Parched Land

EUX Series, Book Two:

"In the fifth year since the World Mutual Aid Organization was founded, Earth's resources ran dry, turning this once-bountiful blue planet into a barren wasteland."

In the fifth year after Earth's resources ran dry, Tan Shui just wanted to slack off.

Wordsmith? Too tiring.

Correct causality? Bad for your health.

Save the world? Let whoever wants to do it go.

Until he was accosted on a mountain road by a black cat...

The black cat transformed into a man, six foot three, with a cold expression. The first thing he said was:

"You looked at my wife through a mirror for three seconds just now."

Tan Shui: "May I ask who your wife is...?"

Black Cat: "You. You have to take responsibility and live with me."

Tan Shui: "???"

Later, Tan Shui learned that this man named Tan Shan was the youngest beastman leader in Shannan.

Cold-blooded, shrewd, and indifferent to others.

Yet every night, he turned into a cat, burrowed into Tan Shui's bed, and wrapped his tail around his wrist.

Tan Shui: Fine, I guess I can make do.

And then... he was kidnapped by the villain. ToT

Tan Shan had withdrawn the people assigned to protect him ahead of time, using him as bait.

By the time the rescue team finally arrived, Tan Shui's body was nowhere to be found.

Tan Shan searched through the ruins for a day and a night, finding only half a bottle of yogurt. It was the same bottle he'd tricked Tan Shui into picking up when they first met.

His wife, who was so big, was gone...

Yet years later, Tan Shui appeared before them alive. The backlash from overusing his wordsmith powers had taken away all his emotions.

He could no longer cry, feel sad, or smile. And he would never again go soft on Tan Shan.

A person without emotions is the strongest of all.

Tan Shan crouched in front of him, turned back into a black cat, rolled onto his back, kneaded his paws, and rubbed his tail against Tan Shui's palm.

Cat kneading paws.jpg

Cat nuzzling.jpg

Tan Shui lowered his eyes and looked at him, his tone calm. "Please move. You're blocking the light."

The black cat's tail went rigid. The entire cat turned into a corpse and flopped over in a dead faint!

A special wordsmith without emotions ought to contribute to world peace.

In the blazing sunlight, the figure in Tan Shan's arms gradually turned transparent, growing more and more so, like the fragile wings of a summer cicada, until they cracked apart with a snap.

"Tan Shan? I'm back. I've missed you so much..."

[Cold, shrewd black cat beastman daddy x Laid-back, capybara-like wordsmith]

Tan Shan (black cat beastman) x Tan Shui (wordsmith)

[Reader's Guide]

One-on-one | Happy ending | Both virgins | Mild sci-fi, post-apocalyptic setting | Dog-blooded groveling romance and faked death

The Barren Land, also known as After the World's Most Hated Nobody Lost His Wordsmith Powers

Author's setting notes:

"Wordsmithing": Using language to correct causality. The harder the causality is to change, the more damage the wordsmith suffers. Under certain circumstances, wordsmiths can use this ability to make decisions.

Requirement: The sentence must contain a complete subject, verb, and object, clearly stating who is acting, who is being acted upon, and the result.

Example: You let go of me (triggers successfully)

Let go of me / You let go / Let go (doesn't work)

Beef people: People whose genes have been modified so that they taste like beef, have the nutritional value of beef, and can be cooked like beef.

Fruit people: Similar to beef people, but they taste like fruit and have the nutritional value of fruit.

⚠️Content warnings⚠️

1. This is a story with no coherent prose logic that should have been filed under [Dream Short Stories].

2. The beastman setting isn't the main focus. Mild sci-fi.

3. Some readers have said the mixture of Chinese and English looks strange. The setting isn't a traditional university or a modern Earth setting. You could look into Sino-foreign cooperative universities.

4. The groveling romance and faked death are only a small part of the story. All the conflicts are there to serve the plot.

5. I might write very, very long bonus chapters, and it's starting to feel like a quick transmigration story, lol. Who knew a mere dream would grow into so many things?

6. I'll add more if I think of anything else~

Theme: In the fifth year since the World Mutual Aid Organization was founded, Earth's resources ran dry, turning this once-bountiful blue planet into a barren wasteland.