Day After Day, Morning After Morning

Si Ran married Si Ye because his features bore an eight-tenths resemblance to someone else.

She knew, too, that Si Ye had not married her because he loved her. Even without love, she could play the role of Mrs. Si well, including fulfilling all the duties expected of her.

Rumor had it that Si Ye had taken charge of the Si family at the age of twenty. In the cutthroat world of wealth and fame, he was a man who could devour his enemies without leaving a trace. People speculated endlessly about the origins of his silver hair and his naturally mismatched eyes, on top of his ruthless business tactics. Combined with his legendary business success, his story in Jingbei had become the stuff of myth.

*

Si Ran had a childhood friend named Li Yuqi, and he had a very hard life.

The first time she threw away half a steamed bun she hadn't finished, Li Yuqi was so angry that he didn't speak to her for a week. She later went to make up with him, only to see his foster father beating him because he'd put too much rice in the porridge.

She was too young to dare stop the violent adult. All she could do was sneak over afterward, her face streaked with tears, and ask if he was hurt.

One side of the boy's face was swollen, yet he smiled at her. "Did you come to apologize?"

Little Si Ran sobbed incoherently. "Brother Cao Cao, I won't waste food anymore. Please don't be mad."

The boy's bruised fingers rubbed the back of her head, and his voice was gentle. "Brother Cao Cao isn't mad."

He had once said he was like a burdock: all he needed was a little water to survive. When the boy said those words, he wore an unyielding, untamed defiance against an unfair fate. In the heart of a girl in her early teens, he was a rebellious hero. From then on, she called him Brother Cao Cao, hoping he would live well and turn his life around, just like the burdock.

Later, everyone told her that Li Yuqi had jumped into a river and died, but she didn't believe them.

*

One day, Si Ran fell asleep in Si Ye's arms, tears still clinging to her lashes and dampening the corner of the pillow. Si Ye raised a hand and carefully pulled a photograph from beneath it.

On the back of the photo was a line of childish, uneven handwriting: I'm not the sun, yet I foolishly wish to warm you.

As he stared at those words, his hand trembled twice. His fingertips pressed the edge of the photo into a crease, and the veins on the back of his hand bulged.

After a long while, Si Ye propped himself against the headboard and slipped the photo back under her pillow. He brushed the soft hair from Si Ran's temple and stared without blinking at her profile.

At last, their relationship neared collapse. She turned away, but he gripped her shoulder and forced her to face him.

"You married me because I look like him, didn't you?"

Si Ye didn't know that on the day he pretended to tear up the only photo of Li Yuqi still in existence, Si Ran had planned to tell him she was pregnant and wanted to build a life with him.

*

After the divorce, the man who had always been cold and stern explained to her in a helpless, despondent voice, "I was just too afraid of losing you." The man who had once stood above everyone else was willing to give up his status and position just to ask her to stay.

But no matter how hard Si Ye tried, he couldn't win Si Ran's heart back.

At last, one day, his eyes grew darker and more gloomy as he stared into the mirror, and a second personality emerged.

"Since you're so useless, don't come out again from now on."

"A worthless man can't even keep the woman he loves."

"Then let me do it."

Later, Si Ran accidentally discovered that on the back of the photo, beneath those words, another line had appeared at some point, written in sweeping strokes: I'm a burdock, yet I foolishly wish to have you.

- I'm not the sun, yet I foolishly wish to warm you.

- I'm a burdock, yet I foolishly wish to have you.

He said,

He was a burdock.

Long ago, in secret,

he had admitted

that he was Li Yuqi.

Li Yuqi's love was gentle and tender; Si Ye's love was deep as the sea. He loved her in secret, hiding it from everyone, day after day, year after year.

Theme: Wounds will eventually be healed by beauty.