Strange Lovers [Nonhumans]

She has received a strange, uncanny, and utterly unique attention and favoritism from Them.

So they are strange lovers.

[The Game]

Mi Duo downloads an otome game with a horror theme.

After encountering a scripted death for the ninth time, she suddenly transmigrates into the game.

In a gloomy, eerie basement, a long-haired male ghost crawls toward her step by step. Bandages cover his body, and his face is hidden beneath a hood.

She hears him say, "Welcome home, my girl."

[Mr. Xu's Funeral]

At a grand outdoor funeral, Zhu Li falls in love with a man at first sight.

The man wears a finely tailored black suit and has an elegant, distinguished air. Even the veins visible on his broad hand seem to be subtly tempting her.

At the time, Zhu Li, who has fallen head over heels at first sight, doesn't know what she should have known: this handsome man in a suit looks almost exactly like the protagonist sleeping beneath the gravestone.

The man she's fallen for at first sight is already dead.

[The Hospital Room]

After being hospitalized following a suicide attempt caused by depression, Yu Xing meets a boy who, like her, suffers from a psychological illness.

They share a stark-white hospital room, talk about their lives, lean shoulder to shoulder to read an entire horror novel, and even secretly eat an enormous tub of matcha ice cream on the winter solstice while the nurses aren't looking.

The day before she's due to be discharged, after her condition improves, Yu Xing makes a promise with the boy that they'll meet again someday.

She tells her mother about what she's seen in the hospital room and the warm conversations they shared. The woman looks back at her, frightened and worried.

She says, "Xing'er, your condition has gotten worse."

She says, "There has never been any boy in your hospital room."

[The Fox Groom]

Yiye, who's been single for twenty-two years, passes by a temple said to be very effective for finding love while on a graduation trip.

Unlike the other visitors, she doesn't make a devout wish. She simply buys a charming little wooden fox carving on a whim and takes it back to her hotel.

When her graduation trip is over, Yiye returns home, quite satisfied.

That night, back at her rural hometown, the young woman has a strange dream. In it is a long-haired scholar with delicate, androgynous features, dressed in wedding robes.

His narrow, elongated fox eyes reflect an eerie green light beneath the dim moon.

He reaches out one furry hand, which turns smooth in an instant.

He says he is her fox groom.

[Pawnshop No. 17]

According to rumors, at Pawnshop No. 17, you can pawn anything, as long as you can pay the price.

The day her boyfriend of ten years dies in an accident, Gu Fan happens to come into possession of a key that lets her enter Pawnshop No. 17.

The pawnshop owner is a young man dressed in an old-fashioned Tang suit, with a carved mask covering his face.

Gu Fan watches the pale chin, so much like her late boyfriend's, and grits out each word:

"I want him back."

"I want him back by my side right now."

Mermaids, AI, vampires, visitors from outer space, and "sweet dreams" come true.

More stories about her and Them to come...

*An anthology of stories featuring nonhuman love interests. All male leads are nonhuman.

*The blurb was first posted in January 2023. You can find it on Weibo.

*I'll add more when I think of it.

Theme: Love has a magical power.