Symbiosis

The day Jiang Yu decided to leave, Xiang An was wearing his old T-shirt, standing in the dim hallway of their old house and watching him replace the broken lightbulb.

"Big brother, don't worry about me." Her voice sounded faint in the empty space. "You should live well."

When Jiang Yu left again, he had gained a "tail."

*

In Xiang An's eyes, Jiang Yu could do anything, while she was good at only three things:

Acting obedient when Jiang Yu was angry, pushing her luck when his heart softened, and making cracks appear in that perpetually calm face of his.

After relying on each other for so long, Xiang An began testing the boundaries they'd drawn.

Jiang Yu would only avoid her. When he couldn't, he'd scold her. If he scolded her too harshly, Xiang An would admit her mistake in a small voice, eyes red.

As soon as he turned away, she'd rise onto her toes and lean close, her breath brushing against his tense skin. "Big brother... don't be mad at me."

All the restraint they'd kept secret broke one stormy night.

Xiang An slipped under the covers and pressed her cold hands and feet against him. Half-conscious, her lips chased his as she murmured Jiang Yu's name.

His reason snapped. A scorching kiss fell, not a gentle touch, but a punishing bite that threatened to bring them both down.

At last, Jiang Yu confessed he had fallen, snarling in her ear:

"Are you satisfied now? Everyone can call your brother a beast."

Xiang An closed her eyes. "Jiang Yu isn't a beast."

I'm the one who seduced him.

*Fake step-siblings / not registered in the same household

Please add my upcoming novel to your reading list: The Nightingale and the Motionless Ship

That bitter winter, with nowhere left to turn, Xi Ling crouched in front of a foreign supermarket, picking up coins.

When she looked up, she met a pair of eyes through the fog. Snow dusted the stranger's shoulders. His icy blue eyes were set in a striking Slavic face, like a young nobleman out of old Russian literature.

He bent down and placed a twenty-ruble coin in her palm. "Do you need help?"

Victor was handsome and wealthy, with a heart as pure as gold. He believed Xi Ling's thoroughly hole-ridden sob story and took her back to his apartment overlooking the Don River.

Xi Ling clung to this lifeline, hoping only to scrape together enough money to return home.

Who could have guessed that when she returned to campus at the start of term, she would hear a deep, familiar voice call her name? The new professor at the lectern was none other than her "landlord."

*

Xi Ling lived in his apartment, sat in on his classes, and eventually even swindled him out of his family's heirloom ring.

They kissed by the Don River. His breath was burning, but his voice was soft. "Ling, my grandmother once told me the ring was meant for my future wife."

Xi Ling's head spun. She smiled brightly at him. "I'll be your wife! Spend all the money you want on me!"

It wasn't until he started planning their wedding shortly before graduation that Xi Ling realized she'd gone too far.

She fled overnight with the ring and returned to her homeland.

A year later, Xi Ling was thriving. At a glamorous banquet filled with wine, fragrant clothes, and shining temples, someone clasped her wrist. The scent of snow swept over her.

Victor stood behind her, strikingly handsome. His eyes were stubborn and aggrieved as his thumb stroked the ring on her left ring finger. In clear, measured Chinese, he said:

"I finally found you, wife."

[Missing Wife Notice: Searching for wife who has been missing for a year. Description: beautiful, carrying a family heirloom ring.]

Theme: Grow toward the light.