Sweet Porridge, Sweet Dreams

The next book in the relay, Stealing the Little Fish, is also a fake-incest story! You can find its blurb below!

Sugar Porridge is complete | Fake siblings | Unrequited love becomes mutual | Foster care | Mutual healing

Shen Kanmian received a video in the airport parking lot.

It showed Su Youmeng being interviewed about her bestselling picture book. At the end, she said:

She had started writing the story back in high school.

It was a story about a little snowman and the sea.

Only he knew.

The snowman was her.

The sea was him.

Shen Kanmian closed the book in his hands. Outside the car window, a departing plane had already cut through thousands of feet of sky.

The girl on that plane was the only good dream he had ever had amid his insomnia.

A friend asked why he hadn't cleared things up with Su Youmeng.

"Isn't it a little cruel to tell someone you love them while saying goodbye?"

Su Youmeng: The day I waved to you, I never imagined this would become an unrequited love that went nowhere.

Shen Kanmian: But I always knew that a love at the wrong time would drive you far away.

==

Dim lights, a heady atmosphere, a cashmere rug in disarray.

She remembered what Shen Kanmian had said many years ago.

Her fingertips brushed his chest, still faintly damp with sweat. "You said a big brother was supposed to stand up for me."

The man bent down in surrender. "Isn't that what I'm doing?"

One-on-one, both leads inexperienced, happy ending, age gap

No blood relation, not on the same household register. Anything beyond the usual boundaries happens only after they are adults.

A slightly slow-burn, sweet romance at first, then lots of angst and tension in the middle and later parts, ahem.

==

Coming next: Stealing the Little Fish

Stealing someone else's partner | Scheming man takes the lead | Fake siblings reunite after years apart and pretend not to know each other

In a small northern town in winter, Cheng Yu saw the message only after taking a shower: [I haven't left].

It had been sent 50 minutes earlier, while she was enjoying the unexpected surprise of her boyfriend showing up.

She passed her half-asleep boyfriend by the bed, closed the bedroom door, and lowered her voice as she asked the man outside, "You heard everything?"

Cheng Xingnan's gaze settled on the red mark on her collarbone. The intimate panting and whispers that had just faded from his ears came rushing back to life.

He thought of the tingling ache from probing with his tongue at a baby tooth that was about to fall out, and the blood that came after he pushed too hard.

People rely on their adult teeth for the rest of their lives. Hard and full-crowned, they force their way through and displace the stubborn teeth already there.

==

Cheng Yu had always thought the fish at home were ones Cheng Xingnan had picked up at random from the bird, flower, fish, and insect market. She didn't know the truth until only one remained in the tank, its whole body patterned with sapphire-blue stripes.

She clicked her tongue. "This fish really doesn't get along with others."

Cheng Xingnan merely smiled. How could a cichlid from Lake Malawi tolerate other species invading its territory?

If someone had stolen what was his, then even if he had to steal them back, he would.

Later, he discovered that this fish wasn't male.

Turns out he was the clownfish who got eaten down to the bones.

==

Cheng Yu graduated from college and settled into a stable career. Her boyfriend was her brother Cheng Xingnan's best friend, and life was peaceful and happy.

At her boyfriend's parents' dinner, she and Cheng Xingnan sat together, maintaining a fragile peace on the surface as brother and sister.

No one knew how much of a flaw lay hidden behind Cheng Yu's graceful, warm smile.

Beneath the flower-filled dining table, Cheng Xingnan pinned her hand down and asked her, absurdly, "Do you still like me, Cheng Yu?"

Cheng Yu felt as if a blade were at her throat, yet she still couldn't bring herself to say what she had asked him years ago: whether he liked her.

He had laughed haughtily and said, "Is your brother really that stupid?"

Later, behind the door at dusk.

It was someone else who brought an unexpected surprise.

Cheng Xingnan went down on one knee and did everything he could to please her, but couldn't earn a single smile from Cheng Yu.

All he could do was call her pet name again and again, trying to force his way back into her coral reef.

"I was stupid. Punish me however you want."

A few notes:

The leads are not related by blood. The heroine has no prior experience, and the hero is completely inexperienced.

The careers are intended to be realistic. Polite corrections are welcome.

Theme: A sincere hand draws only the beloved