After You Left Me

I first met Qiao Siran outside the SILVER WING bar.

When I looked up, my eyes met hers, hazy with drink.

That day, Qiao Siran was dead drunk.

When her friend came to pick her up, she murmured:

"I found him."

Qiao Siran was thoughtful, considerate, gentle, and sensible.

She always put Xu Chengyu first. She would take a drink for him and stub out his cigarettes.

Xu Chengyu thought there was no harm in having a little fun with her.

After all, she was obedient and easy to please, never greedy or demanding,

and she loved him desperately.

When news spread that the Xu and Liang families were joining forces through marriage,

Qiao Siran broke up with him.

Xu Chengyu took off his gold-rimmed glasses and carefully wiped them. Without even looking up, he said casually, "Suit yourself."

To Xu Chengyu, Qiao Siran was nothing but a plaything.

If she wanted to leave, let her.

Later, Xu Chengyu saw Qiao Siran crouched before a gravestone,

carefully wiping the photograph on it.

She gazed at the man in the picture with tenderness in her eyes.

In that instant, Xu Chengyu understood that her tenderness had never been meant for him.

To Qiao Siran, he had only ever been a stand-in...

Content warnings:

1. Old-school melodrama, angst, and tropes including running away while pregnant and stand-ins. Happy ending.

2. Both leads have a first love. The heroine's is her true first love. The hero's will be explained in the novel, and he belongs to the heroine, body and soul.

3. The hero is not engaged.

4. Neither lead is perfect, and both will grow.

5. A short novel, approximately 210,000 Chinese characters.

Coming soon 1:

After Posting a Listing on the Seafood Marketplace

Her point of view:

With the end of the year approaching, everything was going wrong. Han Xiao was suddenly called in for a meeting with her boss.

In the first week after getting laid off, Han Xiao reassured herself: It's fine, it's fine. I'll just treat it like a vacation.

In the second week, every resume she sent out vanished into the void.

In the third week, her landlord came to collect the rent.

After transferring three months' rent to her landlord, Han Xiao looked at the three-digit balance in her account and quietly posted a listing on the Seafood Marketplace:

Cat neutering. Acting required. Bargain price: 30 yuan per session.

That night, a buyer asked:

[How good is your acting?]

Han Xiao replied instantly: [I'm a total professional!]

His point of view:

People say the world is falling apart, but cats are patching it back together.* Zhou Yang scoffed at the idea.

His fluffy little tyrant at home was always giving him attitude, arching its back, puffing up, hissing, and swishing its tail whenever it got upset.

Huajuan's big day kept getting delayed. Then, after she found a mate, Zhou Yang told himself: I can't put this off any longer.

Faced with being abused by Huajuan or doing nothing, Zhou Yang chose to find a "cat-snatching villain" on the Seafood Marketplace.

Outside the pet hospital, Zhou Yang lifted his eyes and looked the "villain" up and down, his tone teasing. "Old classmate, nice acting."

Han Xiao rolled her eyes, a smile tugging at her lips. "Old classmate, how about a good review?"

Coming soon 2:

Longing at Sunset

Blurb:

When Cen Yuanyi wheeled Sang Yu into the room, she narrowed her eyes.

The west-facing room was stifling, glaring, cramped, and run-down.

The air conditioner in some apartment upstairs was dripping water. Drip, drip, it fell onto the balcony's clothes-drying rack, driving her mad.

"I absolutely refuse to live in a place like this." Sang Yu looked up and glared stubbornly at Cen Yuanyi.

Cen Yuanyi's expression was cool. He bent to pick up the thin blanket that had slipped to the floor, brushed off the dust, and draped it over her legs again.

"Don't worry. If you want to leave, I won't force you to stay."

"When we first met, I was lying in a hospital bed, looking out the window. The sun was setting and twilight was closing in. I was helpless and desperate. Then he came, his features stern, and said only, 'Come with me.'"

"From autumn to spring, from strangers to understanding each other without a word, I wasn't walking the long road alone."

Coming soon 3:

Today Is Not a Good Day for a Blind Date [Rekindled Romance]

Blurb:

In a small private room, Mom kept reminiscing with her old classmate, Aunt Xu.

Zhen Lu, who had been dragged there against her will, thought to herself: If they want to catch up, why bring me along?

She couldn't join in the conversation between the two older women, so she could only sit there awkwardly,

answering halfheartedly whenever they asked her something.

"Does Xiao Zhen have a boyfriend?" Aunt Xu asked, seemingly at random.

"Not yet." Her mother shot Zhen Lu a look, her tone tinged with exasperation. "Kids these days have a mind of their own."

Aunt Xu replied meaningfully, "Our Xiao Cebie is the same. You can't control him either."

Zhen Lu lowered her head without a word, awkwardly picked up her teacup, and took a sip.

The door to the private room opened, and a waiter led a man inside.

"Sorry, something came up." He wore a dark gray shirt, with a black jacket casually draped over his arm. He seemed even more upright than before.

After all these years, Zhen Lu hadn't expected to cross paths with Jiang Chengshen again.

Aunt Xu introduced her, saying that the woman seated next to Aunt Lu was her daughter, Zhen Lu, and that the young woman worked in Qiantan, so perhaps they would run into each other a lot in the future.

Jiang Chengshen was as much of a jerk as ever. He held out his hand to her. "Jiang Chengshen. I look forward to working with you."

Theme: May you become the best version of yourself.