Monster Inspector's Handbook

[Main story complete. The full text is being carefully revised, with bonus chapters dropping at irregular intervals.]

[Irreverent, sharp-witted human inspector on the bottom vs. gentle, courteous, virtuous, domestic monster on the top. Both are virgins. One-on-one romance, happy ending.]

Humans and monsters now live together. The nation has established the Bureau of Supernatural Creature and Phenomenon Inspection and Management, responsible for monitoring all supernatural phenomena within the country, protecting people's lives and property, and maintaining public order.

But one day, an inspector transferred to the Longhu City branch of the bureau.

...He was a monster.

The people they had once been assigned to monitor were now their coworkers, and every inspector at the Longhu City branch went on high alert.

But they soon discovered that although this monster was incredibly powerful... he was also remarkably easygoing.

On his first day, someone held a gun to his throat, and he remained calm.

On his third day, someone insulted him to his face, and he simply let it go.

Discriminated against, ostracized, and suspected... No matter what kind of workplace bullying he faced, the monster remained courteous, magnanimous, and completely unbothered.

...Except when their team leader was in danger. Then he bared his fangs.

Everyone at the Bureau: ...An A-rank monster. Truly terrifying.

*

Zhou Wei, team leader of the Longhu City branch's inspection and enforcement squad, has been troubled lately. His newly transferred coworker is not only an A-rank monster who could blow up the entire Longhu City branch with a flick of his finger, but also wants to be his neighbor.

Zhou Wei: I refuse.

But the monster has broad shoulders, a narrow waist, an eight-pack, and is gentle, courteous, and refined.

Zhou Wei, righteously: I refuse.

But the monster can cook and clean just as well as he can entertain guests, and he can do everything around the house.

Zhou Wei, adamantly: I refuse.

But the monster tears through his clan's forbidden grounds and breaks through an illusory maze for him, then returns covered in blood and says, "What if I do it willingly?"

Zhou Wei: I refu...

Zhou Wei flips the table and jumps to his feet: I can't refuse! How can we date when we're different species? I need another five hundred years!

*

On the day Zhou Wei accepts his confession, Li Mo says to him: "If you die one day, I'll burn your body and take your ashes back to the mountains. I'll hide you in the cave where I was born and ask Bai Ze for a dose of medicine. Vines from the mountains will bind us tightly together, and I'll dream a dream with only you in it. In that dream, we'll never part again."

With hope and longing in his voice, he says, "That's the best life I can imagine."

[A story about a human and a monster solving cases together, fighting monsters, and overcoming the problem of their different lifespans.]

(This story is generally episodic. The plot takes priority early on, and the romance is a slow burn.)

[Case One: The Bloodvine Murders] (Complete)

"Have you heard? A rich kid died at that upscale club. A monster ghost came to claim his life!"

[Case Two: The Qinyuan's Return] (Complete)

"A monster criminal arrested fourteen years ago has appeared again."

[Case Three: The Painted Face in Showbiz] (Complete)

"That star who fell to his death... his face was completely rotten!"

[Warnings! Please read!]

1. This is a serious drama, and the story's tone may differ slightly from the blurb.

2. The setting is entirely fictional. Please don't draw parallels with real life.

3. This is a modern supernatural story with a mountain of original lore. The logic and professional details won't stand up to scrutiny; everything serves the plot.

A recommendation for an upcoming series set in the same world as my other stories:

[Blurb:]

The stove fire burns blue, the medicine soup reeks,

And bone fragments in the vat clatter at midnight.

Red paper charms are pasted to the mirror,

A wooden puppet with broken legs learns to speak.

A beast in a cage, its claws like nails,

Shadow soldiers march through a stone formation.

Listen closely beside the stove beneath the moon,

There are eyes in the ashes.

More than a hundred years ago, the land was shattered and its people driven from their homes. Foreign invaders crossed the border, burning cities and plundering the land. Countless palaces and towers were reduced to ash overnight.

Many books of arcane arts and strange accounts, ancient spiritual artifacts, and rare old texts, once hidden deep within the imperial palace, were scattered among the people. Some were destroyed in the flames of war; others were seized by the invaders and taken across the sea, lost forever.

The legacy of Chinese sorcery hung by a thread.

At that time, a handful of brave people from among the common folk rose to the challenge and headed west with their packs. They escorted a chest of ancient books on arcane arts that had fallen into civilian hands, crossing battlefields and wastelands to reach the southwestern hinterland and preserve a spark of Chinese sorcery for future generations.

At the same time, large numbers of Japanese onmyoji crossed the sea with the invading army, intending to sever the land's spiritual ley lines, draw upon their energy, and empower the invaders' weapons.

If the ley lines were severed, the land would fall into eternal silence.

Led by the former dynasty's Celestial Bureau's Taoist masters and the eight great spiritual clans among the people, cultivators joined forces with several ancient great monsters. They took up positions across the ley lines and engaged the Japanese onmyoji in a struggle without smoke or gunfire.

This was a war for every living thing on the land of China.

No one could stand apart from it.

[This story tells the history behind the modern Bureau of Supernatural Inspection. Old friends like Bai Ze and Chongming will all appear.]

[The folk song at the beginning is about the eight great spiritual clans.]

[An alternate-history Republican-era story with a mountain of original lore. It borrows only the broad historical setting, and none of the characters are based on real people.]

Theme: All living beings are equal.