A Stranger's Wish List

After repeated failures to secure a recommendation for graduate school and find a job through autumn recruitment, Jiang Zengchun, a fourth-year university student on the verge of graduation, slinks home for winter break to lie flat.

Jiang before the holiday, exhausted from exams and internships: I'm so tired. Once the break starts, I'm going to let myself go!

Jiang after lying around at home for a week and completely messing up her sleep schedule: I'm being way too lazy. I have to get my act together!

But she doesn't want to study, and she doesn't want to work either. Bored out of her mind, Jiang Zengchun suddenly gets an idea and posts online.

[Hello, stranger. Give me a task to complete over winter break.]

Maybe listening to other people's suggestions and experiencing a different kind of life will help her make a fresh start in the new year?

Then the first comment says: Send me 50 yuan.

Jiang Zengchun: ...

At the ripe old age of twenty-eight, overworked wage slave Wu Wenzhong collapses on his commute and is rewarded with a three-month hospital stay.

Just as he is feeling down, a post catches his eye.

Give someone a task? Which rich young master or miss has time and money to come experience life?

Thinking that, he jokingly types a line:

[Could you send me a bouquet of flowers?]

The flowers on his desk only lasted a week before they took on the dreary air of office life. They withered before he had a chance to look at them for long.

He feels sorry for them, not knowing whether it is the flowers or himself that has withered.

But he never expected that he only wanted a bouquet, yet ended up receiving an entire spring.

[A Stranger's Wish List]

1. Send him a bouquet of flowers

2. Make a friend

Lastly, Jiang Zengchun, would you be willing to date me?

Wu Wenzhong often wonders afterward why he let himself get carried away and played along with Jiang Zengchun.

Maybe it was because he saw in her a soul just like his own when he was young, brave yet lost.

And he couldn't bear to watch her take the wrong path.

This was his wish list, but it was hers too.

Some regrets will be fulfilled for you by someone else.

[Author's Notes]

1. Meeting is fate. Hope you enjoy reading~

2. Reader comments are open. Just bookmark this story.

A little preview of an upcoming story. Feel free to bookmark if you like it~

I am the ruthless and merciless King of the Stray Cats. Whenever the other stray cats catch a mouse, they have to offer it to me first before they can feast.

Accepting bribes from humans, letting sweet words wear down my will, and giving up my freedom to become a house cat are the greatest disgrace for any stray cat.

Then I got a mom and became a house cat.

Pah, pah! It's just that Mom's food is a little tastier, her smile a little prettier, and her home a little warmer!!!

I'm still the mighty King of the Stray Cats!

But Mom abandoned me.

A cat dies alone. No matter how pitifully it cries or how many tears it sheds, it can't get Mom's usual hugs and kisses.

Mom, don't you want me anymore?

Hmph, wicked humans. If I had another chance, I would never accept your bribes again, never believe your sweet words again, never sleep in your bed or eat your cat food again, never...

...make you look so sad. Then I'd do everything I could to return to your side.

*

Tuan Qianluan's cat is sick.

At first, it only loses its appetite. Later, it becomes dehydrated and starts vomiting, and sometimes it even becomes disoriented and can't walk.

Her life has been ordinary, lived by the rules. Adopting a cat was the biggest decision she ever made.

But when she receives the diagnosis, [Feline leukemia, late stage. Tumor confirmed.], every last hope is shattered.

She sits alone all night, then chooses euthanasia.

I'm sorry. I'm not a good mom. You used to roam wherever you pleased, but now you're curled up on the hospital bed you hate most, emaciated and suffering.

Unable to face the reproach in the kitten's eyes, she flees the veterinary hospital in shame.

After the kitten dies, on one of her countless visits to the park where they first met, a group of thugs follows her.

At the critical moment, a cool young man drops out of nowhere. Agile as a cat, he leads her to safety.

Seeing an expression like Mimi's, an absurd guess takes shape in her mind. Tuan Qianluan murmurs, "Is that you?"

He only turns back and gently raises a hand to shield her from the rain.

Just like the kitten.

*

I was once a night-roaming hero, wandering the streets of the martial world. One day, I saw a lonely human, and from then on I decided to retire so she would never be lonely again.

So, Tuan Qianluan, do you still want me?

Theme: No matter what, always hold on to hope for life