How We Love - Volume 1 Chapter 1

Chapter 1 – Morning Call

Cai Xin was woken up by a phone call from her parents at the crack of dawn.

It was the fifth day since this inhumane bombing of ‘morning calls’ started. Cai Xin struggled to open her eyes and managed to crack them open a list. Only then did she see that the clock on her bedside table read 5 a.m.

She really wanted to die.

She painfully groped around for her relentlessly howling cellphone, accepted the call, put it on speaker and placed it beside her. She picked up her pillow and stuffed it against her head. Through the speakers came Cai Xin’s mother’s gong-like voice, “Cai Xiaoxin, if you don’t take me seriously again today, your dad and I will seriously buy a ticket and find you! Tell me, when will you find a boyfriend!”

Cai Xin’s mother had just finished talking when seamlessly came Cai Xin’s father’s voice. It was like a marathon. His voice was even louder than Cai Xin’s mom’s, “Your mother’s right! There are four more months before the New Year. I command you to use this time to find a boyfriend to bring back for the New Year’s! Otherwise, don’t even think about going home, hell, let’s just sever our father-daughter relations! I can’t bear to lose face like this in front of my old friends!”

Cai Xin lifted the pillow and furiously argued, “Old1 [javascript:void(0)]Prefix used before the surname of a person or a numeral indicating the order of birth of the children in a family or to indicate affection or familiarity. Cai, say that again! Why would you be embarrassed in front of your friends if I don’t have a boyfriend?”

Cai Xin’s father snarled, “Why would I not be? Even Old Wang’s ugly daughter is already married while here you are, still single. Everyone’s wondering whether you’re congenitally impaired! Think about it, if they think you’re impaired, then doesn’t that also mean they think there’s something wrong with your mother and I, who gave birth to you?! In short, I’m telling you, you must bring back a boyfriend for Chinese New Year’s or we’ll disown you!

Old Cai hung up the phone in agitation and Cai Xin collapsed back on the bed.

On the sixth day, at 5 a.m. on the dot, the phone call arrived.

On the seventh day, Cai Xin simply turned off her alarm. As expected, she was woken up by the Cai old couple at 5 a.m., not a second late.

The eighth day, the ninth day…

Finally, after a month of continuous hoarding and morning calls, Cai Xin looked at the Old Mr. and Mrs. Cai with dark circles under her eyes and tears in her voice, “I found a boyfriend yesterday, I’ll bring him home for the New Year’s to visit you, alright? So please don’t call me tomorrow morning!”

The next day, Cai Xin finally got a good night’s sleep. After she woke up naturally without harassment from aggravating morning calls, she was moved to tears. She felt that such was the happiest thing in the world, until her supervisor’s call came to ask her why she was absent without notice. Only then did she find out that she was an hour late to work.

She quickly showered, briskly put on work clothes and chased the bus down in high heels.

Squeezed in the overcrowded bus, Caixin swung in unison with others on the bus as it moved while worrying about how much performance bonus would be deducted from her paycheck. Through the bus window, she looked at the giant oil painting on the billboard on the side of the road. She was suddenly struck with an unknown fear.

She was a painter for four years back then, hiding a young heart that yearned for literature and the arts, carrying a beautiful longing and dream where she thought she would achieve great things in the art circle in the future. What a pity it was that the reality of life forcefully removed her rose-colored lenses and let her see that it was all naive thinking. Even with passion, her talents weren’t enough to beat an offer that enabled her to support her family. After so many years entangled in trivial administrative affairs daily, she had almost forgotten she was an artist at heart.

Cai Xin stepped into her office with a heavy heart. She apologized to her supervisor and then went to deal with those trivial affairs for the rest of the day. By the end of the day, Cai Xin had been suffocated by work and soon forgot her morning thoughts. After a long day of being crushed by work, the only thought she had in her mind was to find someone to have a drink with.

Hi! Welcome to the first volume in a series of twelve of How We Love! They’re short, bite-sized stories that are perfect to pass time, kind of like movies when you get sick of watching serials. Hope you enjoy them~ Upload schedule is 3 chapters every Thursday and Sunday.