How to Catch a Short-Tempered Sentinel [Guide/Sentinel]

[Gentle, patient guide with an extreme need for control] x [Short-tempered, prickly sentinel who approves of everything his husband does]

Lu Li x Chu Bai

Tentacled octopus (?) x caracal

As the Central White Tower's chief guide, Lu Li is assigned to sign a three-year matching contract with a sentinel he's never met.

The sentinel is named Chu Bai. He has a mysterious background, is a rare S-rank, and guards the border of a high-risk contaminated zone. He returns to the Central White Tower only at a designated time each year to spend his heat cycle with Lu Li. After three years, Lu Li's only impressions of his sentinel are that he's handsome, slender-waisted, tall, and has a nice voice. And though he's a sentinel, he cries like a dream.

For three years, Lu Li treats their relationship as a White Tower contract assignment. As soon as the contract ends, he immediately applies to dissolve it. The process goes smoothly, until a month later, when Lu Li hears that Chu Bai has become a dark sentinel and fled the White Tower.

As one of the few people who had any connection with Chu Bai, Lu Li is naturally assigned to the force sent to hunt down and eliminate the fugitive sentinel. But when the team enters the high-risk contaminated zone, an unknown contaminant wipes them out, and the whole team goes missing.

As Lu Li lies on the verge of death, someone approaches him. It's Chu Bai.

Holding a knife, Chu Bai crouches beside Lu Li and taps his face with the back of the blade.

"After all the trouble I went to, you finally took the bait. Now forget that lousy White Tower and stay here as my calming guide."

But before he can finish speaking, the tentacles he's most familiar with, the ones that once forced him to cry and beg for mercy all night, unfurl from Lu Li. They knock the knife away and pin him to the ground.

Lu Li, who should have been at death's door, wipes the blood from his lips and sits up with a half-smile. He pinches Chu Bai's cheek. "We're even."

Chu Bai: "...!"

The White Tower recruits an exceptionally rare dark sentinel and bonds him for life with its chief guide, Lu Li.

At the award ceremony, everyone waits eagerly below the stage. A tall, handsome sentinel with long hair walks out, rolling his eyes with obvious impatience.

Reporter: "Why did you choose to join the White Tower?"

Chu Bai: "I'm into my guide's body."

Everyone: "??"

Reporter: "How have you managed to accomplish so much since joining the White Tower?"

Chu Bai: "Isn't it obvious? My guide taught me well."

Everyone is in an uproar, stunned by the sentinel's shamelessness. But they don't know that Lu Li makes Chu Bai say those words every night.

And not just say them. He has to say them while Lu Li's tentacles enthusiastically rub his spiritual companion.

[Reader's Guide]

1. Shuangjie, a sweet couple, a short story to lift your spirits, around 300,000 words.

2. The gong has strong husband material vibes. The shou is attracted to the gong's body, short-tempered and prickly, but approves of everything his husband does.

Theme: Change others through love