A Reply to My Secret Crush, Ten Years Later

[The blurb for my upcoming novel, *My Brooding Little Brother Won’t Leave Me Alone [Not Actually Siblings]*, is at the bottom. Please add it to your favorites.]

At a class reunion when he was twenty-five, Shen Lin got a call from his family, who wanted to arrange a marriage for him. His childhood friend urged him to hire a fake girlfriend to deal with the older generation. Shen Lin laughed and shoved him away, then stepped onto the terrace and lit a cigarette.

A cough sounded from someone choking on the smoke. Only then did Shen Lin notice Wen Jing standing beside the cedar in the corner. She’d been his deskmate in their second year of high school.

He apologized politely and took his leave, but someone caught the hem of his shirt from behind.

Wen Jing tilted up her fair, serene face and said gently, without a hint of emotion:

“I can pretend to be your girlfriend.”

“My family’s pressuring me to get married too, so you’ll have to pretend to be my boyfriend.”

*

Shen Lin was against marriage. He’d entered this fake relationship intending for them to help each other out, with no feelings involved. He hadn’t expected to get so hooked.

Before he knew it, they’d done everything couples do.

Shen Lin wanted to make things official.

With fireworks bursting over the river, he took her hand and kissed her, then slipped a matching ring onto her middle finger. “Wen Jing, how about we become a real couple?”

She didn’t refuse his kiss, but slowly and firmly returned the ring to his hand.

“I’m sorry, but I can’t.”

“I’ll only be with someone I love who loves me back.”

*

Shen Lin stubbornly kept finding excuses to spend time with Wen Jing. He retraced every clue from their past, trying to find proof that she loved him too.

Then one day, he remembered a confession text he’d received the year they graduated from high school:

“Ever since the day I met you, when I look back on this time, I don’t remember the six o’clock dawn or the cold wind. I remember the excitement and joy of looking forward to every chance I might see you.

Shen Lin, thank you. I hope everything goes well for you.”

It held no bitterness, asked for no reply, and had no name attached.

Shen Lin had received countless confessions, but this was the only one he’d never forgotten.

He dug out his old high school phone and called the number from that anonymous message. He saw Wen Jing’s back stop beneath a pagoda tree as she silently answered.

His voice trembled. “So it was you.”

*Unrequited love becomes mutual × fake dating turns real / Gentle, straightforward heroine × carefree, bold hero

*One-on-one, both leads are virgins; unrequited love comes true, and the hero pursues the heroine later on

*The entire plot serves the romance

Upcoming: "My Brooding Little Brother Won’t Leave Me Alone". If you’re interested, please add it to your favorites.

[Soft, slow-to-catch-on older sister × seemingly obedient but truly brooding, deranged younger brother | Not actually siblings | He’s secretly in love with her | Sick obsession | Overwhelming possessiveness]

Song Zhaoyue was born into hardship, struggling with every step she took.

Thankfully, her younger brother Song Lichen was sweet and sensible. They grew up relying on each other, and he was her only comfort.

But when she was eighteen, someone showed up at their door and told her that her brother was actually the real young master of the top-tier Jiang family, switched at birth.

Song Lichen was already an award-winning genius, as beautiful as a piece of fine porcelain. With his family background added to the mix, he had countless admirers.

Song Zhaoyue knew the two of them were worlds apart now. Whenever anyone asked about their relationship, she answered cautiously, “We’re not that close.”

Hearing this, the young man lowered his eyes and curved his lips, as if accepting it.

No one knew about the drugged drink in the locked hotel room.

As she watched in horror, Song Lichen calmly drained the glass, then looked at her with flushed eyes. The beauty mark at the corner of his eye made him look especially innocent and alluring.

“What should I do, Sis? Either save me, or kill me.”

In the end, Song Zhaoyue couldn’t bring herself to run away. They spent a wild night together.

The once obedient “little brother” pinned her on his lap, kissed her tears between ragged breaths, and murmured shameless things, then pressed a hand to her belly with a satisfied smile.

“Sis, are we close enough now? Ah… I should say we’re very close, shouldn’t I?”

*

“You weren’t focused enough when you kissed me just now, Sis. Do it again.”

“Make a sound, Sis. Let him hear how sweetly you moan in my arms.”

“Sis, look at me. Only me.”

…

Faced with Song Lichen’s increasingly out-of-control possessiveness, Song Zhaoyue could hardly breathe. She seized an opportunity to go abroad.

Years passed. She thought she and Song Lichen had become strangers.

But on the second day after she returned, she got into the wrong ride-hailing car.

The doors of the black Maybach locked. Song Lichen leaned over solicitously to fasten her seat belt, then smiled.

“I was just about to come upstairs and wake you, Sis. The Civil Affairs Bureau is open today. We can go take care of the paperwork in time.”

“We’ll become a family again.”

*

Song Zhaoyue didn’t know.

The day Song Lichen learned they weren’t really siblings, he’d been so relieved.

“Zhaozhao shines like the bright moon, while Lichen moves like the stars.”

Their names formed a line of poetry, and they would be like twin trees, their roots and very blood intertwined, even if it meant descending into hell.

*They are not related by blood. Their romance develops while they are not registered under the same household.

Theme: Take the initiative, and a story will begin.