In Full Bloom

1.

The night Wen Yu returned to the country, the Qin family's heir drowned in the swimming pool of his villa. He wasn't found until morning.

No one would want to kill such a powerful, tender-hearted, perfect man.

Then the one who brought disaster could only be the unwanted, superfluous person.

Her name was Wen Yu. The Yu in her name meant "surplus."

2.

When the police came to the door, the beautiful woman, as alluring as a poppy, was wearing an oversized white shirt.

She was languid and radiant, like the most dazzling flower grown from darkness.

A pair of pale, slender hands reached around her waist from behind and wound around her like vines.

The pale-faced man rested his chin on her lovely, rounded shoulder and pleaded sleepily, "Don't go."

Wen Yu pried his fingers away, one by one.

She held out both hands to the police, as if she had planned this all along, and chuckled. "I killed him. Take me away."

At the very last moment before the car door closed, she looked back and saw the man running after her.

She smiled, playful and triumphant.

For a moment, it was as if she were back in those days when she had just arrived at the Qin family home and tried everything she could to win the heart of that cynical young master.

He was noble and distant, a cigarette always between his veined fingers, his eyes full of careless indifference.

Everyone told Wen Yu that loving him would never end well.

Wen Yu didn't care. She loved him anyway.

Openly and brilliantly.

Someone teased him about it. "Could our young master really be in love with her?"

Amid the glittering nightlife, the young master blew out a ring of smoke and smiled casually. "Just having some fun."

3.

When she appeared again, her bright red lips touched the rim of her wineglass as she said, "A pleasure to meet you."

It seemed she had long since forgotten him.

Qin Sheng regretted it. He cornered her against a wall, his hand gliding along her waist, his voice thick with a strange, suppressed ache. "A Yu, love me again."

Wen Yu pushed him away, lit a cigarette, and blew out a ring of smoke.

Her eyes held all the casual frivolity he had shown back then. "Sure."

# There is a kind of flower that rots from the roots. The moment it blooms most brilliantly is the moment it withers.

# No one knows that on the night Wen Yu left, Qin Sheng stood on the rooftop, letting the wind blow over him all night.

Look, there is nothing you cannot lose, unless you never had it in the first place.

* The deceased is the older brother. Includes all kinds of cliched tropes, like the domineering CEO and his unattainable first love. A story born from a wild idea.

** Both leads have dark sides and aren't portrayed as purely good people. The heroine dates someone else after leaving.

*** Praise JJ! At last I can write my trashy, melodramatic short-story idea. Mid-length stories really are the greatest innovation and invention of all time.

Theme: Even monsters rejected by the world hope someone will come and save them.