A Tender Heart

At first, Xiao Fu thought she was an ordinary demon, until she discovered she was a snow fox.

Later, Xiao Fu thought she was an ordinary snow fox, until Nuwa forced her to take her own life for the sake of the world, until the entire snow fox clan died because of her, until she began to fear herself.

The world stretches vast beneath the sun, moon, and stars, filled with birds and beasts. Born within it, one knows what one can and cannot do. Born beyond it, even that little bit of ability becomes impossible.

Notes: 1v1, BE. Let me say it three times: BE, BE, BE.

2. The leads are not perfect people. At the start, they won't sacrifice themselves for all living beings.

3. The romance is the focus, with a melodramatic, angsty love story.

4. Updates when inspiration strikes.

5. Some character names in this novel come from Xin Qiji's poems.

6. Snow foxes are not demons. They are a species distinct from the demon race.

Inspired by the pressure of high school. This is an early work with quite a few potential landmines. I've left it unfinished for a long time and agonized over it many times, but I still want to give them an ending.

My next novel, The Mountains and Rivers Will Dress for Us, is available to preorder. If you're interested, please add it to your favorites.

During the Jingkang era, the Fuqiang people ran rampant, and everyone wanted them dead.

After thirty years of slaughter, the Fuqiang clan was wiped out in the eighteenth year of Jingde.

To survive, the Fuqiang slave Mo Nu made a grand gesture and gave herself the surname Lin.

Not long after Lin Mo Nu arrived in Annan, she was captured by one of the Prince of Annan's lackeys.

There are two sayings in Annan: "No one is more lecherous than Yu Chulin, and no one is more wicked than the Prince of Annan."

As it happens, they're the same person.

Lin Mo Nu expects to see lively erotic paintings, but as soon as she enters the mansion, the steward gives the women several dozen taels of silver and treats them to food and drink, all so they can go out and spread stories about how awful Yu Changlin is.

Then one day, beneath the night sky, she sees Yu Chulin talking to the fish in the pond before turning around and cutting his arm.

By the light of the moon, Lin Mo Nu sees the wound on his arm.

One mark after another, clear and terrifying.

"Chulin, what are you living for?"

"To return to the capital and reclaim everything I lost."

"I'm living to survive, living for the sake of staying alive."

What I walked over was a mountain of my own people's bones. What I drank was the blood of my own people. I was a vengeful ghost, hidden in the most wretched corner of the world. I fought with all my strength for no more than the chance to keep the few survivors of my clan alive.

Only you said I should ride a Azure Dragon and keep company with phoenixes, that all the mountains and rivers should dress for me.

Notes: 1. 1v1, HE. Sweet and angsty, but the angst is in the plot, not the romance.

2. Set in an imagined ancient world. Any resemblance is coincidental. Historical accuracy enthusiasts, please go easy on me.

3. I'll have 200,000 words written in advance before starting, and I won't go on hiatus once it begins.

4. The female characters' names come from Xin Qiji's poem "To the Tune of Yongyule: In Memory of the Past at Jingkou's Beigu Pavilion": "Among the grass and trees in the setting sun, in an ordinary lane, people say that Jinu once lived here."

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