The Demon God Is Hard to Coax

My completed linked novel, I Went Down the Mountain to Break Off My Engagement: a mischievous young Taoist priestess × a young Shaolin monk. This story: a chaste, level-headed young woman volunteer teacher × an arrogant, prickly demon god principal. Before signing her internship agreement, Man Ting gave her guaranteed teaching position to her ex-boyfriend. She broke up with him so he could climb the social ladder, then went to teach in a remote mountain village in his place. The place was called Duxiling. They couldn't even deliver packages there. But Duxiling, supposedly a desolate and dangerous place, was actually a paradise. Waterfalls poured down, seas of clouds drifted by, and white walls and dark tiles peeked out from between the woods and mountain mists, arranged in picturesque harmony. The locals were simple and kind, the children were sweet and well-behaved, and social life was uncomplicated... Wait. There were no people in Duxiling. They were all demons. To get proof of her internship, Man Ting had no choice but to pretend she knew nothing and stay. - Since the founding of the country, demons have been forbidden from revealing their true forms, and life has grown increasingly difficult for ordinary little demons. To survive in human society, they have to learn how humans do things. The hope of revitalizing the demon clans lay in education. As a demon god, Song Yueliang decided to learn from humans. He founded a primary school in Duxiling and invited a human teacher to come teach there. At their first meeting, the little demons took to Man Ting at once. Alarm bells rang in Song Yueliang's head. Beautiful women were the best liars! He had to keep an eye on her. Song Yueliang casually conjured a lightning strike and blew a hole in Man Ting's roof, then arranged for her to stay at his own Cloudparting Abode. Once the roof was struck, it happened again, and then a third time. The two ended up living together ever since. Until Man Ting realized that some demon was deliberately striking her roof with lightning. Looking at the roof after yet another strike, and Song Yueliang urging her to return to his Cloudparting Abode, she said expressionlessly, "Song Yueliang, do you like me?" Song Yueliang was so startled that his face turned red. He stubbornly denied it: "I am the mighty demon god, solemn and dignified, high above the world. How could I possibly like a human?" Man Ting said, "Good. You're arrogant, childish, tsundere, stubborn, and quick to bristle. You're way too hard to placate. I like people who are easy to soothe." Song Yueliang sucked in a sharp breath. "I can't make it right this time! I really can't make it right!" - As the demon god of Duxi, Song Yueliang could not leave Duxiling. Song Yueliang had been a chaste, aloof moon in the heavens. But from the very first moment he saw Man Ting, he had already tumbled from his divine pedestal. Their names come from the verse: "Pines bring coolness to the night; wind and springs fill the air with clear sounds." Completed linked novel: I Went Down the Mountain to Break Off My Engagement Jing Wu brought disaster wherever she went and was disliked from childhood. At thirteen, the Jing family dumped her at a run-down Taoist temple on Chunwang Mountain. At eighteen, they arranged an engagement for her: the groom-to-be was rich and handsome, Lu Xi, president of the Lu Group and the richest man in Hong Kong. Before Jing Wu could figure out how someone like her had landed such a golden bachelor, Lu Xi was in a car accident and fell into a coma. She was forced to pack her bamboo divining sticks and their container, bring along her black dog Zhaocai, and go down the mountain to visit him. That same night, at midnight, the young Shaolin monk Xilu from Chunwang Mountain was in a car accident at the same spot and was taken to Lu Xi's private hospital, which had just been opened for his use. Only then did Jing Wu realize that the private hospital was full of magical arrays. It was all an elaborate trap, prepared in advance. A conspiracy that had been laid out over more than a decade, targeting the two men, began to emerge. Xilu and Lu Xi were one meant to be the food, the other the vessel. Soon, their fortune and vitality would be completely drained to benefit someone else, leaving them no chance of survival. Jing Wu gritted her teeth and tried to alter the array, hoping at least to save their lives. She not only saved them, but Xilu also regained consciousness. Xilu: Woof? Jing Wu spread her hands innocently. "Xilu, we've been childhood friends and spent every day together. You know me: my cultivation is weird, and I always misspeak. I think it's a good thing for you to temporarily possess Zhaocai! Yes, a good thing." Xilu: ... Lu Xi, whose soul was possessing a guinea fowl nearby, didn't dare make a sound: !? When is this world going to end? After that, Jing Wu's life was full of chaos. Later, Lu Xi looked at Xilu. "Who is he?" Xilu: "I'm her boyfriend." Lu Xi: ? Lu Xi looked at Jing Wu. "Am I dead or something? I'm your fiance." Jing Wu: "I forgot to tell you. I came down the mountain to break off our engagement." Lu Xi: ! Message: Education is the hope of revitalizing the nation.