Mr. Li, Who Has No Wishes, and Mr. Devil

[When I first signed my contract, I had no idea how things worked. I accidentally clicked the wrong button and published the blurb I had prepared for a future story, leaving an unfinished pit behind. Please just treat this as a preview.]

On the hundredth day of his countdown to ending his life, Mr. Li ran into a demon in the alley he had walked through thousands upon thousands of times.

A real demon. The classic Western kind, with red skin, a forked tongue, horns on its forehead, and retractable bat wings on its back.

Thinking back over his life, Mr. Li realized he hadn't done anything worthy of having an angel come down to escort him.

Then maybe my soul is more wicked than I thought. With that in mind, Mr. Li walked up to the demon.

"Let's go," he said.

"Go where?" The demon was caught off guard by the sudden address.

"To hell," Mr. Li replied, his voice calm. "Aren't you here to collect me? I get it. My time's up, right?"

"Although, where I come from, I suppose it should be Ox-Head and Horse-Face or someone like that... But a demon will do. The underworld and hell aren't all that different..." Mr. Li muttered, lifting the convenience-store bag of late-night snacks in his hand toward the demon. "If you're not in a hurry to report back, I can go home, finish dinner, and then get on my way."

Wouldn't it be lovely to eat, take a hot shower, then close his eyes and comfortably head to the next world in his unfinished apartment, with twenty-nine years left on the mortgage?

"Ah, I'm not in a hurry," the demon said at last, after gazing at Mr. Li for a long while. "Then I'll go home with you."

And so, a human brought a demon home.

At the time, he had no idea the demon was simply a mysterious stranger who happened to be passing through the alley.

"...So you weren't here to escort me to hell?" Mr. Li asked, looking at the demon across from him as he took a sip of convenience-store beer. For some reason, it tasted bland.

"That's right," the demon readily admitted, but quickly added, "Still, I've become interested in your soul, and I want to make a contract with you..."

After listening to the demon explain the lengthy terms of the contract, Mr. Li shook his head.

"I can sign, but there's nothing I want you to do for me," he said. "You can come collect my soul in a hundred days."

The demon's eyes widened in surprise. How could a human, a creature made up of desires, have no wishes at all?

"Then, for these hundred days, please allow me to remain at your side at all times." Not believing him, the demon signed the contract with Mr. Li.

And so the hundred-day countdown began.

Please note before reading:

1. Main pairing: 1v1, Mr. Li is the bottom and the demon is the top.

2. A happy ending is not guaranteed. An open or bad ending is possible.

3. This is a short, melancholy story and won't be very long.

4. Feel free to discuss it if you don't like the story, but please don't attack the author or the characters. Thank you so much.

5. This story is exclusively published on Jinjiang. Reposting or adapting it without permission is prohibited. Please support the authorized version on Jinjiang. Comments on pirated copies will be deleted by the author.

Theme: Keep living, one day at a time.