When the Evening Clouds Clear

[Half-Demon Brothel Owner x Free-spirited Young Swordsman]

For my next book, choose between "The Medicinal Herb I Picked Up Gained a Spirit" and "Shushu." Blurbs at the end.

Gongsun You was the only human at Wanyunshou. She became its owner as a human after Nangong Xuan set her up.

The day she accepted the Tower Master's token, something changed in her. The token broke the seal on her dormant demon bloodline. She had been a half-demon all along.

She was the only half-demon born in this world who had managed to hide from the Lord of the Demon Realm.

The highly respected abbot at the temple once said she wouldn't live past twenty. Her gentle, scholar-like adoptive father was so angry he nearly rolled up his sleeves and went to demand an explanation from the monk.

Gongsun You had never cared whether she lived a little longer or a little less. But as the years passed, her human body grew weaker and weaker. Seeing the worried looks of the girls at Wanyunshou and the concern her father couldn't hide in the letters he sent, Gongsun You decided she would become a true demon.

But in that little county town, she met a swordsman dressed all in white.

The dazzling dance of his Miao saber stole her soul. For that strange, elusive feeling she couldn't quite grasp, Gongsun You broke her own rules time and again.

Seeing him standing tall and elegant in the sunlight, Gongsun You couldn't help wanting to stay with him forever.

[Before I met you, I thought being human was exhausting.]

[After I met you, I realized being human isn't so bad after all.]

Highlights:

- Told in episodic arcs

- The heroine isn't perfect

- The full outline is ready, so jump right in

- Progress: Sparrow Demon [Complete]

Green Snake [Complete]

Wolf Demon [Complete]

Flowers Blooming from White Bones [Complete]

Tearful Merfolk [In Progress] (This arc has a female-female couple among the supporting characters, so take note.)

A preview of "The Medicinal Herb I Picked Up Gained a Spirit"

Devoted-to-the-Dao senior sister x newly transformed green-tea junior brother

Yuan Shuyan cultivates the Way of Ruthlessness and is wholly devoted to the Dao. One day, she obtained a fine-looking seahorse from a seaside village at the foot of an immortal mountain and planned to use it to make pills. She never expected that after spending a night soaking in the spirit pool, the seahorse would transform into a handsome young man with red lips and pearly teeth.

It would have been even better if he'd been wearing clothes when he transformed.

The young man, his eyes red, tugged at the robe Yuan Shuyan had casually thrown over him, tears streaming down his face as he opened his mouth and demanded that she take responsibility.

"My mother and sister both said that if you see someone naked, you have to take responsibility."

Yuan Shuyan got a headache, so she simply brought the seahorse... no, the young man, to her master, who accepted him as his last disciple.

She thought her days would go on being peaceful, filled with cultivation and trials. But one day, her seahorse-spirit junior brother burst into her room, pointed to the large pouch sewn onto the outside of his robe, and said, "Senior Sister, I'm an adult now. I can have little seahorses for you."

Yuan Shuyan: ?

Highlights: No male pregnancy! No male pregnancy! No male pregnancy!

* The male lead is a seahorse and initially can't escape an animal's way of thinking.

* The heroine is human.

* Note: Male seahorses only carry the baby seahorses. The eggs are produced by the females.

Idea conceived on 2023/9. Please don't steal it. The blurb has been screenshotted.

"Shushu"

Scheming, domineering flower who acts sweet around others x patient, long-suffering uncle

On the day Chen Shushu married while clutching her brother's memorial tablet, Lu Qi spent the night drinking in his room. He couldn't understand why Chen Shushu had chosen to marry his sickly older brother, even though he had met her first. They had identical faces, yet Chen Shushu would rather devote herself to a dying man than return his feelings.

"If all you wanted was Lu Yi's face, why couldn't it be me? We have the same face. Why couldn't you choose me?"

Chen Shushu lost both her parents at a young age and had no choice but to live in her uncle's household, always having to defer to others. Her uncle was lecherous, and her aunt was unkind, so she'd wanted to escape that home ever since she was little. Watching her aunt marry off her cousin, a concubine-born daughter, to a wealthy man over sixty as his second wife only strengthened her resolve.

At a banquet, she met Lu Yi, the eldest son of the Lu family. Even though she could see through his duplicity and knew he didn't have long to live, she was still willing to marry him. But why, beneath Madam Lu's increasingly affectionate gaze, was her brother-in-law, the younger brother of her late husband, looking at her with ever less innocent eyes?

* Both leads are romantically exclusive, but this is a transgressive relationship between a widow and her brother-in-law.

* The heroine never loves the second male lead at any point.

Theme: Even spirits and monsters have their own moral codes