I Ran Away for Ten Years, and Now My Junior Keeps Chasing Me to Confess

[Quiet but secretly crazy, ten years of devotion, a man of action with a love-addled brain, top] & [Dazzling and carefree, the melancholy of the barbarian lands, the textbook idealized love, bottom]

Xiao Hang,

Formerly: the Fortress's number-one hunter / the top wanted target among the Otherkin.

Currently: a miserly merchant in the barbarian lands / Earth's number-one public enemy.

His specialties include, but aren't limited to: personal shopping, hauling, finding people, mourning the dead... and occasionally providing psychological counseling for the neighbors (by force).

"Would you be interested in this mourning package? We cry and leave on the spot. The more you order, the cheaper it gets."

"Hello, someone has paid for your head. Please cooperate."

Otherkin: "...Could you just get lost?"

Xiao Hang: "Sure. The fee for getting lost is fifty."

The Otherkin, going berserk: "Can someone get him out of here!!!"

Xiao Hang: "Three hundred for the whole package."

Hard times mean you do what it takes for money.

He can curse people out with words and hunt them down with force.

One day, a second Earthling appeared in the barbarian lands.

The Otherkin broke down. "Even lunatics come in pairs now?!"

Xiao Hang couldn't help feeling smug. As expected of someone I taught.

The magazine fluttered between his fingers like butterfly wings. Luo Mingzhu sent an Otherkin flying with a single laser shot, then approached without looking aside and draped his team jacket over Xiao Hang to keep him warm. His tone was calm. "Senior, it's been a long time."

Yes, it had been a long time...

It had already been ten years since his father had blown up and killed ten thousand people, his mother had come back from the dead, and he had submitted his resignation from the team before fleeing the Fortress with two Otherkin...

His old friend had changed completely. Once quiet and reserved, now he never left Xiao Hang's side.

He could tear an Otherkin apart with his bare hands, then turn around and act all wronged.

Xiao Hang scratched his head. What got into him?

Until, by chance, he saw a text message. Horrified and unable to believe it, he asked in a shaky voice, "Mingzhu, why did you come to the barbarian lands?"

Even the calm, meticulous Luo Mingzhu's voice went stiff. "...To date you, Senior."

(0.0)? Aren't we the wrong type for each other?!

Xiao Hang: "I'm not gay!!!"

Luo Mingzhu's eyes dimmed at once, his long lashes drooping like a phoenix's folded wings. Xiao Hang couldn't bear it and wanted to leave him alone to figure things out. But before he could get up, someone had already clutched the hem of his clothes.

He turned and fell into a pair of pitch-black eyes. "Senior, please. Look at me."

The Otherkin and humanity were bound to clash one day, but Xiao Hang had never imagined that Earth's technology would one day be turned against its own people. When the dust settled, trapped inside a cramped vehicle and staring into those eyes again, Xiao Hang couldn't control his racing heart. Ignoring his still-unhealed wounds, he rasped out an order: "Kiss me."

- Bonus Scene -

Falling in love with Xiao Hang was an earth-shattering surprise.

Although Luo Mingzhu had started preparing from the moment he set foot in the barbarian lands, he was still left reeling by this gift from heaven. Losing something after having it was a thousand times more painful than finding it again after losing it, and for no reason he felt afraid. He had lived through these shattered nights countless times, waking from one sweet dream after another to find only endless darkness and the words, "The person you are calling cannot be reached."

Smelling the faint fruity fragrance of shampoo and body wash on Xiao Hang's hair and skin, Luo Mingzhu couldn't help imagining things, and held him tightly in his arms, unable to control himself.

Xiao Hang: "What's wrong?" Luo Mingzhu silently shook his head.

The person in his arms covered his hand with his own and pressed it against his abdomen. His other hand naturally curled around the back of Luo Mingzhu's head. With a tug, their lips pressed tightly together.

Luo Mingzhu's mind instantly went blank. He couldn't think about anything.

[Reading Guide]

1. Completely made-up setting! No technology, only absurdity.

2. Everything is made up! No effortless power fantasy, just charging ahead.

3. Main pairing: one-on-one only.

4. Younger top / bottom's perspective / both are strong / no character-favoring agenda / other characters exist only to serve themselves.

5. Writing and reading are highly subjective. If anything bothers you, please leave immediately. Thanks!

● A preview of a story planned for October ●

[Tsundere, mischievous, hot-tempered qilin bottom × gentle, scheming, secretly cunning fake mute top]

[Early on, both members of the couple are determined to kill each other.]

[Planned for October]

Once upon a time, there was a mountain. On the mountain was an egg, and inside the egg was a qilin, a little villain.

Today marked the hundredth year it had waited for its destined person, and at last someone had arrived... Two people??

Well, would you look at that! These days, you can share a contract too?

One of them was small and scrawny, looking frail enough to blow away in the wind. The qilin sneered. What kind of trash gets to see my true form? Outrageous!

It summoned wind and rain with its magic, swearing to drive the little runt off its territory.

When it saw the runt knock the other person unconscious without a second thought, the qilin's eyes lit up.

Destiny can go to hell. Whoever I take a fancy to is the will of Heaven!

A hundred-year-old spirit beast was a rose blooming in the swamp of life, just like the contract planted behind its ear.

He Yinglan shared his surname with it and called it He'er.

He'er wasn't very obedient. One day it would smash a bowl, the next it would wreck a house, and whenever it felt like it, it would grab He Yinglan by the neck and gnaw on him like a bone.

The villagers said he was lucky, and some were jealous that he had risen from the dirt to become a phoenix.

One day, the family that had adopted him only to keep up appearances complained that his cooking tasted awful and kicked him to the ground. Without thinking, they said they would entrust He'er to their son to raise.

He Yinglan glanced at He'er, who was ingratiating himself with the young master of the family, and meekly said he'd do better next time.

That evening, a long line formed for the latrine at the family estate.

"Hurry up! I can't hold it anymore!" "Don't rush me, my stomach hurts too. Ow, ow!"

"Why are your lips purple?" "Ahhh! My hands! They're covered in pustules!"

He Yinglan patted He'er, sleeping at his feet, and went on washing the dishes.

It wasn't until people from the city came to assess the spirit beast's level that they learned the hundred-year-old spirit beast was worthless common stock, not even fit to fill a high-level beast's teeth.

The room erupted. Mockery crashed over them like waves, and He Yinglan lowered his eyes, his expression dark.

On a moonless, windy night, a small hand clamped tightly around the qilin's throat.

For the first time, the voice wavered. "He'er, go die..."

●

In the underground black market, abandoned spirit beasts huddled in their cages, all but one curled up by itself.

Someone said, "Is that the legendary qilin? Should we bet on it? Could be worth a fortune."

Someone else scoffed. "What's there to bet on? They're all feed for high-level spirit beasts. The mute sold it, so it's as good as dead."

Before he could finish speaking, the whole place suddenly crackled with electricity.

The spirit beast, barely clinging to life, suddenly lifted its head, snapped its chains like a mad thing, and sprinted in one direction.

Amid the lightning, a handsome young man with delicately drawn features leaped through the air and caught He Yinglan, who was covered in blood.

Someone shouted, "Good heavens, did getting struck by lightning make me hallucinate?"

"How did that spirit beast turn into a person?!"

"Aaaaaah, and he's shamelessly naked!!!"

Seeing a bloody scratch on He Yinglan's face that it hadn't made itself, the qilin raged. "Useless! Just watch how this king strikes them down!"

For once, He Yinglan spoke, stammering, "Y-you should put your pants on first."

Core theme: The light of youth