An Unspeakable Shame

Unhinged brother / sickly wicked woman / hyena cage fighter

-1-

Mom said that if you love someone, you should do whatever it takes to steal them away.

That's exactly what she did.

Shan Rendong used to resent her brother for being incapable of love, always calm and always restrained.

So she tried every trick in the book, using every dirty tactic she could think of, just to see him experience the full range of human emotions.

As she devoted herself to dragging Shan Yiqi into the mud, someone else was watching her intently from the shadows.

-2-

When she was seven or eight, Mom sent her to the Shan family and told her that her goal in life should be to become a parasite that was never full, eating the Shan family out of house and home.

When she was ten, the Shan family brought home another illegitimate son.

Light spilled in through the front door, but he stood in the shadows, broad-shouldered and long-legged, his brows lowered and his lacquer-black eyes full of menace. When he opened his mouth, two sharp canine teeth showed.

Sunlight divided their view, and a smile pierced her eyes. She stood atop a high-rise, while he lay prostrate underground.

Years later, at that same place and from that same vantage point, Xie Chuanwu had just returned from the fighting ring. He looked up and saw her emerge from Shan Yiqi's second-floor room, her expression dark as she wiped the redness from her lips with the back of her hand.

That night, Xie Chuanwu slowly twirled the ends of her hair around his fingers and asked in a low voice, "Can't I give you what he can?"

But what she wanted was for the Shan family to be utterly ruined. Even her seduction of Shan Yiqi was a sham.

Unexpectedly, one day Shan Yiqi would also grip the back of her head, thread his fingers through her hair, and, breathing unsteadily, tell her to take back the heart she'd given Xie Chuanwu.

His big hand clenched the hem of her skirt as he lowered his eyes and wiped the dampness from her lips. "Why run? Don't you love me?"

"Rendong, I didn't raise you all these years for nothing."

The room was dim, the curtains blocking out every ray of light. The air felt thick and stagnant, like viscous liquid, as a tall figure appeared in the bedroom doorway.

"Having fun?"

Xie Chuanwu asked.

-3-

Oh, and Mom told her something else.

A person should love herself most of all.

(Inspiration captured in a screenshot on 2024.1.28)

*Please don't confuse the novel's premise with real life. Two men and one woman in a love triangle, so the female lead is not a virgin, while the male leads are. Please avoid if that's not for you.

*Happy ending.

Theme: Change your life, starting now.