Love on a Deadline

This is Changhe International Resort Center, an upscale convalescent retreat that combines end-of-life care with resort services. It provides eligible elderly people nearing the end of their lives and those with terminal illnesses with all-in-one service, from the start of their countdown to being sent to the crematorium. Its mission is to become a final resting place praised by the industry, satisfying to the rich, and longed for by the poor.

The center has only two requirements for admission: First, you have to be close to death. Second, you have to be very rich. (Both requirements must be met.)

Yes, without a doubt, this is a money pit where cash flows like water. Does that mean poor people can only look at it from afar? Not exactly. After all, this poor soul moved in.

Heh, we poor folks have our own requirements: no family, and a worthless life.

"Worthless life" is meant literally. I’m going to die, and the staff have hung a timer around my neck with a countdown to the end of my life.

On the first day I moved into the center, the number on it went from 200 to 199.

The center assigned me a caregiver. He was young and handsome, and my heart, shackled by poverty for thirty years, stirred for the first time.

He said a life without love was like watching a movie without popcorn, drinking soda without carbonation, or eating ice cream without its chocolate shell.

Like a flower that blooms but never bears fruit.

...What did he mean? Was he hinting that we wouldn’t have a future together?

He wasn’t wrong, so I decided to have one reckless fling with him, carefully. I had to be brave, as if going to watch the sun set over a golden mountain, but I also had to hold back so I wouldn’t be too reluctant to leave in the end.

The day we held hands, the number on the timer stopped at 175.

He brought me a bouquet of roses. Fifty-two of them, exactly the number on the timer around my neck.

As I gave him a farewell kiss at the end, the number changed from 1 to 0.

It was a requiem sweeter than honey, and I was content.

Theme: Treasure the present.