Falling for You Again

#Also known as "I Heard You’ve Been Telling Everyone I’m Dead"#

He Ci is a doctor at the City People’s Hospital. She has a respectable job, a beautiful face, and is still single at nearly thirty.

Patients treated by He Ci, men and women alike, come to the hospital every day with flowers, fruit, and banners of thanks.

He Ci accepts them with a smile, then brushes off their invitations to go on dates with a laugh.

The department director keeps bringing it up from time to time. “You’ve been working for years. How come I’ve never seen you date anyone?”

Hearing this, He Ci smiles and says, “I dated someone before. We were about to meet each other’s parents and talk marriage.”

Director Li: “What happened after that?”

He Ci: “Then she died.”

Director Li makes the sign of the cross over his chest in silent mourning and never brings up dating again.

-

At a class reunion, an old classmate asks, “You and Yu Yuan were close. How come she didn’t come?”

He Ci answers offhandedly, “She died.”

The classmate looks surprised. “When did she die?”

He Ci: “Two years ago.”

An old crush is ready to take advantage of the opening, only to hear He Ci say, “I’m cursed to lose my wife.”

“...”

After five years of dating Yu Yuan, He Ci had thought they would go from school uniforms to wedding dresses together. Instead, she ended up cheated out of both her body and her heart.

He Ci swears she’ll never date another beautiful woman again.

-

One night, while He Ci is on duty, a burn patient comes in.

She throws on her white coat and yawns her way out of the break room, only to meet the patient’s smiling eyes.

Without saying a word, He Ci cleans, disinfects, and treats the patient’s wounds. As she works, she casually asks, “I saw you put ‘unmarried’ on your intake form. You’re thirty already. Still not married?”

Yu Yuan smiles. Her voice is just as gentle and suggestive as it was two years ago. “No. What about you, Doctor He?”

He Ci’s face is expressionless. “I’ve been a widow for two years.”

*Bittersweet romance, with a groveling ex-wife arc and a little melodrama.

Theme: Say ‘I love you’ right away.