Unqualified Lovers

[The complete novel costs only 4.54. Promise me you'll support the official release, okay? ovo] * Dark, twisted, bittersweet, a doomed entanglement, taboo and delightfully messed up * Gentle but conflicted x straightforward and doting x pure-hearted and avoidant The day I broke up with my ex-girlfriend, I swallowed three tablets of lorazepam just to keep myself from throwing up. After that, I lay awake night after night until dawn. Then a woman said to me, “Miss Chen, don't you know the fastest way to get over a relationship is to start a new one?” Later, this woman became my girlfriend. My girlfriend's embrace smelled like cotton warmed in the sun. I loved hugging her and making love to her as though the world would end tomorrow. The days I spent with her often made me so happy I nearly cried. I loved her so much, and every day I loved her more. That night, I fell asleep with my head on my girlfriend's arm, reminding her not to stay up too late on her phone. I closed my eyes. And began dreaming obsessively about my ex-girlfriend. * Three heroines, not a conventional two-person romance, with one-on-one pairings at different stages. One relationship is healthy and healing; another is mutually destructive. The heroine and her current girlfriend get a happy ending. * A short story, around 200,000 characters/50 chapters. * The main text alternates between first and third person. * A desperate liar x a repentant actress x a harmless madwoman [Important] * All major characters are women; men are just background characters. * Three people spiraling together in a very explosive, unconventional illness. Readers with strong moral scruples should proceed with caution. Characters' actions do not reflect the author's views. Please discuss the story civilly and don't make personal attacks. Break * Coming soon: My Beautiful, Irresistible Stepmom, a true stepmom romance * Beautiful, sharp-tongued but soft-hearted stepmother receiving x clingy, sweet-on-the-outside-but-dark-inside stepdaughter pursuing * Same-sex marriage is legal; told in third person When I was fourteen, the person I hated most was my mother's new wife. She had red lips, curled hair, and a bewitching allure. Every look and every smile of hers was devastatingly seductive. Everyone loved her. I was the only one who wanted to see her humiliated. She'd stolen my mother from me. When I was sixteen, after something happened to my mother, that foolish woman actually wanted to die with her. But when I caught her, she just stared at me through tear-streaked eyes. “I'm sorry. I'll stay with you until you grow up first…” “Then I'll go… be with your mother…” At last, I got what I wanted: I saw her at her most wretched. So why did all I want to do was hold her and kiss her? After that, I began seducing her on purpose. I pretended to be afraid of nightmares and climbed into her bed, then used missing my mother as an excuse to trick her into kissing me. As I grew up, it became harder and harder to be satisfied. I wanted her lips, her body, all of her. “Mommy, everyone laughs at me for never having kissed anyone…” “Please… prove that I'm loved.” She scolded me sternly, but afterward her heart softened and she indulged me. But even after kissing until our lips went numb, she treated it as nothing more than a child's affection. She looked at me with nothing but tenderness, never desire. I finally laid it all bare and told her plainly that I loved her. She slapped me hard enough to leave my ears ringing. That night, though, she knocked on my door with an ice pack to bring down the swelling on my face. She looked utterly heartbroken. I thought she loved me too. But the very next day, she announced that she was dating someone again and ordered me to give up. One rainy night, I came home early and heard suggestive sounds coming from her room. I thought she was doing something with another woman. The world collapsed around me, and I wanted to die on the spot. Then I heard clearly. The voice was choked with tears, full of pleasure and restraint. Again and again, she called out… My name. Every time. Theme: Choosing to hold on when love is tested by human nature