North-South Differences

[Gentle, considerate, unflappable nurse x free-spirited, charming artist]

After seven years of living together, Yan Luojun felt that Fu Ruiwen didn't love her anymore.

At a late-night bar filled with flashing lights, her longtime friend sat across from her and thought she was joking. "How could that be?"

After all, everyone in their circle knew that she and Fu Ruiwen were practically the perfect couple.

But Yan Luojun stubbornly believed that she and Fu Ruiwen were going through a period of stagnation known as the seven-year itch.

She was sick of the windows at home always being shut, of never finding milk in the fridge with a straw already in it, and of the stuffy heat from the air conditioner in winter.

In a fit of pique, she texted Fu Ruiwen to say she wasn't coming home that night. The only response she got was, "Got it."

Fu Ruiwen had no idea what Yan Luojun had been sulking about lately.

When she came home from the bar in the early hours, the first thing she did was open the bedroom window. She held up a carton of milk from the fridge and asked for a straw. When it was below freezing outside, she turned off the air conditioner, saying she couldn't breathe.

After nine years together, Fu Ruiwen thought she'd learned to put up with every one of the little artist's quirks. Even after working an exhausting late shift at the hospital, when she got a text from Yan Luojun saying she wouldn't be home, she simply replied, "Got it," out of habit.

But the next day at noon, as she leaned against the headboard scrolling through her feed, she saw that Yan Luojun had checked in at the city's newly opened art museum. The nine photos were of abstract installation art, and the caption was in a foreign language she couldn't understand.

The kettle shrieked in the kitchen. Fu Ruiwen suddenly realized she and Yan Luojun hadn't seen each other for three days.

Marketing accounts say marriage is the grave of love. In a relationship between people who are too different, both sides can only compromise and adjust until they eventually become more alike.

At nineteen, Fu Ruiwen worked part-time at a cafe. That same year, Yan Luojun turned eighteen, and her birthday present was an art gallery in a new first-tier city.

At twenty-seven, Yan Luojun was traveling around Reykjavik for artistic inspiration. That same year, Fu Ruiwen was twenty-eight, and her salary wasn't even enough to cover rent near the hospital.

Love's bloom lasts so briefly.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Before signing with a publisher, updates follow the rankings (15,000 words a week); otherwise, every other day. Daily updates after signing. I'll post a notice if I need time off.

Note from 4/15: Real life is just too busy for daily updates right now. I'll probably need to take a day off about once a week. T.T

2. The second female lead has a younger brother, who is a villain.

3. The story uses flashbacks, with two timelines: past and present.

4. Bad ending.

5. I'll add more if I think of anything.

My next novel will be either The Heroine Never Took the Herbal Medicine or A Semitransparent Relationship. I haven't decided which one to write yet, but if you're interested, you can add both to your collection in the meantime~

Blurb for The Heroine Never Took the Herbal Medicine:

After transmigrating into a melodramatic girls' love novel as the wicked supporting female character, the protagonist accepts a disguise mission assigned by the System and goes undercover beside the heroine to supervise her taking herbal medicine to change her sexual orientation.

However, the heroine is deeply devoted to the original story's second female lead and refuses to take the medicine, no matter what. The protagonist has no choice but to think of every possible way to get her to drink it.

For example:

Turning the medicine into a medicinal dish for the heroine after she finishes a meeting;

Turning the medicine into a scented sachet for the heroine after she comes home from a date with the second female lead;

Turning the medicine into a bracelet for the heroine after she prays for good fortune at a temple said to be very effective;

But it doesn't seem to be working, and the protagonist is deeply troubled.

Then one day, the protagonist realizes that the heroine seems to have lost interest in the second female lead. She's stopped obsessing over her unrequited love, chasing after her, and going crazy for her. Instead, the heroine starts asking her for medicinal dishes, sachets, and bracelets. She's actively accepting treatment!

The protagonist bursts into tears of joy and goes to the System to claim the five million she was promised for completing the mission, only to be coldly refused.

Why?!

Only when the heroine pins the protagonist, who had hitched a ride home, against the passenger seat and delivers an old-fashioned line that sends all her composure crumbling does she understand: "Date me. I've got plenty of money."

The protagonist is stunned.

The protagonist breaks down.

The protagonist despairs.

Oh, so the heroine never took the herbal medicine at all.

Ha, so the heroine was drinking iced Americanos the whole time.

Blurb for A Semitransparent Relationship:

Later, the doctor told her, "None of this was real. You had a dream while under the effects of the medication."

After winning an employee beta-testing spot for a VR game in development at her company, Fang He started the game, codenamed Dream, in her rented apartment.

In the dream, there were no endless clients and business partners to deal with, no daily reports to write, and no meetings to attend. A young woman she'd met only once asked Fang He what she wished for. Fang He said, "Give me ninety-nine more wishes."

The girl was a counterfeit wishing lamp genie. She paid with secret, broken kisses, but received nothing in return but useless delirium.

Day passed quickly, and night drew near. Ye Liang led her across the boundary of time, turning the clock back and erasing the traces of changed memories.

In the damp, chaotic dream, she was selfish, sensitive, and clear-eyed as she sank into it, briefly possessing countless moments of joy.

Until the rainy season arrived and Ye Liang vanished into the water.

Unable to find her, Fang He woke with a start from the dream.

Rain drenched the streetlights, blurring the city into something semitransparent. Alone outside the hospital, she performed the final act of a one-woman play.

The doctor said her fever had reached 39 degrees, and she could no longer tell reality from dreams.

Born in a small town, Fang He graduated from a prestigious university at twenty-two and received offers from several major companies during fall recruiting. In the stories her relatives told around the dinner table, her life had gone smoothly.

That was what Fang He thought, too.

At twenty-seven, after being laid off three times, Fang He never imagined she'd end up in bed with a girl of unknown origins, before Ye Liang appeared out of nowhere at her new workstation at two in the morning.

In and out of dreams, she was covered in the pollen Ye Liang shook from her body.

How could she possibly be fake?

Theme: Become a better version of yourself.