The Coveted Beautiful Merman

♡ Mimi's illustrations are up. Come take a look ♡ 【A scheming, two-faced, domineering, forceful dog of a gong x a cold, venomous, yet pure-hearted beauty (merman) shou】 In the fifteenth year of the Yanhe era, to satisfy the emperor's desire for immortality, a bounty for merfolk was suddenly announced. Their scales, flesh, and hearts could all be offered as tribute. But there had been no sign of a living merman for years. It seemed this species might not even exist. Pei Zhiqi was a northern-born military officer, a rare sight in the imperial court and the target of constant mockery and cold shoulders. As a result, he was aloof and guarded, pretending not to care about worldly affairs. But even when he didn't go looking for trouble, trouble came looking for him. Shen Wenyu, the newly appointed top scholar, wrote an essay that lambasted the northerners. Every word was steeped in a desire to exclude outsiders. The essay won him the emperor's favor and cemented the animosity between the two men. Pei Zhiqi: What did I ever do to you? Shen Wenyu, are you even human!? Shen Wenyu: Nope ^ ^ From a mine disaster, a life-for-life curse, and an epidemic to a treason case that shocked the entire court, he seemed innocent and naive as he entered officialdom, but in truth he was far-sighted and had planned everything down to the last detail. No one knew that behind the fog-shrouded web… lay a bone-deep grudge, born of a heart carved out and scales ripped away. . Myths are based on something real, and the bounty had not been made up out of thin air. Because of his mother's bloodline, Shen Wenyu had developed incompletely and become the only merman in his clan unable to control his transformation. The good news: He had legs. The bad news: He couldn't touch water. …Unless he wanted to transform into a fish in an instant. During yet another pursuit, the two were forced to the edge of a cliff with nowhere to run. Pei Zhiqi finally decided to let go of their grudges. At the brink of death, he might as well bring their tormenting relationship to an end. The top scholar Shen Wenyu was extraordinarily beautiful, a rare and dazzling sight in the world. He glanced at the raging sea beyond the cliff, then came closer and looped both arms around Pei Zhiqi's neck. The beauty parted his lips and gave a muffled, amused laugh. “Want to see my tail?” Before Pei Zhiqi could say a word, the troublemaker dragged him over the cliff. As he was about to drown, Pei Zhiqi thought that in his next life he would make sure to be enemies with this man. Then a pair of cold lips pressed against his… The dark, moonless night, the scattered stars and crescent moon, the drifting clouds. Pei Zhiqi thought he was seeing things when he watched the top scholar turn into a beautiful mermaid before his eyes. Damn it. The emperor wasn't crazy, but Pei Zhiqi might be. - The world scorns me, sickens me, and covets me. One day, I will make them suffer the consequences. I was never meant to be ordinary. 〖Reader's guide〗 ① One-on-one, two equally matched leads, Pei is the gong and Shen is the shou. The story is told from the shou's perspective, the shou's perspective, the shou's perspective. The plot takes priority. Readers looking for a romance-focused story may be disappointed, but the author is very good at teasing (hey!). ② Not a typical nonhuman romance. The shou's bloodline makes his condition unusual: touching water turns him into a mermaid. Includes: nonhuman romance / nemeses / identity reveal / face-slapping / coercion / reconciliation after a breakup ③ An alternate-world political intrigue story with lots of original worldbuilding. Don't scrutinize it too closely. Theme: Fate may show no mercy, but justice will prevail