A Bowl of Hot Soup

*he

The day her confession was rejected, Xia Wangxing thought she never wanted to see Chi Qiuyan again.

But on a rainy night two months later, he appeared in her tiny rented room.

"Xiaoxing, it's cold outside. Come in and have some soup." A faint smile curved his lips, and his tone was as casual as ever, as if that awkward confession between them had never happened.

"Why are you looking at me like that? No matter what, I'm still your older brother, aren't I?" Chi Qiuyan lowered his eyes to study her expression, then pulled her inside.

The door clicked shut. Xia Wangxing stared at his smiling face, pulled her hand free, and said calmly, "I've never thought of you as my brother. And there's no girl in the world who wants to sleep with her brother."

The man's eyes flickered. For the first time in his life, something had slipped beyond his control. He seemed helpless. "Xiaoxing, you're still young. A lot of things aren't the way you imagine them. We may not be related by blood, but we've always been like siblings. Wouldn't it be better to keep things the way they are?"

On the table sat the soup Chi Qiuyan had spent all afternoon making for her. Whenever it rained or snowed, or Xia Wangxing fell ill, he would make her a pot of delicious soup. After twenty years, it had long since become a habit.

Maybe today's soup had been too hot. The heat traveled all the way to her heart, rekindling the ashes there.

Otherwise, how could she have found the courage to kiss the person she'd secretly loved for six years?

"Chi Qiuyan, you're a coward. I'm not."

Xia Wangxing had always believed the adults when they said it was "just a joke."

Chi Qiuyan was hers alone, her fiance.

*Not related by blood, and not a fake-G setting. Childhood neighbors, betrothed since childhood.

Theme: Live bravely