A Letter from Ten Thousand Miles Away

[Next up: Republican-era faux-incest story, Sifu]

[Quick-witted Republican-era mail carrier x sharp-eyed, scheming antiques dealer]

That day, as usual, Lianqiao was packing letters in the post office sorting room when she found a parcel without an inspection stamp just before sealing the mailbag.

The foreign settlement had become an isolated island, and every letter had to be inspected and stamped before it could be sent. Yet Lianqiao slipped the unchecked envelope into a mailbag bound for Hong Kong.

The next day, she saw the mysterious parcel again, along with a wanted notice that had appeared in the newspaper the day before, calling for the capture of Qin Yanchu, an antiques dealer in Shanghai.

The photograph showed a tall, slender figure in profile, taken inside a train carriage. The features were blurry, but the reward was eye-catching. On her third return to the previous day, she encountered her prey aboard an international cruise ship bound for Hong Kong.

In the enclosed first-class cabin, Qin Yanchu sat before her on a velvet sofa, his long legs crossed. A hint of inscrutable amusement played about his eyes as he coaxed her:

"Miss, compared with the bounty for capturing me, it seems there's something far more valuable in your mailbag. Would you care to make a deal with me?"

Lianqiao wondered how she would escape from him this time.

"In an endlessly recurring expanse of time and space, you are in every world I visit."

[Reading Guide]

# Sweet romance

# Time loop

# Republican-era infinite-loop road story: She has to deliver a parcel.

Next up: Republican-era faux-incest story, Sifu.

The eldest son of the Bo family brought home a girl and asked his family to make sure she got a good education. His grandmother was a kind old woman, so she raised the girl in the old family home.

By the time Bo Fulin returned from studying abroad, the girl who had been fifteen or sixteen had grown into a graceful young woman. She respectfully poured him tea and called him, "Brother."

Bo Fulin's brow furrowed slightly. He heard his grandmother say with a smile, "Your parents have no daughter, so they registered Shan Yi under their family name. She's your little sister now."

Bo Fulin had never thought of her as his sister. He even continued to call her by her old surname. "Yun Shanyi, come here."

The old family home was a three-story Chinese-style residence, and Yun Shanyi lived in the attic. When Bo Fulin held her chin and kissed her in her room, she didn't dare make a sound. And he did more than just that to her face.

Her ever proper and composed older brother crossed the line between them. "When you were my sister, you never asked me. Now that you've changed your mind, you should come beg me to take you away."

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Theme: Our generation should strive tirelessly to grow stronger.