Tales of the Strange in the Eastern Capital

In the first year of the Tianshou era, the Two Sovereigns ruled together, and strange phenomena filled the land. Eight women died one after another in the eastern capital, Luoyang. Their gruesome deaths seemed beyond anything in the human world. The Two Sovereigns personally issued an imperial decree, respectfully summoning the world's foremost female Taoist, Ji Changqing, abbess of Xuanzhen Temple, to leave her seclusion and subdue the demon. Ji Changqing was brilliant and peerless, and possessed a gift every cultivator envied: she was born unable to experience romantic love, and thus her Daoist heart was unwavering. But no one knew her secret. Three years ago, she was poisoned by a love potion and spent one night with a stranger. As the man asked her name in bed, the poison had already worn off. Ji Changqing left indifferently. Three years later, Ji Changqing left seclusion to subdue the demon. At the crime scene, she ran into the man she had used and abandoned: He Lanhun, a director in the Ministry of Justice. II When He Lanhun was a wastrel, he single-handedly upheld half the wastrel world of the Tianshou court. After joining the Ministry of Justice, he took on major cases and solved them one after another, forcing a bunch of lazybones in the ministry to work hard and become capable officials. Everyone knew He Lanhun had no taboos and was the last man to approach women. It was said that he had encountered a female demon one night, and had been impotent ever since. When He Lanhun heard the rumor, he cracked the skull of the person spreading it with a brick. Then he saw the "female demon" who was rumored to have drained him dry. The female demon wasn't a demon at all. She was a demon hunter, and the world's foremost female Taoist: Ji Changqing. He Lanhun hefted the brick and rubbed his chin. Well, this was getting interesting. [The world's foremost female Taoist, cold-hearted and quick to use him and toss him aside x the fiery, money-throwing, never-back-down world's foremost wastrel] Content notes: 1. A mystery with supernatural elements, but nothing scary. At its heart, it's a sweet story about winning back your wife. 2. The female lead is the strongest. 3. Set in a fictionalized Tang dynasty, but very loosely based on it. Upcoming novel: Scheming for a Wife, now available: When her half-sister's bridal sedan was carried through the gate as a secondary wife, Ming Xueji was summoned to a side residence by Yuan Zhen, the Prince of Zhenbei. The first time she met Yuan Zhen, she was with her husband, Ji Yanzong. At the time, Ji Yanzong had just passed the palace examination and earned the favor of Yuan Zhen, whose power overshadowed the entire realm. At last, the poor couple had made it through. But in the blink of an eye, Ji Yanzong wanted to marry her half-sister. He said, "You've always been so virtuous. Surely you can make room in your heart for your own sister?" Ming Xueji entered the inner room, where Yuan Zhen was waiting with a meaningful smile on his lips. "Would you like to take revenge for every humiliation you've suffered?" Ming Xueji looked at her ring finger. Her mother's ring had once been there, but now only an ugly scar remained. She had sold the ring to pay for Ji Yanzong's education. The scar was from the chilblains she'd suffered after washing clothes and cooking through countless bitter winters. The flesh had rotted, and it would never heal. Ming Xueji did not stop Yuan Zhen's hand from reaching for the sash of her skirt. ◆ Ji Yanzong realized Ming Xueji had become even more virtuous than before. She personally arranged the furnishings in his new bridal chamber. Every night, she sent him to his half-sister's room. She also dealt with the Prince of Zhenbei's household on his behalf, all for the sake of his future. She loved him so much, Ji Yanzong thought he could spare her a little affection now and then. Until the day he knelt outside the Prince of Zhenbei's residence, asking for an audience, and heard suspicious whispers from within. Ji Yanzong peered through a crack in the door and saw the rosy hem of his virtuous, proper wife's skirt, and a pair of bare feet beneath it. The bite marks were unmistakable. Completed novels you can read with confidence: The Beloved in His Palm: A serious Tang-style story of being reborn, stealing a wife, and court intrigue How Could She Be as Bewitching as a Blade: A scheming beauty x a possessive male lead The Beloved in His Palm: A sweet, delicate beauty in an old-fashioned romance Pampering the White Lotus (Quick Transmigration): A scheming white lotus Theme: Searching for the one you love amid a vast sea of people, and protecting them with all your heart