More Than Just Siblings

(I recommend keeping up with the updates. Enjoy them while they last. Muah!)

Xi Yu is an orphan living under the protection of the Marquis of Changping’s household. Over six years, she has grown into a graceful young woman, courteous and gentle.

Now that she’s of marriageable age, she tries even harder to please the household’s masters, hoping to keep her benefactor’s favor.

Everything goes smoothly, until she nearly fails in her efforts with Yue Yuan, the future marquis.

He is aloof one moment and attentive the next, sunny one day and stormy the next. His nature is impossible to figure out.

Fortunately, perseverance pays off. Xi Yu brings him pastries now and then, and eventually she and Yue Yuan form a fairly good relationship.

Everything changes one rainy night.

Someone pulls Xi Yu into a room.

The young master, as ethereal as an immortal, looks at her without reserve and handles her with force, nothing like his usual gentle, steady self.

The man’s warm breath brushes her neck. She trembles with fear, only to hear him sigh as if both helpless and long awaiting this moment:

“Why have you come again? You really know how to torment a man!”

Xi Yu comes to her senses. She only wants to use the household’s influence. She has no intention of getting involved with any of the marquis’s sons.

So she runs away.

~

Everyone says Yue Yuan is gentle as jade, a refined gentleman with the rare bearing of a scholarly general.

Few know that beneath the surface, he is decisive and ruthless. He may seem charming, but in truth he is utterly heartless.

The day he caught Xi Yu just as she was about to fall, she felt soft and warm in his arms.

An unfamiliar, delicate fragrance lingered around him, and afterward he had one vivid dream after another.

He grew suspicious of himself and tried to keep his distance. In the end, he simply let things run their course, wanting to see what tricks she would use to seduce him.

By chance, while boating on the lake that day, he overheard her plotting to leave the capital with another man. Her words were full of urgency.

Yue Yuan smiled bitterly, then ordered, his gaze turning icy, “Ram them!”

He was certain that night hadn’t been a drunken dream. She knew how he felt about her.

~

In the marquis’s household, everyone praised them.

They called Miss Yu pure and the young master honorable. Even though the two emerged from the water soaked through and embracing in full view of everyone, they had kept things proper and within bounds. They were truly the best of siblings.

But in the boudoir, unseen by anyone, Yue Yuan pins Xi Yu beneath him. He tears away his gentle, refined mask and laughs with wicked delight.

“Don’t do this. We’re siblings...”

“Are siblings supposed to be like us?”

A fictional setting, with plenty of author-created details.

One-on-one, five-year age gap, size difference warning.

Their fathers were sworn brothers, so they are not related by blood.

The heroine has a mild everybody-loves-her quality, with plenty of romantic rivalry and dramatic clashes. Don’t read if that isn’t your thing.

The hero is good at pretending and truly has an obsession with the heroine. Don’t read if that isn’t your thing.

Please add my upcoming novel, After Having a Child with Her Amnesiac Husband’s Older Brother, to your reading list!

Man Li is a renowned beauty in the surrounding villages. With her looks and cleverness, she marries into the wealthy Xiao family to bring good fortune to its sickly younger son.

But the Xiao family’s younger son is also doomed to an early death. Before they have even been married a year, he is on the verge of dying.

The widowed eldest daughter-in-law of the Xiao family keeps urging Man Li to have a child as soon as possible, so the child can carry on the family line in the future.

Her words leave Man Li increasingly anxious.

She may be a little clever, but she knows she is no match for the uncles and cousins in the extended family.

She doesn’t want to give up the wealth she worked so hard to gain, either.

One day, returning to her hometown, Man Li catches sight of a tall figure from behind and immediately feels her heart begin to race.

A plan strikes her. She grits her teeth.

So what if she needs a child? As long as it comes out of her womb, it will be a Xiao!

~

Xiao Changjing has lost his memory and remembers only his name.

To survive, he has learned to be steady and hardworking, like the villagers around him.

When he learns that the girl he once fell for has been widowed and returned to this remote, isolated village, he can’t help feeling sorry for Man Li.

They meet by the field ridges and exchange greetings at the edge of the village...

Xiao Changjing watches her coolly, but in the end, he falls hopelessly in love.

On a night when the moon is bright and the stars are scattered across the sky, with wine warming their cheeks, they can’t resist tumbling into a haystack together.

Just as he eagerly goes to ask for her hand, Man Li returns to the city.

After making inquiries and learning about her current circumstances, Xiao Changjing gives a cold laugh in anger.

He knew she was bold, but never imagined she’d try to pass off another man’s child as the heir.

~

A little scene:

Recently, a new coachman has arrived at the Xiao residence. They say he is exceptionally steady behind the reins.

Man Li wants to go on an outing, so she specifically requests him.

But when the man slowly raises his head to bow, his dark, menacing gaze lands squarely on her protruding belly, and Man Li nearly buckles at the knees.

Taking advantage of a dark, windy night, Man Li pushes a chest of banknotes in front of Xiao Changjing.

In a lofty tone, she says, “Didn’t you just want money? This is enough to keep you comfortable for the rest of your life. From now on, you go your way and I’ll go mine.”

Ignoring his murderous glare, she walks away with unhurried steps.

Unexpectedly, a pained yet delighted cry of “Eldest Young Master!” suddenly rings out behind her.

Man Li stops and slowly turns around, only to see the old servant clinging to Xiao Changjing.

The man looks back at her with a faint smile. “Can we still go our separate ways now?”

Note: The hero has never been with anyone, and is pure in both body and heart.

The sister-in-law was forced into marriage and has her own romance.

Theme: May we all live long and stay together.