Substitute Love

In my third year of high school for my brother, in the summer when the cicadas were deafening, I fell hopelessly in love with Zhou Xubai. He is the proud man who is meticulous about unbuttoning his shirt when giving speeches in the auditorium. I am the "young master of the Shen family" who must zip up his school uniform to the top in the crowd. This secret love, whose gender was a lie, was burned to ashes along with my graduation photo—— When the flames engulfed the photo, I clearly saw him turning his head in the corner of the camera to look in my direction. That must be an illusion. Seven years later, the family collapsed, and I became Zhou Xubai's bride in a glass showcase. On the night of the wedding, he slept in the study, leaving just the right distance between him and a box of plaster labeled "Special for Muscle Strain." Rumors spread throughout New York's upper class circles: The beautiful daughter of the Shen family has finally climbed onto the high branch of the Zhou family. They don't know that I can hear it every night - There was a suppressed coughing sound coming from under the door of the study, and the soft rustling sound of his fingertips rubbing old photos. Until I found the sandalwood box that had been locked for seven years in the dark room of the study room of my old house. Next to my old school badge is a note from him: "Picked up in the southeast corner of the basketball court. She ran too fast." On the back of the scratch paper with his name written all over it was his reply written with a UV pen: "I'm here." At the bottom was an equity transfer agreement, signed on the day after our high school graduation ceremony. The beneficiary column contains the English name that I have never told anyone. At the donor's signature, Zhou Xu's white iron painting with a silver hook reads: "Is it taking seven years to incubate a star that dares not shine to take advantage of others?" It rained heavily that night, so he broke open the locked bedroom door and pressed me against the wall, soaked all over. Breathing hot, words clear: "Guess why I remember all your habits?" "Because you were lazy in gym class thirteen times, and your ears were red in the same spot every time." "Because you bite the straw when you are sad, and when you lie... You never dare to look into my eyes." His palm touched the back of my neck - where the little mole was that I hadn't even noticed: "Shen Wei, from the day you disguised yourself as a boy and secretly used rose-flavored shampoo—" "I have no intention of letting you go." The thunder outside the window illuminated the tattoo under his collarbone: the tiny number "17", my student number. "This marriage is not a charity." He put on another ring for me in the sound of heavy rain—— The inner circle is engraved with "2015.6.30", The date of our graduation. "This is the only legal right of imprisonment that I mortgaged my entire youth to time for you." It turns out that in the summer when the cicadas were at their peak, I had a self-righteous one-way secret love. It has long been a two-way conspiracy that he has tacitly participated in. And this grand wedding in the seventh year, It was just a long-overdue graduation ceremony that he carefully planned for me. --- Core summary: A woman disguises herself as a boy to go to school for her brother × The silent guard that has long been seen through × The seven-year closed loop of two-way secret love "I thought I was your next best thing, but it turns out I was the only one you were waiting for." --- Tags: # #Marriage first, love later Purpose: To find proof of being loved amidst the shackles of gender and identity.