The Little Snake Demon Beneath Qingcheng Mountain

[My next book, Return with the Bright Moon, is looking for readers!]

Blurb:

Back when Qing Guangling was still a demon, he offered up his soul to Heaven, all to ask for a red thread that would bind him and his beloved together for lifetime after lifetime.

The Matchmaker laughed at him. "Lifetime after lifetime? There is no such red thread. Even if there were, it wouldn't be a red thread. It would be a curse."

Later, Qing Guangling spent an entire lifetime pretending to be a fool,

because he knew his wife, Bai Ruoyue, had always kept another young gentleman in her heart.

But he pretended not to know. That way, his "wife" could belong to him alone.

Only as he lay dying did he finally find the courage to ask, "Guangling is dying in Ruoyue's arms now. Will you wait for me in the next life?"

*

A hundred years after the little snake demon Bai Ruoyue woke up, she vaguely remembered a gentleman called "Qing Xu" from her dream.

So she went to the human world to settle their old score.

On the day of Young Master Xu's wedding, she gave up half her life to repay her debt. From then on, their debts to each other were settled.

Her martial uncle, Qing Guangling, happened to pass by and saved her. He didn't forget to sneer coldly, "Gratitude and love are two different things. Have you learned your lesson?"

Later, Bai Ruoyue failed to ascend to immortality. Qing Guangling tried to save her, and the two of them fell into the Pool of Rebirth together.

In the dream of the Pool of Rebirth, she remembered her past life and realized that Qing Guangling had exactly the same face as the gentleman "Qing Xu."

It seemed she had given her life to repay the wrong person.

When she woke, Qing Guangling was restoring her spiritual power.

She tugged at his sleeve. "Lord Guangling, did you enter that dream too? Did you meet a gentleman called Qing Xu?"

Qing Guangling glanced at her and said irritably, "All I remember is a snake demon who was set on becoming my wife. I gave my life for her, and she ran off as soon as I turned around."

Bai Ruoyue tugged at his sleeve, looking up at him hopefully. "Husband?"

Qing Guangling glanced at her and pulled his sleeve away. "You'd better keep calling me Martial Uncle."

[Reading Guide]

1. The White Snake and the Black Dragon, a green fish spirit, are the CP. The scholar Xu is a major sacrificial pawn.

2. The story of a scholar raising a snake demon comes from Tan Sheng in the Guangyi Ji. The story of Bai Ruoyue and the scholar Xu comes from Bai Niangzi Yongzhen Leifeng Ta in the Jing Shi Tong Yan. In the original story, Qingqing is a green fish spirit, not a snake.

3. Gratitude and love are two different things. 2021.9

Next book, Return with the Bright Moon:

When Huo Fuyue left the grasslands for an arranged marriage, she was only a sixteen-year-old girl. She married Pei Yuncheng, the great general of Yan, known as "A Thousand Graves Beneath His Sword."

At first, she pretended to be a sweet, shy little white flower:

Ah! Brother, your sword is so sharp. Fufu is scared!

Fufu is still young and can't serve her husband. Could I treat the general like an older brother?

After two years in the household, Pei Yuncheng treated her as nothing more than another place setting at the table. He never gave the little girl a second thought.

If he hadn't seen her climb onto the roof to pick fruit that day, landing without a sound and showing off astonishing lightness skills, she might have fooled him.

Later, on their wedding night, Pei Yuncheng lifted her red veil with his sword. Huo Fuyue faced him with a jeweled dagger in hand, wearing an innocent, vulnerable expression. "My grandfather said Yan is a land of propriety, and if we don't like each other, we can divorce. You'll let me go, right, Brother?"

Pei Yuncheng looked at his little bride with interest and smiled. "Let you go? Not a chance. But if you can escape my territory, go ahead and try!"

*

She ran, he chased. Every time he caught the little white horse and brought her back, he tied her up.

Huo Fuyue: "Husband? Brother Yuncheng? Uncle? Let me go. I won't run away again!"

Pei Yuncheng: "I'll believe you once we've truly become husband and wife."

One day, Huo Fuyue made it all the way back to the grasslands. Pei Yuncheng led a hundred thousand troops after her.

Huo Fuyue cringed and looked terrified. "Husband, the soldiers have swords. I'm so scared..."

Pei Yuncheng propped his chin on his hand. "Keep making things up! Weren't you just showing off when you knocked my deputy general off his horse with your whip?"

Huo Fuyue's eyes filled with tears. "Husband, I'm pregnant."

Pei Yuncheng: "..."

*

Over the course of three years, General Pei returned victorious from a hundred battles and seized sixteen commanderies. Every time the emperor asked what reward he wanted, he asked for no title or beauty, only gold.

The officials all said he knew when to advance and retreat and wasn't arrogant or extravagant.

The emperor asked, "Why do you only want gold?"

Pei Yuncheng: "My wife is passionate about running away. I promised to let her go wherever she likes. So, to avoid losing face, I have to buy land wherever she runs."

[Sweet-on-the-outside, scheming-on-the-inside princess x tough-on-the-outside, soft-on-the-inside general who says one thing and means another]

Theme: Leave the past behind and live in the present.