Different Paths (GL), Slow Updates. I'm Not Confident I Can Do It Justice

This isn't a list of warnings, just my personal preferences.

I write about Chi Jin. She moves through unhealthy relationships as an observer, a participant, and perhaps even the one who sets them in motion, but she doesn't lose herself in them.

Some readers may not be comfortable with that.

Chapters 1-48 were written thirteen years apart, so the overall plot is a little meandering. I recommend skimming them.

From Chapter 49 onward, I worked hard to shift perspectives and focus on telling Shen Shu and Chi Jin's story properly.

Synopsis:

Later, Chi Jin gradually faded from public view, though rumors about her continued to abound. Some said she was a proud, solitary crane who never lowered herself to socialize, living in seclusion far from the crowds and media, letting her work speak for itself and prove her worth. Others said she was a pawn of the powerful. Rumor had it that talent wasn't the only reason she made her debut: she had given her body to the capitalists. Every step she took toward success afterward was funded and promoted by them. Some also remembered that she had once been caught up in a plagiarism scandal and fallen out with her mentor, a beautiful painter who had become famous before her and was well known internationally. Her mentor said she was deeply disappointed in Chi Jin and even led the public condemnation of her.

Discussion of Chi Jin came around again and again, but she never responded. It was as if she had vanished from the world, leaving behind a tangle of controversies and countless outstanding works. Long afterward, people would still bring them up from time to time.

Later, someone claimed to have seen a woman who looked like her teaching art to children in a beautiful but remote town in Guizhou.

But someone else quickly said she only looked like Chi Jin. It couldn't possibly be her. The teacher charged little and taught only basic skills. She had a terrible temper and would make children cry if they weren't paying attention. Her lifestyle was a mess, though fortunately she had an assistant who looked after her, staying by her side through every meal and every season, never leaving her.

Chi Jin was forty then. The person beside her was named Shen Shu.

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Theme: Love