My Husband Is Everywhere in the City

[A laid-back wife and her beautiful, gloomy, rotting ghost of a husband]

Shen Wu's husband died.

He was chopped in half while gathering firewood on the mountain, leaving only his upper body. His death was horrific. Shen Wu cried as she buried him in the hills behind their home, then went alone to town to make a living.

She set up a noodle stall at the town entrance. Life was hard, but she could just about get by.

On the third day, a customer showed up.

He had exactly the same face as her husband and sat on the bench in front of her stall. "A bowl of wontons, no scallions."

Her hand shook, and she nearly dropped the bowl. "Husband, are you not dead?"

The man looked up. His eyes were dark as ink, like black jade steeped in icy springs. "Who are you?"

"..."

On the seventh day, another "husband" showed up.

He was just as stunningly handsome, smiling at her with curved eyes. As soon as he entered, he rolled up his sleeves and helped her wash dishes, calling her "Awu, Awu" with such familiar affection.

Her heart pounded. "Are you my husband?"

He leaned down and whispered into her ear, "Mm. Keep your voice down. Don't tell the other one."

"?"

On some later day, a third "husband" arrived.

The three "husbands" got into a fight in front of the noodle stall. One grabbed a cleaver and chopped off another's hand. The severed hand writhed on the ground, and flesh bubbled at the wrist before slowly growing into a human face. It screamed at her, "Awu, I'm your real husband. They're all fakes..."

Shen Wu finally lost it!

_

Only later did she learn that the man she had married wasn't human. He was an ancient Taisui, a supreme evil being that couldn't be destroyed, even after the six great sects joined forces to hunt him for three hundred years. Eat his flesh and you could live forever; cut off his skin and it could reproduce.

The world had gone mad trying to get its hands on his flesh and blood. Shen Wu looked around the room at all the "husbands." Some were crouched by the stove, adding firewood; others were cooking. One came over and knelt by her knees, massaging her legs. Countless sweet, sticky voices mingled like a damp spiderweb. "Awu, Awu, Awu..."

She let out a soft sigh.

They might as well make the best of it. What else could she do, divorce him?

#A sweet romance after marriage (probably), about a wife and her useless husband who keeps getting dismembered

#One-on-one romance, probably Lovecraftian cultivation, dark and grim, read with caution

#2026.6.10

Theme: Keep living bravely, and never give up on each other.