The Refined Wild Dog

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[Main story complete. My upcoming novel, "Take Shelter Under the Eaves," is a childhood-sweethearts story. Please add it to your collection!]

1. On a rainy night after working overtime, Miao Zhi's car broke down halfway home. A black motorcycle pulled up beside her through the rain. Behind the black helmet, the man recognized her at a glance.

"Miao Zhi?"

Miao Zhi didn't recognize him. It wasn't until she rode home with him and watched him enter the gate of the neighboring house that she learned he was the second Jiang brother she'd clung to as a child.

After that, she often went to see him, sticking close to him and playing just like she used to. She called him "Second Brother Jiang" at every turn, but he always responded with a half-smile, as though he couldn't be bothered to answer.

Until one day, she heard her mother call to him from outside: "Jiang Si."

Miao Zhi froze in shock, staring at the man she'd thought was Second Brother Jiang.

Jiang Si leaned against the doorway and glanced at her with a dark look.

That night, the impostor Second Jiang cornered her in an alley. After shedding the mild-mannered facade that wasn't his, he pinched her chin and ordered, "You've called him Second Brother Jiang for so long. Call me big brother, too. Let's hear it."

2. When Miao Zhi was little, there were two older boys in the neighboring Jiang family. One was the gentle Brother Jiang, the second son. The other was Jiang Si, the eldest, whom Miao Zhi had seen fighting a stray dog.

When Miao Zhi was little, her mother tried to scare her by telling her there were wolves outside. It didn't work. But if she said Jiang Si was outside, Miao Zhi would be too frightened to leave the house for three days.

He was a wild, feral boy, and yet the memories buried deep from her childhood made her wary of him above all others.

Then, on a rainy night after years apart, he saw Miao Zhi, helpless and soaked, waving at him.

[I can get soaked in the rain anywhere, but my stray-dog heart can't.] - Jiang Si

Upcoming novel: "Take Shelter Under the Eaves"

Synopsis:

The day Jiang Yunliao moved to Huitang Street with her mother, she beat up the neighborhood bully. She won, but the next day, she was cornered in an alley and harassed.

Sheng Yan happened to pass by and helped her out. Only then did Jiang Yunliao realize he was the son of the man her mother had taken a liking to.

He was a sly little troublemaker. Holding the bully's fist in one hand, he said to her cheekily, "You have to call me big brother before I'm obliged to help you."

She left Huitang Street without ever getting the chance to call him big brother.

When they met again, she was having dinner with her boyfriend. He egged her on to pour Sheng Yan a drink, but she never got to. Her boyfriend ended up in the hospital and became her ex.

She avoided Sheng Yan for several days, but he still cornered her at the school gate.

Jiang Yunliao was puzzled. "You're not my brother, so you aren't obliged to help me."

Sheng Yan was furious at how heartless she seemed. "Who wants to be your brother?"

*Childhood sweethearts for a limited three-month period. The leads' parents briefly dated, but never married or had any other relationship. The leads only fall for each other after they meet again.

Theme: Loving and believing in yourself will always measure up to anyone else's affection.