Cloud-Kept Man cover

Cloud-Kept Man

Rating 3.8
Word count
189K words
Chapters
31
ISBN
9787549253227

Tags

Summary

"Cloud-Bred Men" means raising a virtual intelligent male AI inside a program. The heroine, Xia Teng, runs a "Cloud-Bred Men" company that tailors a male character to each client's tastes. A "cloud-bred man" is no different from a real person: he can live in a phone, a computer, or even a TV screen, and talk with you anytime, anywhere. A housewife who suffers domestic violence, a star-chasing delinquent girl, a career woman who refuses to marry, a humble food-delivery rider, a prodigy boy chess player, an ordinary Beijing drifter... Xia Teng, a tech genius, opens a company offering "cloud-bred men" services, tailoring AI men "raised" in a program for each client. After the company opens, customers flock to buy the service, each for different reasons...

Editor's review

"Cloud-Bred Men" places the hotly debated tech-ethics topic of "AI companionship" inside small, concrete urban lives. Fu Ta Ningmeng Cha does not spend her effort on showy sci-fi worldbuilding; instead she turns the "Cloud-Bred Men" company into a mirror: domestic-abuse victims, star-chasing girls, unmarried career women, delivery riders, chess players, Beijing drifters—their reasons for buying virtual male characters differ widely, yet all point to similar loneliness, lack, and the need to place the self. The novel advances through unit-style character stories; behind the light premise lie questions about intimacy, gender expectations, and the commodification of emotion. It reads with the smoothness of web fiction while leaving room to pause and think. It suits segmented reading on a commute or before sleep, since each client's section stands relatively independent and need not be read in one sitting; if you pause after each story to ask whether similar "emotional substitutes" exist around you, the reading yields more.

Who it's for

A good fit for

  • General readers interested in AI companionship and virtual emotional relationships
  • Office workers who like unit-style urban stories and read in fragmented time
  • Readers concerned with women's circumstances and changing intimate relationships
  • Young readers who want realistic reflection within a light sci-fi premise

Not a good fit for

  • Readers expecting hard sci-fi settings and rigorous technological extrapolation
  • Readers who prefer long continuous plots and are unused to unit structures
  • Readers strongly averse to the theme of virtual emotion

Reading tips

  1. Read section by section, pausing after each client's story to sort out that character's real motive for "cloud-raising."
  2. While reading, note the author's portrayals of women of different professions and ages, and compare whether their loneliness shares common ground.
  3. After finishing, return to the opening premise and consider whether the "tailor-made" AI meets needs or fixes expectations.

About the publisher

Named after the Yangtze River, Changjiang Publishing House (Wuhan) Co., Ltd. publishes books on science and technology—water conservancy, hydropower, shipping and environmental protection—as well as works on the economy, society, history, culture and education. In literary publishing, it has released Cece Qinghan's Sinan series (including The Divine Mechanism, The Reverse Scale, The Mandate of Heaven and the four-volume set), Tang Que's Nine Provinces: Players in the Play, Bai Fanrushuang's The New Hunter (five volumes), Qingshan Huangzhong's Sealing the Blade (three volumes) and Shi Wucha's Saha. The titles in the library are commonly classified as time-travel and alternate-world fiction, otherworld-continent fiction and wuxia novels. These books show the press's sustained interest in fantasy, wuxia and alternate-world storytelling, bringing together authors such as Cece Qinghan, Tang Que, Bai Fanrushuang, Qingshan Huangzhong, Shi Wucha and Fan Ka. Based on the available library data, its literary publishing leans toward genre novels and serialized series, while further public information is needed to clarify its specific editorial direction and publishing features.

Contents

  1. 版权信息
  2. PART 1 跳蚤,旗袍
  3. PART 2 一生一世一双人
  4. PART 3 从零分开始的初遇
  5. PART 4 一生知己
  6. PART 5 您的危机外卖到了,用餐愉快
  7. PART 6 揽镜自照,画地为牢
  8. PART 7 陌上花开缓而归
  9. PART 8 育父
  10. PART 9 自转的光阴
  11. PART 10 愿我如星君如月
  12. PART 11 东风夜放花千树
  13. PART 12 童言有忌
  14. PART 13 若比邻
  15. PART 14 君子庖厨
  16. PART 15 桃李
  17. PART 16 正确的错误
  18. PART 17 小荷才立尖尖角
  19. PART 18 末路狂花
  20. PART 19 锦囊艳骨
  21. PART 20 国士无双
  22. PART 21 起手天元
  23. PART 22 人类的不眠夜
  24. PART 23 天地将倾时的至死不渝
  25. PART 24 是昔流芳曾少年
  26. PART 25 翻云覆雨的前路
  27. PART 26 鲸落
  28. PART 27 蜉蝣
  29. PART 28 蓦然回首无阑珊
  30. PART 29 聚散常有时
  31. PART 30 后会总无期

FAQ

What exactly is the "cloud-bred men" service in the book?
It is the service offered by the company run by the heroine, Xia Teng: each client receives a tailor-made virtual intelligent male AI existing in a program, able to run on a phone, computer, or TV screen, interact with the client at any time, and resemble a real person in appearance and speech.
Is this book a continuous novel or a set of unit stories?
From the available material, the novel uses Xia Teng's "Cloud-Bred Men" company as a frame connecting the stories of a domestic-abuse housewife, a star-chasing girl, an unmarried career woman, a delivery rider, a chess player, a Beijing drifter, and others; each has different reasons for "cloud-raising," and the whole is closer to a unit structure linked by the company, suitable for segmented reading.
What real-world issues does the book touch on?
The material shows clients including a housewife suffering domestic violence, a star-chasing delinquent girl, a career woman unwilling to marry, a food-delivery rider, a prodigy boy chess player, and an ordinary Beijing drifter, touching on domestic violence, star-chasing culture, marriage choices, and career pressure, while using the "cloud-bred men" service to ask about the relationship between emotional needs and virtual companionship.

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About the author

Futa Lemon Tea (Futa Ningmengcha) is an author who publishes under a pen name in Chinese online romance writing. Public information about this author is limited, and no reliable records of birth and death dates, nationality, or educational background are available. Two works are held in the collection, Cloud-Raised Man and No One Convinced but Futa, both commonly categorized as modern romance. Judging from the existing works, the writing leans toward lighthearted, humorous urban emotional fiction; the titles carry a clear flavor of internet slang, and the author is skilled at using exaggerated, teasing tones to lay out character relationships and advance the romantic plot through a sitcom-like narrative. Because the available material is limited, a full picture of the author's body of work, writing career, and industry reception is difficult to sketch. Readers may begin with these two works to experience the brisk, playful language and the entertaining treatment of modern emotional relationships.

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