Sister-in-Law, Open the Door! It’s Your Brother

Cool, aloof bottom, mad-dog top

Lin Shishen was a reserved and gentle university lecturer. At twenty-three, an accident brought him together with the person he wanted to spend his life with: Bai Ran, CEO of the Bai Group.

After they married, he often heard his beloved complain about the younger brother who gave the whole family a headache. “That kid’s smarter than me, but he’s got a rebellious streak a mile wide. Nobody can control him.”

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Whenever this happened, Lin Shishen would laugh and reassure him. “Kids are all like that. He’ll grow out of it.”

Only later did he realize that some people were born bad seeds. For example

His beloved’s younger brother, Bai Tingyue.

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On a ship at a sea burial, Bai Tingyue met for the first time the sister-in-law his elder brother had kept hidden away.

The man’s features were cool and distant. Surrounded by the Bai family, his thin mourning clothes were soaked through by the steady drizzle, making his frame look frail and fragile, as if he might snap in two.

“Would the bereaved family like to say a few words?” the sea-burial officiant called out.

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Bai Tingyue thought he would give a moving speech, weeping as he spoke, one that would break the hearts of everyone who heard it.

But he didn’t. He simply gazed out at the sea for a long time. Then, amid the murmurs around him, he scattered the rain-soaked daisies in his arms, along with his beloved’s ashes, into the ocean.

For no particular reason, a single line remained in Bai Tingyue’s mind: “The cuckoo cries blood, the crane mourns.”

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When the head of the family, Bai Yue, died suddenly, the Bai family became embroiled in a struggle for power. Yet Lin Shishen, the primary heir, never showed himself.

Bai Tingyue led his people into the courtyard his elder brother had given Lin Shishen. But contrary to outsiders’ guesses that he was moping away his days or putting on a show, Lin Shishen was simply lying on a wooden chair in a bamboo grove. A wisp of smoke curled from the tea beside him. He looked as if he were asleep, serene and elegant, like an immortal.

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Bai Tingyue walked over and placed a hand on his chest.

“Do you want the shares too?” Lin Shishen asked softly, without opening his eyes.

Bai Tingyue smiled and gripped the fabric beneath his hand, as if he were holding on to the still-beating heart beneath it.

“I want you, sister-in-law, ”

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Everyone thought Lin Shishen was a cold and distant man. No one had ever seen him cry, not even when his husband died.

Only Bai Tingyue knew that every night, Lin Shishen would bite his lip beneath him and cry as if he’d been wronged. And when Bai Tingyue really gave him what he wanted, Lin Shishen would cling to him and ask for more.

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