Greed

Ruan Ling was raised in the Qi family for ten years. Outsiders all thought she was an illegitimate member of the family, an outsider rejected by the young master of the house.

Although they lived under the same roof, their positions couldn't have been more different. Qi Fan had been carefully groomed as the heir and was celebrated as a prodigy.

Ruan Ling, meanwhile, was an obscure stepdaughter from a wealthy family, overlooked and unimportant.

She was forced to curry favor with him, call him "brother," and give him presents, but never once received a kind look in return.

At school, she followed behind him, only for him to coldly stop her from getting into the chauffeured car.

The boy wore a blue-and-white British-style uniform, elegant and tall. He looked down at her with the same cold, weary gaze every time. "Don't follow me. I'm not riding with you."

Ruan Ling knew Qi Fan hated her.

She could only hope that one day she would leave the Qi family and escape that cold face that couldn't stand her.

She never expected that his coldness was only a disguise for his ugly nature.

On the night after the college entrance exams, her academically outstanding older brother knocked on her door. His graduation gift to her was a dog collar.

The collar was around his neck, and he forcibly shoved the chain into her hand.

She trembled in shock, shaking her head in refusal, tears welling in her eyes.

He pinned her down by force. His supposedly upright and honorable facade gave way to a sick, feverish intensity in his eyes as he hurled the words at her: "Didn't you say your brother was a dog?"

"Then let this puppy be your graduation present."

The silver chain jingled, numbing her nerves.

"Do you like it?"

-

Qi Fan once despised every obsequious "brother" that came from Ruan Ling's lips.

Later, he realized that this good little sister, who affectionately called him "brother" in front of their parents, would turn around, hide away, and curse him as a dog, a disgusting lunatic, with fearful hysteria.

And so he began to find a sick pleasure in the form of address he once hated.

He began to force her to say it.

Resilient, reserved, dutiful girl x cold, sick, dark-minded man

*Blurb dated 2024.7.8

*Content warnings in the author's note of Chapter One

Upcoming story: "Beyond Escape"

Li Songjin's mentally ill younger brother has been discharged.

He sneaked out in the middle of the night, got into a car accident, and lost his memory. Now she's being forced to look after this little lunatic with homicidal tendencies.

Song Yunzhou was the younger brother their parents had brought home out of nowhere. His temperament was strange, and his background a mystery. Two years ago, he suddenly went berserk and set a fire. Their parents nearly died in the flames, while Li Songjin, who was away from home most of the time, narrowly escaped.

Afterward, Li Songjin personally sent Song Yunzhou to a mental hospital, where he spent two years.

The chilling image of him then, eyes full of cold resentment, looking as though he wanted to devour Li Songjin alive, remained vivid in her mind.

But after losing his memories, Song Yunzhou seemed no longer mentally ill.

He was gentle and obedient, a sweet, soft-hearted crybaby who couldn't stop the tears.

He would take care of the household chores, cling to her with his pretty face and coquettish affection, and do everything Li Songjin said, always attentive and considerate.

Their roles as caretaker and cared-for had practically reversed.

Except for Song Yunzhou's increasingly strange possessiveness toward her.

He kept checking up on her, wouldn't let her come home late, and demanded that she report her whereabouts when she went out. He became clingy and difficult to handle... Whenever Li Songjin slipped up, he would tearfully blame himself, making her feel terribly guilty.

Later, Li Songjin brought her boyfriend home. Song Yunzhou seemed kind and friendly, but that very night he went berserk, smashed things, and tearfully begged her to break up. He held her down, rubbing and biting her like a dog, nearly delirious.

Afterward, when Li Songjin got angry, he explained pitifully, "I was afraid Big Sister would abandon me again. I was just so scared."

-

Li Songjin could barely handle her younger brother's increasingly intense and bizarre feelings for her.

Fortunately, their parents told her that Song Yunzhou's exceedingly wealthy father, who lived in Europe, wanted to acknowledge him as his son and send him to an Ivy League university for a joint program.

Li Songjin immediately spoke kindly with Song Yunzhou, promising to visit him often. Then she secretly found a job far away, preparing for them to go their separate ways.

Everything was arranged smoothly.

Until the night before his departure, when Li Songjin prepared a table full of delicious food to see Song Yunzhou off and congratulate him on returning to his family and having a bright future ahead.

Song Yunzhou also smiled and thanked her for taking care of him all this time.

But when Li Songjin opened her eyes after a night's sleep, she hadn't arrived at their parting.

Instead, she found herself handcuffed to the bedpost, unable to move.

The locked door opened, and Song Yunzhou walked in with breakfast as if nothing were wrong. His tender gaze fell on Li Songjin's frightened, distraught face. He stopped pretending to be obedient and pitiable.

"Why are you abandoning me this time? Was I not good enough? Wasn't I obedient enough?"

A faint smile touched his lips. He lowered his hand to caress her face, his beautiful smile twisting into something bizarre. "I've already given up on so many ways of getting revenge on you, Big Sister."

"But you're still so bad, still so unwilling to change. Is it because you've never been punished?"

Theme: Be a good person.