Universe Infinite Canteen

"Oh, oh, oh, how did you turn into a skeleton?" Ma Lu asked curiously, "If you don't want to talk about it, that's okay too."

"Actually, it's all right, it's been a long time, and I've grieved already," Love-Struck said.

"I turned into this during my senior year of high school. I went to the mountains to play with some classmates, including the person I had a crush on. I wanted to confess to him that day, but when we reached the mountaintop, it started to rain."

"He didn't have an umbrella, so I mustered the courage to go up to him and say we could share mine. He looked surprised but eventually agreed."

"And then?"

"Then a thick bolt of lightning suddenly struck from the sky, hitting my umbrella directly, and I lost consciousness on the spot. When I woke up, I had become what I am now," Love-Struck recalled.

"The boy I liked wasn't saved either, and he came to hate me very much because of the incident. I went to apologize to him afterward, but he wouldn't see me, and not long after, he moved and transferred schools."

Love-Struck spoke of the incident with self-reproach, "It's all my fault. If I hadn't liked him, I wouldn't have had the courage to share an umbrella with him, and then the lightning would have struck only me."

"Um... This sort of thing, it's not your fault," Ma Lu said, "It's all down to luck, and maybe it was destined to be this way."

"In any case, that's how my first love ended, and with it, my youth," Love-Struck said, drooping her head.

"I didn't even get to experience the taste of love before becoming a skeleton. Though my mom and dad keep comforting me, saying a skeleton can still find love and live happily."

"But... it's just that the boys at school, they prefer girls who are still alive, even though I could find another skeleton like me. But there aren't many high school students my age who are dead."

"And even as a skeleton, those boys still like the living girls better, because they have bigger chests. Ah, boys, such a dedicated species. Regardless of whether they are alive or skeletons, their preferences never change."

"That... is true," Ma Lu acknowledged, nodding his head.

"Dad reassures me that it will get better once I go to college. There are more skeletons in college, and I've heard that everyone dates in college. Ah, I really want to go to college tomorrow, I so want to be in love!" the seventeen-year-old skeleton high school girl let out a deafening cry.
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"But... I didn't even make it to college before my mom brought me to this plane. I thought changing to a new place would make it easier to date, but who would've thought, the humans on this plane can actually die!!!!!"

Even though Love-Struck was using a voice changer, Ma Lu could still hear the deep despair in her voice.

"That means I'm the only skeleton here!!! Oh my gosh! How could this be? I won't be able to find another skeleton to fall in love with, which means I might never know what love! Feels! Like! For my whole life!"

Ma Lu empathized and comforted her, "Love is really just... that kind of thing, not as fun as playing games. Yeah, wandering around various planes and collecting ingredients is much more interesting than dating, and of course, the happiest thing is making money and Star Currency."

"But boss, you can say that because you've had experience with love!" The skeleton high school girl hit the nail on the head.

"Whether good or bad, you can only talk so confidently about love being nothing special if you've experienced it yourself. If you haven't even tried, then you're not qualified to say so!"

"Hm... that seems to make sense."

"So I won't give up on love!" The skeleton high school girl suddenly felt inspired and struck a serious pose like a soccer goalkeeper.

"I want to be in love! Even if there are no other skeletons here, I still want to be in love!!!"

"Good, that's the spirit! Young people should have this kind of enthusiasm!" Ma Lu cheered for the youthfulness and took a big gulp of Cat Pee Beer.

"By the way, how many times have you tried to find a boyfriend here?"

"This is the 14th time. The first 13 attempts failed, and this is the 14th," Love-Struck glanced back at the restaurant, "I actually don't care if he's a serial killer, as long as he loves me, but it's a shame, I don't have what he wants."

Having said that, Love-Struck glanced at the empty chest cavity.

"There's no need to regret that kind of guy," Ma Lu patted her shoulder, causing her skeleton to creak, "The next one will be better."

"But it seems I always find weird people," the skeleton high school girl lamented, tilting her head, "The first was a handsome uncle, the kindest, very nice to me. He even said he'd help me invest. After I put in 50 million, he disappeared."

"Then I met a guy of Chinese descent in Burma. He sent me lots of photos of traveling and enjoying food, and warmly invited me to go to Burma. I snuck over there without telling my mom, and they indeed played hide-and-seek with me, stuffing me into a sack."

"They took me to a small clinic and said they wanted to use my organs, but I was just a skeleton and didn't have any, so I disappointed them," Love-Struck counted off on her fingers.

"Next was a director from Taiwan Province, who said he'd make me a star. I found out only after going there that all their films were the kind without clothes. But to maintain the hard-won relationship between us, I did what he told me to, and they all ran away scared."

"Then there was a soldier... We had a great chat for two weeks, talking from Milan Kundera to Ludnef, and he played guitar for me. But two weeks later, he said he was off to the front lines and might never return. He asked if he could see my [beep], so I sent it to him, and then he blocked me."

"Of all the 13 attempts at love, my favorite was a poet, the only one who continued to date me after seeing what I looked like and the gentlest person I've met who had kindness for everything in the world."

"He always told me I was too good for him, that he didn't deserve me, though living in poverty he still always wanted to help others, yet he couldn't help himself."

"Before our third date, he ended his life. He was really gentle, and not to trouble his landlord, he even went to a river a mile away from where he lived, and leapt from the bridge.

"Every time I pass that river, I wonder what he was thinking in the last moment of his life. Sadly, people here can't turn into skeletons; he won't be able to answer me anymore."