The Beloved One Is a Fish, Not a Person

Take a look at my upcoming novel, The Little One I'm Raising Is Breaking Character~

A mysterious singer appeared in the Empire, arriving like a sudden thunderclap. His voice flowed into people's ears, ethereal as heavenly music, as if it could heal every affliction and dissolve every shackle of suffering.

As soon as he appeared, he set the Star Network ablaze and became the most-clicked song of all time.

Yet the singer himself mysteriously vanished without a trace.

The Star Network was full of speculation and rumors.

"Aaaah, it's so good! I need to listen to it ten more times!"

But where there are fans, there are haters, and rumors spread everywhere: "So what if he can sing? He doesn't even dare show his face."

Online arguments were raging. Die-hard fans and haters were at each other's throats.

Then a post blew up the Star Network, leaving everyone staring at one another.

"Mine."

Brief and to the point, it came from the Imperial General's account, which had been inactive for years. He had even posted two pictures: one of the mysterious singer performing onstage,

and one showing the face everyone had been waiting to see.

The young man's shoulder blades were slender, his face smooth as porcelain. His crow-black lashes drooped, revealing the rosy corners of his eyes, somehow captivating the soul. A hand reached in from the side, gently pinching and kneading his cheek.

Every netizen held their breath, stunned by his peerless beauty.

A hater quickly typed, "So ugly it's offensive to both gods and men," but then stopped, his Adam's apple bobbing as he deleted the words.

The moment the news came out, fans flooded the comment section, surging like mad:

"Haters, say something!"

"? What do you mean, 'mine'? What exactly is your relationship? Explain yourself!"

In modern interstellar society, merfolk were in a dire position. Humans hunted and captured them, then sold them on the luxury goods market. Jin Li was the only pure-gold merfolk in the entire galaxy, and his voice could soothe mental power more effectively than anyone else's.

To stay alive, Jin Li had no choice but to carefully hide his tail and soothe the mental power of the Imperial General who had taken him in. He also sang to earn a little spending money.

The general, Luan Hao, was elegant and aloof, with a cool, handsome face that seemed beyond anyone's reach.

By all rights, ordinary people should have trembled at the sight of him, but Jin Li had a special ability as a member of his species: every now and then... he could hear other people's thoughts.

When he first met Luan Hao, Luan Hao wore a sour expression. [He's just a singing massage machine. He wants a million a year?]

Jin Li put on a dejected expression and acted obedient, while inwardly wishing he could spit at him twice.

But the next time Jin Li heard Luan Hao's thoughts, he wished he could plug his ears and go deaf.

[He looks like he should taste pretty good.]

"Ah, I shouldn't have let you go out and show yourself."

"Good thing I brought you back. Now the whole universe knows you're mine."

"Tomorrow, no, we'll go register our marriage later today..."

"And now..."

Luan Hao watched the little mermaid rolling around on the bed with his tail swishing, his gaze flickering as he slowly approached.

Jin Li hugged his tail, his face flushed. "Don't go too far! I'll perform, but I won't sell my body!"

A little mermaid with grass growing on his head x his cold, domineering Imperial General boyfriend

The entire story is fictional. Please don't read it as a reflection of reality.

[Cover Art Acknowledgment]

Thanks to the wonderful artists who accepted commissions for the character designs and background art!

(They're little ones raised by Fox at home. I may occasionally switch them out for other pretty new illustrations I've commissioned.)

Stamped: [Created and archived on 2022.11.09]

[Blurb archived on 2022.11.09]

[Started on 2022.12.13]

[Completed on 2024.01.04, time to celebrate]

--- Next novel: The Little One I'm Raising Is Breaking Character ---

Yan Luo was originally a silver-throated long-tailed tit who had taken human form. A thousand years ago, he was the foremost of the four great demon kings. After being ambushed by the snake clan and poisoned, he had no choice but to go into hiding among humans.

By chance, he saved Su Mujing, the orphaned survivor of his enemy's family, and became the boy's cheap tutor.

At first, Yan Luo lounged in a chair at his thatched hut on the mountain and carefully sized up the young snake before him, plotting how to take revenge.

Should he skin him and cut his tendons, or grind his bones to dust...

But later, Yan Luo discovered that the snake's blood was the antidote he had been searching for for years.

The thirst deep inside him made him want to pounce on the other man immediately and sink his teeth greedily into his neck.

But what troubled Yan Luo most was this:

His enemy's child was too well-behaved. He was good at both entertaining guests and cooking, and he treated his old master with great respect. He massaged his back, did his laundry, helped him bathe, found all kinds of ways to cheer him up, and even waited on him at bedtime...

And so,

Yan Luo kept watching the little snake grow up, unable to bring himself to make a move.

*

On a full-moon night, the poison flared up. Yan Luo curled up in bed in agony as black demonic energy filled the room.

At the brink of death, the door suddenly swung open.

His bloodshot eyes met Su Mujing's deep gaze.

When he woke, Yan Luo looked at Su Mujing's smiling eyes and the tiny puncture wounds scattered across his neck, and fell into deep thought.

His own gentle, kind, courteous, and modest little one...

seemed to be rather different from what he had imagined.

Yan Luo: ...

This is bad. He was the one who had wicked intentions from the start, so how did it end up feeling like he had provoked something he shouldn't have?

*

Many years ago, the day the entire Su family was wiped out was the day Su Mujing was picked up by Yan Luo.

During the years he spent with Yan Luo, Su Mujing looked at his good-for-nothing teacher, who was detached from worldly affairs, accepted everything that came his way, and had low cultivation, and fell into deep thought.

But the round, snow-white little bird really was so nice to pet...

Never mind, never mind.

His teacher could focus on looking beautiful, while he took care of earning money to support the family.

Later, when the border fortress was breached, they tied Su Mujing to a scaffold.

He had thought he would die with regrets, but it was Yan Luo who protected him as the enemy forces pressed in and rescued him from dire straits.

Only then did Su Mujing learn that his frail, good-for-nothing teacher, who couldn't lift or carry anything, was actually the renowned Demon King who had once shaken the Three Realms.

*

Years later, people said that Su Mujing, the head of the demon clan, was graceful and refined, gentle and considerate, as if he had married himself a wife.

It was said that he had only two blemishes in his life:

He had improper designs on his own teacher,

and he wreaked havoc among the human race for his teacher's sake.

Theme: Humans and nature can live together in harmony.