Shatter That White Moonlight

Coming soon: Guys, I'm going to write about nonhumans in Unfinished Game!

Ye Chao is the lowest-ranking employee at the Bureau of Illegal Extraterrestrial Residents. She puts on a suit and tie, takes a search warrant, and goes around "investigating." Using her identity as a bureau agent to fish in troubled waters, she takes bribes and demands kickbacks. Everyone hates her.

Rumors that aliens have infiltrated human society are spreading. People are on edge, afraid they'll open their mouths and have a tentacle pop out.

Ye Chao only sneers.

Aliens? What aliens? It's all a scam cooked up by the Celestials to swindle people out of their money.

Besides, what could aliens possibly want on Blue Star?

Rob banks? Steal food? Take the oil?

Ye Chao certainly has no fondness for those mysterious, unknown creatures.

Ye Chao's blind date is gentle and gracious, with a good family and a steady job.

He has silver hair, icy blue eyes, and a faint smile that seems almost mechanical.

Apart from being so handsome that she feels a little insecure, he's perfect in every way.

But when he hands her a cup of coffee, she feels something soft and delicate brush against the innermost flesh of her finger.

Like a tentacle.

After she starts dating him, strange things happen one after another.

Her new boss, who arrived out of nowhere, suddenly starts bringing her nutritious, lovingly prepared lunches every day.

A business magnate she's investigating at work sits beside her and casually toys with her fingers.

Even when she goes to the hospital for period cramps, a top doctor personally examines her.

And every one of them is absurdly handsome... and gentle.

It's just that those invisible tentacles keep finding their way everywhere, slipping into her sleeves, her waistband, and even... They're getting more and more brazen!

Ye Chao helplessly bursts into tears.

Younai is a collective organism from planet J14. Hive mind? Gestalt organism? Call it whatever you like.

To study how independent intelligent life forms survive, it dragged its thirty-five million six hundred and ten thousand tentacles to Earth. Each tentacle has a measure of independent consciousness. It carefully fashioned several bodies that meet human women's standards of beauty, then placed them in all walks of life and made them elite professionals, all to explore how an independent society functions.

Its real body, naturally, was meant to explore reproduction.

But it only used a tiny bit of its... you know, and its wife still cursed it out, saying she couldn't take it anymore.

Younai was very hurt. Hadn't she felt every one of its tentacles declaring its love for her?

Content warning: Female lead is not a virgin; male lead is. She is a promiscuous woman with a criminal record.

Blurb:

The male lead is love-struck. More angst for the man than the woman. Includes a dual soul in one body setup.

Everyone at the Chuxiu Pavilion knows Lin Yao as a tough-as-nails woman. Tall and handsome, stubborn and proud, with a firm waist and a strong voice.

But no one could have imagined that Lin Yao, born in the wilderness and of low status, would secretly fall in love with the cold-hearted third prince, Shen Chengyuan.

Before the young lovers could confess their feelings, Lin Yao instead received word that the third prince had been exiled and those close to him had been beaten to death.

Huddled in a dried-up well, gnawing on a bun and remembering his white robes and tender smile, Lin Yao decided to wait for him for three more years.

Three years later, Shen Chengyuan returned.

But she hadn't expected him to come back no longer a helpless prince, but a regent commanding a powerful army.

She smiled, innocent and unguarded. When he dragged her into his tent and opened her collar, she thought they were in love and had simply been swept away by passion.

But his personality had changed completely. His gaze was dark and frightening, and he was wary of her, constantly testing her.

Only then did she learn that he'd been wounded on the battlefield and lost all his memories. He had almost become a different person.

He grew brooding and inscrutable. He even believed fabricated evidence from a villain and insisted she was a spy planted by his political enemies, imprisoning her in the dungeon.

Young love comes and goes quickly. Since he'd forgotten her, she would forget him too...

Even if he still remembered her, they could only have shared a brief stretch of their lives as young people.

They could have been lovers who laughed and talked in their youth, but they were never destined to be a regent and his consort.

So, on a quiet, rainy night, Lin Yao disappeared without a trace.

After returning from the battlefield, Shen Chengyuan often suspected Lin Yao had ulterior motives.

She was devious, sly, restless, and best at playing dumb. Every so often, she would grin and joke around in her clumsy official speech, dropping hints and fishing for information.

Their relationship had begun absurdly... He'd gotten drunk that day, and she happened to be sent to his tent.

Throughout all those days and nights together, he remained on guard against her at every turn. Every sweet word was nothing but a pretense.

Only after Lin Yao vanished without a trace did he have to admit that his playacting with her had contained a sliver of genuine affection.

The Valley of Falling Leaves lies more than a thousand li from the capital. It is remote and dangerous.

Lin Yao works as a guide, leading travelers safely through the valley's dense forests and occasionally rescuing a lost passerby or two.

One day, she heard that a rich young master had gotten lost near a cliff. Without a moment's hesitation, Lin Yao went to find him.

At the cliff's edge, Shen Chengyuan turned around. Rain drenched his head, and his black hair clung to his cheeks and neck. His eyes were dark and unreadable.

"It's taken me two whole years, but I've finally found you."

His voice was hoarse, his eyes wet with tears, his bearing pitifully humble.

"Please, tell me one more time that you still love me."

He gestured toward the bottomless abyss and said,

"If you won't, then I can only jump from here... If I die, will you regret it for the rest of your life?"

She didn't know he was lying.

He hadn't recovered his memories. He had simply fallen in love with her.

Very, very much.

--

After they married, Shen Chengyuan tried hard to cure his amnesia, but accidentally developed a split personality instead.

One was the seventeen-year-old Shen Chengyuan, and the other was the twenty-two-year-old Shen Chengyuan.

Halfway through a tender moment, Lin Yao watched his eyes turn from clear to shadowed.

This was bad...

She clutched the soaked sheets beneath her in fright.

Yao and Yao are pronounced the same.

Content warnings: Both leads are virgins. This is entirely fictional and has no real-life counterpart. Please don't draw parallels to reality. The story focuses purely on emotions, with everything serving the romance and Yao Yao's growth.

Theme: Mutual trust