Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
Shi Mengwan never knew that she would fall into such a situation one day.
She once fantasized that if one day she met her Dear Bother and she found him, what would she do?
Ever since she separated from her Dear Bother at the age of 13, she often thought about it. Sometimes, she even felt her heart ache when she thought about it. When she couldn’t find her Dear Bother, she only felt despondent and lost. But now that she had found him, she felt even worse.
She felt bad that her Dear Bother had forgotten her, and that he was treating her like this now.
But she hated herself even more since because of her previous desires, she put herself in such an awkward situation.
When her gaze fell on Zhan Haoze’s face, she realized that he had opened his eyes. Seeing that she was staring at him, he stretched out his hand and pulled her waist into his embrace.
Their bodies were once again pressed together. Shi Mengwan wasn’t used to this kind of intimacy.
“Don’t move.” Not allowing her to make a sound, Zhan Haoze’s hand was on her waist. “It looks like you don’t want to sleep. If that’s the case –”
His hand slowly moved down the back of her waist. Shi Mengwan was startled and quickly grabbed his hand. “Don’t act recklessly.”
Even she herself felt that these words sounded feeble. If he wanted to do anything rash, he would have done it a long time ago. Why would he care about that?
She lowered her head and what she saw was Zhan Haoze’s chest. She turned her face away uncomfortably.
“I’m sleepy. I want to sleep.”
She tried to turn her back to him, but he didn’t give her the chance.
He took her body back into his arms and lowered his head to look at the defiant expression in her eyes.
“Sleep like this.”
Shi Mengwan felt more and more uncomfortable. How could she sleep like this?
“If you don’t sleep, I’ll continue.” He placed his hand on her waist again.
After Zhan Haoze threatened her again, Shi Mengwan seemed to be frightened, and quickly closed her eyes.
Her eyes were tightly shut. Her long and thick eyelashes trembled slightly.
Zhan Haoze’s eyes darkened. The hand that wasn’t on Shi Mengwan’s waist trembled slightly. He lifted it, as if he wanted to touch her face, but he put it down again.
He closed his eyes and didn’t look at her again.
Shi Mengwan couldn’t fall asleep, and her mind was in turmoil. It was rare for her to be at a loss like this.
Zhan Haoze’s chest was burning hot, and the hand on his waist was firm and strong. She couldn’t break free, but she was afraid that he would really do it again.
She closed her eyes and tried hard not to look at Zhan Haoze. She thought that she wouldn’t be able to sleep, but she fell asleep again in a daze.
The dream came without warning, and Shi Mengwan saw her 12-year-old self again.
She had been with Qiao Ze for more than a month. During this month, she more or less became familiar with her surroundings.
Sometimes during the day, she would go out and take a look around. However, she wouldn’t walk too far and would come back.
She found an extremely old bookstore at the end of the alley. Hence, she had something to do.
Qiao Ze’s residence didn’t have a television or other electronic products. At that time, phones had already been invented.
However, it was impossible for someone like Qiao Ze and her to afford phones and communication products.
Shi Mengwan had nothing to do, so she would go to the bookstore to borrow books every day. There weren’t many books in the bookstore, but she liked to go there. At least she could kill time.
Qiao Ze, on the other hand, went out every day. He seemed to be very busy, especially after the injury on his hand healed. He would go out early and come back late every day.
Sometimes, he would come back for dinner, but after dinner, he would run out again.
She asked him what he was doing, but he told her not to care. After a long time, she didn’t ask anymore.
As if she was Qiao Ze’s sister, she cleaned his house, cooked, and washed his clothes every day.
However, after she stayed at Qiao Ze’s place for more than a month, in Lin City entered late autumn.
Lin City was located in the south, and the weather was extreme. In such a season, the temperature difference was very big. It was fine during the day, but she didn’t feel cold even if she only wore a long sleeve.
But at night, a blanket really couldn’t warm her up. She felt cold.
On the first day it turned cold, she could still endure it, but the next day, it started to rain.
She felt extremely cold. She curled up on the sofa and looked around Qiao Ze’s room with a conflicted expression.
She had stayed at Qiao Ze’s place for more than a month, so she naturally knew that the young man only had a blanket at home. There was nothing else.
She didn’t know where the young man got the money during this period of time, but he had enough money to eat and buy clothes for her. However, she wasn’t sure if her Dear Brother would agree to buy a blanket.
She felt so cold that she felt uncomfortable. She tossed and turned on the sofa for a long time, but she couldn’t fall asleep.
“What are you doing?”
Her movements were too loud. Even Qiao Ze, who was inside, was disturbed by her. He got up and came out. When he saw Shi Mengwan sleeping on the sofa, his face was filled with displeasure.
Shi Mengwan got up and wrapped herself tightly in the blanket. She looked at the youth timidly.
“I’m cold.”
She was too embarrassed to continue talking. She originally wanted to take care of Qiao Ze until his hand was better, then go home. She thought about her quarrel with her grandmother, and how things were at home. If she went back and her parents didn’t change their mind and still wanted to send her sister away, she would rather not go back.
But after staying for more than a month, although Qiao Ze sometimes looked intimifating, he was good to her.
Qiao Ze was good to her, so she was a little embarrassed.
He saved her from being bullied, so she stayed to repay him for saving her life.
But now, she had to let him take care of her, and she had to let him buy her a quilt.
A twelve-year-old girl was very thin-skinned. If it weren’t for the cold, she wouldn’t have said anything.
Qiao ze glanced at her and then at the sofa.
“You go to the bed to sleep.”
“What about you?”
Shi Mengwan bit her lip and looked at the sofa. He was much taller than her. How could he sleep on such a sofa?
Qiao Ze didn’t say anything and gestured for her to get up. He pulled the blanket over and laid down on the sofa.
When he really fell asleep, Shi Mengwan realized that Qiao Ze really couldn’t sleep.
He was already 1.7 meters tall. He couldn’t even put his feet down on the sofa, not to mention the fact that the small blanket couldn’t cover him.
“Dear Brother…”
“Go to sleep.” Qiao Ze closed his eyes, as if he was going to sleep just like that.
Shi Mengwan bit her lip. She didn’t enter the room. She looked at Qiao Ze and then looked at the bed.
In the end, her hands tightly clenched into fists.
“Dear Brother. Why don’t you sleep on the bed too?”
The weather was getting colder and colder. She couldn’t possibly let Qiao Ze sleep on the sofa outside. If he continued like this, he would definitely catch a cold.
Qiao Ze heard her and opened his eyes to look at her. “You want to sleep with me?”
“…”Shi Mengwan was a little embarrassed, but in the end, she nodded. “Dear Brother, I believe in you.”
Qiao Ze stared at her face and finally sat up.
Shi Mengwan went into the room, and Qiao Ze followed her in.
He directly laid down on the bed. Feeling a little awkward, Shi Mengwan stood there.
Qiao Ze pulled the blanket over her, then closed his eyes and went to sleep sleep. After waiting for a while, when he didn’t see Shi Mengwan come up to sleep, so he opened his eyes again.
He looked at Shi Mengwan and found that she was standing there without moving at all.
“You’re not sleepy?”
Yes, of course she was sleepy. But no matter how sleepy she was, she was still a girl.
It was just a moment of impulse just now. She was afraid that her Dear Brother wouldn’t sleep well and catch a cold, so she asked him to come to bed to sleep.
Now that she had calmed down, Shi Mengwan felt awkward.
“Go to sleep then.”
Qiao Ze worked outside every day, so he had a lot of exercise every day. He was sleepy now, so he wanted to sleep.
Before closing his eyes, he glanced at Shi Mengwan again.
“Don’t worry, I’m not interested with your curveless figure.”
Shi Mengwan was still a little girl. When had she ever heard such words? Her face was burning, blushing, and she was embarrassed.
But what Qiao Ze said was the truth.
She was only twelve years old this year and wasn’t well developed yet. She was just a little girl.
She went to bed and slept an arm away from Qiao Ze. She covered herself with the blanket. Covering herself with the blanket was completely different from covering herself with the quilt.
She finally felt that she wasn’t cold anymore, because she wasn’t cold anymore, her complexion was much better.
She thought that she wouldn’t be able to sleep with someone sleeping beside her, but she was really sleepy. Slowly, she actually fell asleep.
When Shi Mengwan woke up in the morning, she realized that she was sleeping with Qiao Ze.
The young man’s sleeping posture was quite casual. One of his feet was already outside the blanket, and the other was still under the blanket.
His slightly slender arm was resting on her shoulder.
Shi Mengwan looked at that hand, then looked at the young man’s sleeping face, and confirmed that the young man didn’t mean it.
Trying to avoid the young man’s hand, she stepped back uncomfortably, but the bed was only so big, so how could she avoid it?
She could only take the young man’s hand away, but the young man opened his eyes at that moment.
Her hand was still holding his hand, but when she met the young man’s dark and deep gaze, Shi Mengwan was shocked and quickly released her hand.
Qiao Ze’s hand dropped down again, and hit her shoulder.
She felt pain and her facial expression instantly changed.
“What are you doing?” The youth stood up. His duck-like male voice sounded a little hoarse and unpleasant.
“… nothing.” Shi Mengwan quickly stood up. “I, I’m just asking what you’re having for breakfast.”
“Whatever.” There was no need to ask such things. Shi Mengwan had always made her own decisions.
Shi Mengwan hadn’t lived with her parents ever since she started to understand things. Her cousins weren’t close to her because her parents had given birth to a girl.
This was the first time she slept on the same bed with a boy she had just met.
The boy only felt that she was strange. How could he know her girlish thoughts?
Shi Mengwan had been living with the young man for quite a few days before she realized that in a young man’s heart, there was no awareness of the difference between a man and a woman.
He still slept as he wanted every day. He still took good care of Shi Mengwan. but she slowly came to her senses. Perhaps in the young man’s heart at that time, he only treated her as a little bro or a little sister.
He was very busy. She didn’t even know why he was so busy.
What she was sure of was that the youth was definitely not studying. She knew that other families’ children should be in school at the age of fifteen. They were either in their freshman or sophomore year of high school.
However, the youth wasn’t in school. She had asked several times, but Qiao Ze had said no. She didn’t ask anymore.
Her relationship with the youth had always been like this. She treated the youth as her Dear Brother, and the youth treated her as a little sister.
If the youth hadn’t bought the wrong set of glutinous rice balls that day and treated the wine-fermented rice balls as glutinous rice balls, their relationship might have been that of a big brother and a little sister till the end, right?
Shi Mengwan woke up from her sleep and realized that she had actually slept until noon again.
She blinked her eyes with great effort before she realized where she was and what had happened.
She looked at the other side of the bed and found that it was empty. Zhan Haoze had left a long time ago. She sat up and the blanket slipped down.
There was no longer any cover for the marks on her body.
Shi Mengwan pursed her lips into a straight line. She bit her lips and thought of Zhan Haoze’s frivolity last night and her complete obedience.
Her heart suddenly felt like it had been stabbed by a thorn.
She curled up her body and pulled up the blanket to cover herself. Her eyes looked at an unknown point, and her mood gradually became gloomy.
… ..
Today was Su Qingsang’s birthday. Su Qingsang’s birthday was also very interesting. It was the day after Christmas.
In the past, Su Qingsang and Shi Mengwan celebrated together. The two sisters would have dinner together on Su Qingsang’s birthday. Then, they would celebrate her birthday together.
Su Qingsang was an illegitimate daughter. In the past, no one in the Su family would remember her birthday, and no one would specifically celebrate her birthday.
Every year, she would ask Su Qingsang to come to her apartment and cook a bowl of longevity noodles for her.
This year, however, things were different. Su Qingsang was married. Shi Mengwan believed that Huo Jinyao would definitely be prepared.
On Christmas, Shi Mengwan spent the day with the employees of the studio. It was the end of the year. Although there were many things to do, she wasn’t an unreasonable boss.
She invited the staff to have a meal together and accompanied them to karaoke, which was a rare occasion. After busying for the entire night, she remembered that she had two appointments with clients today.
Shi Mengwan had already ordered the cake, but that client was particularly difficult to deal with.
After Shi Mengwan sent the client away, she went to get the cake and rushed to Su Qingsang’s birthday party. Only then did she realize that something wasn’t right.
Su Qingsang acknowledged her mother, and Xiang Caiping also came. But this time, for her birthday, not only Xiang Caiping, but Su Chenghui also came.
Shi Mengwan looked at Su Qingsang and then at Su Chenghui. The calmest person here was Huo Jinyao, as if nothing was wrong.
Shi Mengwan looked at him for a few minutes before she came back to her senses. Xiang Caiping didn’t like Su Chenghui, and Su Chenghui probably felt guilty towards Xiang Caiping.
She looked at Su Chenghui and felt that something was wrong.
It had to be said that a woman’s intuition was quite accurate.
In Shi Mengwan’s heart, Su Chenghui was the representative of a scumbag. He had a wife, but he also had an old lover. Not only did he have an old lover, but he also had an illegitimate daughter?
He had ignored this illegitimate daughter for so many years. After his old lover returned, did he start to care about this illegitimate daughter again?
No matter how she looked at it, it was weird. She felt that something was wrong, but she couldn’t explain what.
Seeing that Xiang Caiping was unhappy, she used her usual talent and joked around in front of her. Finally, Xiang Caiping’s face lit up with a smile.
After the party ended, Shi Mengwan was a little worried about Su Qingsang, but seeing how protective Huo Jinyao was, her heart relaxed again.
A slight sense of envy welled up in her heart.
No matter how miserable Su Qingsang’s past twenty years had been, at least she was happy now. After all, Huo Jinyao was really good to her.
After Shi Mengwan said goodbye to Su Qingsang, she was in no hurry to go home.
It had been more than a week since the last time Zhan Haoze appeared and left.
These days, she couldn’t help but think of Zhan Haoze. Occasionally, she would ask herself, why can’t she let him go?
She kept trying to convince herself to forget about Zhan Haoze, the man who would come and go as he pleased, but she found that she couldn’t do it.
She stopped the car in front of the riverbank, got out of the car, and walked along the riverbank.
It was winter in Lin City, and the weather was very cold. There weren’t many people on the riverbank. Shi Mengwan tightened her jacket, then walked to a bench and sat down.
Lin City had developed quite well in the past few years. There were tall buildings on the other side of the riverbank, and all kinds of advertisements were playing on the LED walls outside the buildings.
New Year’s was coming, and the advertisements were all in festive red. However, Shi Mengwan couldn’t feel the New Year’s atmosphere at all.
She took out her phone and took a picture of the scenery across the river bank. She wanted to post it on her Wechat moments, but in the end, she deleted it.
That was the way of the world. Happy things could be shared, but people didn’t know who to share loneliness with.
She put her phone away. The cold wind made her feel a little cold, so she planned to go home. At this moment, another person sat down on the bench.
Shi Mengwan froze for a moment. She turned around and the light from the riverbank shone on the person’s face. She looked at Zhan Haoze and froze for a moment.
She was looking at him and he was looking at her.
She couldn’t help but look behind her. There was no one else but him. She didn’t know when he arrived and how long he had been here?
“Zhan –”
Before she could finish her sentence, Zhan Haoze reached out and hugged her tightly.
Shi Mengwan’s body froze. She didn’t know what to say. There seemed to be something wrong with Zhan Haoze today.
He held her tightly in his arms. Shi Mengwan should feel cold when the night wind blew. However, she couldn’t feel the cold now that she was in his arms.
For a moment, time seemed to stop. She didn’t move, and he didn’t move either.
Until she seemed to hear someone approaching and walking towards her.
She tried to pull away from Zhan Haoze’s arms, but he held her very tightly. She was helpless, and when someone approached, she buried her face into his chest.
Inexplicably, she didn’t want anyone to see her with Zhan Haoze.
The footsteps were approaching, and the person might have just passed by this place in the night, then quickly left.
She could hear the footsteps approaching, but it seemed to have stopped for a moment.
She didn’t know that the two girls who passed by were shocked by Zhan Haoze, even though they couldn’t see his face clearly.
One of the two girls even tried to secretly take out her phone to take a photo of Zhan Haoze, but was intimidated by Zhan Haoze’s gloomy gaze.
As they left, Zhan Haoze’s hand loosened a little. Shi Mengwan raised her head from his embrace and met his deep eyes.
There were many emotions in those eyes, and Shi Mengwan couldn’t see clearly for a moment. She wanted to see clearly, but she found that Zhan Haoze’s gaze made her sink into it.
Their eyes met, and her eyes were filled with his figure. Zhan Haoze narrowed his eyes slightly. He suddenly approached her and pressed a hand on the back of her head, then kissed her lips forcefully.
His lips were cold, so was hers. In this weather, the temperature of their bodies wouldn’t be too high.
But after their slightly cold lips touched, she began to feel hot. She blinked her eyes. In front of her, Zhan Haoze’s face made her a little intoxicated.
She couldn’t help but reach out to hold his face, as if she wanted to see his face more clearly.
A pair of hands appeared before her eyes. Zhan Haoze covered her eyes, and he deepened the kiss.
His embrace slowly warmed her. Shi Mengwan, who had felt lonely before, had planned to not think about anything for a moment. Just like that, she was hugged by him and kissed by him.
She couldn’t see his face. In the darkness, her sense were especially clear.
His kiss was especially domineering. All her feelings were concentrated in that spot.
She even reflexively gave him a response, and that response made his kiss even deeper.
Shi Mengwan froze for a moment. She realized what she had done and pulled Zhan Haoze’s hand away, but at that moment, he let go of her and hugged her tightly instead.
Her face was on his shoulder and his expression couldn’t be seen. Her hand hung by her side. For a moment, she wanted to hug him back, but she forced herself to put her hand down.
He suddenly stood up and before she could react, he led her out of the riverbank.
Shi Mengwan could only follow his footsteps and arrive at the place where she parked her car.
Only now did she realize that Zhan Haoze might have followed her just now.
Without getting into the car, Shi Mengwan bit her lip and looking at him, she stood in front of the car. ” Zhan Haoze, what exactly do you want?”
She didn’t call him Mr. Zhan anymore. It was really too pretentious to call him that at this moment.
Zhan Haoze stood in front of the car and didn’t say anything. Shi Mengwan took a deep breath and told herself not to be angry, not to be angry.
“Zhan Haoze, can you tell me what you want?”
She didn’t want to be like this anymore. “It’s not the first time anymore. You come and go as you want. You even have s*x with me whenever you want.”
Her words were a little vulgar, but it was the truest thought in her heart at this moment.
“I’m not a prostitute. Zhan Haoze.”
She was a woman, an ordinary and average woman.
She yearned for love, but the prerequisite was that the person who gave her love was her Dear Brother.
She was a stubborn person. Since she had already decided on her Dear Brother, she wouldn’t change her mind.
“I, if you aren’t my Dear Brother, please stay away from me, okay?”
She couldn’t play his game, and she couldn’t be like him, disappearing after having s*x with her. He didn’t even leave a word.
But he could still pretend as if nothing was wrong while taking advantage of her when he appeared again.
“Zhan Haoze. Please stay away from me.” Her tone was very serious and earnest.
She had long realized that in front of Zhan Haoze, she was always weak.
She didn’t like this kind of weakness, and she wanted to change this.
“Goodbye.”
After saying these two words, she took out the car keys from her coat.
When she was about to get into the car, Zhan Haoze took her car keys and went to the driver’s seat.
“Zhan Haoze, you…”
What did he mean?
“Get in the car.”
Zhan Haoze’s voice was faint. Shi Mengwan gritted her teeth and stood at the door without moving.
“Get out of the car.”
“Get in the car.”
Inside and outside the car, the atmosphere was tense.
