Liang Xue was six the first time she met Chen Anmu.
She thought he was a mountain spirit. Adults strictly forbade anyone from going up this mountain, yet Chen Anmu was as fair and beautiful as could be, with hair longer than any girl's. When he saw her, he even smiled.
Only later did Liang Xue learn that he lived halfway up the mountain. The village's so-called "crazy woman" was Chen Anmu's mother.
Later, when that woman died, Liang Xue helped Chen Anmu bury the person who had no identity and had lost all memory of her past deep in the mountains.
That night, Chen Anmu held her and gently kissed her forehead. His hot breath fell against her lips, and the kiss was scorching. Liang Xue trembled, nervous and afraid.
"Don't be scared. She's finally free." Chen Anmu's hand squeezed her waist ever so slightly, his touch both gentle and forceful. His eyes, half-hidden behind his disheveled hair, seemed to beckon her. "And so am I."
When she was little, Liang Xue thought the Mu in Chen Anmu's name was the word for wood.
But after they first discovered the pleasures of the flesh, he always liked being underneath her. At times like those, he looked breathtaking, his hair spread across the pillow like casually growing branches. A tempting poisonous apple hung from the very top, drawing her kisses and sweat.
"Snow is meant to fall on wood."
He said softly,
"Let winter cover us. I'll never put out branches or buds, and you must never melt."
A good girl and a vixen of a man
A self-indulgent favorite pairing, set in a fictional modern world
Theme: Don't judge people by the prejudices of the world
