sees the empty bed beside her, Cheng Xi sighs.

A dream is just a dream. It can never come true.

2.

My younger sister has been acting strange lately.

Mu Chengxiao thinks.

At first, he thought she'd found the things he'd hidden away. After testing the waters and finding nothing, he breathed a sigh of relief and went to the studio to record lines for a new drama.

The new audio drama was a taboo romance between a brother and sister who weren't related by blood.

It was about a brother secretly keeping his sister's clothes and setting one trap after another to lure her in.

Mu Chengxiao paused, unable to stop himself from thinking of her.

She smells so good.

When he recorded the intimate scenes, the dubbing director joked and asked if he had a crush on someone, since his panting sounded so real.

Mu Chengxiao said nothing, only curling his lips into a smile.

If it counts when it's in a dream.

That night, Mu Chengxiao was scolded by her in a dream.

He didn't know what had happened during the day to make her so angry,

but he liked her like this, so different from the obedient, sensible girl she was normally.

The man in the dream wrapped his arms around the waist of the person on top of him, pulling her close as they held each other in an all-consuming embrace.

But when he woke the next day, everything was as usual.

Mu Chengxiao opened the safe

and looked at the clothes Cheng Xi had lost over the past few days, neatly folded inside. He sighed.

When would his dream finally come true?

3.

Cheng Xi had lost another piece of clothing.

It was new, and she'd only worn it for a day.

No one knew she'd hidden a tracker inside it.

Following the red dot on her phone, Cheng Xi came to the door of Mu Chengxiao's room. Hearing his ragged breathing inside, she froze for a moment.

Then she turned the handle.

The room was dimly lit. The man sat facing her on a leather sofa, his sharply defined left hand holding something she knew all too well.

When he saw her come in, he looked at her with unsatisfied desire in his eyes, but his voice was hoarse.

It was the same hoarse voice she'd heard countless times.

She'd fallen asleep to that voice.

Then she heard him say:

"You know I'm not your biological brother."

A sweet, obedient but obsessively devoted college freshman

VS

An elegant, distant but secretly sultry voice actor

Reading guide:

1. One-on-one, both leads sexually inexperienced, six-year age gap, pseudo-incest, slice of life

2. The leads are not related by blood, and neither is in another relationship while they're dating

3. They enter each other's dreams and act on their thoughts, and remember what happens

4. A self-indulgent passion project by the author, written for their own enjoyment, with no logic

5. [Important] Very cheesy and ridiculously melodramatic! Please don't offer writing advice

*Blurb first posted on 2025.12.30, revised on 2026.2.18, screenshots saved

-- Teaser for the next book, "After We Break Up, My Ex Becomes My Uncle" --

1.

The boldest thing Xie Qinghan ever did was refuse to call Zhou Xingbai "Uncle" when they were dating, no matter what.

But at the family dinner celebrating her mother's remarriage, she blushed and bowed her head to the infuriating man at the smile of her future stepfather. "Hello, Uncle."

Even worse, her mother took her new husband off on a wedding trip straight afterward and had all her luggage sent to Zhou Xingbai's home.

She claimed it was so her new brother-in-law could look after his niece. In reality, she was just dumping Xie Qinghan on Zhou Xingbai.

Zhou Xingbai looked at Xie Qinghan, who seemed like a frightened quail, and smiled.

2.

Zhou Xingbai had waited three years to hear her call him "Uncle."

When they met again, he saw that she still wore the watch and knew his girl wasn't getting away from him.

He remembered that she loved strawberry ice cream, that the watch on her wrist was a gift from him, and every moment from their past that she thought he'd forgotten.

Everyone said Young Master Zhou was too proud to turn back.

But only Zhou Xingbai knew how greedy he was.

Watching her bristle, all he wanted was to pull her into his arms.

Later, Xie Qinghan got drunk.

She demanded to know why Zhou Xingbai had broken up with her back then.

The man simply bent down and held her, letting her slap his face before lowering his head.

He coveted her warmth, and everything about her.

3.

After Zhou Xingbai came over again and again, Xie Qinghan couldn't take it anymore and decided they should sleep in separate rooms.

But the man only got more worked up. He barged right in, his voice low and husky:

"It's hubby's fault. Baby, please don't be mad anymore, okay?"

Xie Qinghan loved his voice most of all.