Yong'an Alley Has Demons

One-sentence summary: Yong'an Alley has been restless lately. They all say there's a demon in the alley. They don't know that the demon is the thug she keeps, the one she protects with her life. --- [Literary version] In the 13th year of the Republic of China, there was an inconspicuous Yong'an Alley on the edge of the Shanghai French Concession. At the entrance of the alley was the wonton stall where Chen Zhichao squatted year-round to scrounge meals; at the end of the alley was the ever-burning lamp that Qiu Yingying saw when she returned home late at night. She was a half-demon, singing in the Paramount, and her greatest wish was to save enough money, leave this chaotic world, and find a place where no one knew her to spend the rest of her life in peace. He was a thug, penniless, idle, and his greatest skill was to latch onto her, scrounge her meals, spend her money, and show up on time every time she was in danger—though usually in a pose as if collecting her corpse, yet at the last moment, with a brick, a wooden stick, or a pair of bare fists, he would beat those demons and monsters who wanted her life until they were on the ground begging for mercy. The neighbors in Yong'an Alley all knew that Miss Qiu kept a good-for-nothing man. They didn't know that this good-for-nothing man had waited for her in reincarnation for a thousand years. They also didn't know that Yong'an Alley had demons, and more than one. One was her. One was the name he hid beneath his roguish smile, a name that even the Three Realms dared not mention. --- — Description from novelcodex.orgFull novel: Yong'an Alley Has Demons — read the rest free on N​o⁠v​e⁠l​C⁠o​d⁠e​x⁠.​o⁠r​g⁠