My First Love Was a Potted Cactus

New story, "I'll Survive by Cuddling Up to People". Please add it to your to-read list: Sang Yi, an alien girl, has a secret: she was born with a wasting disease. She'll lose her vitality at twenty, but luckily, there is a cure. All she has to do is find a compatible Earthling and be their "guardian" for a year, cuddling up to them every day, and she'll come back to life. She came to Earth as an exchange student, and the first person she set her sights on was Yan Ze, the handsome school heartthrob. But she also immediately offended Yan Ze, a scheming guy who never lets a grudge go. What should she do? Luckily, she's full of tricks. She keeps arranging all sorts of seemingly accidental, fate-ordained cuddling opportunities, leaving Yan Ze unable to defend himself or get away in time, and giving him nightmares all the time. When her year as an exchange student is up, Sang Yi gets her vitality back as she'd hoped. She even sprouts, grows leaves, and blooms... She's quite satisfied, and retires after a job well done, no longer looking for chances to cuddle up to him. But Yan Ze isn't happy about it. He suddenly thinks the nightmares weren't so bad after all. Later on, the nightmares turn into sweet dreams. On the day she returns to space, Yan Ze gets a little crafty himself: You've been taking advantage of me for a whole year. Isn't it a little late to leave now? Scheming, grudge-holding school heartthrob x crafty, goofy alien girl Blurb screenshotted, 2022.5.29. Blurb for this story: One summer in Europe, many years in the future, torrential rain falls for three days and nights. The garden of Lida, a genius botanist, is in disarray, but a cactus in one corner has grown to an enormous size at an astonishing speed. On a day when clouds drift across the sky, Rimbaud sits lazily on the windowsill, takes a bite of the apple in his hand, and waves to Lida, who is repairing a car with a wrench: "Hi, May I have this apple?" The cactus in the corner has already disappeared. A month later, Earth is attacked by an unknown virus, and the apocalypse quietly begins. Lida also turns into a zombie... If you'd like to read another story with a similar writing style, check out my ongoing modern danmei, "My Oil Painting Has Come to Life"! A story about a gardener and a boy from an oil painting, growing little roses of love together~ Theme: