After Losing My Memory, My Archenemy Kept Me as a Pet

[Max-level possessive, gloomy widower x tough, blunt, wooden puppy]

Chu Qing thinks he's just plain unlucky. Since childhood, fortune-tellers have said he has a frail life, always sick, and destined to die young.

So when his older brother gets into trouble and his parents offer Chu Qing up as a sacrifice instead, he can understand why.

The monster crawling out of the coffin is breathtakingly beautiful. Dressed in red embroidered with gold, it tilts its head and glances at him.

Before Chu Qing can say a word, the monster grabs him by the throat and lifts him up.

"Who said you could have his face?"

"Hurk..." Chu Qing struggles weakly, figuring he's about to die.

But the monster suddenly lets go, looks him over, and bursts out laughing.

"Are you going to eat me?" Chu Qing can't be bothered to run, so he gives up and asks.

"I am," the monster replies with a beaming smile. "Just not yet. I'll raise you first, then eat you."

"Oh." Chu Qing understands. After all, little kids have less meat than grown-ups. "Too bad I'm not going to grow up. You might as well eat me now. Remember to eat me in one bite. I'm scared of pain."

When the monster doesn't believe him, Chu Qing solemnly repeats that the fortune-teller was very accurate, and he really won't grow up.

But when the monster hears that, he laughs again. "Don't worry. There's no one I can't raise. Eating you in one bite would be a waste. I'll keep you around and eat you slowly, savoring every bite."

Only after he really does grow up does Chu Qing realize just how suggestive the monster's words had been.

Of course he wants to eat him, but just a little at a time, savoring each bite.

*

Chu Qing has to admit that Jian Mingxi really knows his stuff. He somehow turned the fortune-teller's confident prediction that Chu Qing would die young into a life he could actually live.

It's just that Jian Mingxi keeps sending him out to hunt demons and find things, and Chu Qing feels like he's being worked like a pack animal.

After school, Chu Qing gets sent out to hunt a demon before he's even done his homework. After putting a fox spirit in his bag, he rolls his eyes.

"I'm going on strike!"

Jian Mingxi can't even be bothered to raise his eyelids at Chu Qing's protest. He just sits behind the counter, idly working the abacus.

"Sweetheart, we agreed that one little demon buys you three more days of life. No cheating!"

Chu Qing's fists clench, but then he thinks about the countdown on his life.

"Boss, you heard me wrong. I'm a model employee. Why would I go on strike?"

"Who's your boss?" Jian Mingxi looks up at him, half reproachful, half teasing. "Say it again. Who am I?"

Chu Qing's fists clench again, but they're the only things getting hard.

When you're living under someone else's roof, you have to bow your head. Chu Qing shuts his eyes and steels himself. "My one and only precious, most beloved husband in the whole world, Brother Jian! Mwah!"

"Good boy."

*

Later, when Chu Qing has gathered all his soul and spirit fragments and the seal is whole again, he becomes the proper little sword immortal he used to be.

Eleven-year-old Chu Qing looks up with an obedient little face. "Brother, do you know me?"

"Of course." Jian Mingxi thinks, I know you all too well. "I'm your soulmate across three lifetimes, your beloved cultivation partner."

Twenty-year-old Chu Qing chases Jian Mingxi with a sword, trying to hack him to pieces. "Die for spreading rumors and ruining my reputation!"

Jian Mingxi laughs heartily. "Be patient, little goody-two-shoes. I've been ruining your reputation for a long time now."

After all, when Jian Mingxi learned more than a thousand years ago that Chu Qing had died, he declared himself a widower. From then on, he lived for decades as Chu Qing's widowed partner, seeking the soul of his lost love until the day he could join him in death.

[Reader's Guide]

1. At the beginning of the main story, the bottom is an adult, not a child being raised. [Highlight]

2. There will be a major burst of kinks. If you like beautiful men, you'll enjoy it.

3. A sweet story with a mutually devoted couple.

4. The top has issues too. His wife died without warning in his previous life, so he's a little traumatized.

5. Entirely fictional and illogical. Please don't apply it to real-world settings.

Theme: Love can overcome any obstacle.