The Widower Next Door [GB]

[A self-indulgent work, a niche personal favorite, made just for myself. Please read the guide at the end before diving in.]

[If it hits a sore spot, feel free to drop it. Please be civil online, and thank you, everyone!]

Story One: The Beautiful Widower

★☆☆ Younger Bearish Woman x Beautiful Rabbit Widower, Seven Years Her Senior, with a Child ☆☆★

The neighbor next door to Li Qingchi is a beautiful widower whose wife died. After three years of mourning, a matchmaker has come calling again.

“If you don’t find someone else while you’re still young and able to have children, who’ll want you in a few years, when you’re old and faded? And you’ve got a little burden in tow, too. The woman is truly sincere about taking you as a concubine, or I wouldn’t have come to arrange this match...”

The man lowered his eyes and listened meekly to the matchmaker’s lecture. Only when she finished did he say, “Let me think it over,” then politely show her out.

The matchmaker waved her hand and walked past the tree at the mouth of the alley, only to get hit on the head by a fruit pit. “Ow!”

Up in the tree, hidden among the branches and leaves, Li Qingchi brushed off her hands.

She wanted him.

Story Two: The Divorced Husband

★☆☆ Unruly Rich Heiress x Snake-Shifter Male Lead, a Divorced Teacher Who Married the Wrong Person ☆☆★

Feng Tingzhou went to meet her online date in person at a university in S City. There, she came across a university teacher playing with a child using a little silver bell. Its tinkling rang out all around them.

The man bent over, his features elegant and fine-boned, his smile clear and bright. Thin-framed glasses rested on the bridge of his nose, and his long hair fell beside his face, lending him an air of gentle intellect.

Feng Tingzhou stopped in her tracks. “Who’s that?”

Her online date leaned against her shoulder. “A teacher in the department. I heard he had a miscarriage, couldn’t have children, and got divorced from his wife...”

Feng Tingzhou said, “I see.”

After a moment’s thought, she politely moved her date’s shoulder away. “Sorry, we’re not right for each other.”

She’d just found someone much more suitable.

Reader’s Guide:

1. Women’s supremacy, a half-beast world, gender-bender. Women have reproductive organs, and men can bear children.

2. There’s an ancient-era story and a modern-era story. The ancient story is about a beautiful widower, and the modern one is about a divorced husband. They’re two separate stories.

3. The worldbuilding is similar to that in I Don’t Want to Inherit the Throne, but that book involves political intrigue. I want to write that kind of story better, so I’m still studying. For now, I’m serving up a little appetizer to whet your appetite.

4. No refunds if this kills you, no refunds! This is all about causing a crash and fleeing the scene. It’s a niche kink that might kill someone, and I’m still gobbling it up. If it hits you, all I can do is apologize and keep eating three more bowls through my tears.

Theme: Give them a home