Raising a Wolf as My Husband

When Zuo Qiu was seven, his mother ran off with someone. When he was eight, his drunken father nearly beat him to death, but the older boy who had just moved into the apartment downstairs saved him.

The two became best friends.

But eleven years later, his best friend’s family was in a car accident while on vacation. They left behind a six-year-old child and a grandmother who had been rescued but was paralyzed from the waist down. The child’s aunts and uncles bluntly said they would send him to an orphanage. When nineteen-year-old Zuo Qiu found out, he beat up those blood relatives and took on the responsibility of raising the child.

-

When they got home, Zuo Qiu looked at the little boy in front of him, with his bright, watchful eyes, chubby cheeks, and sour expression. “There’s only one bed in my place. If you won’t sleep with me, you’ll have to sleep on the floor.”

The boy furrowed his brow and pursed his lips. He stood by the bed for ages, then finally tiptoed into it just before Zuo Qiu fell asleep.

-

When Zuo Qiu went to pick him up from school, he saw the boy watching the backs of other students as their parents led them away by the hand. Zuo Qiu crouched down, ruffled his hair, and said, “From today on, I’m your dad.”

“Come on, let me hear you call me Dad.”

The little boy instinctively frowned. “No! You’re not my dad!”

Zuo Qiu pouted and didn’t hold it against him. He pinched the boy’s soft cheek. “Then call me Uncle.”

The boy pulled away from his hand and stared at him with those beautiful eyes, solemnly calling him by his full name, as usual. “Zuo Qiu.”

“…” Zuo Qiu angrily grabbed that chubby cheek again and gritted his teeth. “You little brat, who taught you to call me by my name every time you see me? You have no manners at all.”

The boy’s cheek hurt, and tears welled in his eyes, but he still wouldn’t give in. “Nobody taught me!”

-

Twelve years later, the once-soft little boy had grown into a tall young man with a stern, brooding face. He was taller than Zuo Qiu and could lift him with ease. But Zuo Qiu wasn’t proud of it, because the older the kid got, the clingier he became, and in many ways he was even less independent than he had been as a child.

Just as Zuo Qiu was worrying that he wouldn’t have the face to visit his best friend’s grave, someone wrapped their arms tightly around his waist. Something warm and wet brushed his ear, followed by words that struck him like thunder and shook him to his core.

“I like you.”

“Zuo Qiu, I like you.”

-

After the confession, they spent a year in a torturous push-and-pull. At last, Zuo Qiu lay in bed, ruffling the fluffy head in his arms. His back and waist ached, but his face was radiant with satisfaction. “Sweetheart, come on, let me hear you call me hubby.”

Less than two seconds later, a magnetic, soul-stirring voice sounded by his ear.

“Hubby.”

Zuo Qiu grinned, thinking his life was complete.

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