After Falling in Love at First Sight with a Portrait at a Funeral

The next novel I'll be publishing is a similar upcoming story, My Moonlight Isn't Human. It's about a dark-skinned, golden-eyed Ghost King gong. Surely someone else is into that? I'm stripping Xiao Shiyu's clothes to beg you to add it to your collection. Here's the blurb for this story:

A young man recently joined the Shen family. They say he's a distant relative from the mountains who doesn't even know how to use a water heater and spends all day muttering about superstitious nonsense.

No one is blind. His face speaks for itself, and the rich and powerful are always eager for a real-or-fake-young-master drama. Everyone in high society is waiting to see the Shen family make a fool of themselves. But the longer they wait, the stranger things seem. Why are all these big shots treating him with such deference?

It isn't until strange incidents start happening around the house and someone introduces them to a famous master that they realize he's no country bumpkin charlatan. He's a reclusive expert with profound Taoist skills. Unfortunately, by then he's already fallen out with the Shen family, and the Lu family head has carried him off home.

*

Ye Yuchi is the most beloved genius disciple of Wushan Mountain. After leaving the mountain, he unexpectedly gets picked up by his biological father and brought home.

Parents: Xiaochi, Huaixing isn't in good health, so please be considerate of him. Put up with the identity issue for a while.

As soon as they finish speaking, Ye Yuchi suddenly coughs up a huge mouthful of blood.

Parents: ...

Ye Yuchi has never had to put up with anything in his life. He was originally going to pack his things and leave, but the next day, he attends a funeral with his cheap dad and stops in his tracks.

It doesn't matter if the parents are useless. He just wants to find someone.

Ye Yuchi thinks of the black-and-white portrait in the hall and says to his buddy, "Ah Heng, I've got my eye on someone."

Ah Heng: ?

Ah Heng: "That was fast... Who is it?"

Ye Yuchi: "The one in the photo."

Ah Heng: "...There's only one photo here, and he's in the coffin."

Ye Yuchi: "That's the one. Let's summon his spirit tonight."

That night, Lu Shen's body vanishes.

Lu Shen lies in the hospital in a daze for a month. At last, amid a series of beeps, his consciousness fades into darkness. When he wakes, he finds himself attached to his phone. His own body lies cold beside him, and a cute guy is muttering over his coffin while performing a ritual to summon the dead.

?

The next second, he sees a message sent not long ago by an online friend he's known for years:

[Not Late]: I was going to meet you in person, but I've suddenly fallen in love! So let's put our meetup on hold for now!

Later, he messages his online friend: A friend of mine died recently, and someone fell in love with his corpse at first sight and stole it. Is that person a pervert?

But just as Lu Shen finally falls for him, the little pervert turns around and beams at another man. He hears him talking to the air: Ah Heng, I've decided I'm officially changing my affections. The new transfer student is so handsome! Let's just bury Lu Shen.

??

That night, Lu Shen is so furious he rises from the dead. After digging himself out of the ground, he goes straight to the Shen family and bangs on their door.

"Can you please not..."

"Not what?"

"Don't fall for someone else."

Next door, in the office of the Special Investigations Bureau director:

Huo Qi: Damn it, where's my junior brother? My huge junior brother! How did he disappear the moment he went down the mountain?

Reading Guide:

* A forthright, strong-willed big shot gong x an attack who dies at the start and is all bark, with the second-stiffest mouth in the story. (I'm halfway through writing it, and he doesn't actually seem that stubborn. He's just a little less honest than the gong.)

* One-on-one, happy ending, both in body and mind.

* My own take on supernatural folklore, ghosts, and monsters, with a tiny bit of original worldbuilding. It has a real-or-fake-young-master element, but it's mainly supernatural folklore. Oh, and it's not scary. (The fake young master and his birth mother have a fair amount of screen time early on, so please keep that in mind.)

* The gong is extremely powerful, has a golden finger, and is the strongest character in the story. In a way, he's doted on by everyone.

* Updates daily at unpredictable times, usually at ungodly hours. I'll take time off when needed, and writer's block can sometimes keep me up until dawn. A bow.

If you're interested, check out my completed Infinite Flow novel in a similar style, You Make the Food for Me to Eat [Infinite]. Based on the comments, it seems decent enough for a look.

Upcoming novel: My Moonlight Isn't Human:

Ghost gong, human shou

Xie Yan, head of the Xie family, has lost both his parents, but owns a house and a car. He's also handsome, distinguished, and elegant, making him the ideal partner in many people's eyes. Men and women alike are constantly throwing themselves at him.

Rumor has it that he has a moonlight he can't forget. He keeps a portrait in the collection room of his old home and won't let anyone see it. He changes partners again and again, hoping to find a suitable stand-in, so business associates keep sending people his way, and would-be lovers keep offering themselves.

Xiao Shiyu is the sixty-eighth stand-in to offer himself.

Xie Yan's secretary looks at the broad-shouldered, narrow-hipped man in front of him, whose honey-colored skin and brazen, carefree air make him feel conflicted. "Mr. Xiao, I think... you might not be a good fit."

Xiao Shiyu looks sincere. "We'll only know if you give me a chance. Tell me what doesn't fit, and I'll change it right away."

Secretary Wang's inner thoughts: ...I haven't seen the portrait, but two tops have no future!!!

To everyone's surprise, Xiao Shiyu really is kept around. A day, a week, a month... half a year.

Wang stares in a daze. "So I guess you really do have to meet someone to know."

Xie Yan has a little secret. He's a yin-born child, and his soul is prone to leaving his body at night. He has to keep switching out people with abundant yang energy to stay by his side and prevent wandering ghosts from possessing his body.

The frequent changes make the rumors more and more outrageous, so he casually makes up a moonlight to justify his behavior. To make the story convincing, he even draws a portrait of someone he dreamed about as a child and hangs it in his study.

The man was made up, the portrait was fictional, and everything else was a lie. Yet this sixty-eighth stand-in looks exactly like the portrait and repeats the story of love at first sight that Xie Yan once made up.

Xie Yan: ?

That night, Xie Yan returns to his old home to check the portrait. Only a hazy background remains in the frame. The half-length portrait has vanished. When he turns around, the man is smiling at him with a bewitching grin.

Later, after they fall in love, Xiao Shiyu confesses to Xie Yan. He gets so nervous that one of his arms falls off.

Xiao Shiyu: ...

Xie Yan calmly picks up the arm and hands it over. "Keep talking. Don't stop. I'm listening."

In his mind: He's a paper doll, so an arm falling off is perfectly normal.

A high-attack, high-defense, flirtatious CEO shou who's unaware of his charm x a high-attack, low-defense Ghost King gong who talks a big game and has two faces, in public and in private.

#The gong had nonhuman blood while alive, so he has a prominent nose, deep-set features, golden eyes, and dark skin. He's a thousand-year-old antique who doesn't understand modern technology but loves keeping up with trends.#

Not a wealthy-family business battle story. It's mainly about folk customs, strange happenings, and ghost stories.

Second upcoming novel:

Omega Transmigrates as a Dragon-Pride Protagonist and Chooses to Side with the Villain

A sweet little omega transmigrates into a book. Expect a goofy, sweet story. If you're interested, you can take a look. It'll probably be my next-next novel, so it's too long to include here. Hiding my hands in my sleeves.

Theme: Don't underestimate yourself. Your origins don't define everything, and your life is in your own hands.