Nonhuman Grave II

Recommend my upcoming novel, "Farming My Way to a Better Life in the Beastman World."

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[Prologue: Cocooned in the Past] [Chapter One: The Secret Tomb of the Ba King] Complete

[Chapter Two: The Water Caves of Western Hunan] Ongoing

After returning from the Helan Mountains, we lived peacefully for five years. Then, one day, someone came to the antique shop and asked us to find a body that had been missing for thirty years.

If you bury a body somewhere, that's where it'll be lying. Had she forgotten where the grave was?

The woman shook her head and said she suspected the person who came back thirty years ago was someone else.

That one matter tore a hole in our peaceful lives.

Underground palaces of Bashu, water caves in western Hunan... hanging coffins in Langya, bone cocoons, human-skin lanterns... corpse kings in dark pools, thirty-six prayer flags, nine-eyed toads.

Qin An, Tan Mi, Xia Jing, Qiu Xiao, Bu Er, Tao Dong, Tan Tang, Pu Qing, Fox Fei, Snake Granny, Pusa Man... Names I remembered and names I forgot, old friends and new. Some stayed, some left.

Life is turbulent and vast, the waters of the River of Forgetfulness flow on. Where will they finally lead?

In the end, we returned to where it all began.

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A mildly terrifying supernatural adventure, told in first person.

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[This novel will switch to paid chapters on March 14, starting with Chapter 20 (Chapters 20–38). Thanks for your support!]

Some plot points related to the previous novel, "The Nonhuman Mound," will be explained in the author's notes.

The two stories are somewhat connected, but you can basically read this one on its own.

"The Nonhuman Mound":

The second female lead's prologue:

In 402 BCE, the master of Mount Buzhou, who had gone unseen by the world for all his years, descended from the mountain. For more than two thousand years, he was unable to return. Fortunately, the laws of Heaven are constant, and what goes around comes around. The seeds sown thousands of years ago have finally borne fruit.

The first female lead's perspective:

After a night of nightmares, I discovered that I wasn't human. To find the truth, I went to many places. An old tomb behind the mountain, an ancient tomb complex beneath the desert, a human figure in an old tower, the royal mausoleums of Diqiu... They all seemed connected to me.

[An old friend, dead for a long time and covered in livor mortis, appeared before me again, chatting and laughing as if nothing had happened.]

[While staying at a small inn, I got up in the night and saw a pair of feet through the gap beneath the bathroom door. When I looked up, a monstrous face was clinging to the doorframe.]

A long story, a long dream. I met so many people. What seemed like chance encounters was really fate bringing us together. Whatever their reasons, and whether or not they were my enemies, at least I wasn't alone.

Qin An, Tan Mi, Xia Jing, Xiao Yi, Bu Er, Tan Tang, Pu Qing... The charlatan Liu Er, and among so many others, one who wandered the mortal world: Wei Nuo, a ghost, a cold and calculating schemer.

This was our first meeting, or perhaps it would be more accurate to call it a reunion. Her past, my past, and the pasts of all kinds of monsters and spirits, both human and otherwise, became intertwined.

When we emerged from the old tomb beneath the mountain, I seized the chance to ask who she really was. She mouthed the word "wife," and I foolishly believed her, slowly tying my heart to her.

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Upcoming novel: "After a Tiger Brings Me Home"

When the tour bus went off the road and plunged into a ravine, Shen Man thought she was done for.

When she woke, she found herself in the woods. The moment she opened her eyes, she saw a tiger looming over her, sniffing her.

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She thought she was about to die again. She was too terrified even to scream, and fainted on the spot.

When she woke up again, she was in a cave, with the tiger's warm, damp breath against her neck. She squeezed her eyes shut and waited to die. She waited a long time.

Shen Man finally couldn't stand it anymore and opened her eyes. By the fire sat a woman with tiger ears and a tail, and beautiful golden hair. She tilted her head as she looked at her.

"What are you afraid of? Do I look scary?" The woman swished her tail, frowning at her with a cold expression. Her voice was fierce. "If I wanted to eat you, would I have waited until now?"

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Later, Shen Man learned that the tiger was called Lin, a solitary beast whom none of the beastmen for miles around dared provoke.

Lin went out hunting during the day and came back at night to sleep beside her.

Sometimes she was in tiger form, sometimes in human form.

When Shen Man sewed clothes, Lin's tail would swish lazily beside her.

When Shen Man made soup, Lin would come over to sniff it, then turn away with a cold snort when the steam hit her nose.

When Shen Man said she wanted to grow crops, Lin fenced off a huge plot of land for her.

But little by little, rumors began to spread through the forest.

"I heard Lin is keeping a defective one who can't beast-shift."

"Just wait. She'll be thrown out sooner or later."

When Lin heard, she carried Shen Man on her back in tiger form through the valley the very next day.

The other beastmen nearby all saw it. Lin, who was always alone and had a fearsome temper, was leisurely strolling around with a "freak" who had no beast ears or tail on her back.

They speculated among themselves: Just wait a little longer. She'll beast-shift eventually.

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No one expected that along with beast-shifting, she'd also get a heat.

A strange wave of heat swept over Shen Man without warning, and she curled up trembling in a pile of animal pelts.

Lin froze, then her expression darkened.

"So you can still have such a primitive kind of differentiation..."

She murmured as she reached out and brushed Shen Man's sweat-damp hair. "Don't be afraid. I'm here."

Shen Man stared blankly. "You?"

Lin lowered her head, gently touched Shen Man with the tip of her nose, and curled her tail around her ankle. "I'll help you. No one else is going to touch you."

Theme: The road may be long and hard, but if you keep going, you'll get there