Also known as: Renting Out Illusions in the Attic
"Among the countless gods in this world, who speaks for women?"
An introverted, brooding, lovesick girl with amnesia x a flippant fake god
A "person" dark as a ghost x a "ghost" with a human touch
The story focuses more on the human-ghost part.
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Qiu Mu is eighteen. In the "best years of her life," with her mother missing and her own memories gone, she goes on a date with a woman for the first time, only to see a "female ghost."
The ghost's skin isn't pale, her hair isn't long, and she's not wearing red.
She looks quite a bit older than Qiu Mu and is very tall. Wearing a hat and a trench coat, with shoulder-length hair, she leans against Qiu Mu's date with a carefree air, advising her on how to win Qiu Mu over.
All her suggestions are terrible. This ghost lady's understanding of queer women has clearly fallen behind the times.
Qiu Mu isn't sure whether she should tell the woman across from her, "Sorry, I can see the ghost next to you, and I can hear every word she's saying."
Actually, there's no need for her to speak.
Before they part that night, the ghost speaks first.
"You can see me, can't you?"
"How strange. I didn't possess you, but you can still see me."
"We're alike, aren't we? So, want to work for me?"
"Little Qiu Mu?"
Qiu Mu remembers an urban legend she once heard on the street:
"In a corner of that urban village, there's a mysterious shop that specializes in helping women with their troubles. Every wish women make there eventually comes true."
"There must be a god there who loves helping people."
A god who lies.
"Knows everything, but never says a word."
Like the memories of the past concealed beneath jokes, the passionate love of a young man that was offered but never truly accepted, and the old photograph of Qiu Mu's mother that she sees in Dai Feng's room.
The fates of several women were intertwined long before the story began.
Qiu Mu is an outcast, someone the world cannot accept, a society's "vengeful spirit." Dai Feng is a kind-hearted person who took in her "lost soul."
She can shoot and stab for Dai Feng as many times as it takes.
But she doesn't know that all along, Dai Feng only wanted her to use that knife to stab her own past.
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[Optional reading notes]
* A serious story, conceived before all my other books.
* Some episodic arcs involve the hardships women face, and some situations are extreme, but there are no male-centered romantic plots. The author has ways to avoid them, since I don't like reading them either.
* This is not a realistic world. An alternate setting, an alternate setting, an alternate setting. That's worth saying three times.
* One or two non-female villains in the episodic arcs may occasionally line up to get stabbed.
* The main story may involve the tangled relationships of six or seven women. Some are bad people, and some are pitiable.
* It's not exactly a lighthearted story, but Dai Feng is very good at cracking jokes in grim situations.
* Like the previous story I wrote with a switch pairing, if you need to determine the preferred pairing, follow the order on either side of the x.
* I'll add more if I think of anything.
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Theme: You always have a choice.
