Are You Tired of Living?

The print edition is titled Floating Clouds and White Sun and is now available. My new novel, The Star Snatcher, is currently updating...

1.

Ni Yuan has a history teacher who has been incredibly kind to her. The history teacher has a wayward son who has lived away from home for seven years and never returned.

One day, the wayward son, Zhou Linrang, sneaks back.

Ni Yuan becomes his neighbor, and from then on, they keep running into each other.

The boy sits on the wall, moonlight and tree shadows shifting around him. Looking down at her with a pair of unruly eyes, he calls her childhood nickname with a half-smile. “Ni Gougou.”

Then he asks earnestly, “Is the ‘gou’ in your name the one that means ‘ditch,’ like the ditch people trip into, or the one that means ‘to flirt’?”

2.

Ni Yuan has an enthusiastic fan called L on the study app Studying. This person once set a record by visiting Ni Yuan’s profile 1,001 times in a single day.

L is mysterious, eccentric, and solitary, a top student with a mercurial temperament.

And she is the only person on his follow list.

Every unsolvable math problem on Ni Yuan’s tests gets answered correctly by L.

By chance, the two become friends over the internet.

Ni Yuan treats L like a confidant:

“Are all you guys this hard to deal with?”

“Zhou Linrang, you jerk.”

On the other side of the internet, L (Zhou Linrang) snaps the spicy duck neck in his hand and withdraws the math test answers he just sent.

L: “Are you tired of living?”

Ni Yuan: “?”

3.

History teacher Chen Nian: “Yuan’er, help me check whether that brat has been sneaking cigarettes.”

So one day, Zhou Linrang’s friends see him cornered on the school stairs by a petite girl, who leans in and gently sniffs the scent on his uniform.

The girl grabs Zhou Linrang’s hand, then gives it a sniff, too.

Everyone waits for Zhou Linrang to push her away.

But he doesn’t move. He cooperates instead.

Everyone is utterly dumbfounded.jpg.

Zhou Linrang asks impatiently, “Do I smell like smoke?”

Ni Yuan only catches the faint scent of mint on his sleeve.

4.

History teacher Chen Nian was born with a dulled sense of pain, great strength, and exceptional fighting skills. In his youth, he fought his way through all thirteen martial arts clubs in Xishui before going into hiding and dedicating himself to teaching.

His son, Zhou Linrang, inherited his strength and isn’t a pushover either.

[The hero is a rebellious, easygoing young master who actually has plenty of cheeky lines.]

[The heroine seems like a calm, unassuming girl, but she can be mischievous, too.]

[Once they get to know each other, both of them are a lot of fun.]

My neighboring new novel, The Hound and the Beggar, is available to add to your reading list. If you’re interested, take a look at my author page.

Here’s the blurb:

1.

When Jianan is so poor that she’s about to lose her water and electricity, a stranger moves into the apartment downstairs.

She clears out half her home and rents it to him.

No one knows where he came from.

They all say Chen Zong is a rabid dog and must not be provoked.

Jianan keeps to herself and has no idea that the rabid dog is lurking nearby, living under the same roof as her.

2.

At eighteen, Jianan is trapped by poverty, illness, and a fate that keeps abandoning her. She is a beggar walking barefoot through a frozen wasteland.

She needs food, a bonfire, and a whole lot of love.

Chen Zong is a rabid dog. He approaches her, bites her, remakes her, and loves her.

3.

On a stormy night, Chen Zong is trapped in a damp, dark alley. He beats down everyone trying to crush him, answering fist with fist.

Then he goes upstairs, puts on an apron, and cooks.

He crouches down, holds out a bowl of hot porridge to coax the girl in front of him, and lies: “Nannan, just one more bite, then you can stop.”

[Cold, brooding son of a powerful family × Ballerina with an eating disorder]

Theme: Be positive and happy, and embrace life.