Ascend to Godhood, but Still an Intern

Guys, welcome to bookmark my upcoming novel, "The Mad Demon Lord's Guide to Forcing a Second Chance at Love". Its blurb appears after this one.

Blurb:

[An ever-cheerful junior goddess who eats three bowls at every meal x the aloof, ascetic Celestial Venerable]

Turns out even a position in the Celestial Realm comes with a probationary period.

Su Jinran made food in one melodramatic CEO romance after another, while everyone else drowned in tragic love and hate. She just kept eating to her heart's content. After a lifetime of ups and downs, she became the world's greatest culinary master and finally ascended to godhood, only to learn that the Celestial Realm had a probationary period too. Her whole world came crashing down.

Su Jinran smiled politely. "So Heaven's saying I still have to descend to the mortal realm and diligently work my way through a 996 probationary period before I can officially join the Celestial Realm?"

Siming, Heaven's HR representative, looked a little guilty. "Y-yes."

Well, that was just her (un)lucky day.

-

Su Jinran's probationary assignment was to use food livestreams to persuade ten mortals contemplating suicide to keep living before her probation ended.

If she failed to finish on time, she would lose her chance at a permanent position.

Night fell. Beside the icy river, a man had one leg dangling over the edge, ready to jump, when a steaming bowl of beer-braised duck appeared out of nowhere. Su Jinran held a duck leg between her teeth. "Fresh beer-braised duck! Want to try some?"

The man was utterly hopeless. "What do you think?"

Su Jinran fell silent for a second. "Then have some soup. Beer helps drown your sorrows."

The gods watching the livestream were at a loss for words.

"She's the worst of the worst I've ever mentored!"

"And she thinks she'll pass probation and get hired?"

"You get what you pay for."

As they spoke, the man's face darkened. He pulled his leg back, took the bowl, and slowly sipped the beer soup.

The gods: "???"

How does that even make sense?

At first, the livestream chat was full of doubts and insults.

But as spicy chili-oil noodles with minced pork and peas, Spanish mackerel dumplings, hot-and-sour vermicelli, and all sorts of other delicacies appeared, one person after another opened up and poured out their troubles. Su Jinran's KPI kept climbing, and her promotion to full-fledged goddess was just around the corner.

The gods were stunned. "Who said this intern was no good? She's fantastic!"

-

Su Jinran's livestream always had a mysterious top supporter.

Whenever a mission was urgent, Su Jinran would panic. "Oh no, the person is too far away. I can't use my food props!"

The top supporter would tip a hundred [Teleportation Talismans].

Whenever she was running out of money, Su Jinran would complain. "I'm so broke, I can't afford good food anymore."

The top supporter would tip [One Million Mortal Realm Coins].

Su Jinran secretly regarded her top supporter as the great benefactor who would help her pass probation.

On the first day after officially joining the Celestial Realm, Su Jinran received her divine post, then bowed to the supreme Celestial Venerable and requested a boon. "This humble goddess had a great benefactor during her probation. I would like to request a boon for him."

The Venerable sat high upon his throne, cool and immaculate as jade. At her words, his gaze lowered to Su Jinran, and his voice rang out like shattering jade. "What boon?"

"I would like to meet my benefactor," Su Jinran said, her eyes curving as she smiled like a radiant little sun. "I want to thank him in person."

The Celestial Venerable, who had never once shown the slightest sign of emotion, suddenly curled his fingers in nervousness.

The other gods, who had witnessed the scene: "..."

Something was off. Very, very off.

#Who else gets it? The awful boss who made me descend to the mortal realm and slog through a 996 probationary period was secretly my biggest fan and top supporter?

#Um... It's okay to date your boss when you're both on the same payroll, right?

Reader's Guide:

1. One-on-one romance, both leads' first love, happy ending, sweet romance with plenty of food.

2. It's a chaotic mix of tropes: comedy, warmth, redemption, face-slapping, and putting scumbags in their place. The overall mood is sweet and satisfying.

Blurb for "The Mad Demon Lord's Guide to Forcing a Second Chance at Love":

The Great Jin has passed a new law allowing demons to become citizens, granting them the same rights as humans.

The people are up in arms. Everyone knows the Demon Lord, a nine-tailed red fox, is an unstable, violent madman who once bathed the demon realm in blood for the sake of his beloved. A thousand years ago, he poured all his vital essence into the Reincarnation Tree, hoping only to find out what became of his mortal wife.

A demon who would slaughter even his own kin, and be so cruel even to himself to achieve his ends, would be terrifying if allowed to freely enter human territory.

But the court ignored the people's concerns, saying that the Heavenly Dao imposed restrictions, and demons wouldn't dare act recklessly in the mortal realm.

Su Nian, the prefect's legitimate daughter, was listening to a storyteller at a teahouse when she noticed a young man in white standing in the hall, staring intently at her.

When their eyes met, he bowed. "You look familiar, Miss, like someone I once knew. I couldn't help taking a second look. Please forgive my presumptuousness."

Su Nian smiled lightly. "That's a rather old-fashioned way to hit on someone."

After that day, Su Nian began experiencing strange things.

In spring, she was sipping wine and admiring the blossoms in a peach garden with her friends when she seemed to hear a scream. That night, her father, the prefect, anxiously told her that the long-sought flower thief had been found near the orchard, his eyes gouged out and his body dumped in the wilderness.

In summer, while boating on the lake and trading poems with friends, she watched the boat of the chancellor's legitimate son, who had come to annoy her, inexplicably flip over. He nearly lost his life.

In autumn, if she said one day that she wanted to admire the falling leaves, the ginkgo trees in the manor would cover the ground in gold by the next. If she complained that the scattered leaves were a bother, a gentle breeze would rise and sweep them away.

In winter, she often visited the Temple for the Protection of the Nation to pray. The roads were slippery, and even the emperor's bearers had to stay on high alert, yet still stumbled from time to time. But Su Nian's sedan chair never jolted, and its bearers marveled that the ground beneath their feet felt perfectly level, with no uphill or downhill slopes.

Whenever something strange happened, Su Nian would see a young man in white. She could never make out his face, but she remembered the vermilion mole by his eye, bright as a flame.

When trouble arose at home, Su Nian went to stay with her maternal grandparents for safety, only to fall into the hands of bandits.

At the height of her despair, she suddenly heard cries and the clash of weapons outside. They went on for the length of a tea ceremony. All Su Nian could see was a hazy red glow. The bridal chamber door opened, and a figure in the flickering candlelight came toward her with the cold night wind, bringing the sharp, bloody tang of rust with him...

*

At last, Su Nian saw his face clearly: silver hair stained with blood, phoenix eyes smiling.

Her gaze slowly fell to the fragrance pouch at his waist.

It was made of coarse cloth, and whoever had sewn it had been clumsy with a needle and thread. The pouch was crooked all over.

But Su Nian had sharp eyes. She could still make out the nearly worn-away character stitched onto it: Nian.

[Defiant Noblewoman x A Truly Mad Demon Lord] | Nine Reincarnations | Fated, Heartbreaking Romance | The Nine-Tailed Demon Lord Forces a Second Chance at Love

Theme: The mortal world is the most beautiful of all. Even immortals would not trade it for anything.