But He Called Me Baby

[Main story complete. Please add my new novel, A Hundred Ghosts at Night, to your collection!]

Qi Sibai is the acknowledged heartthrob and top student at No. 9 High School, as well as a popular study-content creator whose looks have won him plenty of fans on a video site.

One day, Jiang Yusheng, the top scorer in every subject at another school, transfers in. He takes Qi's spot as school heartthrob and beats him at the math competition he prides himself on. Qi Sibai unilaterally declares him his nemesis.

That same day, he unexpectedly gets a voice message from a male fan hitting on him: "Hey, want to add me on WeChat?"

The low, magnetic voice is so good it makes his scalp tingle.

He despises himself for being such a sucker for a nice voice, but for once, he sends the guy his WeChat ID.

Half a month later, the fan tries again: "What are you up to, babe?"

Qi Sibai, certified straight as a steel beam, is so shocked he falls out of bed.

He silently opens the three-second voice message, delivered in that cool, aloof voice, and listens to it twenty-three times.

...But he called me babe.

Qi Sibai forces himself to stay calm as he replies: "Working on competition problems. You?"

Then one day, Qi Sibai is stunned to discover that the charming online guy whose voice is so good and whose shameless flirting makes his face and ears turn red is the same person as the cold-faced nemesis right beside him!

[Reading Guide]

1. All-subjects top student x math competition whiz

A cool guy who seems aloof and distant but is actually warm and thoughtful, gong x a proud young master who is bold and flamboyant, yet so oblivious he doesn't realize he's bent into a pretzel, shou

- The gong seems quiet, but he's actually a social butterfly. He just likes being shamelessly flirtatious with his husband.

- The shou is great at competitions, but he's also skipped class and gotten into fights. His grades in regular classes are all over the place, and he studies only when he feels like it. He'll grow as a person later.

2. The gong is an online singer of traditional-style Chinese songs. Later, there will be scenes of the shou livestreaming study sessions on a video site and the gong singing on YY.

3. The characters are not based on real people. The pickup lines in the blurb, "Want to add me on WeChat?" and "What are you up to, babe?", come from the internet.

4. A sweet little story of everyday campus life.

Please add my next novel, A Hundred Ghosts at Night, to your collection. Muah~

After a red moon appears on the horizon, black fog spreads, the apocalypse draws near, and monsters and strange beasts return to the world.

Exorcists call the night the first One awakened the Night of a Hundred Ghosts.

On the day strange beasts awaken in City X, a fish-headed man with webbed hands, a dorsal fin, and bulging eyes; a giant venomous serpent with nine skulls; and a human-faced hedgehog bristling with eyeball-covered spines all charge into Ruan Si's bedroom, shrieking.

Just as Ruan Si, cornered in the room, is about to make a move, a group in black uniforms suddenly crash through the window and subdue the vicious beasts after a fierce fight.

The exorcist leading them wipes away his cold sweat and looks at the fragile boy who nearly got slaughtered behind him. "Kid, are you hurt?"

But Ruan Si stares at the dying beasts in a pool of yellow-green blood and shakes his head regretfully.

...They're not especially cute, but they might've been fun to keep. What a shame.

-

Everyone at the Exorcist Academy knows that Ruan Si was admitted under special circumstances, has no supernatural abilities, and is an ordinary person who needs protection.

Only Ruan Si knows that no matter how vicious a strange beast looks to other people, once it falls into his hands, he can turn it into a docile, adorable pet that fits in his palm.

Until one day, during a three-way battle, everyone is covered in blood and fighting to the point of exhaustion. Yet the frail, thin Ruan Si stands spotless in the middle of the battlefield, as countless dark shapes appear behind him: hundreds, even thousands, of vicious beasts, all tamed and obedient to his commands.

The monsters that look like fanged, blue-faced nightmares to everyone else lie docilely beside Ruan Si. Like the most loyal guards, they protect him so thoroughly that not even a pin could get through.

Everyone looks at one another, then finally recognizes him with horror. That face unmistakably belongs to the greatest exorcist of the past, who fell to corruption and rebellion and was hunted down and killed.

Someone shouts, demanding to know why he betrayed humanity.

A soft laugh scatters on the wind.

"Buddha won't save the ghost beasts. I will."

Ruan Si lowers his fingertips, and the evil beasts scatter. At his command, ten thousand bones crumble to dust.

He, Ruan Si, will rebuild an order in which humans, exorcists, and ghost beasts coexist as equals.

-

Many years ago, when Ruan Si was still human, he saved a vicious beast, tamed it, and kept it by his side. He led it onto the righteous path and taught it to become an exorcist.

Later, when Ruan Si returned like a demon from hell, everyone feared him and joined forces to hunt him down. But the one known as the strongest fighter resolutely abandoned his faction and walked toward him, step by step. A fluffy white tail emerged behind him, wrapping gently but firmly around the man who looked like a blood-soaked demon.

"Ruan Si, when are you taking me home?"

-

A fluffy great demon, a roguish and unhinged exorcist known as the strongest fighter, gong x a fluffy-animal fanatic with maxed-out taming skills, outwardly cool and gentle but inwardly bold and unhinged, shou

1. It may be a little chuuni. The shou has a bit of a universal-heartthrob/universal-ghostthrob vibe, mostly not in a romantic way.

2. Includes Lovecraftian elements and strange beasts from the Classic of Mountains and Seas.

Theme: Study hard and don't goof off.