The commotion at the school gate was like an unextinguished ember, carrying smoldering ashes all the way into the Lin family living room.
On the way home, the post-rain air was so sticky it made one nauseous. The asphalt road rose with waves of white smoke, refracting the streetlight into twisted, blurred rays. Yu'an walked extremely fast, the sound of his leather shoes on the puddles crisp and urgent, as if fleeing some invisible pursuit; Yu'han followed behind, always maintaining that "three-step" distance. It was their tacit understanding from childhood, never to be mistaken in crowds, but now this three-step gap felt like an abyss between blood ties and taboo.
Entering the house, Yu'xi was not there. In the living room, only the ticking of the old wall clock remained, precisely slicing through the solidified awkwardness.
"Lin Yu'an, stop right there."
Yu'han finally erupted. She slammed her schoolbag onto the dining table, the zipper's impact against the surface piercingly loud in the silence. Her voice carried a rare anger and tremor: "What madness were you throwing today? Don't you know the whole school was watching? You made that boy lose face, and made me... extremely embarrassed."
Yu'an stopped, his back to her. His thin uniform shirt was soaked with sweat and rain, clinging to his heaving shoulder blades.
"That's my freedom to make friends. You're only my younger brother, not my guardian!" Yu'han's tone held a trace of grievance. "You were never like this before. What exactly is wrong with you?"
Yu'an slowly turned around. Under the dim light, his high nose bridge cast a heavy shadow, obscuring half his expression. He looked at Yu'han, at that face so similar to his own, even the frequency of her brows furrowing in anger exactly the same.
"Younger brother?" He repeated the two words, as if to chew this blood tie to pieces between his teeth. "If I'm only a younger brother, then why did you show that suffocating expression when that person touched you?"
"I..." Yu'han faltered, her face alternating between red and white.
"I hate the way he looks at you." Yu'an took a large step forward, that aggressive pressure instantly sealing the air. He stared into her pupils, which reflected his own mad and disheveled figure. "That look that thinks a few letters and sweet words can take you away from me. That look that thinks you can be 'priced' and belong to anyone."
"An, you've crossed the line." Yu'han instinctively stepped back, her waist hitting the edge of the dining table hard.
"Where is the line?"
Yu'an suddenly raised his hand, slamming his palm onto the table behind Yu'han. He trapped her between his arms and the table, their breaths wildly intertwining in the less-than-five-centimeter space.
This was the closest they had been in seventeen years. Close enough to see the bloodshot eyes ignited by taboo, close enough to feel each other's hearts beating in identical, frenzied rhythm.
"We share the same blood, spent ten months together in the same womb. We look so alike, even our souls seem like carbon copies of each other." Yu'an's voice was extremely low, carrying a self-destructive despair. "If you think I'm meddling too much, then treat me like a stranger. Stop caring about me, and stop speaking to me in that pitying elder-sister tone. Because that only makes me..."
"Makes you what?" Yu'han asked in a trembling voice, her pupils contracting violently from fear and some unknown excitement.
"Makes me hate even more that we share the same blood."
Yu'an abruptly withdrew his hand as if burned, turned and rushed into his room, the "bang" of the door shaking the living room's glass windows.
The living room returned to dead silence. Yu'han collapsed into a chair, her fingers gripping her uniform skirt tightly, nails digging into her thighs. She looked at the large mirror on the wall, her reflection pale as a ghost.
She recalled Yu'an's gaze just now—there was not a trace of a younger brother's innocence, only a primal, predatory desire to devour her whole.
What horrified her more was that when Yu'an approached, what rose in her heart was not disgust. It was a tremor of her soul being forcibly awakened, resonating with some forbidden fire.
She raised her hand, gently covering the tabletop where Yu'an had braced himself moments ago. The lingering warmth there was like a brand, slowly seeping through her skin into her marrow.
#RuoFeng #EroticLiterature #TabooNovel