The Kitty Wants to End the Contract

Zhou Lingyun never understood what it meant to be a substitute for someone who resembled the original. She spent high school and college as someone's replacement. Officially, she was the employer's scholarship student, living in their home and following strict instructions to look as much as possible like a girl in a photo who had been dead for many years. Keep her long, straight black hair. Wear white dresses. Never laugh too loudly. Don't walk around too wildly. Be a sweet, well-behaved young lady. The girl was gone. As time passed, Zhou Lingyun naively came to believe that Jiang Min liked her, at least a little. The woman seemed fierce, forbidding this and that every day, and had a very strange temperament. One moment she'd say sternly, “Stand up straight.” The next, she'd beckon to Zhou Lingyun with bleary eyes and say, “Come here.” The illusion that she was loved came from the woman's sharply boned hand sinking into the fluffy bedding in the dark of night, and her warm, damp whispers in Zhou Lingyun's ear. A pet name meant just for her: kitty. But one day, the cat she'd been raising got sick and died. Jiang Min found another cat that looked just like it. Her experience told her it was fine. Zhou Lingyun accepted it in a daze and cared for the new cat for a while, but she could never convince herself. Her cat was one of a kind, irreplaceable. Just like the girl in the photo. She couldn't become someone else, and she no longer felt like herself. Years of pent-up feelings finally erupted. * “End the contract?” Jiang Min had heard her say it before. “Don't forget who gave you the life you have today. Without me, you're just a penniless country girl who couldn't even afford high school.” “If you want to leave, I won't stop you. Go ahead and try. Let's see which of us gives in first.” After delivering her ultimatum, Jiang Min let her go, convinced she'd come back after a few days to cool off. * A long time passed, and when Zhou Lingyun still hadn't returned, Jiang Min drove out to look for her. In front of a bubble tea shop, she saw Zhou Lingyun. She had just taken off a cartoon mascot head and accepted a bottle of water from a girl her own age. She bent her knees slightly, letting the other girl wipe the sweat from her face. Jiang Min had never seen her wear such a bright, carefree smile. They had both begun healing themselves, but Zhou Lingyun was clearly doing a better job of it. Jiang Min watched in silence, betraying no emotion as pain spread through her chest until she could barely breathe. She wanted her kitty back. #Substitute #Ten-year age gap Coming soon: Heard You've Been Looking Everywhere for Me Blurb: Xu He hears that Quan Zhenzhen is looking everywhere for her. She knows the woman has been sitting in her contacts list for days. She just hasn't responded. Ten years ago, they had a relationship. Back then, Xu He had just started college, while Quan Zhenzhen worked promoting a bar near campus. She wore a bulky bee mascot suit, her hips high and shapely, her exposed limbs pale and slender. She'd hook an arm around someone's neck, plant herself squarely on their lap, and sweetly call them “Sis,” then say, “Come have a couple of drinks with me.” If all she'd done was say, “Xu He is an idiot with money and an easy mark,” Xu He really wouldn't have fallen out with her. A bee doesn't stay in just one flower patch. Even with a lovingly tended private garden, it will still find every possible way to fly over the wall. * Ten years after their breakup, Xu He hears that Quan Zhenzhen is doing well. She has her own brand and sells clothes on livestream every night at eight. Xu He hopes she does well, just not too well. Partly out of a desire for revenge, and partly because Quan Zhenzhen has honed her sales pitch over the past decade, Xu He still can't resist adding items to her shopping cart. On a night of torrential rain, Xu He listens to her sob beside her ear and toys with her silky, cool hair. “You shouldn't be short of money now,” she says. She doesn't understand what Quan Zhenzhen wants from her. Rolling over in bed, Quan Zhenzhen grins and wraps her arms around Xu He's neck. “I'm a masochist. I deserve to be scolded. Go ahead, be as harsh as you like.” Revenge is a dish best served ten years later. Xu He humiliates her as much as she wants. A few times, she catches a fleeting sadness in Quan Zhenzhen's eyes, but assumes she imagined it. Who could have guessed that before Xu He was done playing with her and ready to kick her to the curb, Quan Zhenzhen would reenact a scene from a TV drama and jump off a bridge? Her long skirt billows as her paper-thin body tumbles through the air, then vanishes into the rushing waters. * Before deciding to leave, Quan Zhenzhen looks back on her wild, unruly life. She's wronged a lot of people, but Xu He is the only one she wants to make amends to. She carefully prepares a grand farewell. In the seconds as she falls, she thinks viciously that now Xu He will never forget her. Theme: Treat others with sincerity. It benefits not only them, but you as well.