a Working Mother's Refuge: In the Age of AI, Life and Work

What if the thing you wanted most was simply a few hours of uninterrupted sleep?A Chinese immigrant mother living in New York is doing her best to keep up with the demands of modern life. She works as a software engineer, raises two young children with her husband, and moves through each day balancing work deadlines, family responsibilities, and endless small tasks that never seem to end.Exhausted by years of interrupted sleep and the constant needs of others, she begins secretly booking hotel rooms during workdays-not for an affair, not for escape, but simply for a chance to rest alone.One afternoon, in the lobby of her secret refuge, she sees something she was never meant to see, and realizes her quiet escape has pulled her into a secret far bigger than her own.As artificial intelligence reshapes the workplace and the world around her moves ever faster, she finds herself reflecting on motherhood, identity, ambition, friendship, belonging, and the difficult balance between caring for others and caring for herself.A Working Mother's Refuge is a tender, sharply observed novel about motherhood, immigration, work, and the invisible weight so many women carry alone. Honest and deeply human, it's for anyone who has ever felt stretched too thin and quietly wondered if they were the only one. Readers may find pieces of themselves within its pages, and perhaps discover that they are not as alone as they thought.