After I Abandoned My Mistletoe Persona

Zhou Niao was frail and quiet, and had been in love with her fellow disciple for years. He treated her with great care, and when their martial uncle occasionally teased him about taking her as his cultivation partner, he never denied it.

Her junior brother loved traveling. No matter where he went, he always brought her all kinds of gifts.

Zhou Niao thought that sooner or later she and her junior brother would marry. Naturally, she became like a dodder vine twining around him, devoted to him with all her heart and never leaving his side.

That was, until her junior brother met a beautiful woman with a face like peach blossoms while away from home. His eyes blazed whenever he looked at her, and his usually cold face was suddenly animated with all kinds of emotion. Only then did Zhou Niao realize how differently he felt about that woman.

She thought it was just a passing infatuation, never realizing it was a love that would last a lifetime.

Before long, her junior brother was deeply in love. Wherever he went, he brought the woman along, personally attending to her and caring for her meticulously.

So this was what it meant to like someone: you couldn't bear to make her wait.

Unwilling to accept the truth, Zhou Niao tearfully asked her junior brother why he hadn't told her he didn't like her. The young man replied coldly, "Who would care about a pet that begs for affection by wagging its tail?"

Zhou Niao's heart shattered, leaving her utterly despondent.

That very night, she left the sect where she had stayed for his sake, alone and empty-handed.

The young man stood behind her, watching her retreating figure without expression. His eyes were detached and distant, as if everything that had come before had turned to ashes.

But he had forgotten that Zhou Niao was a dodder vine. She might look weak, but she was domineering to the core. She had made him what he was, and that was exactly what he was.

She might wither after leaving him, but he wouldn't get off lightly either.

The little things she left behind seemed to have made no mark, yet they were a slow, steady ache that would last forever, tormenting him to the brink of death.

One day, even a dodder vine can straighten its back and live with wild abandon.

Content warnings:

1. The dodder vine is only a metaphor.

2. The heroine grows over the course of the story.

3. A sweet romance in an unconventional sense.

4. Happy ending.

Theme: One day, you'll stand tall and live freely