I Shaved. Then I Brought a High School Girl Home. - Volume 3, Short Story: Tunic Blouse

The world changed the day that cracks appeared in the sky– suddenly monsters named『Demonic Beasts』appeared and began to rampage, attacking people.

Meanwhile, girls called『Magical Girls』began to appear to counter the demonic beasts. As they defeated the demonic beasts, gradually people’s lives gained a semblance of composure.

–but when there is light, there is also darkness.

In the corner of an alleyway, a boy who had been attacked by a demonic beast was dying. His voice begging for help did not reach anyone and his body refused to move.

「Boy. Do you want to be saved?」

Looking into the boy’s face, a black cat began to speak to him.

The boy nodded firmly to the devilishly sweet invitation, in response the black cat mocked him.

「Is that so—then I’ll【Haunt (Save)】you」

—on that day, a『Magical Girl』was born in a place that no-one knew.

『She』never laments, no matter what the future may bring.

Qin Aofeng, a third-generation descendant of the great and prestigious Qin Family, was just as famous as his genius big brother Aotian, but was famed in Qin City for being the “Good-for-nothing Seventh Young Master.”

The compound is perilous, the clan is full of conflict. Before her rebirth, she dressed as a male, her birth a mystery. Because of her lack of talent, she was thought of as a worthless member of the clan. After her rebirth, she walked onto the path of a strong person, and lived on the continent like a fish in water.

Until one day at the capital city of the empire, the spear of the patriarch pointed to her young uncle that she always treasured, the “young male” that had always been undistinguished stood out, and astounded everyone, becoming a peerless genius. Ever since then, countless males and females became made for … …

The vast ancient forests, the deep bogs shrouded in back mist, the desolate and endless desert, the mountains and plains without any border where the magical beasts moved unhindered, this was a vast magical world.

- Description from Novelupdates

In her last life, Qu Zhi tried her best to be a good wife who was sensible and did not cause trouble, a filial and good daughter who helped her family, and a good mother who accompanied her children. However, Qu Zhi worked hard and suffered all her life. When she was about to die, she realized that in the end, all she got back for her hard work were complaints. Her husband complained that she was an idle, rich wife all day long who wasn’t satisfied with her happiness at home, and that she was a greedy woman.

But after decades of marriage, her husband had a firm, deadly hold on all her money, and she didn’t even have a dime to her name, nor a property to call her own. Every time she asked for money, he would trample all over her self-esteem. Her husband’s cold and sarcastic words made her unable to lift her head, and his friends would demean her while drinking wine, making her tremble with anger. This man had once said he would take care of her, yet he turned a blind eye! Those people focused on her happiness as a topic, and made a joke out of it.

Even her three children resented her for her uneven love towards everyone, and their relationship only became more strained as time passed. She had spent her whole life as a loner, and she had nothing. Lying on the operation table, Qu Zhi thought that if she could do it all over again, she wouldn’t be a housewife. She wouldn’t have given her second daughter away, and she wouldn’t take care of her blood-sucking relatives.

She wouldn’t marry her indifferent, cold husband either! When she next opened her eyes, she was back to twenty years in the past. Her eldest daughter was still in elementary school, and her second daughter had been in her belly for several months…

On their wedding night, she gnashed her teeth, yelling, “Your Highness, that’s shameless!”

Set off by the flickering light of red candles, he curved the corner of his mouth into a wicked grin, “Actually, I can be more shameless…”

…

When they met for the first time, he was the young prince who lived in his day of brilliance, while she was the pampered princess of the adjacent state.

When they met again, he became the crippled underdog suffering from frustration, while she became the lackluster hostage stranded in an alien land.

In his mid-life, he was defeated in the fight and had his legs broken; his wife passed away and he didn’t have anything left except his father’s detestation… After constant blows took the edge off his spirit, all he wanted was nothing but serenity.

In her teen-age, her state perished and her home lost; she lapsed into an awkward situation after being abandoned and having her marriage annulled… As endless hardships isolated her from happiness, everything she wished for was no more than peace.

…

“Lu Zhishan, when I first met you, I didn’t think I’d marry you…too old,” after years passed by, one day, she lay on his laps mumbling, with a kind of hazy beauty on her boozy face, “and lame.”

“Mu Nanzhi, you have the wrong memory. At our first meeting, I’m neither old nor limp.”

“…When was that?”

“When people were celebrating your first birthday,” that man assumed all gentleness and joy crept on his eyes and brows, “On that day, you were ‘drawing lots’ in the rear hall. I also sneaked there to have a look. But, out of my expectation, you directly grabbed my true-love knot.”

…

How vivid the red love pea is embedded in the exquisitely carved dice,

Just as my feelings for you deep in my bones.

- Description from Novelupdates