Hai Hai Rice Bowl

Aku sudah tiga bulan tidak melihat suami mafiaku, Arga Pratama, dan putri kami, Dora. Kenapa? Karena ibunya Arga, Fiona, bilang Dora harus tinggal sementara bersamanya. Sementara Arga? Dia terlalu sibuk dengan urusan bisnis seperti biasanya. Jadi ketika Arga akhirnya menelpon dan bilang dia akan menjemputku untuk reuni keluarga di vila, aku begitu gembira. Aku pikir, mungkin, hanya mungkin, aku akhirnya bisa memeluk putriku lagi. Seharian aku berlari ke sana kemari di kota, membeli boneka favoritnya, camilan, gaun merah muda baru, apa pun yang kupikir bisa membuatnya tersenyum padaku lagi. Tapi ketika mobil itu datang, kenyataannya jauh dari bayanganku. Sebelum aku sempat bilang hai, Dora menoleh, menatapku sebentar... lalu memeluk Maya, si pembantu, lebih erat lagi. Dia menempelkan wajahnya ke leher Maya seolah aku tidak ada di situ. Seolah Maya adalah ibunya. Aku mencoba mendekatinya, tapi Dora tegas bilang dia tidak mau naik mobil bersamaku. Dan Maya dengan senyum sopan yang palsu, terus mencoba membujukku agar memberi Dora sedikit waktu lagi. Aku menoleh ke Arga, berharap dia turun tangan. Sebaliknya, dia cuma terlihat kesal, seolah tidak peduli untuk mengulurkan tangan membenahi hubunganku dengan putri kami. Jelas mereka tidak ingin aku ada di sana. Jadi, apa gunanya aku mencoba ikut naik mobil? Aku melangkah mundur dari SUV. Lalu Arga menoleh padaku dan bilang, "Tunggu di sini. Aku sebentar lagi kembali." Yang tidak akan pernah dia mengerti... aku sudah lelah menunggu dia.

On my wedding day, my groom's sister, Nadia Lawson, wears an elaborate ball gown and comes on stage to snatch the emcee's microphone. Before all the guests, she arrogantly says to me, "Can't you see the princess is here? Why didn't you curtsy and greet me? You deserve to be punished! Get on your knees and prostrate yourself before me as an apology!" My expression sours at her insolence. I turn around only to see the indulgent expressions on her parents' faces. The groom, Bowen Lawson, says dotingly, "We spoiled Nad silly since she was a child. You are her sister-in-law now. Don't make things hard for her." I am so mad that I can't help but laugh at the absurdity of it all. The clown thinks she's a princess, asking me to kneel before her? Ridiculous.

There's a little shop downstairs that sells organ soup. It's always packed with customers. People line up as if bewitched, eager for a bowl. I've often wondered what secret ingredient made their soup so irresistible. This afternoon, I finally found my answer. Floating in my bowl was a piece of human skin—inked with a tattoo I knew all too well. It was the one etched on my boyfriend's arm.

At the company's annual meeting, my promotion opportunity goes to an intern instead. I confront Mitchell Wilson, a manager, only to be publicly humiliated. "The industry is in a slump, yet you have the best sales performance in the entire company. Who knows how you get your clients?" I drank until my stomach bled and ended up in the hospital in the middle of the night. I have forced a smile while serving arrogant, sleazy executives. Yet, none of that feels as humiliating as this moment. My ex-boyfriend looks at me gloatingly while holding the intern's hand as they plan a celebration party. Before leaving, he mocks me, "Yvette is the Saccone Group heiress. Once her evaluation period ends, she will go back to inherit the company. Who do you think you are?" I frown in confusion—I am the Saccone Group heiress.

As I washed my wife's underthings, I discovered semen stains. It had been over two months since I last did it with Winona Sundown. She always looked down on me for not lasting long and being as boring as a dead fish. I silently accepted her criticism and mockery. That was until I saw a stranger messaging Winona with a hotel room number. The hotel just so happened to be my workplace, Pinnacle Hotel. The room number was 8102. I camped by the room, waiting to catch my prey. However, the woman at the door was a young and sensual woman. Unbeknownst to me, I had fallen into Winona's trap long ago...

I was born a Gifted She-Wolf — the only one who could carry an heir of the Ashford royal bloodline. The Alpha King begged me to marry his heir, Hadley. I refused and mated to Hadley's brother — the disgraced former heir who'd been injured in battle. The rumors said he could no longer function as a man. Because in my past life, I'd loved Hadley. We grew up together. I gave him everything. I swallowed bowl after bowl of forbidden tonics. I let blood parasites tear through my veins just to conceive his pup. And when I nearly bled to death giving birth, Hadley threw me to the Rogues. I screamed. I begged him to stop. He just held our pup and laughed. "If you hadn't bewitched my father, he never would've forced me to mate you. My Juno died of heartbreak because of you. You're a Gifted She-Wolf, aren't you? You love breeding so much — then breed for every Rogue in Ashford Territory." The Rogues broke me until I died. Hadley tossed my body at Juno's grave as an offering. My pup was recorded as Juno's child. Then I opened my eyes — back to the moment the Alpha King first begged me to marry Hadley.

When my husband, Louis Banks, was caught in a traffic accident, I was at an interview out of town. By the time I got to the hospital, he had already been declared dead, and was sent to the crematorium. Hearing the news, I fainted on the spot. When I woke up again, I was greeted by the court coming to enforce the auction of all our assets. The reason was that Louis' company had gone into financial troubles, leaving us in massive debt, and I was the only legal representative of the company. Many years later, I found myself begging in the snow with a cracked bowl, and I nearly got run over by a luxury car. To my surprise, the one in the driver's seat was none other than Louis, who was supposed to be dead ages ago! Dressed in designer brands and holding another woman in his arms, he jeered at my filthy stench and appearance, even kicking my bowl to pieces. "You're still alive, huh? I was worried that I couldn't trick someone who graduated from a bigshot university, but you were dumb enough to believe it without questioning it for a second!" He laughed, sneering as he continued, "Thanks for working so hard for us, hahaha!" His words filled me with so much anger that I died on the spot, my eyes glaring at him even in death. Little did I expect that when I came to, I found myself back on the day of his accident!

Terlahir dengan istimewa tak membuat Alara Diba Afsana putus asa dan minder di tengah kalangan anak seusianya. Sejak kecil, Alara di titipkan di rumah sang Nenek karena Papa yang sibuk bekerja. Sedangkan Mama? Alara tidak mengetahuinya. Papa tidak pernah menceritakan sosok Mama pada Alara. Tak ada yang mau terlahir seperti Alara, ejekan, hinaan hingga gunjingan Alara terima dengan diam tanpa melawan. Hingga suatu sore, Alara tak sengaja bertemu perempuan berhijab bersama beberapa anak seusianya yang tengah bermain di taman. Alara hanya melihat tak berani mendekat. Bunda. Setidaknya kata itu adalah kalimat yang mereka ucapkan kepada perempuan berhijab itu. Betapa murah senyum perempuan berhijab itu kepada mereka semua, bermain dan melempar canda bersama anak-anak begitu gembira. Lantas, tak sengaja kaki kecilnya berjalan menuju mereka. Ingin sekali Alara ikut bermain dan tertawa bersama, tapi apakah boleh? Apakah boleh Alara ikut merasakan kebahagiaan mereka ketika Alara sendiri terlahir dengan keistimewaan yang membuatnya dijauhi banyak orang? "Hai! Adek mau ikut bermain?" Tanya perempuan berhijab itu dengan nada yang lembut. "Bunda." Perempuan itu mengerutkan kening heran, lantas mengerti maksud kalimat "Bunda" dari Alara. "Iya, adek boleh kok panggil kakak Bunda. Sama seperti yang lain." Alara menatap perempuan berhijab yang tersenyum manis kepadanya dengan mata berkaca, "Boleh tidak Bunda jadi Bundanya Alara?" Perempuan itu merasa aneh dengan pertanyaan Alara, namun ia berusaha menanggapi pertanyaan Alara dengan senyuman, "Jadi adek namanya Alara, ya?" Alara mengangguk. "Iya, boleh kok Alara anggap Bunda jadi Bundanya Alara juga." Satu hal yang tidak perempuan berhijab itu sadari. Jika Alara menginginkan ia menjadi Bundanya, Bunda hanya untuk Alara. ***

"Here are the leftovers for you, hurry up and finish them!" Marcel glanced at the plates filled with scattered rice, chicken bones with a little meat still attached, and vegetable soup with only the soup left. "Eat on the floor, as usual." Marcel looked down and looked at his wife, Shirley. "You have the nerve to tell me to finish your brothers' leftovers?" asked Marcel in a protesting tone, as he frowned reluctantly at the plates. The oppression Marcel experienced made him want to end his life by downing his parents' formula. However, instead of dying, he was transformed into a powerful being! Will his wife's family apologize?

Joshua Thompson, Rain Zimmer’s husband, had a deceased ex he could never get over—Lily Smithson. Rain always hoped that there would come one day where she could replace Lily’s presence in Joshua’s heart. In the eighth year of their marriage, Rain accidentally destroyed a bowl Lily had bought on a whim for Joshua, and Joshua yelled at her, “Get out! I don’t want to see you!” At that moment, Rain finally came to realize that she could never win against Rain’s ex. This time, she quietly drafted the divorce agreement and left, but Joshua panicked.