Do Kittens Cry Too?

[Sharp-tongued, finicky troublemaker man x woman who shuts down finicky behavior, taciturn and cool]

1.

A young master from the capital was exiled to Wutong Lane. The alley was too narrow for cars, so Lan Qi rode a tricycle to meet him at the entrance.

The young master took one look at the battered tricycle and found fault with everything. He had a hundred opinions ready to share.

Lan Qi couldn't be bothered to deal with him. She pedaled off without looking back, and by that evening, rumors that she'd abandoned her husband and child had spread throughout Wutong Lane.

2.

After the neighborhood's volunteer family dispute mediator pleaded with her at length, Lan Qi brought the young master home again.

The pampered young master was no more peaceful once he got home. One day he complained that the bed was too hard, the next that the food was too sweet. Or else the walls were too thin and the old man next door had no manners. Every day, he dragged Lan Qi into finding ten thousand things to criticize.

Lan Qi ordered him to shut up.

The young master obediently fell silent. The next day, he handed her a three-thousand-word "Open Letter Condemning Old Man Liu for Snoring in the Middle of the Night and Violating His Neighbors' Mental Well-Being." Using sign language, he asked Lan Qi to help him post it on the public notice board in the lane.

Lan Qi told him to get lost.

A letter arrived from the capital: the young master's life sentence had been commuted to a fixed term, and he was free to pack up and go home.

The young master really did leave.

3.

In the middle of the night, Lan Qi, unable to sleep, heard quiet sobbing from the window. She opened it and caught sight of the young master crouching in the corner with a cat in his arms, his back shaking.

She was silent for a moment, then asked helplessly, "Why are you crying?"

For once, the young master wasn't being sharp-tongued. He only said pitifully, "I can't bear to leave Wutong Lane."

Lan Qi told him, "No one's making you leave."

The young master lifted his head. Under the streetlamp, two streams of tears slid down his delicate face. "You seem pretty sick of me..."

Lan Qi closed the window and went back inside without looking at him. "I never said that."

Having gotten the answer he wanted, the young master switched off the old radio beside him, which was still playing ambient sounds, and hummed a little tune as he tossed a newly opened bottle of eye drops into the trash.

Theme: Wutong Lane is home