A Pilot Lives Across the Hall

[Two male leads + healing, sweet romance + contrasting professions + everyday cat-and-dog moments + happy ending]

I arrange funerals for pets. For three years, I told people only four words about what I did: "Something to do with pets."

Then a pilot moved into the apartment across from mine. The first time he knocked on my door, he wanted to ask me:

"My cat is twelve. What should I have checked at the vet?"

Later, when he flew long-haul routes, he left his cat with me. If I ruined a pot of congee in the middle of the night, I'd set aside a bowl for him too.

He never asked what I really did for a living. One day, he simply said:

"What you do is remarkable."

I thought he was just a neighbor.

Until my parents came over, and my mother looked at him and called out, "Xiao Shen?"

My parents had known him for two years, a year longer than I had.