Snake Venom [Chinese Otome]

Loan Knife Alley, an enclave forgotten by both the imperial court and the Way of Heaven.

Here, the eerie immortals rule by their own laws, and crime is an everyday act of worship.

Liu Xia Dongque was trained at the Bureau of Strange Affairs, but was exiled here because she bore the uncanny S-rank fate, [Snake Heart].

[Snake Heart] Fate:

She forges a heart pact with her target, causing a snake-shaped mark to appear over their heart.

While they coexist, the other party's abilities are honed and strengthened. But each time they use one, it is as if they have contracted lovesickness: they cannot control their longing for her presence.

As their dependence deepens and they finally fall into ruin, their ability is completely stripped away and becomes one of her bloodline powers.

The price she pays is this: every ability she absorbs also saddles her with a share of the other person's most grievous karmic burden.

With this dangerous gift, she became the youngest third-rank night patrol officer in Eerie Case Unit Eight.

And on her very first official order were four names that made all of Loan Knife Alley tremble:

[Casino Boss]

He sat in a private room, shuffling cards, his gaze behind gold-rimmed glasses as languid as a leopard's.

Dongque sat down without ceremony, poured herself a cup of Biluochun tea, and pressed her chips beneath the cup. "For the next 24 hours, you won't be able to stop my time."

He stopped time throughout the entire casino, leaving the chips suspended in midair.

Only she could move freely.

She took the pipe from his lips and put it to her own. When smoke began to curl into the air again, his lazy smile finally stiffened.

"Your time-stopping law," she breathed smoke into his face, "seems to have left a back door open just for me."

[No-Mind Swordsman]

On a stormy night, his sword felled thirteen people, yet its path veered when it reached her.

She stepped through the blood and returned the ancient sword etched with spells. Her fingertips brushed the hand gripping its hilt. "Your sword knows me."

He seized her wrist and pinned it against a wet wall, the blade resting against her neck. "It knows blood."

"Then why haven't you made me bleed, not even once?" She suddenly arched her neck toward the blade. His wrist jolted violently, and the sword leapt from his hand of its own accord, embedding itself in the wall as it hummed without end.

Amid the sword's ringing, his kiss finally fell upon her, tasting of rust and surrender.

[Champion]

In the underground fighting pit known as the Asura Cage, he had just snapped a challenger's neck.

Amid the deafening cheers, he could only stare at her in the shadows, his head spinning.

At midnight, he kicked open the door to her room, where a paper lantern swayed. Bloodlust steamed from his whole body. "Did you fucking put a curse on me?"

She touched his racing heart with a fingertip. "Admit it. You didn't come here to accuse me. You just came to make sure I was still here."

He seized her wrist and pinned it against the door, breathing heavily like a trapped beast.

She leaned close to his bloodstained lips, her voice light as an incantation. "What's the point of beating everyone else? ... Do you dare lose to me just once?"

[Gu Master]

He tricked her into swallowing a venomous insect, smiling tenderly. "You lose... This is a love curse. When it takes effect, you'll cry and beg me to love you."

Dongque smiled faintly, then opened her mouth. A tiny silver snake slid from the tip of her tongue and burrowed into his wrist.

For the first time, his smile disappeared.

The Gu King he had raised had betrayed its master, emerging to coil affectionately around her fingers.

She stroked the Gu snake and asked with a smile, "Even it has chosen its master. What about you?"

"...Time for you to acknowledge your master, isn't it?"

The blurb is subject to change.

A light novel, novella-length.

Probably a cyberpunk, Chinese-inspired story about a cast of villains.

"Let love run so deep that your bones resound with it."

Villain x Heart Thief

Theme: Put yourself first, love yourself, and never forget who you are.