Chasing the Light

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Separator for this story's blurb only

Original title: Desert Rose

Blurb:

When your client becomes your next-door neighbor...

On her day off, she is about to start cooking at home when the doorbell rings.

Lin Jiashu says, “I'm out of soy sauce. Can I borrow some of yours?”

“???”

Can't you just go downstairs and buy some?

Maybe she'd grumbled too loudly in her head, because Meng Lichu only hears the man next door say, in a leisurely, rather self-assured tone, “I don't feel like moving.”

“...”

Then why not just wait until you starve to death!

She gets home late after working overtime, and the doorbell rings.

When she opens the door, the first thing she sees is a steaming bowl of porridge that looks and smells delicious. Through the rising steam, the man looks impassive, but his voice is unexpectedly warm, as though wrapped in the heat of the porridge. “Take it.”

“???”

Lin Jiashu: “I made too much. I can't finish it, and throwing it away would be a waste.”

So you think of me as a leftovers disposal service?

She's just finished showering when the doorbell rings.

Lin Jiashu: “The water's been shut off.”

She pauses, remembering the faucet she just turned off. “Then why is my water still running?”

Lin Jiashu gives her a disdainful look, as if she were an idiot. “If your water were off, do you think I'd still be standing here?”

At that, she thinks she might understand what Lin Jiashu means. She asks uncertainly, “So... are you asking to use my bathroom?”

“Is that a problem?”

“...”

A single man shows up at a single woman's door in the middle of the night, asking to use her bathroom. Does that sound appropriate?

“Unless...”

The deliberately drawn-out way Lin Jiashu says it makes her brow twitch.

When she looks up at him, Lin Jiashu continues in a low, unhurried voice, “President Meng, are you worried you'll lose control and do something unspeakable to me?”

“…”

She forces a fake smile. “Then you're worrying too much, President Lin. I'm not so desperate that I'd prey on a defenseless young man!”

Lin Jiashu uses his actions to prove “I want to seduce you,” but his words insist, “Please rein in your fantasies. I'm not interested in you.”

# A concealing, flirtatious, proud client vs. a pitiful contractor trying hard to be the flirt

# A reunion after a long separation // I prefer to describe them as finding what they lost rather than getting back together after a breakup

The title comes from Lung Ying-tai's essay Desert Rose.

Blurb finalized: 2022/03/02, screenshot saved

Weibo: @Jing Ge Xiao Bai Lan

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Next story available for preorder: Submission

Blurb:

On the day she got drunk, she let the alcohol burn away her reason. Standing before Shen Yaowen, she looked at him and said:

“Do you want to be my boyfriend?”

Shen Yaowen gazed at her for half a second, then reached up and tucked the loose strands of hair on her face behind her ear. Laziness lingered in his eyes.

“Have you made up your mind?”

She replied, “Mm. I have.”

//

People say Shen Yaowen's girlfriends all fall prey to the 2.5-month truth: none of his relationships has lasted longer than two and a half months. Most end after two months, or even sooner.

He and He Zhiyi dated for four months, but they still broke up in the end.

He Zhiyi was the one who ended it. No one knows why, and even Shen Yaowen himself has never figured it out.

//

He Zhiyi never thought she would see him again, or perhaps never thought they would meet again like this.

When she saw him again, her eyes weren't red like in the books, and neither was her face. She simply felt her heart skip a beat when she saw him, just as it had the first time they met when they were young.

“Could you give me another chance?”

The proud young man seems to have finally learned to humble himself. “Even if I'm only your backup choice, that's fine.”

//: It's my first time liking someone. Could you teach me how?, Shen Yaowen

//: I've had a crush on you for so long. I want to end this with some dignity., He Zhiyi

※Please note※ Shen Yaowen has a long romantic history.

//: Eighth draft finalized 2023/07/15, screenshot saved

//: Weibo: @Jing Ge Xiao Bai Lan

Theme: See the light, chase the light, become the light