“What’s wrong, A-Zhen? You can accept my brother, but you can’t accept me?” In the dim light, the woman’s too-long dress clings to my calves.

The scent of her perfume is like claws crawling onto me little by little. Her body temperature seeps into my skin through the fabric of my clothes.

All of this is very suggestive, and I feel terrible.

One of my closest relatives has suddenly gone crazy.

The little sister I have known since childhood, my husband’s biological sibling whom I watched grow up, said this to me.

It’s like my husband is not the only one who has been replaced. I also no longer recognize Mingyi.

I suddenly grab the hands touching my waist and ask her with a cold expression: “Wen Mingyi, do you know what you’re saying?! Do you still know what shame is?!”

“Mingcheng is your big brother. Although I am a man, I’m also your older brother’s wife. Where have you put your ethics when you say this to me?” My chest feels tight and I take a breath, feeling sad and angry at the same time. If she ever had a falling out with Mingcheng for this reason, I will be very disappointed with her. In my anger, I start to speak without courtesy. “Mingyi, do you still have respect for us in your heart? Do you still have respect for yourself?”

“How am I disrespecting you by pursuing what I love? How am I not respecting myself? You are indeed my sister-in-law, but Sister-in-law, you are wrong about one thing. The disrespectful one among us three is Wen Mingcheng, not me.” She chuckles. It’s as if she doesn’t care about anything anymore, and has endured too long to bear it any longer. I don’t understand her, but I see the joy of revenge in her eyes.

“The Wei family is said to have passed its calligraphy and painting down for over four hundred years. It’s a pity that Professor Wei died suddenly overnight, and his eldest son was stabbed, severing the tendons in his right hand. The youngest son escaped disaster because he didn’t follow the family traditions, and in this way, his works became masterpieces. How many of them burned back then?”

My face slowly darkens as ancient memories are brought up.

Wen Mingyi looks at my face and smiles for a moment. “Auntie was nearly fifty at the time, but she suddenly became an object of pursuit for upper-class men. There is so much irony in this world, ah. Those so-called calligraphy enthusiasts alone were enough to cause you trouble, not to mention the threats to your life. At that time, my brother and I rushed back from Norway to take you to a foreign country for a while, but you really gave us a surprise, ah…..”

“The young master of the Wei family burned all of his father’s works in front of everyone, announcing that the Wei family would never exist again. You stood in front of your mother and blocked all eyes from her. You don’t know how many people were fascinated by that gesture, right? You don’t know how crazily my brother looked at you at that time.”

After saying this, she sweeps a ceramic handicraft placed on a cabinet to the ground. Fragments fly, and her tone is one of resentment and fury: “He obviously knew that I liked you. He obviously knew that our parents had wanted us to get married since we were young. We should have married, had children, and lived a peaceful life. But he insisted on robbing me, and on the first day he achieved his goal, he declared his sovereignty to me in the most vicious way. I will never forgive him.”

I frown, disagreeing with her words. “I never knew our elders wanted us to marry. And you’re mistaken, I was the one who liked Mingcheng first…..”

“Like hell it was you! You were played in circles by him, what do you know!” Her expression sinks as she rudely interrupts me, but then she suddenly laughs as if remembering something. “A-Zhen, ah, do you want to know why I hate him? Because the day you and my brother got engaged…..”

She abruptly leans toward my ear and says slowly and hoarsely: “When you were doing it in his room…..my brother made me listen outside the door for half of it.”

“I hated him to death. I wanted to kill him. But I thought it would be better if I was him.”

It’s like I’ve been struck by five lightning bolts. In an instant, the world is spinning before my eyes and there is a sharp ringing sound in my ears.

“Impossible!” I shove her away violently.

She staggers back two steps and bumps into the low cabinet beside her. The glass vase atop it crashes to the ground.

And after I take two quick steps toward the door, I suddenly begin to retch while holding onto it.

My eyes are hot and stinging due to the discomfort, and moisture blurs my vision.

“A-Zhen, you don’t feel very good. I don’t either. I didn’t want you to know, but you’re always thinking about him. You’ve practically tortured yourself crazy…..” She comes closer to me. It seems like she wants to comfort me, but I’m very resistant to contact with her and push her away again mercilessly. 

She makes no move to resist, and bumps into the cabinet behind her again. And I straighten up, give her a cold, severe look, and say the most outrageous thing I have said to her in so many years: “Don’t come near me.”

“It is me who liked Mingcheng first. I don’t believe in such a vulgar plot about brothers and sisters fighting over a person, and as for that disgusting matter, I’m more willing to believe Mingcheng than you.”

I turn around and push open the door, but she hugs me tightly from behind again.

“Don’t go! Why don’t you believe me?” She seems to be crying, and I hear her sob out: “I know what you’re afraid of, but A-Zhen, this is all true…..”

Her strength is actually no less than that of a man. If she wasn’t a woman, I may be tempted to fight her.

Warm drops of liquid fall on my shoulder, and I feel the fabric grow wet.

“It wasn’t you who liked him first. It’s you who were too naive and easy to deceive back then. Do you remember why you fell in love with him? A-Zhen, think about it……”

Why did I fall in love with Mingcheng?

I remember that the first person I liked was him. Do I need a reason to like someone?

Perhaps I do…..

Actually, I did have a better relationship with Mingyi when I was a kid. She was completely different from how she is now. She wore her hair in a small bun every day and was very well-behaved and cute, prone to blushing. I like people who blush easily, so I preferred her to the mature and steady Mingcheng.

I was still in good health when I was little, so I took her to catch grasshoppers and sparrows in the Wen family’s back gardens. I secretly picked Uncle Wen’s Turkish roses, encouraged Mingyi to take out her mother’s white porcelain tea set to play house, and led her to do all kinds of bad things.

Both families were amazingly indulgent. We were best friends.

And every time Mingyi and I played together, Mingcheng just watched us from afar. He was only one year older than me, but he looked like an adult in temperament. He looked at me with genial eyes, but there was a maturity in them that didn’t match his age. I was a little afraid of him, so I deliberately said that he was stiff and boring, and I didn’t want to take him with me no matter what.

But one time I wanted to steal my dad’s Ming Dynasty inkstone for Mingyi to use as a cutting board while playing house. The stool I was standing on shook, and at that moment, I knocked over the shelf and broke my dad’s favorite double phoenix white jade plate.

I was petrified when it broke.

Unfortunately, the parents of the two families had gathered together to talk about something that day, so the loud noise in the study attracted them all.

My dad had always been a strict father. When he walked to the door of the study with a sullen expression, I almost cried in front of all those people.

But at that moment, someone suddenly walked slowly in front of me to shield me.

It was Wen Mingcheng.

I didn’t know where he was before, but he seemed to descend from the sky to stand in front of me.

He was still a youngster at that time, his voice as smooth as pearls colliding as he apologized politely: “I’m very sorry, Uncle, I accidently broke your things. Please punish me.”

I looked at him blankly after being protected by him.

The adults did not punish Mingcheng. Only his mother gave him a strange look.

And that was also the first time I noticed the Wen family brother.

After that, Mingcheng entered our circle.

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Chapter 17 << Table of Contents >> Chapter 19