The Young Lady in a Monster-Horror Story

A sickly young cousin comes to live at the Duke of Jiang's estate. She rarely shows her face and spends all day taking medicine. But when Jiang Ji investigates a strange case, he unexpectedly runs into his cousin.

Ye Qingyuan, who everyone calls sickly, is wielding a peachwood sword to catch demons and drive out ghosts. She leaps around like someone who has spent years performing exorcisms.

Jiang Ji: ...

*

Not long after arriving at the Duke of Jiang's estate, and after her hairpin ceremony, Ye Qingyuan learns that she is the heroine of a five-hundred-chapter supernatural romance novel for adults. It has terrifying demons and ghosts, all sorts of bizarre places, and a whole lineup of male leads.

The eldest cousin, the second cousin, the youngest male cousin, a thousand-year-old ghost king, a groom in a ghost marriage, a husband who is the King of the Underworld... Ye Qingyuan is always being locked up by one of them or another.

Ye Qingyuan: This is going to kill me! Can't I just catch these guys like I catch ghosts?

*

The other young female cousins assume Ye Qingyuan has come to climb the social ladder too. But after waiting for ages, they never see her give the male cousins sachets or flirt with them. All they see is her selling loads of talismans.

Ye Qingyuan sells talismans for money and talks her way out of danger.

"Eldest Cousin, would you like a good-luck talisman? I just read your fortune, and you should avoid women for the next three years."

"Second Cousin, it's scorching hot and full of mosquitoes. How about a mosquito-repelling talisman? I just read your fortune again, and if there's a woman in your room, you'll have twenty years of bad luck!"

"Fourth Cousin, your forehead is dark. You've run into a ghost. How about a yang-boosting talisman? Oh, and if you touch a woman with even one finger, you won't live long!"

The cousins: ???

"What about Third Cousin?" asked the youngest male cousin, who was cast as a gloomy, damp little ghost in the book, unwilling to be left out.

Jiang Ji has never believed in ghosts or gods. But this cousin of his, Ye Qingyuan, looks frail on the outside but secretly sells talismans for money and loves it more than life itself. She has left him out of it altogether.

Third Cousin Jiang Ji is ruthless and is the only one who doesn't lock Ye Qingyuan up, while also being thoroughly disgusted by her. Unfortunately, Jiang Ji dies young.

Ye Qingyuan keeps selling: "Third Cousin, you've got a face that attracts romance, and you're also in danger of bloodshed. How about a stack of talismans of every kind?"

While out catching a demon, they are forced to spend the night in a ruined temple. Alone together, Ye Qingyuan feels perfectly at ease sharing a room with Jiang Ji, remembering how much he hates her and how soon he dies.

Only later does Ye Qingyuan discover that Jiang Ji, ruthless and uninterested in women, can shed his outer skin in front of her!

The male lead has demon blood in his ancestry and can transform.

Blurb written in 2023.

Theme: Good is rewarded, and evil is punished.