Hellbound With You - Excerp

Japan – National News BroadcastThe polished news anchor sat upright, her gaze sharp as she adjusted the stack of papers before her. The newsroom behind her hummed with quiet urgency, the weight of the moment settling over the broadcast.“Authorities are baffled by a sudden and unexplained surge in sleep-related deaths across Japan,” she began, her voice steady yet tense. “More and more citizens are passing away in their sleep without any prior health concerns. Experts are working tirelessly to determine the cause, but no clear explanation has emerged. Authorities urge the public to remain vigilant and report any unusual symptoms before bedtime.”A graphic appeared, displaying the spike in fatalities over the past month. Behind her, unsettling photographs flickered across the screen—blurred images of individuals found in their beds, their faces frozen in expressions of terror.The anchor’s tone shifted. “Health officials recommend citizens avoid excessive fatigue and maintain healthy sleep habits. More updates will follow as investigations continue.”---United States – Paranormal PodcastIn a dimly lit podcast studio, the host leaned forward, his eyes wide with curiosity. Across from him, a rugged man in a worn flannel shirt, gripping a faded photograph in one hand and a beer can in the other, leaned back in his chair.“So, you're telling me you saw this creature firsthand?” the host asked, clearly intrigued.The man scoffed, shaking his head. “Damn right, I did. Ugly thing had wings bigger than my body—slow but sneaky. Thought it could steal my pigs again, but I was ready this time—camera in one hand, shotgun in the other.”He slammed the table for emphasis, then shoved the blurry image toward the host. The photograph depicted a small, red-skinned humanoid figure with large, bat-like wings, its eyes glowing faintly in the darkness.“Spit, the thing didn’t know what hit it when I fired!” the man chuckled, his voice full of excitement.The host held up the picture to the live chat. “Alright, what do you think? Mothman? Demon? Or is our friend here just seeing things?”The chat exploded with theories—some skeptical, others eager for the investigation to continue.---China – Liangyuan Street MarketSurveillance footage from a bustling night market in China captured a chilling scene. A woman in a red qipao walked gracefully through the crowd, her figure striking in the soft glow of lanterns.Suddenly, she paused. Her body flickered—like a glitch in a video—before vanishing completely, as though she had never existed.The footage zoomed in, replaying in slow motion. In the final frame before she disappeared, her face distorted unnaturally, her eyes hollow and empty.The screen cut abruptly to black.

#Married #Office RomanceJerica Evans, a devoted wife and clerk at City Hall, feels her world slowly unraveling as the cracks in her once-loving marriage deepen. Her husband, Jared, a high-powered lawyer with a fierce courtroom reputation known as “The Siberian Beast,” has grown distant, and his cold demeanor leaves Jerica questioning everything. Once the pillar of her life, Jared now feels like a stranger, more lighthouse than man—steady but unreachable, leaving Jerica adrift in loneliness and suspicion.When she catches him leaving work early with a mysterious woman in a red dress, her world shatters. As she balances her growing suspicion with the suspicious arrival of Harold Braddock, Jerica's former flame, the lines between loyalty, betrayal, and her own desires blur. Her once steady life spirals as her husband’s frosty demeanor and her own emotional wounds collide.As the emotional distance between her and Jared widens, Jerica must decide whether to fight for a love that seems to have slipped away—or walk away from the man who once completed her.What will she decide? What is Jared's secret? Was their marriage truly over? Has she truly stopped loving him?This is a heartstring-pulling journey of love, pride, and the devastating cost of hidden truths and unspoken desires, where one woman must decide if she’ll fight for the man she married or leave him behind to save herself.Please support the book by voting. Leave reviews and tell me what you feel in the comments.

Young Chen Xiang had a fateful encounter with a goddess & demoness and received their peerless heritage, divine pulses, ultimate martial arts, and transcendent alchemy techniques, which gave him an easy ride in his journey of cultivation.

When hungry, he refines some spirit pills to eat as snack, when lonely he flirts with the goddesses, when bored he teases those martial artists who came to beg for spirit pills, when tired he lets his beautiful wives massage him.

- Description from Novelupdates

Ten years after her parents’ divorce, the grandmother who raised Chu Tingwu passed away, leaving her to be shuttled back and forth between relatives.At this moment, an entity claiming to be a “Cub Rearing System” suddenly appeared, wanting to bind itself to her and cultivate her into an outstanding graduate of its program.Just as Chu Tingwu was about to refuse, she saw her personal attributes on the system interface—[Name: Chu Tingwu][Species: Cat]Chu Tingwu: Something’s not right here…Due to a bug, the system had identified her as a kitten.Her stats were those of a cat, but her appearance remained human.How should an exemplary human-cat be raised? Sleeping, causing mischief, eating until she became as round as a pig?However, the reality turned out to be quite different: extreme sports, expert bird-catcher, master mouse-hunter, catching invasive fish barehanded with dynamic vision, using camouflage and tracking skills to film documentaries of rare birds, nearly making the social news as a suspected retired special police officer.For the first lesson in cultivation, the system said gravely:“A cub cannot live alone. We need to find you a cat mother… I’ve already detected a suitable candidate nearby. Go to the target location quickly, little one, and let the cat mother adopt you.”Chu Tingwu looked up as an advertisement fluttered into her hand:[Sunshine Pet Hospital: Limited-time half-price pet neutering, one month of free food with every pet adoption]Chu Tingwu: Who exactly is adopting whom here?