Tenebroum - Chapter 193: Fragile Hope

To care for her ailing sweetheart, college student Lu Chenchen gave up her white-collar office job and chose the higher-paying caretaker profession instead. Going around in circles, she ended up at the Mao family’s home.

The Mao family background was complicated. Old Madam Mao was not her son Yanning’s birth mom, but his young aunt. His wife was Old Madam Mao’s first love’s daughter, spoiled and pampered. Despite over ten years of marriage, husband and wife were distant.

To repay Old Madam Mao’s kindness in raising him, and for the sake of his three children, Mao Yanning endured again and again – not just a loveless but outright destructive marriage.

Lu Chenchen walked on eggshells among these people – carefully serving young and old, currying favor with the lady of the house without offending the man of the house, while also worrying about his sweetheart’s illness and missing “his” elders and children back home. Her heart was like a cookie flattened between the pages of life, living a difficult and cautious existence.

However, as the saying goes, “You reap what you sow.” A life that has been polished will eventually shine with a brilliance that ordinary years cannot compare.

“My dad just married the Queen of Hell… and now she’s cooking me breakfast in a bathrobe.”Kazuki Sakamoto was your average awkward university student—until his father remarried a stunning woman from a mysterious dating site. Now, he’s living with Lilith: a dangerously seductive, battle-hardened demon queen trying (and failing) to blend into modern Japanese suburbia.She torches toasters for fun. Summons eyeball familiars to spy on him at school. Wears his dad’s shirts like she owns the place (because she kinda does). And worst of all? She’s disturbingly good at playing the “loving stepmom” role… with a wink that says she knows exactly what she’s doing.Caught between sanity, seduction, and spontaneous hellfire, Kazuki must survive:• A stepmother who flirts like a villainess with a mission• A house full of demonic chaos• And the terrifying possibility that he’s starting to like it⸻A romantic comedy harem full of magic, mischief, misunderstandings—and one very dangerous MILF.If you like seductive demon queens, chaotic slice-of-life, and nonstop supernatural comedy, this is your next obsession.

Qiu Qiu was born into a scholarly family. He possessed great looks and a kind heart. His outstanding grades were just as praiseworthy as the cute dimple he exposed each time he laughed. His melodic singing moved the hearts of all, and his guitar-playing skills were down-right godly. It wasn’t long before the overbearing president, Fu Ruien, fell for him, hard.

Fu Ruien: Qiuqiu, I would like to ‘support’ you.

Qiu Qiu: Oh, so you’re going to support me financially?! Like a scholarship?! Yay, that’s great!

And so, the two happily made arrangements, utterly oblivious to the fact that they both weren’t on the same page…

…..Three months later.

Fu Ruien: Are you a numbskull?! If you’re not being ‘kept’ by me, then why the hell would you call me ‘Daddy’?!

Qiu Qiu: In my defense, I saw that you were a 40-year-old uncle who still hadn’t been married, so I just wanted you to actually experience the warmth of a family!

Fu Ruien: …???

Qiu Qiu: But even if you don’t have a partner, at least you have this bright, talented and handsome eldest son who’s there for you. I mean, just where in the world would you be able to find such a perfect son like him!

- Description from Novelupdates

This is a bizarre and mysterious world filled with various sinister cultivation methods. Once a person begins to cultivate, they will either undergo mild changes in appearance and temperament, descend into madness, or become a great elixir for evil beings to consume...Duan Yun, having transmigrated into this world, unexpectedly comes across a supreme elixir cultivation manual, the 'True Explanation of the Jade Sword.'To his surprise, he is a one-in-a-million cultivation genius who, unwittingly, transforms the manual into something extraordinary. Guided by the Jade Sword, he is able to pierce through everything.Later, as his mastery over various methods grows, Duan Yun, carrying the philosophy of 'the enlightened benefit the world,' never keeps secrets and spreads martial arts across the land.Who would have thought...“Duan the Demon misled me! He said this technique enhances yin and yang, but now I can only squat to pee, boo hoo...”“It was the Demon who taught me this 'Seven Parts Returning Qi'. Instead of blessing me, it brought disaster—I either get killed or step in dung. The fortune-teller said I've lost seventy percent of my luck.”“Don't trust a word of what Demon Duan says! The fairy of the Myriad Wonders Palace was supposed to ascend the whole palace to the heavens, but in one night, she was possessed and turned into a demoness, all due to that old demon Duan's handiwork!”...Duan Yun finds this incomprehensible. All he did was practice martial arts, spread techniques, and occasionally emulate the laws of nature, so how did he become notorious as a demon?This is slander!The same techniques cause no issues for me, so the problem lies with you all, not me!