The "She" series, a collection of short stories. Feel free to save it for later!
"She is a winding purple serpent, the shadow of a blood moon, a runaway royal, an unexpected stroke of the brush. She is a shadowy, withered bamboo, a god who turned traitor. I fear her and want to bid her farewell. But she looks at me with a serpent's eyes, holding me fast where I stand. Then she reaches out and pats my head."
"Little girl, keep up."
Story One: Between Water and Fire
"Back then, I stood at the lectern. Through the murky yellow glass, I saw a ball of fire. He was completely naked, hanging upside down from a big tree, his eyes full of angry laughter. His fiery red hair fell down like a sprite."
"Then guide it."
A genius and a criminal, between water and fire.
An alternate world set in the nineteenth century. Love and ideals amid the empire's great fire, and two generations of women putting their ideals into practice.
Story Two: The General
A general is the source of war. Life and death rest with her, victory and defeat rest with her, ghosts rest with her, and all living things rest with her. She is a noble butcher and a lowly savior.
Countless souls wander between life and death across a desolate plain thick with blood and death, waiting for the general to answer. "You've returned."
Story Three: The Cuckoo
Three women's revenge and ambition.
"Build a Hall of the Underworld, let crimson cuckoo flowers bloom, and destroy the home that cages me. Let that proud cuckoo fly to the top of the hall."
Story Four: My Flirtatious Master
A flirtatious master and a ninja princess. The two female leads share no romantic relationship: this is a goofy master-disciple bond, along with family, friendship, and loyalty between ruler and subject.
There once was a princess in the Zhaoxiang Dynasty. She called herself Gu, and she was the heir to the throne.
Gu had a master named Xinglu, an immortal from the Celestial Realm.
When Gu was seven, the immortal kidnapped her from the palace.
From the first day they met, Gu saw right through her.
That look, the way the immortal sized Gu up, was like a madam spotting a beauty on the street and already picturing a house overflowing with gold and silver. Her eyes curved, full of schemes and calculations.
Gu knew she was beautiful, but she didn't like that look.
Far too flirtatious!
"The stories weren't lying. I'm taking this apprentice."
Her master said Gu was mortal, without an immortal root, and destined never to ascend to the heavens in this lifetime. But she could make Gu the strongest of all mortals and let her live as freely as an immortal, as long as Gu called her...
"Master," Gu said without hesitation.
Her master raised Gu until she came of age, shaping her into a wanderer, a free spirit, and a martial-world expert in all kinds of secret techniques.
But later, she... knelt before Gu. "I, your subject Li Xinglu, have come by the decree of the sovereign to escort the heir to the throne back to the palace."
Her master was no immortal, no gallant heroine. She was Gu's mother's trusted minister, and her mother's mother was now the sovereign.
After putting up with her for so many years, Gu finally got her revenge by patting her on the head. She bent down and refused: "I won't go."
"Then, Wang'er, run away."
Theme: Walk your own path
