[Seven-year age gap] [Not-actually-siblings] [Rekindled love] [Possessive love]
Elegant and obsessive × sweet and gentle girl
1.
When Yun Mo was ten, her family fell on hard times, and she was sent to live with the Zhou family.
The Zhou family wielded immense power and possessed endless wealth. Everything they did drew the attention of the upper class.
The young and powerful Zhou Jiming, a distinguished heir, easily became the talk of high society.
When they first met, Yun Mo thought Zhou Jiming was refined and distinguished, charming and cultivated. But in private, she often heard what others said about him: cold-hearted, ruthless, and cruel.
Who could have imagined that Zhou Jiming, the man feared by everyone outside,
would hold her hand in his late at night, clinging to her and making her repeat "I love you, big brother" again and again in a trembling, tearful voice?
2.
The Zhou family never publicly disclosed Yun Mo's exact status.
The more they kept it secret, the more people speculated.
At her lavish, high-profile coming-of-age party, amid the commotion, Yun Mo recognized a familiar voice.
She heard Zhou Jiming tell someone, "She's like a little sister to me."
After the party, in the empty study, Yun Mo's eyes glimmered with the flush of wine and the shy feelings of a young girl.
Zhou Jiming asked her why she was unhappy.
Tears gradually welled in Yun Mo's eyes. Not wanting Zhou Jiming to see her in such a state, she buried herself in his warm embrace and murmured, "Big brother... I don't want to call you only that."
Her tears burned, and Zhou Jiming's heart ached. For once, he lost his composure.
Facing a young girl's intense feelings for the first time, he hugged her back and held himself in check as he kissed the crown of her head.
3.
At eighteen, Yun Mo naively believed she could stay with her big brother forever.
Until Zhou Jiming left without a word.
Five years passed.
By then, Yun Mo had a fiance, and they were already discussing marriage.
On the eve of her engagement, the man she called her big brother locked her in a room.
Yun Mo tried to escape, but Zhou Jiming cornered her in a narrow space. Their palms fit together perfectly, just as they had on countless nights before.
A sign of their intimacy, so ill-timed.
Zhou Jiming met Yun Mo's frightened gaze and smiled with his usual gentle elegance. His tone left no room for argument. "Break up with him."
"I'm the only one who's right for you."
*
The day Yun Mo learned Zhou Jiming had left, rain came after a long drought, without warning. Her tears fell without stopping, just like the sudden rain.
Far away in a foreign country, Zhou Jiming sat in darkness, with only the computer on his desk casting a faint light.
As if being slowly cut apart, he played the same surveillance footage over and over.
Yun Mo's tears seemed to fall straight into his heart, filling it with a dense, bitter ache.
For a long time afterward, Zhou Jiming never imagined he would be able to close his eyes only by watching that video.
Thinking of her, thinking of her, still thinking of her.
Blurb written on 2025/1/19 and archived. Revised on 2026/5/12 and archived.
Theme: Love yourself well.
