I'm Into Your Skull

[Please add my upcoming novel to your favorites: My Monster Has a Secret Crush on Me, about a monster who cries when touched and a mischievous heroine]

Blurb: [Bold, flamboyant art student with a dirty mind x aloof, beautiful professor of mathematics]

1. The first time Yan Danqing sees Pei Xi, she knows this man was born to appear in her paintings.

In the mathematics department office at Qing University, a man searches for materials in front of a bookshelf. He looks like a delicate beauty in an understated painting, with striking features and perfect bone structure.

His skull beneath that skin is especially perfect, more flawless than the teaching models.

Yan Danqing stares, wishing she could whisk him straight off to her studio.

Miss Yan has high standards. After years of studying art, this is the first time she's ever asked a model out. She finally works up the nerve to approach him, but what comes out is:

“Five thousand yuan. How about one sitting?”

The beauty raises his eyes and gives her a cool look without saying a word.

2. Who is this beauty? Yan Danqing only finds out afterward.

It turns out that the beautiful skull she's taken a fancy to is the least remarkable thing about him.

It's the head of a genius mathematician.

Yan Danqing: Why am I feeling even more excited instead of guilty?!

Caught up in the moment, Yan Danqing can't resist painting an expressive portrait of the beauty from memory.

Acting on her own private desires, she adds long hair to that beautiful skull.

Pei Xi, huh? Yan Danqing narrows her eyes at the painting. I'll get you sooner or later.

3. Yan Danqing gets a little carried away. Holding his hand, she drags him into her studio and proudly shows him her first masterpiece.

“Bet you didn't expect this, Professor Pei. One day you'd end up completely in my hands.”

“I certainly didn't.”

Pei Xi taps the frame lightly with his finger. “Do you like long hair?”

Yan Danqing nods furiously.

She loves classical beauties like Pei Xi most of all. Unfortunately, he always looks so noble and aloof that she can only enjoy seeing him with long hair in a painting.

At the time, Yan Danqing thinks Pei Xi is just asking offhandedly, so she doesn't give it much thought. She never expects that Pei Xi will later attend a classified national event and be away for six months, during which the two of them are almost completely out of touch.

The day he returns, Yan Danqing goes to meet him. In the car, the beauty's slender, pale fingers carefully pull off his wig.

A cascade of dark hair falls loose.

“Do you like it?” Pei Xi asks, lowering his eyes, his lashes trembling nervously.

He has secretly kept his hair long for ages, always wearing a wig. He wanted Yan Danqing to be the first to see it.

His answer is the restless hand of someone who doesn't leave Pei Xi's long hair alone for the rest of the night.

[Bonus Scene]

At first, Yan Danqing thinks she's an upstanding artist who would never do anything improper. Then she discovers...

Pei Xi stands before her easel, wearing the long robe from her painting. His fingers rest on the frog closures at his collar, and he speaks with forced composure: “Great artist, I hear you know a lot about figure painting?”

The little pervert is utterly bewitched.

The canvas that should be covered in paint remains blank. All the paint ends up on Pei Xi instead.

Pei Xi thinks that everything in life apart from mathematics is pale and boring, like white paint diluted with water. Then he meets Yan Danqing. The girl tumbles into his arms, and her dark ink colors everything, bringing it to life.

A friendly reminder:

1. The heroine is 21 and the hero is 24, with a three-year age gap. One-on-one romance, each other's first love, both sexually inexperienced.

2. Everything serves the story. Please don't compare it to real life. Some parts may be exaggerated for artistic purposes, so please don't overanalyze them.

3. This story comes straight from the author's personal tastes. I wrote it to feed my own cravings, and hope you'll enjoy it too. If it's not for you, feel free to drop it without telling me.

--- Upcoming Novel: My Monster Has a Secret Crush on Me ---

Blurb:

Three months after transferring schools, Du Ruo decides to go to a temple and offer the first incense of the day on behalf of her new school.

It's because this new school has been ridiculously lucky for her.

She forgets to bring a pen to an exam, and the next second a brand-new set of stationery appears at her desk.

The whole school loses power during evening study, but somehow there's a flashlight in her drawer.

She's always been unlucky, but after transferring, she's become a lucky charm. Everything goes her way.

Even her rumored crush, the aloof, unapproachable top student, has started treating her warmly...

Lan Hu is a monster hiding in human society. To keep anyone from discovering what he is, he has become the feared school bully of Beihai No. 3 High School.

But lately, he thinks he's fallen in love at first sight with a human.

The girl is delicate and timid, and she looks at him with fear in her eyes.

So Lan Hu doesn't dare get close to her. He can only secretly bring her a pen when she forgets hers, and a flashlight when the power goes out.

One day, Lan Hu hears someone say:

“Does Du Ruo seem to like our top student?”

“But the top student's so cold and only cares about studying. Du Ruo's going to end up heartbroken.”

Lan Hu doesn't want to see the girl he loves get hurt.

Luckily, he's a monster with abilities humans don't have.

For example, he can change his appearance at will.

The day his identity is discovered, Lan Hu panics.

Du Ruo, however, remains calm. She locks the door, pins him against the wall, and demands that he show her his true form.

Lan Hu can't refuse Du Ruo, so he reveals his tentacles.

“They're slippery, and kind of nice to touch,” Du Ruo says after feeling them.

Tears fall from Lan Hu's eyes like pearls. It's the first time he's learned that his tentacles are hypersensitive to human touch, and that contact makes them ache and itch.

But he doesn't want to lose the tenderness Du Ruo gives him. Trembling through the pain, he pushes his tentacles into her arms, begging softly through his tears:

“Ruo Ruo... please, touch them again.”

And behind Lan Hu's back,

Du Ruo smiles as she blows the special monster-hunting powder, deliberately smeared over her hand, away.

[Black-hearted, sly heroine who pretends to be a sweet, innocent girl x insecure, sensitive monster hero who cries when touched]

Theme: Dare to love