Divorced at Thirty

This story goes from school to the workplace, from romance to marriage. It's about romance without marriage, a first love rekindled, and both an older man doting on a younger woman and a younger man pursuing an older woman.

Four thirty-year-old women are a blazing fire together and stars scattered across the sky when apart. They support one another, bobbing up and down in the sea of marriage, and ultimately grow into themselves and find their own way.

"I want you." The words, warm with the smell of alcohol, made Liu Chan's ears tingle. The face pressed against her cheek felt as hot as fire. She pushed him away.

"Have you been drinking?"

"Yeah... If I hadn't been drinking... I wouldn't have had the nerve to come see you..."

"How did you know I lived here?"

"Heh... Did you forget who I am? I'm your... heh... personal trainer..." He gave a cold laugh.

There's an old saying: Like father, like son. These days, it seems like mothers pass it on to their daughters, too.

Liu Chan and her mother were both unmarried women now.

The last time Liu Chan heard anything about her mother's love life, it had been from her elderly father.

"I've lost count of how many there've been. She's only in her thirties, and they're all young guys. Isn't she embarrassed?"

Her father trembled as he spoke, smacking his dentures in resentment.

Ever since he had suffered a stroke, he seemed to hate Liu Chan's mother even more. Liu Chan had heard enough and was sick of it. Every time she went home, she couldn't stay for more than two days before heading back.

She knew her father had been involved with the fifty-something rural woman he hired for who knew how long.

Maybe from the moment that woman walked through their door eight years ago, Liu Chan had been destined to accept all of it: the pain her parents' broken marriage had brought her.

Whenever she heard the housekeeper call her "Hui'er" with false warmth, then fuss over her and urge her to eat this or that as though she were a guest, it felt like having a mouthful of broken glass.

At times like that, she almost hated that woman a little less. But the word "Mom" was something she had nearly forgotten.

In a sentence: Love is like a diamond ring to a woman. Wearing it makes her shine; taking it off makes her free.

Theme: Women should not be bound by marriage. A woman who pursues herself and her independence is the one who succeeds.