The Night Rose and the Sweetheart

Main blurb (I may still revise this later. I changed the county town in the story to a small northern town built around heavy industry. The author is from the north and loves the south, but having grown up in the north, writing about the south is really difficult): In this small county town, the air was forever heavy with dampness that would never fade, as if it had rained for more than a decade, soaking into Jiang Qingci’s bones and dampening every secret from that summer. Jiang Qingci was the most dazzling rose in the county’s nightclub. She wore a qipao slit up to her thigh, swaying beneath the dim lights. She was always smiling, her eyes curved, charming and tender as she worked her way around the drinking tables. She was like a wild rose, like a rose, like a crabapple blossom. One rainy night, she took Zhou Xiangnian home, drenched from head to toe. Zhou Xiangnian was eighteen, fair and sweet-looking, like a kitten someone had abandoned. Looking at her, Jiang Qingci seemed to see the version of herself from before she had been ruined. “From now on, your big sister will take care of you.” For the first time, someone treated Zhou Xiangnian like something precious. Her big sister’s rented apartment was tiny, with peeling walls and paper-thin insulation. The neighbors’ arguments and the motorcycles rumbling downstairs blended together, but to Zhou Xiangnian, they became the most soothing lullaby she would ever know. Jiang Qingci really did take good care of her. She paid for her schooling, bought her clean dresses, and even gave up her nighttime work so Zhou Xiangnian could focus on the college entrance exams, taking a daytime job washing dishes at a restaurant instead. Jiang Qingci would stroke her head, her voice gentle as water. “Niannian, study hard and get into a university in a big city.” Zhou Xiangnian nodded obediently. She didn’t want to leave. She wanted Jiang Qingci. Her feelings for her big sister, together with the plum rains, left Zhou Xiangnian’s heart soaked through. The night the college entrance exams ended, rain poured down in torrents. The air in the cramped apartment was stifling, almost impossible to breathe. Jiang Qingci wept and pushed her away, saying she was dirty, saying she would ruin Zhou Xiangnian’s future. Zhou Xiangnian caught her by the wrist, pinning her against the mottled wall as she kissed her big sister. “I’m not afraid of dirty. I’m only afraid of being without you.” That night, they tangled together in the mud and bloomed in the midst of despair. It was the happiest and most bittersweet summer of Zhou Xiangnian’s life. But in the end, even a love this scandalous could not escape society’s judgment. Someone took a photo and printed it in a corner of the county newspaper. The image was censored, but the pointing fingers and disapproving stares still stabbed into Jiang Qingci’s heart like knives. Jiang Qingci panicked. She was afraid of ruining the university acceptance letter Zhou Xiangnian had just received. She pretended not to care, pretending their passion had been nothing more than a moment of foolishness. She coaxed Zhou Xiangnian into leaving for Chengdu to enroll, smiling as she said, “Your big sister’s getting old. I’m not good enough for a college student.” Over winter break in her freshman year, Zhou Xiangnian returned to the county town full of anticipation, hoping to surprise Jiang Qingci. But the apartment was empty. Not just the apartment: Jiang Qingci herself was gone. Her phone number was no longer in service, she had blocked Zhou Xiangnian on WeChat, and even her coworkers at the nightclub said they had no idea where she had gone. Jiang Qingci had vanished into thin air like a drop of water, leaving not the slightest trace behind. That year, Zhou Xiangnian stood in the empty room and cried until she vomited. Jiang Qingci had lied to her for so long, grinding herself to dust. Ten years. A full ten years. The once-obedient Zhou Xiangnian was now the lead singer of Chengdu underground band Flower. Her gaze was cold, but her singing brimmed with emotion. Countless fans were obsessed with her air of heartbreak, yet no one knew that the hole in her heart had remained unfilled for ten years. This leg of the tour was in Guangzhou. On the morning after the show, Zhou Xiangnian inexplicably wandered into an alley in an old residential neighborhood. There was a flower shop in the alley, its courtyard bursting with flowers in the sunlight, wild and breathtakingly beautiful. Zhou Xiangnian stopped in her tracks. Amid the profusion of flowers stood a woman. She wore a cotton-linen dress, her hair casually pinned up as she bent to prune a rose. Time had stripped away the worldliness and allure of her youth, leaving her with a quiet, gentle grace. It was Jiang Qingci. Jiang Qingci, who had disappeared for ten years, the woman Zhou Xiangnian had searched for all this time. Jiang Qingci seemed to sense her gaze and looked up. Their eyes met. Sunlight filtered through the leaves, dappling their faces. Looking at the girl who had grown into a woman, Jiang Qingci’s eyes instantly reddened. Her lips trembled, and she instinctively tried to hide, but Zhou Xiangnian pulled her into her arms. The little girl who used to cuddle in her arms leaned close to her ear. “Big sister...” “I’ve found you.” Reading guide: Small-town story, bittersweet, both heroines are each other’s only love, happy ending. There is an age gap, a childhood-to-adulthood romance, and a reunion after a breakup. Here’s another upcoming story. Add it to your collection if you’re interested. “My Gorgeous Stepmom Wants to Borrow My Womb to Carry Her Baby” Shi Yin was the illegitimate daughter of the Shi family and was never favored by her relatives. It was only after she presented as an Alpha that her wealthy birth mother, whom she had never met, acknowledged her as family. On the first day after returning to the country, Shi Yin was dragged by her family to a nightclub to put in an appearance. The private room was dim, the air reeking of alcohol. Shi Yin sat in a corner as an overwhelmingly sweet rose scent slipped into her nostrils. Stumbling, she was lured into a lounge, where a beautiful woman went limp in her arms. Her eyes were rimmed red as she looped her arms around Shi Yin’s neck, her voice so seductive it seemed to drip with honey. “Easy, little girl... If you hurt me, big sister won’t forgive you.” In a daze, Shi Yin bit her gland. Once she came to her senses, she panicked and fled home on an overnight standing-room train ticket. A week later, one phone call from her mother sent Shi Yin rushing back to the country. The reason was simple: her mother was getting remarried and wanted Shi Yin to attend the wedding, as well as meet her beautiful young stepmother. The wedding hall glittered with champagne towers. Shi Yin wore a white dress and stood expressionlessly in a corner, blending into the background. Then the bride, the center of everyone’s attention, walked onto the stage with her mother’s arm linked through hers. Shi Yin looked up and met a pair of foxlike eyes, smiling but unreadable. Cen Yan. The top-tier Omega Shi Yin had accidentally marked at the nightclub, only to disappear without a trace afterward. And now, by marriage, her... stepmother. Cen Yan wore a pristine white wedding dress, as pure as a lily, but her gaze at Shi Yin was moist with a resentment and defiance only Shi Yin could understand. She mouthed silently: “Long time no see, little girl.” Shi Yin: “...” After the wedding, Shi Yin tried to get by playing dumb, following the principle, “If I’m not embarrassed, then everyone else is.” But Cen Yan clearly had no intention of letting her off the hook. In public, this stepmother was dignified and virtuous. In private, she never stopped seducing Shi Yin. Shi Yin’s mother felt no desire for Cen Yan and had married her for convenience alone. Cen Yan wanted a child to inherit the family fortune, a blood tie of her own, so she set her sights on Shi Yin. Shi Yin’s mother was downstairs entertaining guests, and the study door was locked. Wearing a silk slip dress, Cen Yan padded barefoot across the carpet with a medical report in her hand. She leaned close to Shi Yin, her voice plaintive. “Yinyin, the doctor says my reproductive tract is in great condition and very suitable for getting pregnant.” “Your mother doesn’t want to touch me. You’re an Alpha. Won’t you help your mother?” At a family dinner, everyone sat around the table. Shi Yin’s mother sat at the head, sternly asking Shi Yin about her company’s business. Shi Yin sat up straight and answered obediently. Beneath the tablecloth, a foot in a high heel slowly slid up her calf, stopping at the inside of her knee and tracing small circles. Cen Yan sat across from her, sipping her soup elegantly, her gaze innocent and pure. While Shi Yin’s mother turned to reach for the wine, Cen Yan silently mouthed: “Call me Mom.” Shi Yin was taking a shower when the bathroom door suddenly swung open. Cen Yan walked in wrapped in a bath towel, her skin glowing white through the steam. “Yinyin, help Mom scrub her back.” Later, the bathroom, the floor-to-ceiling windows, and the marital bed Cen Yan shared with Shi Yin’s mother all bore the marks of what Cen Yan and Shi Yin had demanded of each other. Everyone assumed that a beauty like Cen Yan would sooner or later arrange a marriage for Shi Yin to secure herself a powerful backer. After all, Shi Yin was only an illegitimate daughter who had never been loved by her family. But no one knew that this seemingly helpless stepmother had already devoured her daughter, bones and all. She didn’t need a fiancée. All she needed was the “daughter” she had personally trained, and their baby. Later, when their affair was exposed, the family would not accept Cen Yan and Shi Yin. To protect Cen Yan, Shi Yin staged a car accident and faked her own death, slipping away from the predatory wealthy family. She thought that was the end. Until a few months later, when she was living in seclusion in a seaside town in the Southern Hemisphere. A storm was raging when someone knocked on the door. Shi Yin opened it to find Cen Yan, drenched and disheveled. Those foxlike eyes fixed on her as rain ran down her pale cheeks, bringing back the sight of her at the nightclub. Cen Yan pressed an ultrasound report against Shi Yin’s chest and parted her red lips. “Shi Yin, what are you running from?” “You did this to Mom...” “Mom is pregnant. It’s yours, so you have to take responsibility for Mom.” Reading guide: Both leads are each other’s only partners, one-on-one, happy ending. Female Alpha, no extra appendages. Message: Promote love and justice.