Overheated

[Complete]

Living-under-one-roof trope *pseudo-siblings* relying on and cherishing each other

When Lin Yao was sixteen, she learned that she was an adopted daughter, a fake heiress.

Her mother, a woman with a head full of curls, led her back to an old, rundown alley.

There, she ran into Wen Ye, whose mouth was crusted with blood and whose face was dark and cold.

The woman pushed her forward. "Call him big brother."

Lin Yao met the boy's indifferent dark eyes and timidly called him "Brother."

Wen Ye's gaze moved from her fair little face to the neat white dress with a Peter Pan collar she wore.

Without saying a word, he turned and walked away.

In the narrow, cramped alley, their shoulders bumped.

His dislike for her was plain to see.

-

Later, after trouble struck their family, Lin Yao took shelter from the rain outside a closed shop.

Soaked through and shivering with cold, she looked as pitiful as an abandoned kitten.

Anxious footsteps drew closer. She raised her rain-damp lashes.

Through the view blurred by the downpour, a tall, slender figure appeared.

Wen Ye ran over, took off his jacket and draped it over her. His bony, well-defined hand gripped her arm and helped her stand on her numb legs.

His voice was husky and firm.

"Come with me. I'll take care of you."

-

When she was eighteen, Wen Ye leaned lazily against the wall, watching with amusement as the former heiress struggled to wring out a soaking wet sweater.

By the time she was nineteen, he was working outside a skyscraper dozens of stories high in the hottest weather, secured by a safety rope and doing the most dangerous, exhausting work,

all to save enough for Lin Yao's surgery.

She had called him "Brother," so he would protect her for the rest of her life.

-

The male and female leads are not blood relatives and are not registered in the same household.

-

My next novel will be The Scorching Heat.

At the end of August, the height of summer, the heat was scorching.

Cen Ying arrived at her new school with a face bruised and swollen from a fall, so badly injured that it was impossible to make out her original features.

At the school gate, a flashy Bugatti supercar caught everyone's eye, prompting a group of girls to whisper excitedly.

Cen Ying glanced over.

Her eyes met those of the brazen, unruly boy in the driver's seat.

Just a second later, she looked away and kept walking.

Beside her, Zhou Siyan pulled her suitcase and gently told her,

"They're a bunch of rich kids who don't take their studies seriously. The one leading them, Chao Jin, is especially wild and reckless, and completely rotten. Yingying, don't be like the other girls and let his face charm you."

Thinking of that brief glance, Cen Ying felt no particular fondness for him.

She nodded lightly, her voice soft and sweet. "I know, Brother Siyan."

-

The boys in the sports car had also seen the two of them.

They all knew Chao Jin and Zhou Siyan didn't get along, so none of them held back.

"Look at Zhou Siyan wiping that girl's sweat. Are they dating or what?"

"Ha! His taste must be pretty weird if he's into that disfigured face."

Amid the laughter, nobody noticed

Chao Jin's jaw tightening as ash fell again and again from the cigarette between his fingers.

His dark eyes remained fixed on the slender figure about to disappear from view.

The emotions churning beneath his gaze seemed part irritation, part jealousy.

-

Half a semester later, Cen Ying's injuries healed, revealing her stunning original face.

She also became Chao Jin's girlfriend.

The girls were jealous and confused.

Everyone knew Chao Jin had always disliked that pure, innocent type of girl.

And Cen Ying's face was pure to the very core.

"Maybe she's just a change of pace, a bit of fun."

"Maybe he's doing it to get at Zhou Siyan, stealing his childhood sweetheart."

Everyone thought Chao Jin was just acting on a whim.

But later, he nearly gave his life for Cen Ying,

and the girl dumped him without a shred of mercy.

-

So when they unexpectedly met again later, everyone waited to see how Chao Jin would get his revenge.

After all, Chao Jin had now become the true head of the Chao family, ruthless and decisive in business, cold-blooded and unfeeling. Anyone who crossed him was in for a bad time.

Cen Ying looked into Chao Jin's icy, dark eyes and thought the same.

But that very night, when she got home, he pinned her against the wall and pulled her tightly into his arms. His breath was scorching, and his voice was so hoarse it even trembled slightly.

"I'm more capable than I used to be. Whatever you want, you can use me to get it. I'll do anything, as long as you don't leave again."

Theme: Where there's a will, there's a way.