Above the Eternal Night

[Cool, aloof red-clad assassin × Scheming strategist who can't restrain his obsession]

After losing her memory, Xin Luo, the greatest assassin in the martial world, encounters a man in a wheelchair while pursuing a traitor.

He claims to be her senior fellow disciple and says they used to be close.

Xin Luo scoffs and says only three words: "You're lying."

His subordinates are glaring at her so warily you'd think they were a mile away. And he calls that being close?

In any case, she can't shake the feeling that he's devious and up to no good.

During their mission, she deliberately jolts his wheelchair and needles him, hoping to tear away the mask of this gentle senior brother.

But he only smiles faintly and says indulgently, "As long as Junior Sister is happy."

She feels as if she's punched a pillow.

As she searches for her memories, Xin Luo keeps waiting for him to show his true colors, but... he really does seem to treat her well.

His constant calls of "Junior Sister" bewitch her. He gives her a dagger, praises and kisses her, and even complains pitifully, "You're the junior sister, and I'm the senior brother, so why are you always ordering me around while I do whatever you say? Real senior brothers and junior sisters aren't like this."

She pauses, then asks, following his lead, "Then what are real senior brothers and junior sisters like?"

He quickly pecks her on the lips and says solemnly, "This is what real senior brothers and junior sisters are like."

She thinks life will go on like this, but one day her memories will return.

One day, she realizes the pieces of her past are piling up. Their relationship really hadn't been good, but no one told her they had actually been enemies!

*

The great hall is dim, candlelight flickering.

She faces him coldly and thrusts her sword at him.

He doesn't dodge. Instead, he suddenly lunges into the blade.

Her eyes narrow, and she hurriedly retreats. Scarlet beads of blood drip from his neck. At last, he sheds his gentle mask, grinning with madness.

He won the bet. She can't bear to kill him.

Xin Luo bites her lip and looks him in the eye. "If I made you lose your memory too, then deceived you and locked you by my side, would you accept it so calmly?"

Qi Xingji looks up sharply.

Huh? Isn't that a reward?

P.S.

1. The leads have only ever been with each other, one-on-one.

2. Set in a fictional world, with a plotline and a romance line in roughly equal measure.

3. The male lead is disabled and uses a wheelchair at first, but recovers later.

4. Neither lead is a traditionally good person.

Theme: Pierce the endless night and seek the light that never fades