Fish Can't Talk

Note: Visit my author page for the fantasy romance Someone's Always Crazier Than Me and the contemporary romance Mr. Silent Neighbor.

No romance while the doctor-patient relationship is in effect!

[Shy, Sensitive, Silly Salted Fish x Refined Scoundrel with White Moonlight Appeal]

[Art Student with Depression x Psychologist]

In high school, Mu Yu quietly fell for a man.

He was gentle and refined, with a beauty mark beneath a pair of captivating eyes. Under the dim, shadowy lights of the escape room, he seemed languid and roguishly alluring.

To see him, Mu Yu would visit the escape room where he worked every few days.

Afraid he might see through her, she actually took the initiative to socialize for once, spent a fortune inviting classmates along, and pretended she was merely accompanying them.

Over time, Mu Yu became a VIP at the shop. Whenever she walked through the door, the man would be the first to greet her, a thick stack of flyers in his arms, smiling warmly as he said:

"Back again? Come on, I'll take you inside."

During the summer after her final year of high school, now finally an adult, Mu Yu walked into the shop with her resume, full of excitement at the thought of making good on her promise to work there with him.

Instead, the interviewer coolly told her, "Du Hexi? He quit."

Just like that, he vanished from her world.

She heard nothing from him for an entire year. Then, on a rainy night, her cousin Lin Rong sat across from her, looking scornful.

"Du Hexi may look like a gentle, handsome medical prodigy, but in reality, he's just an illegitimate son, scraping by and running himself ragged just to survive."

"Someone like him actually has the nerve to pursue me? He should take a good look at himself."

The treasure Mu Yu could only reach for from afar, never daring to approach, was nothing but trash that others scorned and laughed at.

Mu Yu cried all night and swore she would walk away in time. But when their eyes met, her defenses crumbled, and she fell for him all over again.

*

When they met again, Mu Yu had grown into a graceful young woman, but depression had forced her to suspend her studies. Du Hexi had become her attending physician. She loved the patch of warm sunlight in his consultation room, so she often lingered there, secretly sketching his sleeping face during his nap.

Only when afternoon had come and someone knocked on the door would she reluctantly put down her drawing board and call softly:

"Dr. Du, someone is here to see you."

The first time, he merely stretched with a lingering sense of satisfaction, said "All right," and opened the door.

The second time, however, he came over smiling, took the drawing board from the desk, and studied her with an amused glint in his eyes, one hand propping up his chin.

"That's a really good drawing."

"Also, when we're around other people, call me Dr. Du."

P.S. No romance while underage.

One-on-one, both pure.

(Serializing)

[People-Pleasing Sweetheart x Gloomy, Devoted Little Mute]

[Mute Male Lead | Aggressive Top, Easily Flustered | Adult Content]

On the first day Sang Li moved into her new apartment, the older woman next door solemnly warned her:

"There's a ghost in 1302."

Sang Li didn't believe in such things. When she knocked on the door, she discovered that the resident was clearly just a handsome, disheveled man.

*

Pei Xu had never thought there was any point in interacting with his new neighbor.

She kept regular hours, while he was up all night and asleep all day. She was sociable and witty, while he couldn't get a word out. She ran herself ragged at the hospital, saving lives, while he never left home, wasting away over video games. He had assumed their lives were tracks that would never cross.

Until she got drunk and leaned against him, cheeks flushed and eyes hazy and innocent.

Thinking of how Sang Li had been forced to flatter people and laugh along at the drinking table, Pei Xu couldn't hold back. His fingers tapped furiously against his phone screen.

[You're not allowed to suck up to anyone else.]

The young woman looked straight up at him, a drunken smile on her lips as she formed a heart with her fingers.

[Are you asking me to date you?]

Pei Xu covered his forehead. Which one of them was the mute, exactly?

*

Later, the cramped shower room was filled with an intoxicating atmosphere. Tiny droplets of water trembled on the walls, ready to fall. The little mute signed with wet eyelashes and red ears, his flustered expression laid bare before the young woman.

Sang Li's warm fingertips brushed his burning skin. Misty desire filled her eyes, impossible to dispel.

"Didn't you ask me to suck up to you?"

Right. He'd forgotten.

He was the one who had trained her to be like this.

[No matter what hardships you go through, life goes on. Endure them, and flowers will bloom at the end of the road.]

Theme: Live toward the light.