Cooking Something Simple

Zhou Lumeng recently started thinking about her sexual orientation. At three in the morning, she tossed and turned, unable to sleep all night. After agonizing over it, she reached an answer she had known all along, at the cost of several sleepless nights, headaches from staying up late, a heart beating erratically as if it were about to stop, and a haggard face. Zhou Lumeng: It's official. I really don't like people in the real world. I like fictional characters. I think I'm fictosexual. Yu Bing: Thank you for waking me at 4:54 a.m. just to share this tremendous breakthrough. If you remember that it's still dark outside, could you please go back to sleep now? Their marriage didn't begin with love or a flutter of the heart. It began with avoiding trouble, "If it doesn't work, we can just die," and "This will do for now." Neither of them thought there was anything wrong with that. They exchanged medical examination reports, credit records, and criminal record certificates, had their premarital assets notarized, signed a prenuptial agreement, and completed all their preparations. Then they went to the civil affairs bureau to get married. Their lives didn't change one bit before or after the wedding, and they were both perfectly happy with that. That's what Zhou Lumeng thought, anyway. She believed their peaceful, uneventful life would go on forever. Until one day, she received a message asking for help from Yu Bing. Yu Bing: My apartment's leaking. Can I crash at your place for one night? Yu Bing: Poor little puppy crying.jpg Zhou Lumeng: ... Zhou Lumeng: You suddenly using an emoji like that is really creepy. Maybe you shouldn't use it after all. Yu Bing unsent the emoji. Then he followed up: So, would that be okay? If not, no worries. I'll go somewhere else. This time, the answer was hard to give. Zhou Lumeng typed and deleted, typed and deleted. She came up with all sorts of reasons and excuses for why it wouldn't work, but deleted them all before sending. In the end, she chose to send Yu Bing a short reply. Zhou Lumeng: Come over. "You push love away because you're afraid you can't withstand any more intrusion and betrayal.", Imi Luo A heroine who is dead inside but vaguely alive, with avoidant attachment x a hero who is alive but vaguely dead, slow to warm up and mild-mannered. They're both very "plant-like." Theme: Life is a wilderness!