In the Name of the Dying

Read with caution. I wrote this before signing a contract, and didn't know when to hold back. Landmines everywhere!

BE, BE, BE. I'll say it three times because it's important!

[Mature, gentle, a ray of sunshine, A Cong VS innocent, passionate, brash and spoiled, Xiao Han]

[Book Editor VS Young Lawyer]

Their jobs are just background details. Five-year age gap.

Zhou Cong brought people home twice. Both times, it ended badly for her.

Maybe she'd spend her whole life failing to read people. Maybe her mind wasn't quite right, either. She knew this road would be hard, that she'd stumble, get hurt, and come to a halt, yet she never once thought of turning back, because two people had once waited for her on that road.

*

The author she worked with was terminally ill. Zhou Cong gave her a little end-of-life care, only for her spoiled young neighbor, Wen Qiehan, to fling open the closet door.

Wen: Aren't you straight? Do straight women kiss other women? You used to stay out all night, too. So it wasn't a boyfriend you had, you were spending the night with Ming Liuhuan, weren't you?

Wen: You two keep saying you're work partners. I just don't get it, Zhou Cong. What exactly is going on with you?

Zhou: What does it have to do with you?

Wen: Don't play dumb. What's the point of pretending you can't hear me?

Zhou Cong fell silent. There was no point. She just wanted to walk that road alone.

She wouldn't hurt anyone, and no one else should hurt her.

In the end, she had been naive.

Content warnings:

1. Both leads are not virgins. There is an old, tired trope involving a forced marriage of convenience, but there is no true physical or emotional infidelity. In the end, things become unbearably tragic.

2. There is a melodramatic terminal illness and a separation by death.

3. There is a baby, conceived through IVF, who is a survivor of a terrible marriage of convenience.

4. There is an older male-male couple.

5. To reiterate, this is a tragedy!

6. This is the author's first attempt at writing, so the quality is uncertain. I apologize to any readers who find it offensive. I'll work hard to improve my writing and tell new stories with care!

Core Theme: Keep a kind heart.