【A genre mashup: a touch of ensemble cast, light infrastructure building, farming and business management, laid-back variety-show vibes, and cozy healing】
【Normally updated three times a day. If there's no update, I'll post a notice. 70% of the novel is protected from spoilers for 24 hours, so if you want to skip chapters, you can buy them a day later.】
At thirty, Shen Nian'an had achieved nothing. Unemployed and freshly dumped, he planned to head back to the old family house in the countryside and lie flat.
Instead, he stumbled upon a magical botanical garden connected to the dry well in his backyard, where a group of strange little monsters lived.
After seeing what the monsters could produce, money-loving Shen Nian'an realized he could get back to hustling!
*
Dan Qi, a red-haired young man, had a fiery temper, but his leg hair smelled wonderful.
All he wanted was an electric guitar.
Shen Nian'an didn't even look up. “I don't have the money.”
The red-haired young man pouted, fetched a plate, and started plucking out his own hair. When he was done, he handed it to Shen Nian'an. “Take it and sell it.”
Shen Nian'an grimaced. “Ew.”
After the red tea went on sale, Shen Nian'an's shop received a review: “This is imperial tribute-grade red tea! I used to get no more than two liang a year. Do you have any left, shopkeeper? I'll take it all.”
Once the electric guitar arrived, Shen Nian'an sat Dan Qi down in front of a livestream camera. “Stream yourself playing for four hours every day. You can't end the stream until you hit your faith-value target!”
Dan Qi pouted. Humans really were awful!
Su Wusong, a delicate, pale young man, put on a coy, affected voice. “Big brother, I want a DSLR. I heard it's an essential accessory for an artsy young man.”
Shen Nian'an pointed at Dan Qi's electric guitar. “That costs more than his.”
Su Wusong fetched a glass and started spitting into it.
Shen Nian'an broke down. “What is wrong with you people?”
A few days later, Shen Nian'an's shop put genuine tea-tree spirit oil up for sale. It was fantastic for inflammation and acne: even a pimple the size of a fingertip would flatten overnight.
A top-tier star posted furiously on her main account: “I have less than half a bottle left, and I don't feel safe! There was so little stock I couldn't get any. Please restock!”
Once Su Wusong had his full DSLR kit, Shen Nian'an assigned him another task. “You're in charge of running the company's account.”
“One photo-and-text post every day, one vlog a week, and aim for a viral post every month. Do the same for the guesthouse once it opens.”
Behind his back, Su Wusong rolled his eyes. “Even Zhou Papi wasn't as exploitative as you!”
Duofu, a boy with a high ponytail, came over holding a handful of little red berries. “Big brother, big brother, I've got seeds~ My seeds are super powerful!”
Shen Nian'an thought the berries were cute, picked one up, popped it into his mouth, and crunched it.
Duofu reached out in alarm. “No! If you eat my seed, then, um, later you'll get pregnant.”
Shen Nian'an gulped it down.
Duofu: “...”
Shen Nian'an said in a gloomy voice, “Whatever. It's not like I'll get that chance in this lifetime.”
Duofu: “Then I want a computer just for gaming.”
Shen Nian'an got him an RTX 4090 and a full set of high-end peripherals. “Practice hard. Train ten hours a day, make a name for yourself within two years, join a pro team, and reach the peak of your monster life!”
After a week of practice, Duofu suddenly lost interest in gaming and decided he wanted to go to school!
*
By keeping the monsters busy, Shen Nian'an built a lakeside villa, opened a cliffside inn, and even started his own brand.
His life was complete. He had money and a career, but he was missing a handsome human companion.
Then a landslide in the mountains washed an old acquaintance right to his doorstep.
Shen Nian'an took one look and thought, Oh, wow. Isn't this the young CEO who knew nothing about the situation, yet made an example of me in front of all the employees and fired me?
Now the young CEO was eating his food, drinking his drinks, and staying under his roof. Shen Nian'an was determined to make him pay big before he left!
But one night, Shen Nian'an got very drunk. The next morning, he nervously asked Duofu, “If a man eats your seed, can he get pregnant too?”
The boy was absorbed in his game and didn't even look up. “Of course! The seeds from my Hundred-Child Gourd don't care about gender!”
---- Reader's Guide ----
1. 【A money-loving, lustful, sharp-tongued homemaker bottom, older than the top, x a rich, handsome, put-upon foodie top, younger than the bottom】
2. Updates follow the rankings before the novel goes premium; daily updates afterward. This time Teacher D picked the auspicious time. Updates are usually at 3 p.m. If there's no update, I'll post a notice.
3. One-on-one romance, and neither has been with anyone before.
4. There will be children.
5. My writing is nothing special, but I usually finish what I start.
6. Chapter comments are open. Have fun!
Here's my next novel, currently open for preorders. If you're interested, please add it to your favorites!
Yu Caixing opened his eyes to find himself lying in a mass grave.
He knew nothing of his past and remembered nothing. All he had was a pain that gnawed at his bones, driving him to crawl out of hell and return to the living world with paper for bones.
He kept to the end of Flying Blossom Alley and opened a little paper-offering shop. It stayed locked by day and only opened after dark.
Naturally, his customers weren't human.
They came to him seeking justice, to clear their names and set the world right.
He helped them in order to recover his own past, his memories, his desires, and his spirit.
And, while he was at it, he wanted to turn over the gloomy sky above them.
*
Shen Dengxu, the Grand Secretary of the Court of Judicial Review, was born with an extra bone behind his ear. It let him distinguish every sound in the world, and he despised talk of ghosts and gods more than anything.
But every case he had investigated lately involved things no human could have done.
The honest and reliable Attendant Chen was gnawed to death by a giant rat in his own bed, just before his wedding.
A noblewoman who had just been made a consort was strangled by silk thread, which severed her head before a palace banquet.
Human skin laid out to dry in an apothecary.
An infant crying in the heavy fog in the mountains.
And a city of lantern lights beneath the river.
In the end, they all led to that little paper-offering shop.
-
Shen Dengxu didn't want to see Yu Caixing.
Whenever they met, he could hear the man whispering in his ear.
The things he said were all nonsense.
But when Shen Dengxu looked over, Yu Caixing was eight zhang away, his blood-red lips always pressed together, never moving.
Still, Shen Dengxu had no choice but to seek him out. Without Yu Caixing, he couldn't dispel the fog or uncover the truth.
Shen Dengxu: “Don't make a mystery out of everything. I don't believe in ghosts or gods.”
Yu Caixing: “It's human, all right. Nothing is more terrifying than when humans stop seeming human.”
【A half-human, half-ghost bottom x a top who is almost, but not quite, a demon】
1. The supernatural elements are prominent, so it might be a little scary.
2. There's plenty of romance.
3. The top's true form sheds fur.
Theme: Shine brightly, even in adversity
Wow, I have my aunt to bless me~Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, madam~[Star Eyes][Comparison of Hearts][Empty Bowl][Empty Bowl]
Woo woo woo woo. Can you use AI to realize this scene? It feels so beautiful.
There is such a good thing [question mark] [question mark] I call 1 2 3, let's go directly to the link, okay?
I didn't go out yesterday, but I went to see a performance on the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was terrible. There were too many people crowded together. For a while, I felt a little tight in the chest and short of breath. It reminded me of a time when I went to an internet celebrity attraction in Jiangxi and was crowded in the crowd for more than three hours before going out. I felt like I was about to pass. This time I ran away immediately, peacefully. As expected, we still have to avoid all holidays.
", It's also overturned, isn't it?" "Catch a big bug for the author~
It also overturned this time
Wow. Is this why many miracle doctors live in Shangougou?
Boss, happy Mid-Autumn Festival [cat's claw][cat's claw][cat's claw]
Wow, I have my aunt to bless me~Happy Mid-Autumn Festival, madam~[Star Eyes][Comparison of Hearts][Empty Bowl][Empty Bowl]
Woo woo woo woo. Can you use AI to realize this scene? It feels so beautiful.
There is such a good thing [question mark] [question mark] I call 1 2 3, let's go directly to the link, okay?
I didn't go out yesterday, but I went to see a performance on the Mid-Autumn Festival. It was terrible. There were too many people crowded together. For a while, I felt a little tight in the chest and short of breath. It reminded me of a time when I went to an internet celebrity attraction in Jiangxi and was crowded in the crowd for more than three hours before going out. I felt like I was about to pass. This time I ran away immediately, peacefully. As expected, we still have to avoid all holidays.
", It's also overturned, isn't it?" "Catch a big bug for the author~ It also overturned this time
Wow. Is this why many miracle doctors live in Shangougou?
Boss, happy Mid-Autumn Festival [cat's claw][cat's claw][cat's claw]