well written but soo awful. Hate it

last edited at Sep 16, 2025 5:11PM

@Midnightgunner
well said, really well said!

I need a chapter of Love-Colored Boundary after this...

Yeah the last few pages kind of left me a bit confused on how to feel about this.
The news report says "she had been admitted several days prior".
Qiangyi had already moved out and onto a relationship with this new girl (maybe even living together) just a few days after getting A'wu checked into that mental health facility? That is one fast rebound after getting out of a seven year relationship.

this part i think, after reflection and a reread, isn't that weird. we don't know that qiangyi was 100% faithful toward a'wu during all of that. she wanted to break up, and she was miserable, so her being involved with someone "unofficially" or even having an affair makes sense (and not unheard of for abusive relationships).

like, almost the entire story is from a'wu's warped, self-centered perspective. we can only assume what qiangyi is feeling, and more to the point, experiencing. we don't know what she does outside of the house or in her regular daily life. we only know her in relation to a'wu for the most part. this is honestly pretty clever! it isn't just a'wu who's self-centered with a distorted worldview, it's the narrative itself. the only snippets of the outside world we get (qiangyi's mom, work calls...) only exist in relation to a'wu's interest. anything she can't deal with or doesn't want to think about gets filtered out.

tl;dr qiangyi could've been sleeping with girl 2 the entire time and we'd never know it, because we barely even know her. which the more i think about it is probably the point? i feel like you could analyze this for an academic paper or something lmao

Interesting story and lovely art, kind of brutal ending though.

Interesting read! Looking forward to seeing more of this author’s work.

Well, ouch....

I loved it. We barely have stories like this. Yes, when you are mentally unwell, you are not 100% yourself, but that does not mean that everything is forgiven or that people have the obligation to stay and tolerate everything.
I actually think the author didn’t manage well the pace/rhythm of the story at the end, that is why it may feel weird or abrupt. Also, I think the no-crying to crying to no-crying happy face of qiangyi at the end may seem weird to some lol.
Very exited for this author next project because it is SF

last edited at Sep 16, 2025 7:56PM

Neat to finally see something from CAUSTICSODA here. They / she (?) have a story in serialization in Japan that has really great art and has a pretty different vibe from other manga / manhwa I read. Most of it is not as heavy a bummer as this.

• Did I just read bestiality?

Yes lol that mixed with how manhuas censor pussies was so funny

last edited at Sep 16, 2025 10:05PM

yea im kinda curious as to why the uploader uploaded this like its a multichapter thing

My heart was bursting with love for you.

Damn this line is kinda too cheesy for me lol.

The news report says "she had been admitted several days prior".
Qiangyi had already moved out and onto a relationship with this new girl (maybe even living together) just a few days after getting A'wu checked into that mental health facility? That is one fast rebound after getting out of a seven year relationship.

She might be cheating before go on to admit A'Wu to mental health facility... but that's just my hypothesis, brain trying to fill in the blank.

On p. 12, the noise from the "cousin" ... was A'Wu ever a competent musician to begin with, or is that part of her delusion?

I think it's her delusion, A'Wu's twisted version of reality. Since a cat can't make audio except noise, she just heard QiangYi saying what fits her delusion.

Did I just read bestiality?

Depend on how you see this. In reality this is just A'Wu's delusion that she's a cat. But if you took the depiction at face value, yeah that's beastiality.

yea im kinda curious as to why the uploader uploaded this like its a multichapter thing

Same. This is definitely a oneshot, and it's probably not going to be serialized anytime soon. I've seen oneshots uploaded as a part of a series as "how this series originally was" but I don't think it applies here.

Update: I think this chapter was just moved out as a single-chapter oneshot?
old new
And the series was removed

last edited at Sep 17, 2025 12:43AM

Brutal and beautiful.

"So you cut our ropes,
but left the umbilical."

last edited at Sep 18, 2025 8:28AM

Voices, lost, but not unheard, may be found in the previous thread.

Man that is haunting.

The announcement at the end seemed random to me at first, but upon rereading it, I notice that we already saw her fall and then lie on the ground bleeding, surrounded by scattered leaves. As someone in the other thread pointed out, a cat lands on all four; a human doesn't. It makes sense she'd realise in this moment the sobering truth.

The dead cicada, being a creature that normally "sings", I view as a sign her talent was already fading at the time, or an omen for what was to come (a slow decay).

As for Qiangyi, I suspect, since she wanted to break up some time prior to the admittal, that she's already been ready to move on for a while. I view the move-in scene at the end as her moving out from the old apartment to her own place, leaving behind her past fully. Though I can't help but feel that with her new girlfriend's style being very punk-ish, that she might be a similar type (some sort of artist).

Either way, really good story, love a good psychological deep-dive. And the metaphor the narrative is presented through I think is very apt. There's certainly an appeal in this kind of self-destructive behaviour, which often rewards unwarranted attention and affection, and I suppose I relate somewhat. Feeling like you can't take care of yourself, like your life is falling apart and the only solace you have is getting into a drunken stupor and hope your S/O is willing to pick up the pieces.

That was really harrowing, what a great work.

That being said the ending feels... off, to an extent. That's one hell of a fast rebound and I'm not sure of what the author is trying to convey/not sure if I like what I think they're trying to convey.
I don't mean the moving out part or her being in a relationship with someone already, that part I understand, it's the happy to crying to fine just a bit after that puzzles me.

last edited at Sep 17, 2025 7:26AM

The way I see Qianyi "moving on" so fast is that she didn't see A'wu as her partner anymore. In the news we learn that A'wu's parents passed away so A'wu likely didn't have anyone other than Qianyi to take care of her or willing to take care of her. Since they've been in a relationship for 7 years, Qianyi felt guilty abandoning her so she started taking care of her, not like a partner but more like a parent and since Qianyi's mother knows about it and is really not happy about A'wu still staying with her and Qianyi "playing house and mothering a grown woman". From this we can deduce that this has been going on for a while.

Qianyi likely stayed with A'wu to take care of her because she had no one else but she checked out of that relationship long ago. When Qianyi hears the news of A'wu passing away, she cries from one eye (and right one at that) which often symbolizes happiness. This could be taken as her finally feeling free and being able to move on, feeling relief that A'wu can finally rest from her sickness or both. The fact that she is moving in with the girlfriend likely means that she's been with her for some time now. The girlfriend doesn't seem to know about A'wu and idk how Qianyi could've kept her a secret but that really doesn't matter that much honestly.

last edited at Sep 17, 2025 8:30AM

Narratively it’s a little bit too neat (and likely censorship-informed) that everything can be pointed at A’Wu not taking her medication and her drinking problem, but this is a great story and I’m glad it’s shaking people up.

The way I see Qianyi "moving on" so fast is that she didn't see A'wu as her partner anymore. In the news we learn that A'wu's parents passed away so A'wu likely didn't have anyone other than Qianyi to take care of her or willing to take care of her. Since they've been in a relationship for 7 years, Qianyi felt guilty abandoning her so she started taking care of her, not like a partner but more like a parent and since Qianyi's mother knows about it and is really not happy about A'wu still staying with her and Qianyi "playing house and mothering a grown woman". From this we can deduce that this has been going on for a while.

Qianyi likely stayed with A'wu to take care of her because she had no one else but she checked out of that relationship long ago. When Qianyi hears the news of A'wu passing away, she cries from one eye (and right one at that) which often symbolizes happiness. This could be taken as her finally feeling free and being able to move on, feeling relief that A'wu can finally rest from her sickness or both. The fact that she is moving in with the girlfriend likely means that she's been with her for some time now. The girlfriend doesn't seem to know about A'wu and idk how Qianyi could've kept her a secret but that really doesn't matter that much honestly.

If she's crying happy tears over her ex's death that feels extremely fucked up and gross to me. Especially combined with the mental illness factor. I think it was important that they broke up, though I also think this story feels excessive in it's spite towards the ex and dealing with a partner that has mental illness.

Oof

So it was, in fact, a oneshot
(It was uploaded as a series at first)

The re-up wiped all the previous comments, that's a shame

wtf bro isnt that zoophilia?? it was disgusting af