Pouring Wine to the Wind's Spirit

First published in 2021

One bowl of Meng Po's soup, and a lifetime of joy and sorrow is gone.

The road to the Yellow Springs has no distinction between old and young. At the bridge of no return, don't argue.

The world is divided among five races: humans, demons, ghosts, immortals, and gods.

The gods have dwindled to just over a dozen demigods, neither here nor there, who live alongside the ghosts in the underworld. The immortals keep to themselves on Mount Penglai, while humans and demons coexist peacefully in the mortal realm.

The Special Case and Abnormality Investigation Bureau, or the Special Case Bureau for short, is an unusual organization. Its members include immortals, demons, ghosts, and gods, but it is led by a human named Feng Huiran.

While investigating a case involving "a little demon crossing the border to steal metal," Feng Huiran walked into a bookstore called "Du" and met a deep-eyed man named Xun Lei.

A warmhearted gong who knows how to talk to anyone, whether human or ghost, and is tactful without being slick (Feng Huiran) x a patient and restrained shou who gives in unconditionally whenever the gong is involved, a man who only pretends to be a cross-dressing expert (Xun Lei)

Modern urban fantasy with supernatural elements, but nothing scary.

Both characters have multiple identities, and their story is connected to an event from hundreds of thousands of years ago.

Sources are noted wherever the text draws on them. Most are from the Classic of Mountains and Seas, the Huainanzi, and ancient myths and legends.

Xun Lei, the shou, is Meng Po. He always appears as a woman at work as a form of disguise. This is different from what people usually mean by cross-dressing, which is why he is described as a "man who only pretends to be a cross-dressing expert."

Core theme: The gods are for all living beings