Playing House at the End of Life [Cyberpunk]

A routine checkup day. The doctor who handles her cybernetics gives Li Shuang some devastating news:

She's going to die.

Doctor: Don't panic! Just make it through the brain transplant, and you'll ascend to mechanical godhood!

Li Shuang: And if I don't make it?

Doctor: I'll give a speech at your funeral.

Li Shuang: ...

Li Shuang, the top bounty hunter who laughed at the absurdity of fate, decided to lie flat right then and there. She'd forget about this mess for now and enjoy what was left of her life.

Li Shuang: Oh, right! I've never been in love. I'll just grab some guy and bring him home!

And so Cheng Li, a penniless, nameless nobody with no right eye, was forcibly dragged home by her. Grinning like a villain, Li Shuang patted him on the shoulder and said:

“From today on, you're in love with me. The kind of love where you'd die for me!”

Refuse, and you'll die.

Try to run, and you'll die.

Don't mean it, and you'll still die.

Cheng Li, a coward with no grand ambitions, thought: Who the hell would die for you? I want to live another five hundred years!

But what he said was: “I will give Miss Li Shuang all my love. If Miss Li Shuang tells me to go east, I will never go west. If Miss Li Shuang tells me to die, I won't hesitate. Everything I do will put Miss Li Shuang's happiness first!”

Li Shuang: Good.

The wildly mismatched pair began a heart-pounding life together. Their relationship changed from hunter chasing prey to ordinary friends who could talk things out, then to partners who faced life and death together, flipping off alien fascists with dirt on their faces.

But good times don't last. After Li Shuang, once a force to be reckoned with, suffered a spectacular downfall, she lost both her power and her money and became a wanted criminal throughout the city, forced into hiding in the slums.

Li Shuang thought that since she didn't have long to live anyway, she might as well wave Cheng Li away:

“Go. You're a friend I bought with money, so it's only fair that you leave. I won't resent you or feel sad. You don't have to pay back the wages I advanced you. Here's a phone number. Once I'm arrested, call her and tell her you're my friend. She'll pay you the rest and arrange for you to go back home.”

With his back to her, Cheng Li crouched on the ground, cooking noodles. After a moment of silence, he asked calmly:

“So, do you still want some noodles?”

“...Yes.”

The brash, explosive woman who faces death without flinching × the funny guy whose love keeps growing

Blurb written on 2025.2.27 and screenshotted.

Reading Guide

1. Updates every evening at six without fail. Depending on circumstances, I'll post one or two chapters.

2. The setting is partly fictional, a cyberpunk world in my own style.

3. Pure romance, one-on-one, with a slow burn.

4. The heroine has a bad temper and is great at her job. The hero is timid, shameless, and kind-hearted. Both have their strengths and flaws. The point of view varies.

5. There will be a fair amount of supporting-character and fight scenes.

6. Due to the subject matter, a chaotic cyberpunk world, and some plot foreshadowing, there will be a few side characters who are gay. The protagonists and main supporting characters are not involved in BL. If you absolutely can't accept that, please let me bow my head and then click away.

7. This is my first time posting on Jinjiang, and my writing skills are still rough. Feel free to point out mistakes and offer criticism. I'll do my best, so please don't give up on me! I'd be even happier if you colored in the little blue-green star.

The long bonus story, Typhoon Returns to the Mirror, is now underway. Please add it to your favorites

Li Shuang could still remember the typhoon night ten years ago.

Back then, she was homeless and soaked through, curled up by the roadside like a hedgehog. When Cheng Li happened to pass by, she glared at him and raised her middle finger:

“What are you looking at? Keep staring and I'll gouge your eyes out!”

Cheng Li didn't leave. He handed her a bag of bread, and later helped her get settled, putting up both money and effort.

After spending so much time together, they became friends.

Cheng Li was a little odd, but handsome, gentle, and funny. Li Shuang couldn't help falling for him, and as it happened, he liked her too. Following her heart, Li Shuang happily started dating him, and the two of them enjoyed six whole years together.

Six years, sixteen years, sixty years...

Li Shuang truly thought they would always be together.

Then... then he dumped her out of nowhere.

At the airport. His reason: he didn't love her anymore.

Li Shuang was a proud person. The only time she ever swallowed her pride was after Cheng Li broke up with her. She didn't agree right away. Instead, she begged him to reconsider and even changed his flight to the next day.

She spent the night in a hotel beside the airport. Cheng Li never changed his mind. All she got was a transfer of 2,191.08 yuan.

Li Shuang didn't know what he meant by it.

But she knew it was all over.

Heartbroken, Li Shuang blocked Cheng Li on every platform and went to Los Angeles in tears. She regretted ever dating him and swore she never wanted to see him again.

Then... then Li Shuang ran into him on the streets of Los Angeles.

Li Shuang was disheveled, rummaging through trash, while Cheng Li stood there in a suit, a Rolex gleaming on his wrist.

Before Li Shuang could start yelling at him, he said with red-rimmed eyes:

“Xiao Shuang, I haven't been able to reach you in the four years since we broke up. Have you really been living like this all along?”

Li Shuang realized he must have mistaken her for a beggar.

“Come stay at my place. I'll take care of you,” Cheng Li said.

His desire to get back together was obvious. Li Shuang, who had turned love into hate, decided to play along and move into his house. She'd swindle him first, then break his heart. She wouldn't stop until she had destroyed everything he had!

Then... then Cheng Li pinned her against the bedroom wall.

His smile was as gentle as it had been ten years ago. “I paid off your one-million-yuan debt. What's my reward?”

Li Shuang sneered. “You want to get back together? Dream on.”

Cheng Li blinked, his gaze moving from Li Shuang's eyes to her lips.

“How about one kiss in exchange for a million yuan?”

[Little Scene: Ten Years Ago]

Li Shuang: You're going to class? Give me a kiss before you go.

Cheng Li: You can't use up all your kisses at once. We need to make them last.

Li Shuang: You'll regret that.

[Little Scene: Ten Years Later]

Cheng Li: Lovely weather today. By the way, can I have a kiss?

Li Shuang: You can't use up all your kisses at once. We need to make them last.

Cheng Li: ...

Cheng Li: I was wrong.

#Scheming every which way, all I want is for you to look back at me once more

#My first love, whom I broke up with years ago, suddenly shows up and throws a tantrum, begging to get back together. What do I do? Help, I'm desperate

“Stubborn, sharp-tongued, and patient with people × sweet on the outside, dark on the inside, and insecure like a beagle”

“Campus romance in the first half, chasing his wife overseas in the second”

Theme: We are born, and then we keep on living.