Being a Fish Is Really Hard [Interstellar]

[The new story, Her and Her Monster Gentleman, is currently updating! A soft-hearted human girl x all kinds of delicious monsters from other dimensions. A collection of short stories. Click the author's profile in the upper-right corner to check it out!]

[Story blurb:]

Xiao Shui is a beautiful water sprite princess from the planet Siren, with pale seaweed-blue curls and a soft, fluffy fish tail.

When the Federation Empire's iron wings occupied Siren, Prince Charles fell in love with beautiful Xiao Shui at first sight. He tore her away from her parents and brought her back to the Federation's capital planet.

Xiao Shui wanted to live a quiet, low-key life of her own, but things never went her way...

Everyone goes crazy over beautiful things and wants to make them their own.

Although the people of the Federation Empire always looked at Xiao Shui as if she were a lowly creature, they couldn't help being captivated by her beauty and her singing voice.

Not even Lu Xiao, the Federation's military commander, known as "the Empire's emotionless war machine," was immune.

The king of the Federation had fallen into a permanent coma due to abnormal mental activity, and Prince Charles had yet to ascend the throne.

As Grand Marshal, Lu Xiao held the Empire's military power and constantly pressured and threatened the prince. He had gathered most of the power into his own hands and had long since become the Empire's de facto supreme leader. Charles appeared obedient and respectful toward Lu Xiao, but secretly hated him to the bone and was always plotting his counterattack.

The conflict that already existed between the two men quickly intensified after Xiao Shui's arrival.

Unable to suppress his instinctive attraction, Lu Xiao used underhanded tactics to force Charles to hand Xiao Shui over...

And so things gradually spiraled out of control...

Watching the situation shift and change, Xiao Shui had just one thought in mind:

Xiao Shui: I want to go home QAQ...

P.S.

1. Water sprites are mermaids. This is a little interstellar fairy tale. The heroine is fragile and will grow somewhat, but very slowly.

2. There are two romances, the first with the prince and the second with the officer.

3. Includes a minister stealing the ruler's wife and a love-triangle showdown.

The new story, Her and Her Monster Gentleman: A soft-hearted human girl x all kinds of delicious monsters from other dimensions. Click the author's profile in the upper-right corner to check it out!

Also, here are some upcoming stories. Check the author's profile for details:

Upcoming Story 1: Her Calamity

Blurb:

The day Great Xia fell was Princess Anle's sixteenth birthday.

That day, the palace was breached. King Xia and Empress Liu burned themselves to death in the flames, while the royal family scattered and disappeared without a trace.

Before the new emperor had even ascended the throne, he began purging the remnants of the former dynasty, sparing no one in the court or the imperial harem.

Anle knew her time had come to pay the price.

So, trembling, she took off her finery, descended the jade steps, and bowed low, begging the new king to spare her life.

"Anle... is willing to give everything to beg... Your Majesty to spare my brothers and sisters, and the palace attendants who watched me grow up..."

"Heh... Who are you to make demands of me?"

The man laughed, his expression languid and cruel. He didn't even look at her.

He raised a hand and ordered the killing.

In that instant, Anle looked up in panic.

The girl had skin as smooth as jade and lips red as vermilion. Her beautiful eyes should have been as clear and lively as a deer's, but now they were filled with bewilderment and fear.

She was... inexplicably pitiful.

So the beloved daughter King Xia had hidden deep in the palace, never willing to show the world, was even more dazzling than the beauty famed as the loveliest in the capital.

Li Chengjin's phoenix eyes paused for a moment. His gaze lingered on her vermilion lips, making Anle tremble uncontrollably with fear.

After a long while, the hand he had raised shifted and lifted her chin instead.

"You know what you have to do when you're asking someone for a favor, don't you?"

*

Anle had never had great ambitions. She gave herself to the new emperor only to protect the palace attendants who had watched her grow up.

But one day, she realized she seemed to have become his cure.

Yet she didn't want to stay in the imperial palace.

She only wanted to escape, even if it meant marrying an ordinary man.

*

Li Chengjin hated the previous dynasty with all his heart. The corrupt magistrate had wrongfully convicted his entire family and had them executed. After lying low for many years, he finally toppled the corrupt and unjust King Xia and took the throne for himself.

But then the king's daughter tripped him up.

He had meant to keep her as a plaything. Before he knew it, he had spared the remnants of the former dynasty for her, disbanded the entire imperial harem, and even opened a school for girls in the capital...

Later historians all agreed that without Princess Anle, the Li dynasty would have been so tyrannical and capricious that it could not have lasted ten years.

Li Chengjin was Anle's calamity, while Anle was Li Chengjin's cure.

For that reason, he could never let her go...

Reading guide and content warnings:

1. Forced possession, you chase and I run, with a bittersweet tone.

2. The male lead has a harem at first, but later becomes completely infatuated with the heroine. Includes a groveling-to-win-her-back arc.

3. Volatile new emperor x princess of a fallen dynasty

4. Li Chengjin

Upcoming Story 2: The Weakest Queen in History

Blurb:

She woke up to find that her father, the king, had died.

After a struggle for power involving plots both overt and covert, not one of her nine brothers had survived.

The eleventh princess, who had lived in the cold palace with her mother and been ignored by everyone, was the only surviving member of the royal family. She was thrust onto the throne before she could refuse.

To her left stood the power-hungry chancellor, to her right a general with an army of his own. Above her were the ambitious empress dowager and her relatives, and below her were court officials who had formed factions and colluded with one another...

Everyone thought this weakling of a queen would soon be torn to shreds.

But against all expectations, the weakest queen in history ushered in the greatest era of peace and prosperity.

Reading guide and content warnings:

1. The heroine is beautiful, a Mary Sue, and has several people with unrequited crushes on her. Includes a love-triangle showdown and a touch of group adoration, but with a bittersweet tone. Emphasis added.

2. As the title suggests, the heroine is the weakest in history. She's soft-hearted and not forceful in her methods.

3. The setting blends fictional dynasties, so don't expect historical accuracy.

4. Details may be adjusted before publication, but the basic premise won't change.

Upcoming Story 3: A World with Only Her

Blurb:

Lin Luobai had already realized that the Zhou Heng before her was not the same "Zhou Heng" she'd seen the day before. It had happened several times.

So when he asked her to work with him, she hesitated for a moment.

More than the goals he had come to regard as his faith, she wanted to know:

Who was she? Where was she?

And what, exactly, was he doing...

*

"I... will... find... you." Zhou Heng stared at her, his dark eyes deep and sharp as an eagle's.

That was his promise.

But Lin Luobai dimly remembered that these would also be the last words he ever said to her.

*

*

Some say that the way the brain stores and retrieves memories is nonlinear.

Then, one day, Lin Luobai saw with her own eyes a sea of red poppies covering the mountainside, shaking loose a carpet of corn poppies.

*

HE, romance-focused, with a touch of mystery.

Please add this to your upcoming reads so I can tuck it in and keep it warm.

Theme: Love can cross species boundaries.