Abandoned for the Second Time

Qi Yang was abandoned by her birth parents at the entrance to an orphanage when she was six. Chi Wei took her in, raised her for a few months, then sent her back to the orphanage.

They met again on a chaotic street outside a bar. Qi Yang hooked a finger in the collar of her faded old school uniform jacket and gazed through the haze of alcohol at those dazed eyes.

The woman looped an arm around her neck, her breath burning hot. "Are you legal?"

That night, under the mottled lights, Qi Yang smeared the sticky mess on her hands across the woman's lips. Watching her unfocused eyes, she callously took her again and again.

So Chi Wei really did casually pick people up and take them home after drinking. So flippant, so careless.

The next morning, Qi Yang took the few bills left in her wallet, set them by the woman's bedside, put on her wrinkled shirt, and left.

Two months later, the woman showed up at her door, looking utterly exhausted. She handed Qi Yang a pregnancy test report and said, with cool dignity:

"I'm not asking you to raise the child."

"You irresponsible piece of trash."

Qi Yang lowered her head, then looked up in disbelief. "After all those times, couldn't you take some birth control?!"

Chi Wei had lived her whole life by the rules and had only ever done two reckless things.

One: When she was eighteen, she took home a pretty little girl, saying she'd raise her as a daughter. After her family pressured her again and again, she had no choice but to send the child back to the orphanage.

Two: At thirty-five, at a street corner by a bar, she met a beautiful, fresh-faced woman with eyes bright as a puppy's. She seduced her and took her home. The next day, she waited at the hotel for the whole morning. Once she finally accepted that she'd been abandoned, she pursed her lips and snapped the birth control pills her assistant had left by the bed.

A super-attractive, high-initiation but easily flustered mom, and a prickly, loyal, career-obsessed mom's biggest fan: a puppy of a woman.

One: The main appeal is a glimpse of vulnerability during pregnancy. An all-female world, with technology enabling women to have daughters. In this author's setting, there is no pain or lasting effects.

Two: A sweet romance. There is no groveling arc for the moms. They both love each other very much.

Theme: Treasure what you have.