Moon Dog

Rental-Apartment Fiction

Blunt little sunshine girl VS gloomy, obsessive ghost of a guy

1.

When Shen Zhixing was eleven, his widowed father found a new girlfriend.

A strange woman walked up to him, pulling a suitcase with one hand and leading a timid little girl with the other.

His father smiled and told him, "Her name is Shen Wei. From now on, she's your little sister."

His sister was four years younger than him. Her hands were soft, her cheeks rosy, and she followed him around like a little shadow every day.

Shen Zhixing didn't mind it.

Four years later, their father and the woman died in a car accident. Shen Zhixing looked at Shen Wei, who was hugging a teddy bear and staring blankly, then silently pulled her into his arms.

The chilly rain fell on his shoulders as he vowed to himself that from then on, he would be the one she could rely on.

He taught Shen Wei to read and write, washed her clothes and cooked for her, and used his slight frame to hold together their crumbling home.

2.

Shen Wei couldn't say when her feelings for Shen Zhixing had changed, but by the time she realized it, her mind was already filled with thoughts of him.

When she drank water, she thought of Shen Zhixing's bobbing Adam's apple. When she wrote, she remembered the smooth lines of muscle bulging along his arms. When she ran, she imagined the faint scent of soap lingering on the hem of his fluttering clothes.

Her entire adolescence was bound up with Shen Zhixing.

But Shen Zhixing said they were siblings, and that it wasn't right.

Why not?

They weren't related by blood.

If she fell in love with her brother, of course it was his fault.

No matter what it took, she would make Shen Zhixing hers. Even if she had to bind him to her with the chains of family and keep him by her side for the rest of their lives, she would make sure Shen Zhixing belonged to her completely, inside and out.

3.

No matter how hard Shen Wei tried or how many schemes she came up with, Shen Zhixing remained unmoved. He watched her laugh and cry like an elder watching a child who couldn't get the candy she wanted.

Just then, her late mother's younger sister came to see her, saying she would take her in and cover her living expenses and tuition from then on.

Shen Wei thought her aunt was right. She couldn't keep being a burden to Shen Zhixing. He had his own life to live. They should go back to being siblings and set their relationship straight again.

But Shen Wei never expected that after boarding the bus to leave home, she would doze for two hours, open her eyes, and find herself back in that familiar rental apartment.

Waiting for her was Shen Zhixing, who had lost control for the first time.

With red eyes, he tied her to the headboard with a cloth cord, his expression obsessive and deranged. "You want to leave me? Shen Wei, don't even think about it."

Only later did she learn that in this abyss of taboo and desire, Shen Zhixing had been the first to fall.

P.S. The story begins when the girl is 18 and the guy is 22. They're both adults. Their parents, who were not married, died, and the two have no blood relation and were never registered as siblings.

Blurb captured on May 17, 2024

Theme: Love is a Band-Aid