After Raising the Villain, I Became a Winner in Life

[I'm back after getting crushed by the rat race! Here's a progress report: I'm revising the earlier chapters and organizing my backlog.] Lu Kou is a young phoenix who gained humanlike intelligence after the founding of the country. It's hard being a monster these days. After witnessing the 365th powerful monster get caught and thrown behind bars for turning leaves into money, Lu Kou took the matter to heart. She decided to put her phoenix talents to use and join a certain horror variety show, becoming a law-abiding working monster. So, on a certain horror variety show that aired late at night: In an abandoned school beset by chilling winds, a giant snake that could speak opened its mouth and lunged at the guests. At this critical moment, the master everyone agreed was only on the show through connections calmly reached into his pocket and pulled out... a brand-new pair of chopsticks? Lu Kou remained composed. "A monster that can talk? Just a genetic mutation. Why don't I show everyone 99 ways to cook snake meat?" The guests who had been about to run away: ??? The viewers in the livestream: ??? That night, the show's popularity soared. Some time later, Lu Kou was interviewed as the face of the hottest variety show around. Reporter: "...All right, let's skip the part about investigating the supernatural. Could you explain the man on the show who said he couldn't cultivate immortality, then turned around and whisked you off on a flying sword? And the dragon who keeps throwing gold at people, and the young man who treats a skull like a toy?" Lu Kou: "..." I think you should ask your fellow humans about that. All she did was pick up a few pitiful, pretty little waif characters in a game and raise them. Who could have known that the game humans invented would be so powerful that the paper characters she'd raised could run right out of it? * The year Xie Ling had his sword bones ripped out while he was still alive, then was thrown, covered in wounds, into a ruined house to wait for death, he never imagined anyone in the world would gently cradle his injuries and softly ask him, "Does it hurt?" For this person, even after falling into the mud, Xie Ling found the courage to climb back up and cut through every invisible barrier, all so that one day he could truly stand by her side. ...Of course, it would be even better if he were the only one around her who felt that way :) Reading guide: 1. As always, a feel-good, funny, and sweet story. The monsters and ghosts come with creative liberties, so please don't overthink them. 2. There will be a love rivalry among the paper characters. The CP is already decided: it's the one in the blurb. The others are family and affection. Theme: Give your tender love to those who deserve it.